"I will think it over, Solon."
"Think it over? What thinking over do you need? I am not sure that I can give you time for that, as the gift is entirely voluntary on my part. I have brought the money with me, and in five minutes you can be a comparatively rich woman."
"I have just had a telegram from Mark saying that he will be home on Friday. I will wait till he comes. If you will come round Saturday——"
"I can't promise," said Talbot, deeply disappointed. "You stand very much in your own light."
"I can make no other answer, Solon."
"Confound that young meddler, Mark!" muttered Talbot as he left the house. "But for him I should have no difficulty in obtaining his mother's signature."
CHAPTER XXXV.
EDGAR GETS INTO TROUBLE.
While Solon Talbot was intent upon making money, his son Edgar was left to spend his time pretty much as he pleased. His father had secured him a place with a firm of brokers in Wall Street, in fact in the office of Crane & Lawton, through whom he intended to dispose of his mining stocks.
Edgar received five dollars a week, and this his father allowed him to keep for himself. But five dollars a week in a city like New York won't go very far when a boy gives up his evenings to playing pool.
One night Edgar made the acquaintance of a showy young man whom he ignorantly supposed belonged to a prominent New York family. It was in fact our old acquaintance, Hamilton Schuyler, with whom Mark had already had some experiences which did not impress him very much in the young man's favor.