“I daresay you do,” assented Michael, “I never could stand them for a moment.”
“They wouldn’t let me speak,” continued the old gentleman bitterly; “I never was allowed to get a word in edgewise; I was shut up at once with some impertinent remark. They kept me on short allowance of pencils, when I wished to make notes of the most absorbing interest; the daily newspaper was guarded from me like a young baby from a gorilla. Now, you know me, Michael. I live for my calculations; I live for my manifold and ever-changing views of life; pens and paper and the productions of the popular press are to me as important as food and drink; and my life was growing quite intolerable when, in the confusion of that fortunate railway accident at Browndean, I made my escape. They must think me dead, and are trying to deceive the world for the chance of the tontine.”
“By the way, how do you stand for money?” asked Michael kindly.
“Pecuniarily speaking, I am rich,” returned the old man with cheerfulness. “I am living at present at the rate of one hundred a year, with unlimited pens and paper; the British Museum at which to get books; and all the newspapers I choose to read. But it’s extraordinary how little a man of intellectual interest requires to bother with books in a progressive age. The newspapers supply all the conclusions.”
“I’ll tell you what,” said Michael, “come and stay with me.”
“Michael,” said the old gentleman, “it’s very kind of you, but you scarcely understand what a peculiar position I occupy. There are some little financial complications; as a guardian, my efforts were not altogether blessed; and not to put too fine a point upon the matter, I am absolutely in the power of that vile fellow, Morris.”
“You should be disguised,” cried Michael eagerly; “I will lend you a pair of window-glass spectacles and some red side-whiskers.”
“I had already canvassed that idea,” replied the old gentleman, “but feared to awaken remark in my unpretentious lodgings. The aristocracy, I am well aware——”
“But see here,” interrupted Michael, “how do you come to have any money at all? Don’t make a stranger of me, Uncle Joseph; I know all about the trust, and the hash you made of it, and the assignment you were forced to make to Morris.”
Joseph narrated his dealings with the bank.