Stebbins that he and his
powerful client had never yet clashed, and they had been in close business
relations for almost as many years as Lucinda had been established on the
hearthstone of the Watkins home. Perhaps one reason why Mr. Stebbins
endured so well was that he had a real talent for compromising, and that
he had skillfully transformed Aunt Mary's inherited taste for driving a
bargain into an acquired pleasure in what is really a polite form of the
same action.
So, when it came to the matter of Jack's difficulties, Mr. Stebbins could
always find a half-way measure that saved the situation; and when he
received the letter as to the cook and her claim he hied himself to the
city at once, and wrote back that the claim could be settled for three
hundred dollars.
"And enough, I must say," Aunt Mary remarked to Lucinda upon receipt of
the statement; "three hundred dollars for one cat--for, after all, Jack
blames the whole on the cat, an' he didn't hit it, even then."
Lucinda did not answer.
"But if the boy settles down now I shan't mind payin' the three--Where are
you goin'?"
For Lucinda was walking out of the room.
"I'm goin' to the door," said she raspingly. "The bell's ringin'."
After a minute or two she came back.
"Telegram!" she announced, handing the yellow envelope over.
Aunt Mary put on her glasses, opened it, and read:
Cook has blood poison. Sues for a thousand. Probable amputation.
STEBBINS.
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