“I would not waste my energy upon the ungrateful girl,” said he, “for she does not seem to care, or why should she not answer your letters? It is shameful for a daughter to be so undutiful.”
There was something in the young man’s tone that caused the millionaire to look keenly at him.
Then he closed his lips upon the words that were about to fall. He was upon the point of confiding how Tom was going after Annie, but the rich man noticed a glitter in the blue eyes, and he said nothing.
Then George spoke slowly:
“Uncle, will you keep to yourself what I am going to tell you?”
“Of course,” responded the rich man; “I have never betrayed your confidence.”
“Never.”
“Then, I will not begin now.”
“Did you know that Tom Cooper thinks that you are going to leave him half your fortune? I saw him just now as he went out, and he said that you had asked him to help find Annie, and that he was not going to do anything like it, but to give you the idea that he was working hard to locate her, and he said that if she kept away from the house that you would leave him half your fortune.”
The old man was rising from his chair slowly.