CONCLUSION
“Where are you boarding, Herbert?” asked Ralph.
“In Stanton Street.”
“I shall wish you at once to remove to the Astor House, in order that we
may be together until we sail for Europe.”
To this pleasant arrangement Herbert made no opposition. He found it a
great change from the dirty and slipshod boarding-house to the elegant
arrangements of a first-class hotel. It is needless to say that he
enjoyed that change not a little. He often had the feeling, of which he
had spoken to Ralph, that it was a dream from which he would some time
awake. But the dream was destined to be a pretty long one.
Within a week, much against his will, Mr. Stanton paid over to Ralph
Pendleton the fifty thousand dollars of which he had years ago defrauded
him, and thus the Ranger found himself master of a fortune of nearly
one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. He settled without delay a
comfortable annuity on David Marston, the old clerk, through whose
evidence he had been able to ferret out the treachery of Mr. Stanton.
Marston needed it, for his health was broken down and he was an invalid,
prematurely old. He is now settled in a comfortable boarding-house
in Clinton Street, and usually spends his mornings at the Mercantile
Library Reading-Room, in Astor Place, reading the morning papers.
Sometimes he ventures downtown, and takes a slow walk through the
streets, crowded with busy, bustling men, and recalls the years when he,
too, was one of them.
Before sailing for Europe, Herbert expressed a desire to repay his uncle
the sum of ten dollars, which the latter had sent to him. Ralph was
surprised when he learned that this uncle, of whom Herbert spoke, was
the same man who had been his former guardian. He approved our hero's
determination, and one morning Herbert entered for the first time his
uncle's place of business.
“Is Mr. Stanton in?” he asked of a clerk.
The clerk, in reply, pointed to the office.
Herbert entered.
His uncle looked up, but although he had seen our hero at a concert
at the Academy of Music, he did not recognize him in the new and
fashionable suit which Ralph had purchased for him.
“Mr. Stanton, I suppose?” said Herbert, with quiet self-possession.
“Yes. Do you wish to speak with me?”
“I must introduce myself,” said Herbert. “I am Herbert Mason, your
nephew.”
“Indeed!” said Mr. Stanton, surprised. “When did you come to the city?”
“Some weeks since.”
“What brought you here?”
“I had my living to make. I preferred to make it in the city.”
“The city is crowded. You had better have remained in the country.”
“I do not think so,” said Herbert.
“You could have got a place on a farm, and in time perhaps might have
bought a little land for yourself.”
Herbert smiled.
“I did get a place on a farm,” he said; “but I did not like it.”
“What are you doing in the city? Have you got a place?”
“Not at present.”
“So I supposed,” said his uncle, frowning. “I told you the city was
overcrowded. You should not have come here. I suppose you relied on me
to help you to something. But I have my own family to take care of, and
my first duty is to them, as you must be aware.”
“I don't think you quite understand my object in calling,” said Herbert,
quietly. “I have not come for assistance of any kind.”
“Indeed!” returned Mr. Stanton, appearing to be puzzled.
“You sent me ten dollars in a letter to Dr. Kent some months since?”
“Yes. I felt that it was best for you to depend on yourself, and that
more would only encourage you to idleness.”
“I have come to thank you for the LOAN,” said Herbert, emphasizing the
last word, “and to return the money.”
“What!” exclaimed Mr. Stanton, now thoroughly amazed.
Herbert repeated his former words.
“But I don't understand this. You are out of a place; yet you do not
need this money.”
“No, I do not need it.”
This was certainly astonishing, and Mr. Stanton gazed at his nephew as
if he did not know what to make of it.
“What are your plans?” he asked. “What are you going to do?”
“I sail for Europe next week,” said Herbert, enjoying his uncle's
surprise.
“Sail for Europe!” ejaculated Mr. Stanton, scarcely believing his ears.
“Yes, I am to go to school there, and shall probably remain three or
four years.”
“You are trifling with me,” said his uncle, irritably. “How can you go
to Europe without money?”
Herbert felt that the time had come for an explanation.
“A friend,” he said, “kindly undertakes to pay all my expenses. I go
with him.”
“Who is your friend?”
“Mr. Ralph Pendleton. I believe you know him.”
“Ralph Pendleton!” repeated Mr. Stanton, in renewed surprise. “How did
you become acquainted with him?”
