The Store Boy

CHAPTER XXXVIII CONCLUSION

On the evening of the nine­teenth of De­cem­ber, Ben stood on the pi­az­za of the vil­lage ho­tel when the stage re­turned from the de­pot. He ex­am­ined anx­ious­ly the pas­sen­gers who got out. His eyes light­ed up joy­ful­ly as he rec­og­nized in one the man he was look­ing for.

“Mr. Dins­more,” he said, com­ing for­ward hasti­ly.

“You see I have kept my word,” said Har­vey Dins­more, with a smile.

“I feared you would not come.”

“I wished to see the dis­com­fi­ture of our friend Squire Dav­en­port. So to-​mor­row is the day?”

“Yes.”

“I should like to be on hand when the squire calls.”

“That will be at twelve o'clock. My moth­er has re­ceived a note from him fix­ing that hour.”

“Then I will come over at half-​past eleven if you will al­low me.”

“Come; we will ex­pect you.”

“And how have you fared since I saw you, my young friend?”

“I have been won­der­ful­ly for­tu­nate, but I have kept my good for­tune a se­cret from all, even my moth­er. It will come out to-​mor­row.”

“Your moth­er can feel quite at ease about the mort­gage.”

“Yes, even if you had not come I am able to pay it.”

“Whew! then you have in­deed been for­tu­nate for a boy. I sup­pose you bor­rowed the mon­ey?”

“No; I earned it.”

“Ev­ident­ly you were born to suc­ceed. Will you take sup­per with me?”

“Thank you. Moth­er will ex­pect me at home.”

At half-​past eleven the next forenoon the stranger called at door of Mrs. Bar­clay. He was ad­mit­ted by Ben.

“Moth­er,” said Ben, “this is Mr. Har­vey Dins­more.”

“I be­lieve we have met be­fore,” said Dins­more, smil­ing. “I fear my first vis­it was not wel­come. To-​day I come in more re­spectable guise and as a friend.”

“You are wel­come, sir,” said the wid­ow cour­te­ous­ly. “I am glad to see you. I should hard­ly have known you.”

“I take that as a com­pli­ment. I am a tramp no longer, but a re­spectable and, I may add, well-​to-​do cit­izen. Now I have a fa­vor to ask.”

“Name it, sir.”

“Place me, if con­ve­nient, where I can hear the in­ter­view be­tween Mr. Dav­en­port and your­self with­out my­self be­ing seen.”

Ben con­duct­ed Dins­more in­to the kitchen open­ing out of the sit­ting room, and gave him a chair.

At five minute to twelve there was a knock at the out­er door, and Ben ad­mit­ted Squire Dav­en­port.

“So you are home again, Ben­jamin,” said the squire. “Had enough of the city?”

“I am tak­ing a va­ca­tion. I thought moth­er would need me to-​day.”

“She will--to help her move.”

“Step in, sir.”

Squire Dav­en­port, with the air of a mas­ter, fol­lowed Ben in­to the sit­ting room. Mrs. Bar­clay sat qui­et­ly at the ta­ble with her sewing in hand.

“Good-​day, wid­ow,” said the squire pa­tron­iz­ing­ly.

He was rather sur­prised at her qui­et, un­ruf­fled, de­meanor. He ex­pect­ed to find her tear­ful and sad.

“Good-​day, Squire Dav­en­port,” she said qui­et­ly. “Is your fam­ily well?”

“Zounds! she takes it cool­ly,” thought the squire.

“Very well,” he said dry­ly. “I sup­pose you know my busi­ness?”

“You come about the mort­gage?”

“Yes; have you de­cid­ed where to move?”

“My moth­er does not pro­pose to move,” said Ben calm­ly.

“Oho! that's your opin­ion, is it? I ap­pre­hend it is not for you to say.”

“That's where we dif­fer. We in­tend to stay.”

“With­out con­sult­ing me, eh?”

“Yes, sir.”

“You are im­pu­dent, boy!” said the squire, wax­ing wrath­ful. “I shall give you just three days to find an­oth­er home, though I could force you to leave at once.”

“This house be­longs to my moth­er.”

“You are mis­tak­en. It be­longs to me.”

“When did you buy it?”

“You are talk­ing fool­ish­ly. I hold a mort­gage for sev­en hun­dred dol­lars on the prop­er­ty, and you can't pay it. I am will­ing to can­cel the mort­gage and pay your moth­er three hun­dred dol­lars cash for the place.”

“It is worth a good deal more.”

“Who will pay more?” de­mand­ed the quire, throw­ing him­self back in his chair.

“I will,” an­swered Ben.

“Ho, ho! that's a good joke,” said the squire. “Why, you are not worth five dol­lars in the world.”

“It doesn't mat­ter whether I am or not. My moth­er won't sell.”

“Then pay the mort­gage,” said the squire an­gri­ly.

“I am pre­pared to do so. Have you a re­lease with you?”

Squire Dav­en­port stared at Ben in amaze­ment.

“Enough of this fol­ly!” he said stern­ly. I am not in the hu­mor for jokes."

“Squire Dav­en­port, I am not jok­ing. I have here mon­ey enough to pay the mort­gage,” and Ben drew from his pock­et a thick roll of bills.

“Where did you get that mon­ey?” asked Squire Dav­en­port, in ev­ident dis­com­fi­ture.

“I don't think it nec­es­sary to an­swer that ques­tion; but there is an­oth­er mat­ter I wish to speak to you about. When will you be ready to pay the sum you owe my fa­ther's es­tate?”

