“Let him shift for himself.”
Mr. Briggs shook his head.
“The world would talk,” said Mr. Briggs.
“Let them talk!” said the lady, independently.
“It isn’t best to incur the reproach of your fellow-men.”
“Well, get him a cheap boarding-house: that’s more suited to his station in life than a home like ours.”
“Let him stay here a few days, and I will see what I can do.”
Mrs. Briggs would have preferred to have Gilbert leave the next day, but decided to accept the concession made by her husband. He was placed in a difficult position, but did not venture to tell his wife all. The truth was, for I do not mean to make a mystery of it, he had wronged Gilbert most grievously. The sum of money placed in his hands in trust for our hero had been not a small sum, but seventy-five thousand dollars. Gilbert’s father, trusting all to the honor of his friend, had exacted no guaranties of good faith. So far as Mr. Briggs knew, no living person was aware of the amount of Gilbert’s inheritance. There was no one, so far as he knew, to contradict his assertion that it had all been expended in the education of our hero. Yet it troubled him. He had made up his mind to wrong the boy, but he was not so hardened as to do it without some qualms of conscience. He meant to do something for him, get him a place, and give him a home in his own family; but here, as we see, Mrs. Briggs had interfered with his plans. He could not make up his mind to throw Gilbert wholly upon his own resources, and he was disappointed at his wife’s opposition. He was not wholly a bad man, but the temptation of appropriating Gilbert’s money had been too great, and he had yielded. He had used it in his business, and a sudden call for it would have very much embarrassed him.
Meanwhile Gilbert set out on his walk. The crowded city streets, which had interested him in the daytime, assumed a new charm in the evening. Walking slowly along, looking in at the brilliantly lighted windows, he did not feel the need of companionship. In fact, he was rather glad that Randolph was not with him, for he had already satisfied himself that they had very little in common.
