Mr. Barton reflected. “Well, yes, Rachel; as you say, something ought to be done there.”
“Something done!” Rachel said, contemptuously; “you are a poor thing, Barton. It’s lucky for you you’ve made up your mind to drop the business; you never had much head, though I was fool enough once to think you had; you’re getting to be a downright fool—that’s what you are.”
Mr. Barton uttered a feeble protest.
“Don’t tell me, Robert Barton. I know you, if no one else does, and you may take my word for it. Do you think this young Bingham could let you keep that paper? Why, when he sees this new heir, he will know at once why you went to him to sell the secret, and he will see that he is all right, for the boy’s life is not worth, you say, a year’s purchase. Well, what would his chance be worth if you were to go to the old man, and prove to him that Bingham knew about the boy being alive, and had paid you to keep it dark? You ought not to give up that paper, Barton, for a penny under a couple of thousand. That will be something out of the fire at any rate.”
“You have got a head on your shoulders, Rachel, there’s no mistake about that.”
“It’s very lucky for you, Barton, I have,” his wife said, mollified; “it’s lucky we’ve one between the two of us, anyhow.”
Fred Bingham came up to town a few days after James had been installed in his new home. The evening after his arrival he as usual went to call upon his uncle. He was astonished upon entering the drawing-room to see a pale young man, sitting in a sort of invalid chair, with his uncle and Miss Heathcote.
“How are you, Fred?” Captain Bradshaw said, warmly. “Here is a gentleman I wish to introduce you to. My grandson James. There, my boy, congratulate me,”
For a moment Fred Bingham felt as though he would have fallen. Fortunately Captain Bradshaw, in the exuberance of his feelings, patting him on the back, shaking his hand, and demanding his congratulations, gave him time to rally and collect his thoughts before he was called upon to speak. At any rate, his uncle’s warmth proved that his first suspicion had been incorrect—Barton had not betrayed the bargain between them. At last he said,
“Really, uncle, I am so surprised I hardly know what to say. Are you in earnest—is this gentleman really your grandson? I had no idea you had one.”