The world's a stage, they say; but the show ain't always
amusing, by a long chalk, and sometimes I wish I didn't have a
reserved seat."
CHAPTER XIV.
KENNETH IS FRIGHTENED.
Lawyer Watson, unable to direct events at Elmhurst, became a silent
spectator of the little comedy being enacted there, and never
regretted that, as Uncle John expressed it, he "had a reserved seat at
the show."
Jane Merrick, formerly the most imperious and irrascible of women, had
become wonderfully reserved since the arrival of her nieces, and was
evidently making a sincere effort to study their diverse characters.
Day by day the invalid's health was failing visibly. She had no more
strokes of paralysis, but her left limb did not recover, and the
numbness was gradually creeping upward toward her heart.
Perhaps the old woman appreciated this more fully than anyone else. At
any event, she became more gentle toward Phibbs and Misery, who mostly
attended her, and showed as much consideration as possible for her
nieces and her brother. Silas Watson she kept constantly by her side.
He was her oldest and most trusted friend, and the only differences
they had ever had were over the boy Kenneth, whom she stubbornly
refused to favor.
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