"Neither can I.That's the dreadful part of it!
They say he hadn't made a will, that though he was sharper than anybody else in the whole world about any other matter of business, that was the one thing he put off.And we're all the kin he had in the world, grandfather and I.And they say"--her voice sank to a whisper of excitement--"they say he was richer than anybody knew, and that this last business with Judge Pike, the very thing that killed him--something about grain--made him five times richer than before!"She put her hand on the boy's arm, and he let it remain there.Her eyes still sought his with a tremulous appeal.
"God bless you, Ariel!" he said."It's going to be a great thing for you.""Yes.Yes, it is." The tears came suddenly to her eyes."I was foolish last night, but there had been such a long time of WANTING things; and now--and now grandfather and I can go--""You're going, too!" Joe chuckled.
"It's heartless, I suppose, but I've settled it!
We're going--"
"_I_ know," he cried."You've told me a thousand times what HE'S said ten times a thousand.
You're going to Paris!"
"Paris! Yes, that's it.To Paris, where he can see at last how the great ones have painted,--where the others can show him! To Paris, where we can study together, where he can learn how to put the pictures he sees upon canvas, and where I--""Go on," Joe encouraged her."I want to hear you say it.You don't mean that you're going to study painting; you mean that you're going to learn how to make such fellows as Eugene ask you to dance.Go ahead and SAY it!""Yes--to learn how to DRESS!" she said.
Joe was silent for a moment.Then he rose and took the ragged overcoat from the back of his chair."Where's that muffler?" he asked.