“Do you need any money?” asked Basil when they landed. “As your guardian, as well as the executor of Mrs. Harcourt’s estate, I am ready to meet any reasonable demands.”
“Thank you, Mr. Wentworth. I have two hundred dollars with me, and this will answer for the present.”
“Where do you expect to stay?”
“General Flint insists upon my being his guest at the Fifth Avenue Hotel for a week. When he goes back to Iowa I shall find a home in a private house.”
The first evening of his return Ben called at Mrs. Robinson’s lodging house to see his literary friend Sylvanus Snodgrass.
The novelist was sincerely glad to see him.
“Welcome home, Ben!” he said. “I have missed you a great deal. And how is the lady who took you to Europe with her?”
“She is dead, Mr. Snodgrass,” replied Ben gravely.
“And you are thrown upon the world again? Do you propose to go back to your old business?”
“No,” answered Ben with a smile. “I don’t think it will be necessary.”