“The difference in years isn’t great enough to constitute an obstacle, provided she loved him. I am thirty years old.”
“I am sure Florence would prefer you to Curtis Waring.”
“Don’t flatter me. I am vain enough already. The time may come when I may ask your good offices with Miss Linden. What I was about to ask was: Is Miss Linden also entitled to a share in her uncle’s estate?”
“She is just as nearly related to him as Mr. Waring.”
“Then I can understand his wishing to get rid of her. I don’t know why he should want to send you to a distance. I suppose there can’t be any relationship?”
“Is it likely that I—a poor street boy—should be related to a rich man like Mr. Linden?”
“It doesn’t seem likely, I admit,” said Leslie, musingly. “Well, I suppose,” he continued, after a pause, “there is no use in speculating about the matter now. The important point is, what are we to do with ourselves during the four or five months we must spend on shipboard?”
“I don’t know what I can do,” said Dodger. “I can’t sell papers, and I can’t smash baggage.”
“And there appears to be no need of your doing either, as you are provided with board and lodging till we reach shore.”
“That seems strange to me, for I’ve always had to hustle for a living.”