The Store Boy

CHAPTER XXXVI A LETTER FROM ROSE GARDINER

Ben re­sumed his place as the sec­re­tary and con­fi­den­tial clerk of Mrs. Hamil­ton. He found his po­si­tion more agree­able when Mrs. Hill and Con­rad were fair­ly out of the house. In place of the first a pleas­ant-​faced Ger­man wom­an was en­gaged, and there were no more sour looks and sneer­ing words.

Of course Ben kept up a week­ly cor­re­spon­dence with his moth­er. He did not tell her the ex­tent of his good for­tune--he wished that to be a sur­prise, when the time came. From his moth­er, too, he re­ceived week­ly let­ters, telling him not un­fre­quent­ly how she missed him, though she was glad he was do­ing so well.

One day be­side his moth­er's let­ter was an­oth­er. He did not know the hand­writ­ing, but, look­ing ea­ger­ly to the end, he saw the name of Rose Gar­diner.

“What would Rose say,” Ben asked him­self, “if she knew that I am worth four thou­sand dol­lars?”

The mon­ey had been paid to Ben, and was de­posit­ed in four dif­fer­ent sav­ings banks, till he could de­cide on a bet­ter in­vest­ment. So he was quite sure of hav­ing more than enough to pay off the mort­gage and re­deem the cot­tage.

“Since moth­er is wor­ry­ing, I must write and set her mind at rest,” he de­cid­ed.

He wrote ac­cord­ing­ly, telling his moth­er not to feel anx­ious, for he had wealthy friends, and he felt sure, with their help, of pay­ing off the mort­gage. “But don't tell any­body this,” he con­tin­ued, “for I want to give the squire and Mr. Kirk a dis­agree­able sur­prise. I shall come to Pen­tonville two days be­fore, and may stay a week.”

He had al­ready spo­ken to Mrs. Hamil­ton about hav­ing this week as a va­ca­tion.