CHAPTER VI.
Mrs. CRAWFORD'S LETTER.
"How did you like my stepmother?" asked Carl, when Gilbert returned inthe afternoon.
"She's a daisy!" answered Gilbert, shrugging his shoulders. "I don'tthink I ever saw a more disagreeable woman."
"Do you blame me for leaving home?"
"I only wonder you have been able to stay so long. I had a longconversation with your father."
"Mrs. Crawford has made a different man of him. I should have no troublein getting along with him if there was no one to come between us."
"He gave me this for you," said Gilbert, producing the ten-dollar bill.
"Did my stepmother know of his sending it?"
"No; she was opposed to sending your trunk, but your father saidemphatically you should have it."
"I am glad he showed that much spirit."
"I have some hopes that he will make you an allowance of a few dollars aweek."
"That would make me all right, but I don't expect it."
"You will probably hear from your father to-morrow or next day, so youwill have to make yourself contented a little longer."
"I hope you are not very homesick, Mr. Crawford?" said Julia,coquettishly.
"I would ask nothing better than to stay here permanently," rejoinedCarl, earnestly. "This is a real home. I have met with more kindnesshere than in six months at my own home."
"You have one staunch friend at home," said Gilbert.
"You don't allude to Peter?"
"So far as I can judge, he hates you like poison. I mean Jane."
"Yes, Jane is a real friend. She has been in the family for ten years.She was a favorite with my own mother, and feels an interest in me."
"By the way, your stepmother's charge that you took a wallet containingmoney from her drawer has been disproved by Jane. She saw Peterabstracting the money, and so informed Mrs. Crawford."
"I am not at all surprised. Peter is mean enough to steal or do anythingelse. What did my stepmother say?"
"She was very angry, and threatened to discharge Jane; but, as no onewould be left to attend to the dinner, I presume she is likely to stay."
"I ought to be forming some plan," said Carl, thoughtfully.
"Wait till you hear from home. Julia will see that your time is wellfilled up till then. Dismiss all care, and enjoy yourself while youmay."
This seemed to be sensible advice, and Carl followed it. In the eveningsome young people were invited in, and there was a round of amusementsthat made Carl forget that he was an exile from home, with very dubiousprospects.
"You are all spoiling me," he said, as Gilbert and he went upstairs tobed. "I am beginning to understand the charms of home. To go out intothe world from here will be like taking a cold shower bath."
"Never forget, Carl, that you will be welcome back, whenever you feellike coming," said Gilbert, laying his band affectionately on Carl'sshoulder. "We all like you here."
"Thank you, old fellow! I appreciate the kindness I have received here;but I must strike out for myself."
"How do you feel about it, Carl?"
"I hope for the best. I am young, strong and willing to work. There mustbe an opening for me somewhere."
The next morning, just after breakfast, a letter arrived for Carl,mailed at Edgewood Center.
"Is it from your father?" asked Gilbert.
"No; it is in the handwriting of my stepmother. I can guess from thatthat it contains no good news."
He opened the letter, and as he read it his face expressed disgust andannoyance.
"Read it, Gilbert," he said, handing him the open sheet.
This was the missive:
"CARL CRAWFORD:--AS your father has a nervous attack, brought on byyour misconduct, he has authorized me to write to you. As you are butsixteen, he could send for you and have you forcibly brought back,but deems it better for you to follow your own course and suffer thepunishment of your obstinate and perverse conduct. The boy whom you senthere proved a fitting messenger. He seems, if possible, to be even worsethan yourself. He was very impertinent to me, and made a brutal andunprovoked attack on my poor boy, Peter, whose devotion to your fatherand myself forms an agreeable contrast to your studied disregard of ourwishes.
"Your friend had the assurance to ask for a weekly allowance for youwhile a voluntary exile from the home where you have been only too welltreated. In other words, you want to be paid for your disobedience.Even if your father were weak enough to think of complying with thisextraordinary request, I should do my best to dissuade him."
"Small doubt of that!" said Carl, bitterly.
"In my sorrow for your waywardness, I am comforted by the thought thatPeter is too good and conscientious ever to follow your example. Whileyou are away, he will do his utmost to make up to your father for hisdisappointment in you. That you may grow wise in time, and turnat length from the error of your ways, is the earnest hope of yourstepmother,
"Anastasia Crawford."
"It makes me sick to read such a letter as that, Gilbert," said Carl."And to have that sneak and thief--as he turned out to be--Peter, set upas a model for me, is a little too much."
"I never knew there were such women in the world!" returned Gilbert."I can understand your feelings perfectly, after my interview ofyesterday."
"She thinks even worse of you than of me," said Carl, with a faintsmile.
"I have no doubt Peter shares her sentiments. I didn't make many friendsin your family, it must be confessed."
"You did me a service, Gilbert, and I shall not soon forget it."
"Where did your stepmother come from?" asked Gilbert, thoughtfully.
"I don't know. My father met her at some summer resort. She was stayingin the same boarding house, she and the angelic Peter. She lost no timein setting her cap for my father, who was doubtless reported to her as aman of property, and she succeeded in capturing him."
"I wonder at that. She doesn't seem very fascinating."
"She made herself very agreeable to my father, and was even affectionatein her manner to me, though I couldn't get to like her. The end was thatshe became Mrs. Crawford. Once installed in our house, she soon threwoff the mask and showed herself in her true colors, a cold-hearted,selfish and disagreeable woman."
"I wonder your father doesn't recognize her for what she is."
"She is very artful, and is politic enough to treat him well. She haslost no opportunity of prejudicing him against me. If he were not aninvalid she would find her task more difficult."
"Did she have any property when your father married her?"
"Not that I have been able to discover. She is scheming to have myfather leave the lion's share of his property to her and Peter. I daresay she will succeed."
"Let us hope your father will live till you are a young man, at least,and better able to cope with her."
"I earnestly hope so."
"Your father is not an old man."
"He is fifty-one, but he is not strong. I believe he has livercomplaint. At any rate, I know that when, at my stepmother'sinstigation, he applied to an insurance company to insure his life forher benefit, the application was rejected."
"You don't know anything of Mrs. Crawford's antecedents?"
"No."
"What was her name before she married your father?"
"She was a Mrs. Cook. That, as you know, is Peter's name."
"Perhaps, in your travels, you may learn something of her history."
"I should like to do so."
"You won't leave us to-morrow?"
"I must go to-day. I know now that I must depend wholly upon my ownexertions, and I must get to work as soon as possible."
"You will write to me, Carl?"
"Yes, when I have anything agreeable to write."
"Let us hope that will be soon."