CHAPTER I
AN UNPLEASANT TALK
Gerald Lane rose from the breakfast table and was about to leave the room, when his stepmother addressed him:
"Stop a minute, Gerald, I have something to say to you."
Mrs. Lane was a thin woman, rather above the usual height, with a prominent nose and thin lips. It was easy to see that she was not Gerald's mother. He was a strong, well-made boy, with red cheeks and a pleasant face, but his expression at this moment was grave and sad.
He paused and looked inquiringly at his stepmother.
"Sit down," she said, "I have considerable to say to you."
Gerald drew a chair from the table and seated himself.
"Your father's sad death," began Mrs. Lane, "will, of course, make a difference in the family arrangements."
"It makes a great difference to me," said Gerald, bitterly. "I am disinherited and I have no prospects."
"Ahem! I hope you don't reproach your father so soon after his death. It is unbecoming to say the least."
"I don't reproach him, but I can't understand why he should leave all his property to you, and nothing to me."
"That statement is misleading."
"Isn't it true?"
"Yes, he has shown his confidence in me sufficiently to leave the property in my hands, but he commends you to my care. Therefore, you cannot be said to be disinherited."
"I am left dependent upon you," said Gerald, with a tinge of bitterness in his voice.
"So you were dependent upon him."
"That was different. He was my father."
"And I am your mother."
"My stepmother."
"At any rate, I was your father's wife, and I am ready to do my duty by you. I have been carefully considering what was my duty, and I have asked you to stop after breakfast in order to talk over my plans for you."
"I am listening."
"I think I shall withdraw you from the academy, as under present circumstances it would be impossible to send you to college, and you already have a good education."
"Why impossible?"
"It would be very expensive."
"My father intended to send me to college."
"That may be, but he was earning an income apart from his property, and I am not."
"What is your plan for me, then?"
"I think it will be well for you to go to work at once."
"Mrs. Lane, will you allow me to say a word?"
"Go on," she said coldly.
"I have reason to think that my father left a good deal of property. I have heard it estimated at fifty thousand dollars."
"Property is almost always very much over-estimated."
"Call it thirty thousand, then. If I go to Bowdoin, my father's college, I will get through for fifteen hundred dollars, probably."
"That's a good deal of money."
"Not when spread over four years. I shall be ready to enter next fall."
"In the four years you were at college you might work up to a good income."
"Perhaps so. If I were a poor boy, that would be a consideration."
"It is a consideration now."
"Then you have made up your mind to deny me the education my father intended me to enjoy. Will you tell me what plans you have formed for me?"
"I don't like your tone, Gerald; you are too independent and are scarcely respectful. However, I will answer your question. Mr. Tubbs, the grocer, needs a boy to tend in his store and to help keep his books. You have studied book-keeping, I believe?"
"Yes," answered Gerald, eying his stepmother, intently.
"He will take you and pay you three dollars a week. You can stay at home, and I will allow you half your salary, but I shall expect you to buy your own clothing."
"Out of a dollar and a half a week?"
"Yes; I look upon that as a very fair income. One dollar a week will suffice for your clothes, and you will have fifty cents for spending money."
Gerald's face flushed. At this rate he would derive very slight advantage from the handsome property his father left behind him.
"Do you think, Mrs. Lane," he said, "that in making this arrangement you are carrying out my father's wishes?"
"Probably I am as well qualified to judge on that point as you," said Mrs. Lane, stiffly.
"When do you wish me to leave school?" asked Gerald, after a pause.
"Mr. Tubbs wishes you to begin work a week from next Monday. You can go to school another week, if you wish."
"I shall not care to do so. I shall want a week to think over the change in my life."
"Just as you please."
"Have you anything more to say to me?" asked Gerald rising.
"Yes."
To Gerald's surprise his stepmother's manner changed, and she seemed nervous and no longer cool and self-possessed.
"Very well."
"I am about to tell you something that may surprise you, though it was, of course, known to your father."
Gerald's curiosity was excited. It must be something of importance, or Mrs. Lane's self-possession would not be disturbed.
"Probably you are aware that when I married your father I was a widow."
"I have heard so."
