"And here a week ago I found my son--their father--a man forty-five years old, and bald, and getting fat, being taught the tango by a French dancing professor in the back drawing-room!" exclaimed Mrs. Castle, in a tone of disgust that almost convulsed 'Phemie.
"That was enough. That was the last straw on the camel's back. I made up my mind when I read your sister's advertisement that I would like to live simply and with simple people again. I'd like really to _feel_ like a grandmother, and _dress_ like one, and _be_ one.
"And if I like it up here at your place I shall stay through the summer. No hunting-lodge in the Adirondacks for me this spring, or Newport, or the Pier later, or anything of that kind. I'm going to sit on your porch and knit socks. My mother did when _she_ was a grandmother. This is her shawl, and mother and father took this old carpet-bag with them when they went on their honeymoon.
"Mother enjoyed her old age. She spent it quietly, and it was _lovely_," declared Mrs. Castle, with a note in her voice that made 'Phemie sober at once. "I am going to have quiet, and repose, and a simple life, too, before I have to die.
"It's just killing me keeping up with the times. I don't want to keep up with 'em. I want them to drift by me, and leave me stranded in some pleasant, sunny place, where I only have to look on. And that's what I am going to get at Hillcrest--just that kind of a place--if you've got it to sell," completed this strange old lady, with emphasis.
'Phemie Bray scarcely knew what to say. She was not sure that Mrs. Castle was quite right in her mind; yet what she said, though so surprising, sounded like sense.
"I'll leave it to Lyddy; she'll know what to say and do," thought the younger sister, with faith in the ability of Lyddy to handle any emergency.
And Lyddy handled the old lady as simply as she did everything. She refused to see anything particularly odd in Mrs. Castle's dress, manner, or outlook on life.
The old lady chose one of the larger rooms on the second floor, considered the terms moderate, and approved of everything she saw about the house.
"Make no excuses for giving me a feather bed to sleep on. I believe it will add half a dozen years to my life," she declared. "Feather beds! My! I never expected to see such a joy again--let alone experience it."
