"No; the major did not say. He will probably send here for letters, and then I can mention that you called."
Harry assented, not being able to explain that this would not answer his purpose.
When he reported his information at home, Adeline said, quickly:
"He left because he does not want us to communicate with Philip."
"Probably," said Rose. "This shows," she added, "that he is afraid Philip would be inclined to do something for us. I am glad to have my faith strengthened in the boy, at all events. If he were willing to live in luxury while he knew we were struggling with poverty I could not regard him as a cousin."
The next morning Mr. Codicil read in the morning papers, among the passengers who had sailed for Europe the day before, the names of Major Grafton and Philip.
"The fellow has lost no time," he said to himself. "The boy is bright and attractive, but he stands a chance of being spoiled under such a guardian. I wish I had questioned him, and tried to learn something of him. I might have given him some idea of the injustice which has been practiced toward his poor cousins. I do not care so much that he profits by it as that that worthless uncle of his should live in luxury at their expense. I am afraid they are having a hard time."
How hard a time the sisters were having—how stern and exacting was the toil which her sister's helplessness imposed upon Rose—Mr. Codicil really had little idea. If he had, he would certainly have done something to assist them, for he was a kind-hearted man; but whenever Rose called upon him she was neatly dressed, and did not bear outward marks of the poverty with which she had to contend.
So far as Nicholas Walton was concerned, he was glad, upon the whole, to learn that his nephew had gone to Europe. He could not see Ben without his conscience reproaching him with the wrong he had done him, and was still doing him and his mother, by retaining possession of a sum of money which would have given them opulence in exchange for the poverty which was not removed by the small allowance he sent them.
"Perhaps Major Grafton will adopt the boy," he said to himself, "and then he won't need his father's money."