CHAPTER XXXII.
EDWARD GRANGER.
"I suppose you don't care to come back to the office, Chester?" saidMr. Fairchild, when Chester called upon him the next day at the office.
"I like my present position better," answered Chester; "besides, Isuppose you are hardly prepared to offer me twenty-five dollars aweek."
"Do you receive as much as that?" asked the broker, in amazement.
"Yes, sir."
"I congratulate you heartily," said Mr. Fairchild. "It is clear thatyou are too high priced for the real estate business."
"Felix tells me you may retain him."
"I will give him a chance. It depends upon himself whether he stays."
"I am very glad of it, sir. Felix has hardly been my friend, but nowthat his cousin is away he may improve. I certainly hope so."
"What shall you do about Ralston?" asked Chester, presently.
"I shall proceed against him. Such a man is a curse to the community.It was through him that my bookkeeper lost his integrity and ruined hisprospects. If he is locked up he will be prevented from doing any moreharm."
As Dick Ralston will not again figure in this story, it may bementioned here that he was found guilty in the trial that soonfollowed, and was sentenced to a term of several years' imprisonment.
The bitterest reflection he had when sentence was pronounced was thathis confederate, Mullins, had escaped and was a free man. Rogues maywork together, but it is seldom that any tie of friendship existsbetween them.
Chester was now able to save money. Including what he received fromProf. Hazlitt, his income was about thirty-five dollars a week.
His personal expenses were greater than they had been, on account ofhaving a more expensive room. Yet altogether they did not exceed twelvedollars per week, leaving him a balance of twenty-three.
Of this sum he proposed to send his mother a part, but she wrote thatthe liberal board paid by Miss Jane Dolby covered all her expenses.
"I hope if you have money to spare you will put it in some savingsbank," she wrote. "At present we are well and prospering, but the timemay come when our income will be diminished, and then it will be verycomfortable to have some money laid aside."
Chester acted upon his mother's suggestion. He did not tell her howmuch he earned. He wished this to be an agreeable surprise at somefuture day.
Then Chester moved into a larger room. The hall bedroom which he hadhitherto occupied was taken by a young man of nineteen named EdwardGranger. He was slender and looked younger than he was.
He did not seem strong, and there was a sad expression on his face.Sometimes he called on Chester, but for several days they had not met.About six o'clock one afternoon Chester knocked at his door.
"Come in!" he heard, in a low voice.
Entering, he saw Edward lying on the bed face downward, in an attitudeof despondency.
"What's the matter, Edward?" he asked. "Are you sick?"
"Yes, sick at heart," was the sad reply.
"How is that?" inquired Chester, in a tone of sympathy.
"I have lost my place."
"When was that?"
"Three days since. My employer has engaged in my place a boy from thecountry--his nephew--and I am laid aside."
"That is unfortunate, certainly, but you must try to get another place.Your employer will give you a recommendation, won't he?"
"Yes, I have one in my pocket, but it is not easy to get a new place,and meanwhile----" He hesitated.
"Meanwhile you are out of money, I suppose," said Chester.
"Yes; I couldn't save anything. I got only five dollars a week, and myroom costs two. I suppose, when the week is up, Mrs. Randolph will turnme into the street."
"Not while you have a friend in the next room," said Chester,cordially.
Edward looked up quickly.
"Will you really be my friend?" he asked.
"Try me. Have you had supper?"
"I have not eaten anything for two days," answered Granger, sadly.
"Why didn't you call upon me? I wouldn't have seen you suffer."
"I didn't like to ask. I thought you would consider me a beggar."
"You will understand me better after a while. Now put on your hat andcome out with me."
Edward did so, but he was so weak from long fasting that he was obligedto lean upon Chester in walking to the restaurant, which was luckilynear by.
"Let me advise you to take some soup first," said Chester. "Yourstomach is weak, and that will prepare it for heartier food."
"I don't feel hungry," returned Edward. "I only feel faint."
"It may be well not to eat very much at first."
"How kind you are! I must be two or three years older than you, yet youcare for and advise me."
"Consider me your uncle," said Chester, brightly. "Now tell me how ithappens that you didn't apply to some friend or relative."
A shadow passed over the boy's face.
"I have none in New York--except yourself."
"Then you are not a city boy."
"No; I came from Portland."
"In Maine?"
"No; in Oregon."
"You have relatives there?"
"A mother."
"I suppose you hear from her?"
Edward Granger was silent.
"I don't wish you to tell me if you have an objection."
"Yes, I will tell you, for I think you are a true friend. My mother ismarried again, and my stepfather from the first disliked me. I think itis because my mother had money, and he feared she would leave it to me.So he got up a false charge against me of dishonesty. My mother becamecold to me, and I--left home. I am of a sensitive nature, and I couldnot bear the cold looks I met with."
"How long ago was this?"
"About six months since."
"You came to New York directly?"
"Yes."
"Where did you get the money to come?"
"I came by it honestly," answered Edward, quickly. "I had a deposit ina savings bank, put in during my own father's life. I felt I had aright to use this, and I did so. It brought me to New York, and kept mehere till I got a place in an insurance office."
"And you managed to live on five dollars a week?"
"Yes; it was hard, but I went to the cheapest eating houses, and I--gotalong."
"But you had no money to buy clothing."
"I brought a fair supply with me. Now I am beginning to need some smallarticles, such as handkerchiefs and socks."
"I wondered you would never go to supper with me."
"I didn't want you to know how little I ordered. You might have thoughtme mean."
"Poor fellow!" said Chester, pityingly. "You have certainly had a hardtime. And all the while your mother was living in comfort."
"Yes, in luxury, for she is worth at least fifty thousand dollars inher own right."
"I hope your stepfather has not got possession of it."
"He had not when I came away. My mother is naturally cautious, andwould not give it to him. He attributed this to my influence over her,but it was not so. She is of Scotch descent, and this made her carefulabout giving up her property. She allowed him the use of the income,only reserving a little for herself."
"Have you had any communication with her since you left Portland?"
"I wrote her once, but received no answer."
"The letter may not have reached her. It may have fallen into the handsof your stepfather. What is his name?"
"Trimble--Abner Trimble."
"Was he in any business?"
"Yes; he kept a liquor saloon, and patronized his own bar too much forhis own good."
"I shouldn't think your mother would like to have him in thatbusiness."
"She asked him to change it, but he wouldn't. He had a set ofdisreputable companions who made his saloon their headquarters, and hedid not wish to give them up, as he might have had to do if he had goneinto another business."
By this time supper was over,
and the two walked to Broadway. Edwardfelt stronger, and his eye was brighter.
Suddenly he gripped Chester's arm.
"Do you see that man?" he asked, pointing to a black-bearded man on theother side of the street.
"Yes; what of him?"
"It is a gentleman from Portland, a neighbor of ours. What can he bedoing in New York?"