"Pretty fine of them!" murmured the older man dutifully, to the lady.
Vincent went on, "Oh, it's only the smallest way for them to show their
sense of his life-time devotion to their interests. There's no
estimating what we all owe him, for his steadiness and loyalty and good
judgment, especially during that hard period, near the beginning. You
know, when all electrical businesses were so entirely on trial still.
Nobody knew whether they were going to succeed or not. My father was one
of the Directors from the first and I've been brought up in the
tradition of how much the small beginning Company is indebted to Mr.
Welles, during the years when they went down so near the edge of ruin
that they could see the receiver looking in through the open door."
Welles moved protestingly. He never had liked the business and he didn't
like reminders that he owed his present comfort to it. Besides this was
reading his own epitaph. He thought he must be looking very foolish to
Mrs. Crittenden. Vincent continued, "But of course that's of no great
importance up here. What's more to the purpose is that Mr. Welles is a
great lover of country life and growing things, and he's been forced to
keep his nose on a city grindstone all his life until just now. I think
I can guarantee that you'll find him a very appreciative neighbor,
especially if you have plenty of gladioli in your garden."
This last was one of what Welles called "Vincent's sidewipes," which he
could inlay so deftly that they seemed an integral part of the
conversation. He wondered what Mrs. Crittenden would say, if Vincent
ever got through his gabble and gave her a chance. She was turning to
him now, smiling, and beginning to speak. What a nice voice she had! How
nice that she should have such a voice!
"I'm more than glad to have you both come in to see me, and I'm
delighted that Mr. Welles is going to settle here. But Mr. . . ." she
hesitated an instant, recalled the name, and went on, "Mr. Marsh doesn't
need to explain you any more. It's evident that you don't know Ashley,
or you'd realize that I've already heard a great deal more about you
than Mr. Marsh would be likely to tell me, very likely a good deal more
than is true. I know for instance, . . ." she laughed and corrected
herself, ". . . at least I've been told, what the purchase price of the
house was. I know how Harry Wood's sister-in-law's friend told you about
Ashley and the house in the first place. I know how many years you were
in the service of the Company, and how your pension was voted
unanimously by the Directors, and about the silver loving-cup your
fellow employees in the office gave you when you retired; and indeed
every single thing about you, except the exact relation of the elderly
invalid to whose care you gave up so generously so much of your life;
I'm not sure whether I she was an aunt or a second-cousin." She paused
an instant to give them a chance to comment on this, but finding them
still quite speechless, she went on. "And now I know another thing, that
you like gladioli, and that is a real bond."