"What is my uncle's name?"
"Stephen Ray. He lives a few miles from Elmira, on the Erie road."
"And is he quite rich?"
"Yes; he is probably worth a quarter of a million dollars. It is money which should have gone to your father."
"Then the wicked are sometimes prospered in this world!"
"Yes, but this world is not all."
"Has there been any communication with my cousin in all these years?"
"Yes, two years ago I wrote to him."
"What did you write?"
"You must forgive me, Ernest, but I saw you growing up without an education, and I felt that you should have advantages which I could not give you. I wrote to your cousin asking if he would pay your expenses in a preparatory school and afterward at college."