“Yet, Jimmy, you do not in the least resemble that dead man in there.”
“I know it. What of it?”
“There may be a few persons left alive, at or near Kingsgift, who will remember the young man who left his home in Virginia, so long ago.”
“Bah! Nonsense, my dear. They will look at me and exclaim. ‘How you have changed!’ or, ‘You’re right smart altered since you went away, Ledger.’ But to offset that, there will be dozens who do not remember at all how Dinwiddie really looked, who will declare, ‘Why, boy, I’d have known you anywhere. You ain’t a mite changed since you was a leetle chap, so high.’ That is the way of the world, Juno.”
“But what will you do with the name, and with the mortgaged estates, when you get them?” Juno asked lightly. “Considering that part of it as settled, for you generally accomplish whatever you undertake to do, what will you do with it all?”
“I’ll make your fortune and mine. I’ll square Dinwiddie with the people around there, and tell them all what a great man I intend to make of myself. I’ll pay off a year’s interest on the mortgages and other debts, and make out new papers, just to give them confidence in me. When that is done, I’ll be ready for the real work of—succeeding.”
“Succeeding at what?”
“At making a fortune.”
“And you really think that you can do it?”
“With such a name, such a lineage, such a reputation for gentility? Of course I can do it.”