"But you did not know that I have a son about your own age?"
"No, I didn't know that," returned Gerald, his face showing his amazement. "Why have I never seen the boy? Why did you not bring him here?" he asked.
"Your father thought it was not best. He thought you and Abel might not agree."
"Am I so difficult to get along with, then?"
"Ahem! You are very independent and self-opinioned."
"And Abel?"
"He has quite a proper pride. You would probably have made him feel that he was in an inferior position, and then there would have been trouble."
"Still I don't see why his existence should have been concealed from me?"
"Your father thought it best."
Gerald eyed his stepmother thoughtfully. Was this true—this statement of hers? Not about the boy's existence—he had no doubt of that—but as to his father's being in the plot to keep it secret.
"Where, then, is Abel, since he has never been here?" he asked.
"He has been at a boarding-school, fifty miles away, in the town of Fulton. I am expecting him here to-night."
"So the secret is out!" thought Gerald. "But is there not the same objection as before?" he asked. "Perhaps we may not agree."
"The circumstances are changed. He will no longer be in an inferior position."
"I don't understand."
"As my son, he will take precedence of you," said Mrs. Lane, with a triumphant smile.
"But the money belonged to my father."
"It belongs to me, now," said his stepmother, sharply.
Gerald was thunderstruck. It was not enough that his stepmother should appropriate the property which he felt ought properly to be his, but this unknown boy whom he had not yet seen, and of whose existence he thought it not improbable that his father had been ignorant, was to be invested with a right superior to his own. He remained silent for a moment. Then he said:
"I hope Abel and I will be friends."
"It will be wise for you to treat him well," said his stepmother.
"When do you expect him here?"
"Some time this afternoon."
"Have you any more to say to me?"
"Not at present."
Gerald rose slowly and left the house. He felt crushed and humiliated. He felt that his stepmother had the upper hand. He remembered well the day, only two years before, when Mrs. Ruth Tyler entered their home as his father's wife. She had come to Portville and opened a milliner's shop on a very small scale. She attended the same church as his father, and in a short time managed to make his acquaintance. She consulted him on business matters, and exerted herself to please him. Finally, marriage followed. During his father's life Gerald had no fault to find with her treatment of him, but since the funeral she had thrown off the mask. Gerald could only think of her as one who had defrauded him of his rightful inheritance.
CHAPTER II
MR. TUBBS, THE GROCER
Gerald was so disturbed by the communication which his stepmother had made that he walked at random, hardly knowing in what direction he was going. Before he was well aware of it, he found himself passing the grocery store in which, according to Mrs. Lane's plans, he was to find employment. Raising his eyes he saw Mr. Tubbs standing in the doorway.
The grocer was a short, stout man, not over five feet four inches in height and weighing well on to two hundred pounds. His features relaxed into a smile as he recognized Gerald.
"Come here, Gerald," he said.
Gerald paused, and as he looked into the grocery store with its sanded floor, barrels of flour, and boxes of potatoes, with the dried codfish hanging against the wall, his heart sank within him. He was not afraid of work, but to work in such a place and with such surroundings seemed to him dismal indeed.
"Then you are coming to work for me?" said Mr. Tubbs smiling broadly. "Hasn't your mother told you?"
"My stepmother mentioned it this morning," said Gerald, gravely.
"We made the bargain last week. You'll get good pay, too. Three dollars a week. I never paid so much before, but I expect you will earn it. You look like a good, strong boy."
"Yes, I am strong," said Gerald, briefly.
"And you are willing to work, I suppose?"
"I don't know, Mr. Tubbs. Mrs. Lane had no right to make a bargain for me. My father always intended that I should go to college."
"That would cost a sight of money, Gerald. Here you would learn business. In a few years you may be earning ten dollars a week."
He spoke as if this were a very large sum.
"I am not afraid to work, Mr. Tubbs, but I don't think I shall like the grocery business."
"Pooh, pooh! a boy like you doesn't know what he would like. How old are you?"
"Sixteen."
"Sixteen? Why, at sixteen I could lift a barrel of flour. I worked well, if I do say it myself. I only got two dollars a week in this very store, and now it's my own."
