"I do remember him. Do you come from him?"
Fosdick shook his head.
"He has been dead for two years," he said, sadly.
"Dead!" repeated Hiram Bates, as if shocked. "Indeed, I am sorry to hear it."
He spoke with evident regret, and Henry Fosdick, whose feelings towards his father's debtor had not been very friendly, noticed this, and was softened by it.
"Did he die in poverty, may I ask?" inquired Mr. Bates, after a pause.
"He was poor," said Fosdick; "that is, he had nothing laid up; but his wages were enough to support him and myself comfortably."
"Did he have any other family?"
"No, sir; my mother died six years since, and I had no brothers or sisters."
"He left no property then?"