Dick was only six years old when Gertrude, the eldest of the girls, was born, so that there was no great difference between his age and theirs, and all seemed to belong to one family on both sides. A looker-on could not have distinguished which of the five was Mrs. Whitmore's own child, either when all were little ones, or when they were comparatively grown-up.
Before Mr. Whitmore brought his second wife home, he had wisely explained to her his position and that of Dick with regard to the property on which they lived.
"Most of it came with my wife," he said, "and will eventually go to the boy, though while I live two-thirds of the income from the estate will be mine. Until he is of age, the whole of it passes through my hands, though, of course, a liberal portion is to be expended on his maintenance and education. When Richard is twenty-one, he will have a third for his own absolute use and until my death, when all his mother's property will be his. As his future is thus amply provided for, all that I have shall be yours for life, if you survive me, and afterwards go to our children, if we have others beside Dick. It will not be much in comparison, but would keep you in a modest way."
Pretty Amy Christie had been accustomed to simple surroundings, and was willing to trust her future in the hands of Mr. Whitmore. She was transplanted to a luxurious home, but as she looked around her, from the first she accustomed herself to think, "We owe the greater part of the good things we enjoy to little Dick's mother, and they are really held in trust for the boy."
There was no envious feeling in Mrs. Whitmore's mind as she thought of this. On the contrary, she rejoiced that the boy whom she had been privileged to train was daily developing into a noble character: true, loving, brave, unselfish. A little too quiet if anything, save to those who had the key to his inmost heart; and perhaps even more than to the father whom he loved and reverenced, did Richard Whitmore reveal it to his stepmother.
He was only sixteen when his father died, and the four girls were mere children: Gertrude ten, Mina (short for Wilhelmina) eight, Josephine six, and Florence Mary, or Molly, as everybody called her, only four.
With Mr. Whitmore's death went a large portion of the income, to accumulate and make Dick richer still, when he should come of age. What the husband had the power to bequeath to his widow seemed a mere pittance in comparison with what had been spent on the household, though he had saved out of it and left a little nest-egg, in the shape of ready money thus accumulated, absolutely to his widow.
The father had faith in Dick, though he was but a lad of sixteen, and to him, he commended his still young stepmother and the girls.
The trustees consented that Dick's home should still be shared by them, and made a liberal allowance. The ready money alluded to helped to tide over the time until he came of age, so that the interval was passed without much change in the surroundings of Mrs. Whitmore and her children. Only there was one unfortunate incident, which helped to spoil the perfect unity which had hitherto subsisted in the little family.
When Gertrude was about seventeen, she paid a visit to the home of a schoolfellow who lived at no very great distance. Whilst there, and as the girls strolled in the sweet spring sunshine, exchanging confidences, Gertrude's friend began to talk to her of the home she had lately left.