He looked around him with an air of pride. His highest ambition was realized in the possession of a grocery store.
"What do you say to that?"
"You have done well, Mr. Tubbs."
"Haven't I? And you can do as well. Why, in five years if your mother will advance a little money, I may give you an interest in the business."
Gerald did not reply. His heart was sore, and he felt that life had few attractions for him if it was to be passed here.
"Are you going to school now?"
"I have been."
"Your mother told me you might come here a week from Monday, but I'd like to have you come a week earlier, if you can as well as not."
"No, I will wait," said Gerald, hastily.
"Well, just as you like, but if you'll come in evenings so as to get a little used to the work, I'll give you—say, seventy-five cents for a week."
"I think you will have to excuse me, Mr. Tubbs."
"Oh, well, I won't insist upon it," said the grocer, half dissatisfied.
It was Saturday, the weekly school holiday. To-day, at least, Gerald was free. He decided to walk to Crescent Pond and go out in his boat. He had a small dory there, which his father had given him on his last birthday. On the way he passed a small cottage belonging to his father's estate. It was tenanted by a widow named Holman. Her son, John, had been one of his schoolmates but was now employed in a shoe shop.
John was sitting on a wheelbarrow in the yard.
"Come and have a row, John," said Gerald, "that is, if you are not working to-day."
"No, the shop is shut down for a fortnight," said John, soberly. "It is likely to be a bad job for us."
"How is that?"
"Our rent was due yesterday, and we can't pay it."
"But this is one of father's houses."
"Yes; if your father was alive there would be no trouble."
"Have you had any notice to pay?" asked Gerald, quickly.
"Your stepmother says that if the rent is not paid on Monday we must turn out."
"Surely she would not be so inhuman."
"That is exactly what she said when mother went to the house yesterday afternoon. My being out of work made no difference to her. I wish the house was yours, Gerald."
"Nothing seems to be mine, John," said Gerald, gravely. "Mrs. Lane told me this morning that I must leave school and go to work."
"What a shame! How could your father leave you in the power of such a woman?"
"I can't tell, John. That is what puzzles me. But how much is the rent?"
"Six dollars."
"Have you got anything toward it?"
"No. What money we have must go toward food."
"Then I'll tell you what I'll do. I have some money in the savings bank. I'll go and draw out six dollars and lend it to you, but you mustn't let Mrs. Lane know where it came from."
"You are awfully kind, Gerald; but I don't think we ought to accept your offer."
"Why not? The money is mine."
"Your stepmother might object."
"I don't think she knows that I have any money in the bank; besides, it has always been mine to do what I pleased with. Father never interfered with it at any time."
"Still, as you have no money left to you, you may need it."
Gerald admitted to himself that this might very probably be true, but he felt that Mrs. Holman needed the money more than he did.
"We won't worry about the future," he said. "At present you need the money and I don't."
"I am afraid I shall have to accept the money for mother's sake."
"That is right, John; come with me and I'll get it out."
The savings bank was a small building on the main street. It was scarcely a quarter of a mile distant, and the two boys were soon inside. Gerald made out a check at a small table near the door and presented it to the paying teller. Gerald was a favorite with the bank officer, who said to him jocosely:
"What are you drawing this money for? Are you going to get married?"
"Not just yet, Mr. Barton, I am afraid my account isn't large enough for that."
"It wouldn't last long, I am afraid, if you wanted it for that purpose. How will you have it?"
"It doesn't matter. A five and a one will do."
"Here it is."
Gerald took the bills and went out into the street.
"Here, John, take the money," he said, "I am glad it will help you."
"It will relieve us very much. Mother has been worrying a good deal over our trouble. She didn't know where to go."
Now it happened that Mrs. Lane, who was walking on the opposite side of the street, saw the two boys coming out of the bank. Her curiosity was aroused, and unseen by Gerald, she crossed over and entered the savings bank.
"Mr. Barton," she said, "didn't I see Gerald come out of the bank just now with the Holman boy?"
"Yes, Mrs. Lane."
"What did he come in for?"
Mr. Barton had never liked Mrs. Lane, and he wasn't pleased with her somewhat peremptory tone.
