Aunt Janes Nieces at Work | Page 4

with his
neighbors.
The boy had come to live at Elmhurst when he was a mere child, but
only as a dependent upon the charities of Aunt Jane, who had accepted
the charge of the orphan because he was a nephew of her dead lover,
who had bequeathed her his estate of Elmhurst. Aunt Jane was
Kenneth's aunt merely in name, since she had never even married the
uncle to whom she had been betrothed, and who had been killed in an
accident before the boy was born.
She was an irritable old woman, as Kenneth knew her, and had never
shown him any love or consideration. He grew up in a secluded corner
of the great house, tended merely by servants and suffered to play in
those quarters of the ample grounds which Aunt Jane did not herself
visit. The neglect which Kenneth had suffered and his lonely life had
influenced the youth's temperament, and he was far from being an

agreeable companion at the time Aunt Jane summoned her three nieces
to Elmhurst in order to choose one of them as her heiress. These girls,
bright, cheery and wholesome as they were, penetrated the boy's
reserve and drew him out of his misanthropic moods. They discovered
that he had remarkable talent as an artist, and encouraged him to draw
and paint, something he had long loved to do in secret.
Then came the great surprise of the boy's life, which changed his
condition from one of dependency into affluence. Aunt Jane died and it
was discovered that she had no right to transfer the estate to one of her
nieces, because by the terms of his uncle's deed to her the property
reverted on her death to Kenneth himself. Louise Merrick, Beth DeGraf
and Patsy Doyle, the three nieces, were really glad that the boy
inherited Elmhurst, and returned to their eastern homes with the most
cordial friendship existing between them all.
Kenneth was left the master of Elmhurst and possessor of considerable
wealth besides, and at first he could scarcely realize his good fortune or
decide how to take advantage of it. He had one good and helpful friend,
an old lawyer named Watson, who had not only been a friend of his
uncle, and the confidant of Aunt Jane for years, but had taken an
interest in the lonely boy and had done his best to make his life brighter
and happier.
When Kenneth became a landed proprietor Mr. Watson was appointed
his guardian, and the genial old lawyer abandoned the practice of law
and henceforth devoted himself to his ward's welfare and service.
They made a trip to Europe together, where Kenneth studied the
pictures of the old masters and obtained instruction from some of the
foremost living artists of the old world.
It was while they were abroad, a year before the time of this story, that
the boy met Aunt Jane's three nieces again. They were "doing" Europe
in company with a wealthy bachelor uncle, John Merrick, a generous,
kind-hearted and simple-minded old gentleman who had taken the girls
"under his wing," as he expressed it, and had really provided for their
worldly welfare better than Aunt Jane, his sister, could have done.

This "Uncle John" was indeed a whimsical character, as the reader will
presently perceive. Becoming a millionaire "against his will," as he
declared, he had learned to know his nieces late in life, and found in
their society so much to enjoy that he was now wholly devoted to their
interests. His one friend was Major Doyle, Patsy's father, a dignified
but agreeable old Irish gentleman who amused Uncle John nearly as
much as the girls delighted him. The Major managed John Merrick's
financial affairs, leaving the old millionaire free to do as he pleased.
So he took the girls to Europe, and the four had a fine, adventurous trip,
as may be imagined. Kenneth and Mr. Watson met them in Sicily, and
afterward in the Italian cities, and the friendship already existing
between the young people was more firmly cemented than before.
In the spring Kenneth returned with his guardian to Elmhurst, where he
devoted himself largely to painting from the sketches he had made
abroad, while Mr. Watson sat beside him comfortably smoking his pipe
and reading his favorite authors. The elder man was contented enough
in his condition, but the boy grew restless and impatient, and longed for
social intercourse. His nature was moody and he had a tendency to
brood if left much to himself.
Uncle John had carried his nieces to a farm at Millville, in the
Adirondack region, for the summer, so that Kenneth heard but seldom
from his friends.
Such was the disposition of the characters when our story opens.
Kenneth Forbes, although I have