“Forbearing! I try to be, but only last month bills were sent to me amounting to five hundred dollars, run up by Victor within three months.”
Warren Lane inwardly thanked God that he had no fault to find with his boy. Gerald had never given him a moment’s uneasiness. He had always been a dutiful son.
“After all,” he thought, “wealth can’t buy everything. I would not exchange my poverty for Bradley Wentworth’s wealth, if I must also exchange sons. Poverty has its compensations.”
“You are still living in Chicago?” said Lane.
“No; I have my office in Chicago, but I retain my residence in Seneca.”
“Yes. I do more business than my uncle ever did.”
“How unequally fortune is distributed!” thought Mr. Lane with an involuntary sigh. “Still—I have Gerald!”
AFTER dinner Warren Lane complained of fatigue, and lay down.
“I will talk with you to-morrow, Wentworth,” he said. “To-day I am too tired.”
“Very well,” assented Wentworth with some reluctance. “But I ought not to remain here longer than to-morrow. My business requires me at home.”
“Shall we take a walk?” asked Wentworth, directing the question to Gerald.
“I don’t think I ought to leave my father. He doesn’t seem at all well.”
“Yes, and perhaps he would spare me now, but I have a feeling that I ought to stay with him. I should feel uneasy if I left him.”
“Oh, well, do as you think best,” said Wentworth rather crossly. He found the cabin insupportably dull, and would like to have wandered around with Gerald as a guide.
“I am sorry. I am afraid you will find time hang heavy on your hands.”
“It can’t be helped!” said Wentworth dryly. “I came here at your father’s request, and to-morrow I must start for home. I will take a walk by myself.”
He strolled out into the woods, taking his bearings, so as not to lose the way.
“Well, well, this will soon be over,” he said to himself. “Warren Lane is doomed. If I could only get hold of those papers before he dies I would leave the place content, and would not care if I never saw him or Gerald again. Where can he keep them? If the boy hadn’t interrupted me as he did, I might have found them. Does he keep them about his person, I wonder?”
He sauntered along for half an hour in a different direction from the one he had taken in his earlier walk.