"He came on business connected with the bank," he said briefly.
"Oh, he did, did he? What business can he have here?"
"You had better ask him."
Mrs. Lane was provoked, but she saw that she could not browbeat the bank officer.
"Mr. Barton," she said, "has Gerald any money in this bank?"
"Yes."
"Did he draw any this morning?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"I don't answer such questions in regard to our depositors."
"Has he any left here?"
"Yes."
"Then don't let him draw any more out—do you hear?—without communicating with me."
"Mrs. Lane, this deposit is in Gerald's name and has always been under his control. His father never interfered with it, nor have you any right to do so."
"Gerald Lane is my stepson. It is my duty to see that he doesn't waste his money, do you hear?"
"Whenever Gerald presents a draft, I shall honor it, do you hear?" retorted the cashier.
Mrs. Lane's face became red with anger.
"You are very impolite," she said.
"So are you, Mrs. Lane. You did not even know that Gerald had an account here, and as his father did not interfere with it, I fail to see why you should. Good morning, madam!"
Mrs. Lane left the bank in a passion. She was not used to being thwarted and she would have had Mr. Barton discharged from his post if she could have had her way.
CHAPTER III
MRS. LANE'S DISAPPOINTMENT
Half an hour later the two boys were passing the savings bank, when Mr. Barton espied them.
Leaving his place, he went to the door and called them.
"I have a word to say to you, Gerald," he said. "Does your stepmother know that you have a deposit in our bank?"
"Not that I know of. It is nothing to her, anyway, as my father put the money here under my name, and it was left to my control."
"Precisely; but I have to tell you that Mrs. Lane does know you have money here."
"How did she find out?" asked Gerald, amazed.
"She saw you go out of the bank and, suspecting something, came in and inquired."
"Well?"
"Of course I told her that you had an account here. Then she forbade me to let you draw any of it."
"And you agreed to it?"
"No, I told her the money was under your control."
"Thank you. What did she say then?"
"She asked how much money you had here; I declined to inform her."
"Mr. Barton, you are a true friend."
"I don't mind telling you, Gerald, that I don't like your stepmother, and that I do like you."
"I am afraid there will be trouble. What do you advise me to do?"
"To draw out all your money except one dollar. Our rules will admit of that."
"But what shall I do with it? If I keep it at home she may get hold of it."
"Put it in the hands of some friend you can trust."
"Will you take charge of it for me?"
"Yes, Gerald, if you think you can trust me," said Mr. Barton, with a smile.
"There is no one I would trust with more confidence."
"Then draw a check for forty-three dollars. That, together with the six dollars you have already drawn, will leave one dollar in the bank."
"Good! I will do it."
Gerald made out a check for forty-three dollars, and, when received, handed the money to Mr. Barton, who gave him a memorandum of it.
"Keep this from your stepmother," he suggested, "or she will ask me for it."
"Won't you keep the memorandum yourself, Mr. Barton?"
"But that would be hardly businesslike."
"Never mind that. I have perfect confidence in you."
"Very well, since you have confidence in me, I will put it in my tin box at home, and if anything should happen to me it will secure you."
"Well, I am glad that is off my mind," said Gerald; "I think I have checkmated Mrs. Lane."
"It must be disagreeable to find it necessary to take such extreme precautions."
"It is, but I must submit to it."
"You told me you were going to work, Gerald," said John, suddenly. "Have you engaged any place?"
"No, but Mrs. Lane has made an arrangement for me with Mr. Tubbs, the grocer."
"You don't mean it? You work in a grocery!"
"It is respectable, and I am not afraid of work, but it will be very disagreeable."
"I can tell you it will be. I once worked for old Tubbs myself."
"How did you like it?"
"Not at all. I had to work twelve hours a day, and received but two dollars and a half a week."
"I am to have the munificent sum of three dollars. Evidently Mr. Tubbs thinks that very liberal. He tells me that by the time I am twenty-one I may be getting ten dollars a week, and if my stepmother will advance a thousand dollars he may sell me an interest in the business."
"What a shame!"
"That I should have an interest in the business?" asked Gerald, with a smile.
