...Mr. Belding,
you say Richard works for you. May I ask, at what salary?"
"He gets forty dollars, board and outfit," replied Belding,
proudly.
"Forty dollars?" echoed the father. "By the day or week?"
"The month, of course," said Belding, somewhat taken aback.
"Forty dollars a month for a young man who spent five hundred
in the same time when he was at college, and who ran it into
thousands when he got out!"
Mr. Gale laughed for the first time, and it was the laugh of a man
who wanted to believe what he heard yet scarcely dared to do it.
"What does he do with so much money--money earned by peril, toil,
sweat, and blood? Forty dollars a month!"
"He saves it," replied Belding.
Evidently this was too much for Dick Gale's father, and he gazed
at his wife in sheer speechless astonishment. Dick's sister clapped
her hands like a little child.
Belding saw that the moment was propitious.
"Sure he saves it. Dick's engaged to marry Nell here. My
stepdaughter, Nell Burton."
"Oh-h, Dad!" faltered Nell; and she rose, white as her dress.
How strange it was to see Dick's mother and sister rise, also, and
turn to Nell with dark, proud, searching eyes. Belding vaguely
realized some blunder he had made. Nell's white, appealing face
gave him a pang. What had he done? Surely this family of Dick's
ought to know his relation to Nell. There was a silence that
positively made Belding nervous.
Then Elsie Gale stepped close to Nell.
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