“You see, aunt,” he said, “it wasn’t such bad luck, after all, to be left on the island.”
“God has so shaped events as to bring good out of evil,” answered Mrs. Trafton, who was a religious woman and went regularly to church, though her husband never accompanied her. “But I am afraid your uncle will try to get the money away from you.”
“I don’t want him to know it, aunt.”
“I shall not tell him, Robert, but he may find out.”
“That is not all. I have got regular work to do which will bring me in two dollars a week.”
Then Robert told his surprised aunt the story of his engagement by the hermit, who for two years had been the mystery of the village.
“It never rains but it pours, you see, aunt,” he said cheerfully.
He wondered how his uncle would receive him and whether he would make a fresh demand for the small sum of money which had been the cause of the original trouble.
But John Trafton had been thoroughly alarmed by the consequences of his former act and he had, besides, such experience of Robert’s firmness that he concluded it would not be worth while to carry the matter any further. He greeted Robert sullenly.
“So you are back?” he said gruffly.