"No, but that a boy of your scholarship should tend in a grocery, and for such a sum. Why, I earn six dollars a week as a pegger."
"I should rather work in your shop than in the grocery."
"But there is no vacancy. That, too, would be unfit for you. Why, you know Latin and French, don't you?"
"I have studied them. If Mr. Tubbs has any Latin or French customers I may be able to wait on them."
"I am glad you can joke about it, Gerald."
"I don't feel much like joking, I assure you."
About twelve o'clock Gerald turned his steps in the direction of home, though, since his father's death, it no longer seemed to him like home. Dinner would be on the table at half-past twelve, and he always aimed to be punctual.
Mrs. Lane took her place at the table, stiff and rigid as usual. She had not forgotten the savings bank deposit of Gerald, and had made up her mind to get it under her control.
Mrs. Lane did not immediately introduce the subject, but when the dessert came on she said: "I saw you coming out of the savings bank this morning."
"Now for it!" thought Gerald.
"Yes," he said, in brief assent.
"How long have you had an account there?"
"About two years."
"Did you withdraw any money this morning?"
"Yes."
"How much?"
"You must excuse me, Mrs. Lane, but that is my own private business."
"You are quite mistaken. You are my stepson, and you are under my guardianship."
"I suppose, then, you have charge of my property. Let me know how much it is."
Mrs. Lane winced.
"You have no property," she said, coldly, "except what money you may have in the savings bank."
"Then I am to understand that none of the property belonging to my father comes to me."
"You will receive a certain advantage from it. Your home is in this house, and the dinner you are eating is provided with your father's money."
"Yet you want me to pay you half the money I am to receive for work!"
"Yes; but if you are guided by my wishes, I shall lay it aside for you, to be given to you hereafter."
"I am not prepared to say that I shall be guided by your wishes."
"Do you positively refuse to tell me how much money you have in the savings bank?"
"I do."
"I require you to give me your bank-book. It is proper that I should keep it."
Gerald expected this.
"Mrs. Lane, ever since I had any money in the bank, the book has been in my possession. My father desired me to keep it."
"Your father was foolishly indulgent."
"I don't think you are likely to be. Perhaps you will tell me what you want of the book?"
"I want to prevent your withdrawing any more money."
"So I supposed, and that is the reason why I decline to give you the book."
"Very well; we will drop the subject for the present. I trust that with time for reflection you will take a different view of your duty."
Gerald was surprised at his stepmother's change of front.
"She wants to put me off my guard," he decided. "She will search my room for the book."
As there was but a dollar to his credit now, this didn't disturb him particularly, nor did it prevent his going to his chamber and putting the book into his trunk.
"I should like to be here when she finds it," he said to himself.
Gerald had promised to go out on the pond in his boat, and John had agreed to go with him. He stopped at his friend's house on the way, and John joined him.
Meanwhile Mrs. Lane waited till Gerald was safely distant, and then with a look of expectation, ascended the staircase to his room. She had noticed that her stepson went up-stairs, and thought it probable that he had put the book away.
Gerald's trunk was in one corner of the room. It was locked, but this did not interpose any obstacle. Mrs. Lane kneeled down in front of it and took from her pocket a bunch of keys. She did not immediately find one that fitted the lock, but presently the right key turned up.
"Ha!" she said, triumphantly, as the key turned in the lock and the lid was raised. "Now, Master Gerald, we will see how much money you have to your credit."
The bank-book was just below the tray, and no time was wasted in finding it.
She opened the book eagerly, and scanned the entries. But her first elation was succeeded by a look of anger and disappointment. Fifty dollars was entered to Gerald's credit, but his drafts amounted to forty-nine. There was only one dollar left.
"Two drafts this morning!" said Mrs. Lane, angrily. "What has he done with the money?"
She searched the trunk carefully, hoping to find somewhere a roll of bills, but as we know, she was doomed to disappointment.
"He is sly," she muttered; "but I will trap him yet."
She left the book in the tray, whereas it had been placed underneath. When Gerald opened his trunk, he discovered the change, and knew that his trunk had been opened and examined by his stepmother.