Ben asked no questions, feeling that he could safely leave the whole matter in the hands of so experienced a business man as his new guardian.
They did not go to a hotel, but to a boarding-house kept by a Cuban lady, a friend of his guardian, which they found quite as comfortable and more homelike than the Metropolitan or the Windsor.
Meanwhile Ben thought it best not to make a call at the office of his uncle. Indeed, remembering the cruel way in which he had wronged his mother, he would have found it disagreeable to meet him.
But one day, on Broadway, he met his cousin, Clarence Plantagenet. He would have avoided the encounter, but it was too late, for Clarence had seen him.
"What! Ben!" he exclaimed. "I had no idea you were back in New York. When did you arrive?"
"Three days since," answered Ben.
"Where are you staying?"
"At a boarding-house in Forty-second street."
"How is Major Grafton?"