“Oh yes you can. You are nicely dressed, while I am hardly any better dressed than when I left Burton.”
“I have wondered why you didn’t buy some new clothes when you were able to afford it.”
“You see we Western miners don’t care much for style, perhaps not enough. Still I probably shall buy a suit or two, but not till I have made my visit home. I want to see how people will receive me, when they think I haven’t got much money. I shall own up to about five hundred dollars, but that isn’t enough to dazzle people even in a small country village.”
“I am wiling to help you in any way you wish, Mr. Pettigrew.”
“Then I think we shall get some amusement out of it. I shall represent you as worth about a hundred thousand dollars.”
“I wish I were.”
“Very likely you will be some time if you go out to Montana with me.”
“How large a place is Burton?”
“It has not quite a thousand inhabitants. It is set among the hills, and has but one rich man, Lemuel Sheldon, who is worth perhaps fifty thousand dollars, but put on the airs of a millionaire.”
“You are as rich as he, then.”