Mr. Craven was not a scrupulous man, and this proposal didn't shock him as it should have done, but he was a timid man, and he could not suppress a tremor of alarm.
"But isn't there danger in it?" he faltered.
"Not if it is rightly managed," said Sharpley.
"And how do you mean to manage it?"
"Can't tell yet," answered the other, carelessly. "The thought has just occurred to me, and I have had no time to think it over. But that needn't trouble you. You can safely leave all that to me."
Mr. Craven leaned his head on his hand and reflected. Here was a way out of two embarrassments. This plan offered him present safety and a continuance of his good fortune, with the chance of soon obtaining control of Frank's fortune.
"Well, what do you say?" asked Sharpley.
"I should like it well enough, but I don't know what my wife and the boy will say."
"Has Mrs. Craven the—second—a will of her own?"