“I met him myself on Washington Street. Did you speak to him?”
“Yes, sir.”
“I suppose he goes back to-night?”
“I don't think he will go back at all, Mr. Melville.”
His employer looked at him inquiringly.
“I saw him buy a ticket to Chicago, though he does not know it,” continued Herbert. “When he spoke with me he didn't admit it, but spoke of going back by an afternoon train.”
“I am afraid he has appropriated some of his father's funds,” said Melville. “I doubt if Ebenezer Graham would voluntarily furnish him the means of going West.”
“That was just what occurred to me,” said Herbert; “but I didn't like to think that Eben would steal.”
“Perhaps he has not. We shall be likely to hear when we return. But you must be hungry. We will go in to dinner.”
Herbert followed Mr. Melville into the dining room, where a good dinner was ordered, and partaken of. Herbert looked over the bill of fare, but the high prices quite startled him. He was not used to patronizing hotels, and it seemed to him that the price asked for a single dish ought to be enough to pay for a whole dinner for two. He knew about what it cost for a meal at home, and did not dream that it would amount to so much more at a hotel.