"Then you're a tip-top feller, and I won't refuse such a good offer."
"Good! That's settled, then," said the young man, with satisfaction. "Now I'll tell you my reasons for making you such an offer. I am an orphan, and with no near relations, except an uncle in Canada, with whose family I am little acquainted. I inherited from my father, who died just as I reached the age of twenty-one, a fortune of one hundred thousand dollars."
"Whew!" said our hero; "that's a big pile of money."
"It was too large for me. It took away my ambition and energy; and though for two years I have been in a law office, pretending to study law, I have wasted my time in drinking among unworthy companions. The fact is, I am of a sociable disposition, and I found my room lonely. Now I want to turn over a new leaf, give up drinking, and devote myself more to study."
"I want to study, too," said Tom. "I'm as ignorant as a horse. I'll have to study some evenings."
"I'll teach you," said Mordaunt. "We'll spend our evenings that way, instead of in bar-rooms."
"All right," said our hero. "That suits me. But I ought not to let you pay my board."
"I can well afford it. My money is securely invested, and brings me in six thousand dollars a year clear."
"I shall have to work from now till I'm a gray-haired old patriarch before I earn six thousand dollars," said Tom, comically.
Mordaunt laughed.