“Is it true that you are going to leave Wilton?” he asked.
“I thought you’d have to. You couldn’t get work here.”
“Oh, I see--you’ll set up as a bootblack,” sneered Rupert.
“If I did I would offer you a partnership.”
“Don’t be impudent,” said Rupert, reddening.
“I generally repay compliments in kind, Rupert. As you are so anxious about my prospects, I may say that a Pearl Street merchant has offered me a place.”
“Then you expect to live in New York--as long as you keep your situation?”
This was all that Rupert was able to elicit from Tom.
He faithfully reported it to his father. John Simpson was relieved to hear that Tom was to leave Wilton. Had he known that our hero was going to California his feeling would have been very different. As it was, he concluded that Tom had undertaken the business of traveling-agent for some firm.
“He won’t make his fortune at it,” said he, shrugging his shoulders. “It’s a poor business.”
“I am glad of that,” said Rupert. “I hope he’ll come back in rags.”
“I wish you were going with me, Mr. Darke,” said Tom, as he sat in that gentleman’s room at the Astor House, making his farewell call.
He had made all arrangements, seen his mother and sister installed in the comfortable farm-house of Hiram Bacon, had procured a modest outfit, and was ready to start for the Pacific coast. He felt that it was a great undertaking for a boy of fifteen, and he longed for the championship of some one whom he knew, even but slightly.
“I have had enough of California!” he answered. “There I met with sorrow and losses. It will be long before I care to see it again.”
“In a week from to-day I start for Europe, to be absent for a year.”
“No. I am going on a tour of pleasure. It seems strange to me, who have been a penniless tramp for two years, that I can really afford this journey.”
“You must enjoy it all the better for that,” said Tom.
“I do. By the way, my good fortune still follows me. I have been following up the stock market, and the tide has been with me. I am now worth ten thousand dollars.”
“I have played a hazardous game, and won. Now I have withdrawn for good. This very morning I invested my money in good dividend-paying stocks, and now I can leave America with a mind free from anxiety. By the way, if you need more money, draw on me.”