“It couldn’t have been he,” said Rudolph, positively. “Even if he were alive, he wouldn’t be here. But he’s dead, I tell you. There’s no doubt of it.”
“There are strange resemblances,” said the lady. “But, of course, it couldn’t have been the boy. Indeed the gentleman with him told me that it was his ward.”
Rudolph laughed.
Tony wasn’t likely to have a gentleman for a guardian,” he said.
But Rudolph would have felt less easy in his mind if he had known that the boy whom he supposed dead at the bottom of a well was really in the hotel at that very moment, and, strangely enough, in the adjoining room.
CHAPTER XXVIII
TONY AND HIS GUARDIAN HOUSEKEEPING
“Now, Tony,” said George Spencer, after dinner, “I want to tell you what plans I have formed for you and myself. I have got tired of hotel life, and want a home. I shall seek a couple of handsomely furnished rooms uptown, make it social and pleasant with books and pictures, and we will settle down and enjoy ourselves.”
“I am afraid you will get tired of me, Mr. Spencer,” said Tony, modestly. “I am too ignorant to be much company for you.”
“Ignorance, like poverty, can be remedied,” said the young man. “I shall obtain a private tutor for you, and expect you to spend some hours daily in learning.” Tony’s face lighted up.