Merrick, aghast.
"Only for the parties and receptions, Uncle. But it wouldn't surprise me
if she was married soon. She's older than Beth or me, and has a host of
admirers."
"Perhaps she's old enough to be sensible," suggested the Major.
"Well, I'll see her and her mother to-morrow morning," decided Uncle
John, "and if she can't find time for a trip to Europe at my expense,
you and Beth shall go anyhow--and we'll bring Louise a wedding present."
With this declaration he took his hat and walking stick and started for
the telegraph station, leaving Patsy and her father to canvass the
unexpected situation.
John Merrick was sixty years old, but as hale and rugged as a boy of
twenty. He had made his vast fortune on the Pacific Coast and during his
years of busy activity had been practically forgotten by the Eastern
members of his family, who never had credited him with sufficient
ability to earn more than a precarious livelihood. But the man was
shrewd enough in a business way, although simple almost to childishness
in many other matters. When he returned, quite unheralded, to end his
days "at home" and employ his ample wealth to the best advantage, he for
a time kept his success a secret, and so learned much of the
dispositions and personal characteristics of his three nieces.
They were at that time visiting his unmarried sister, Jane, at her
estate at Elmhurst, whither they had been invited for the first time;
and in the race for Aunt Jane's fortune he watched the three girls
carefully and found much to admire in each one of them.
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