Gerald eyed his stepmother thoughtfully. Was this true—this statement of hers? Not about the boy's existence—he had no doubt of that—but as to his father's being in the plot to keep it secret.
"Where, then, is Abel, since he has never been here?" he asked.
"He has been at a boarding-school, fifty miles away, in the town of Fulton. I am expecting him here to-night."
"So the secret is out!" thought Gerald. "But is there not the same objection as before?" he asked. "Perhaps we may not agree."
"The circumstances are changed. He will no longer be in an inferior position."
"I don't understand."
"As my son, he will take precedence of you," said Mrs. Lane, with a triumphant smile.
"But the money belonged to my father."
"It belongs to me, now," said his stepmother, sharply.
Gerald was thunderstruck. It was not enough that his stepmother should appropriate the property which he felt ought properly to be his, but this unknown boy whom he had not yet seen, and of whose existence he thought it not improbable that his father had been ignorant, was to be invested with a right superior to his own. He remained silent for a moment. Then he said: