“No; but I’m afraid you will be even more displeased with the rest of it than with what I have already told you,” the young girl said, doubtfully.
“At all events, let me hear it.”
“He said if he had not been so helpless he would have added a codicil to his will, and given Ear—Mr. Wayne something handsome to start in life with, when his three years should expire——”
“Aha!”
“And he made me promise that I would settle ten thousand dollars upon him just as soon as he should be free, and at the same time return his package to him.”
“Ten thousand dollars!” exclaimed Sumner Dalton aghast.
“Yes, sir.”
“I don’t believe it, Editha Dalton. It is more like a sickly, sentimental fancy of your own,” was the excited retort. Mr. Dalton was furious at the thought. Ten thousand dollars of Editha’s fortune to be given away to a beggar and a criminal!
“Papa!”
“I do not believe it, I say! Such a monstrous proceeding could never have originated in the brain of a sane man.”