“What do you take me for?” returned Rex in his most dignified manner. He strode on up the hill, his head thrown back, his chin the least bit elevated in the air.
“I’m afraid for Reggie,” murmured Roy as he kept on toward the Pellery. “Poverty didn’t suit him at all, but it seems to me riches are going to suit him too well.”
The girls were hulling the strawberries on the side porch when he reached the house.
“Where’s mother?” he asked as he came up and sat down at their feet.
“Gone to market,” replied Eva.
“Where have you and Rex been?” inquired Jess. “I saw you crossing the bridge together. I thought the Crawfords were away. There’s nobody else you’d be likely to go and see over in Burdock.”
“There’s Mr. Tyler,” replied Roy. “He asked me to go up and see him to-day, but I was too late. He’s dead.”
“Dead! Oh, Roy!”
Both girls uttered the exclamation. Death almost always horrifies. They had Roy tell them in detail all about the talk he had had with the miser the previous afternoon. But he said nothing about the will. He thought his mother ought to know first.
“There come mother and Rex now!” exclaimed Jess presently.