Squire Dav­en­port start­ed vi­olent­ly.

“What do you mean?” he de­mand­ed hoarse­ly.

Har­vey Dins­more en­tered the room from the kitchen at that point.

“I will an­swer that ques­tion,” he said. “Ben refers to a note for a thou­sand dol­lars signed by you, which was found on his fa­ther's per­son at the time of his death.”

“No such note is in ex­is­tence,” said the squire tri­umphant­ly. He re­mem­bered that he had burned it.

“You are mis­tak­en. That note you burned was on­ly a copy! I have the orig­inal with me.”

“You treach­er­ous ras­cal!” ex­claimed the squire, in great ex­cite­ment.

“When I have deal­ings with a knave I am not very scrupu­lous,” said Dins­more cool­ly.

“I won't pay the note you have trumped up. This is a con­spir­acy.”

“Then,” said Ben, “the note will be placed in the hands of a lawyer.”

“This is a con­spir­acy to pre­vent my fore­clos­ing the mort­gage. But it won't work,” said the squire an­gri­ly.

“There you are mis­tak­en. I will pay the mort­gage now in the pres­ence of Mr. Dins­more, and let the oth­er mat­ter be set­tled here­after. Please pre­pare the nec­es­sary pa­pers.”

Sud­den­ly the squire did as re­quest­ed. The mon­ey was paid over, and Ben, turn­ing to his moth­er, said:

“Moth­er, the house is ours once more with­out in­cum­brance.”

“Thank God!” ejac­ulat­ed the wid­ow.

“Mr. Dins­more,” said Squire Dav­en­port, when the busi­ness was con­clud­ed, “may I have a pri­vate word with you? Please ac­com­pa­ny me to my house.”

“As you please, sir.”

When they emerged in­to the street Squire Dav­en­port said:

“Of course this is all a hum­bug. You can't have the orig­inal with you?”

“But I have, sir. You should have looked more close­ly at the one you burned.”

“Can't we com­pro­mise this mat­ter?” asked the squire, in an in­sin­uat­ing tone.

“No sir,” said Dins­more with em­pha­sis. “I have got through with ras­cal­ity. You can't tempt me. If I were as hard up as when I called up­on you be­fore, I might not be able to re­sist you; but I am worth over ten thou­sand dol­lars, and--”

“Have you bro­ken in­to a bank?” asked Squire Dav­en­port, with a sneer.

“I have come in­to a lega­cy. To cut mat­ters short, it will be for your in­ter­est to pay this claim, and not al­low the sto­ry to be made known. It would dam­age your rep­uta­tion.”

In the end this was what the squire was forced very un­will­ing­ly to do. The amount he had to pay to the es­tate of the man whose fam­ily he had sought to de­fraud was near­ly fif­teen hun­dred dol­lars. This, added to Ben's four thou­sand, made the fam­ily very com­fort­able. Mr. Kirk was com­pelled to look else­where for a house. No one was more cha­grined at the un­ex­pect­ed is­sue of the af­fair than Tom Dav­en­port, whose mean and jeal­ous dis­po­si­tion made more in­tense his ha­tred of Ben.

* * * * * * * * *

Sev­er­al years have elapsed. Ben is in the of­fice of a re­al es­tate lawyer in New York, as ju­nior part­ner. All Mrs. Hamil­ton's busi­ness is in his hands, and it is gen­er­al­ly thought that he will re­ceive a hand­some lega­cy from her even­tu­al­ly. Mrs. Bar­clay prefers to live in Pen­tonville, but Ben of­ten vis­its her. When­ev­er he goes to Pen­tonville he nev­er fails to call on Rose Gar­diner, now a beau­ti­ful young la­dy of mar­riage­able age. She has lost none of her par­tial­ity for Ben, and it is gen­er­al­ly un­der­stood that they are en­gaged. I have rea­son to think that the ru­mor is cor­rect and that Rose will change her name to Bar­clay with­in a year. Noth­ing could be more agree­able to Mrs. Bar­clay, who has long looked up­on Rose as a daugh­ter.

Tom Dav­en­port is now in the city, but his course is far from cred­itable. His fa­ther has more than once been com­pelled to pay his debts, and has an­gri­ly re­fused to do so again. In fact, he has lost a large part of his once hand­some for­tune, and bids fair to close his life in penury. Suc­cess has come to Ben be­cause he de­served it, and well-​mer­it­ed ret­ri­bu­tion to Tom Dav­en­port. Har­vey Dins­more, once giv­en over to evil cours­es, has re­deemed him­self, and is a rep­utable busi­ness man in New York. Mrs. Hamil­ton still lives, hap­py in the suc­cess of her pro­tege. Con­rad and his moth­er have tried more than once to re­gain their po­si­tions in her house­hold, but in vain. None of my young read­ers will pity them. They are ful­ly re­ward­ed for their treach­ery.

Tran­scriber's com­ments: Ty­po­graph­ical er­rors have been left as in the orig­inal book. Specif­ical­ly, meaness, com­panoin's, house­keper

Re­peat­ed or in­cor­rect words have been left as in the orig­inal book. For ex­am­ple how do do, turn to looked, worth fourth thou­sand

In a cou­ble of places, the orig­inal ma­te­ri­al is il­leg­ible. This is marked in the text.

Oc­cas­sion­al miss­ing quote marks have been fixed.

Ac­cent­ed char­ac­ters have been re­placed with plain ones in mati­nee and pro­tege.

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