"I suppose," he commenced, "when you inquired the boy's age, you wished to understand how long this arrangement was likely to last?"
"Yes, sir. That is an important consideration."
"Then again," said Paul Morton, trying to speak indifferently, "of course there is the contingency of his early death, which would cut off your income arising from the allowance I make for him."
"Yes," said the clerk, "but if I remember rightly, it would be a benefit to you, for you would inherit the property in his place."
"Yes; that was the arrangement his father made without my knowledge. But that has nothing to do with you. I will tell you what I have decided to do in the contingency which I have just named. If the boy dies, you will be an annual loser; I will agree to give you outright such a sum as will produce an equal annual income, say ten thousand dollars."
"You will give me ten thousand dollars if the boy dies?"
"Yes; should he be removed by an early death, though, of course, that is not probable, I will make over to you the sum I have named."
"Yes; ten thousand dollars, as a testimonial of my appreciation of your services in taking charge of him. That certainly is a liberal arrangement."
"Yes," said James Cromwell, in a low voice, his pale face a little paler than its wont, for he knew as well as his employer, that the sum mentioned was indirectly offered him as an inducement to make way with the boy. He could not prove it, of course, but it was clear to his own mind, and Paul Morton meant that it should be.
"Come here to-morrow," he said, rising, as a signal of dismissal, "and meanwhile I will prepare my ward for the new plans which we have been discussing."
James Cromwell rose, and his mind in a tumult of various emotions, left the house in Twenty-ninth Street.
"Tell Robert Raymond that I wish to speak to him," said Paul Morton, to a servant who answered his bell.
In five minutes Robert entered his presence. The boy was clad in a suit of black, and his face was grave and sad. The death of his father, his only relation of whom he had any knowledge, had weighed heavily upon his feelings, and he moved about the house in a listless way, with little appetite or spirit.
"You sent for me, sir?" he said interrogatively, as he entered.