“The farmer with whom I was placed in Ohio ill-treated me. Ralph lived
near by, and helped me to run away.”
Mr. Stanton made no comment. Indeed, his surprise was such that he knew
not what to say. His friendless and penniless nephew, as he had regarded
him, was about to share advantages which he would gladly have obtained
for his own son. When, that evening, at home, he told his family of
Herbert's good fortune, Tom was filled with bitter envy. If it had been
any other boy he would have cared less, but for “that begger Herbert”
to go to Europe in charge of a man of wealth was very mortifying to his
pride.
Mr. Stanton made a faint protest against receiving the ten dollars
tendered by his nephew, but Herbert was determined to repay it. He
placed it on the desk and eventually Mr. Stanton placed it in his
pocketbook.
After some reflection, finding his nephew very differently situated from
what he had supposed, Mr. Stanton, with the concurrence of his wife,
whose opinion also had been changed, sent an invitation to Ralph and
Herbert to dine with them previous to their sailing for Europe. Herbert,
by his new guardian's direction, returned a polite reply, to the effect
that they were too busy in making preparations for their departure to
accept the invitation. Ralph did not feel like sitting as the guest of a
man who had cruelly defrauded him, and had only done him justice when he
was actually compelled to do so.
In due time our hero sailed for Europe with Mr. Ralph Pendleton. They
divided their time between Paris and Berlin, Herbert studying at both
places. With his natural good abilities, he made rapid progress, and at
the end of four years was an accomplished scholar, able to speak
both French and German with facility. In watching his progress, Ralph
Pendleton found a new and fresh interest in life. He recovered from his
old, morbid feeling, and became cheerful and happy. On returning to New
York, Herbert, who felt that he should enjoy a life of business better
than a professional career, entered the counting-room of Mr. Godfrey. At
twenty-one, the junior partner retiring, he was received as partner in
his place, his guardian, Ralph Pendleton, purchasing an interest for
him at a cost of fifty thousand dollars. He developed good business
abilities, and bid fair to swell this sum, in time, to a large fortune.
There is a prospect that he will, in time, sustain a closer relation to
his senior partner, as it is rumored that Julia Godfrey, now a brilliant
young belle, prefers her father's young partner to any of the crowd of
young men who pay her court.
The other characters in our story demand a few closing words. First,
for Mr. Stanton. It might have been the sudden withdrawal of the fifty
thousand dollars from his business that embarrassed him. At any rate,
from that time nothing prospered with him. He met with loss after loss,
until, in a time of financial panic he failed. He saved but a little
from the wreck of his fortune, That little started him in a modest
business, yielding him, perhaps, one-tenth his former income. The
brownstone house was sold. He moved into a shabby house in an obscure
street, where Mrs. Stanton spends her time mostly in bewailing the loss
of her former splendor.
Tom developed habits of extravagance, and seemed indisposed to work
steadily. Finally, when his reverses came, his father was compelled to
refuse further assistance, and now Tom, in an inferior clerkship, on a
small salary, gazes with envy at his once-despised cousin, with whom
he has completely changed places. How he will come out eventually is
doubtful. Unless he changes considerably, it is not likely that his
circumstances will ever be much better than at present.
Abner Holden died suddenly last year in a fit of delirium tremens. His
habits of intemperance grew upon him until they led to this sad result.
His death did not excite any very prolonged grief in the community, as
his temper and uncertain honesty had made him very far from popular. To
the housekeeper who had been kind to him, Herbert sent a valuable silk
dress, of the richest fabric, of which Mrs. Bickford is very proud. She
only wears it on great occasions, and then is particular to mention that
it was presented to her by Herbert Mason, of the great New York firm of
Godfrey & Mason, who was once Abner Holden's bound boy.
Nor was Herbert forgetful of his good friends, the Kents. He paid off
the mortgage on the doctor's place, and insisted on putting the house
in thorough repair, and newly furnishing it, so that now the town of
Waverley does not contain a handsomer house, inside and out, than that
of Dr. Kent.
So we bid farewell to our young hero, fairly launched on a prosperous
career, trusting that his life-path may be bright to the end, and that
he may leave behind him, at the end of his career, the reputation of a
noble and honorable merchant, and a life filled with good deeds.
THE END