And there was only Jack to
continue to worry about.
Jack was not anything particularly remarkable; he was just one of those
lovable good-for-nothings that seem born to get better people into trouble
all their lives long. He had been spoiled originally by being ten years
younger than the next youngest in the family; and then, when the children
had been shipped on to Aunt Mary's tender mercies, Jack had won her heart
immediately because she accidentally discovered that he had never been
baptized, and so felt fully justified in re-naming him after her own
father and having the name branded into him for keeps by her own religious
apparatus. It followed naturally that John Watkins, Jr., Denham, for so
her father's daughter had insisted that her youngest nephew should be
called, was the favorite nephew of his aunt.
And it was lucky for him that he was the favorite, for Aunt Mary, who was
highly spiced at fifty, became peppery at sixty, and almost biting at
seventy. And yet for Jack she would sign checks almost without a murmur.
Mr. Stebbins was much more censorious and impatient with the young man
than she ever was; and to all the rest of the world Mr. Stebbins was an
urbane and agreeable gentleman, whereas to all the rest of the world Aunt
Mary was a problem or a terror. But Mr. Stebbins needed to be a man of
tact and management, for he was the real manager of that fortune of which
"Mary, only surviving child of John Watkins, merchant and ship owner," was
the legal possessor; and so tactful was Mr.
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