"Then I am afraid there are a great many brutes in the world."
Charlie stopped to dinner, but Bill could not be prevailed upon to do so. "You see, my boy," he explained to Charlie, "it don't come nat'ral; I shouldn't know how to behave. So I'll just go back to my boardinghouse, and you'll find me there after dinner."
XXXVIII.
REACHING PORT.
Will the reader imagine a year to have passed?
During the time several things have happened.
In the first place, Mr. Bowman has invited Charlie to become a member of his family.
In the second place, charmed by the beauty and grace, as well as the more valuable qualities of Mrs. Codman, with whom he has had a good chance of becoming acquainted during her residence in his family, he has invited her to become his wife. Mrs. Codman was taken by surprise, but found this proposition not altogether unwelcome. She had become attached to Bert, who added her persuasions to those of her father, and at length her governess promised to assume to her a nearer relation.
Through the testimony of Randall, the identity of Peter Manson with Peter Thornton was fully established, and the law decided that the miser's wealth must go to Charlie and his mother. It was found to exceed the estimate which had been made of it, verging close upon forty thousand dollars. Including interest for twenty years, all this, and more of right, belonged to those who had so long been defrauded of it.
Mrs. Codman could not help pitying the miserable and disconsolate old man, pinched with privation, which had enfeebled him, and made him old before his time. She continued to allow him the use of the old building which he had occupied so many years, and allowed him a certain sum payable on the first of every month, to provide for his wants.