"_Your_ banker!" sneered Edgar. "How long has he been your banker, I should like to know."
"Only since this morning. I have just deposited some money with him."
"Indeed! How much?"
"A thousand dollars."
"You are too funny altogether. If you are ever worth a thousand cents you will be lucky."
"Do you think so?" returned Mark, smiling. "I shouldn"t be satisfied with so small a fortune as that."
"My father tells me you and your mother have made him a very poor return for a kind offer he made you yesterday."
"That"s a matter of business, Edgar. We didn"t look upon it in the same way. But I am afraid I must tear myself away from your company. I shall be expected at the office."
"Go by all means. It wouldn"t do for you to be bounced. You might starve if you lost your place."
"I am not very much afraid of that."
"At any rate I ought not to be talking with you. Father does not care to have me a.s.sociate with you."
"I hope he won"t disinherit you. That would be serious for you. If he does, come round to our house, and we will take care of you."
"You are too awfully funny. I think it would be better for you if you were not quite so fresh."
Mark laughed and went on his way.
"Wouldn"t Edgar be surprised," he thought, "if he knew how large a sum I had on deposit with Mr. Rockwell? He thought I was joking when I was only telling the truth."
When Mark went home to his supper he said: "Mother, I want you to buy a new dress for yourself and one for Edith."
"There are a good many things we would like, Mark, but you must remember that we are not rich."
"Perhaps not, but I think you can afford new dresses. How much would they cost?"
"The material will cost from ten to twenty dollars. I could make them up myself."
"All right, mother. Here are twenty dollars."
"But, Mark, can you spare that amount? Our rent comes due next week."
"It is the last rent we shall pay here. We will move to better quarters."
"Really, Mark, I am afraid you are forgetting your prudence."
"That is because you don"t know how rich I am, mother. I have a thousand dollars on deposit with my banker, or rather nine hundred and fifty, for I drew fifty dollars this morning."
Mrs. Mason surveyed her son with alarm. A terrible suspicion entered her mind. Was he becoming mentally unbalanced? Mark understood her thoughts and was amused.
"Don"t think I am crazy, mother," he said. "The fact is, Mr. Rockwell made me a present of a thousand dollars this morning."
"Is this really true? You are not joking?"
"I was never more serious in my life. He told me that I had saved his life, and he didn"t think he was overpaying me in giving me a thousand dollars."
"He was right, but I was afraid few men would have been so generous. So I really have a rich son."
"And I shall have a rich mother when she gets her share of her father"s estate."
"Oh, by the way, there is a letter for you. Edith, get Mark"s letter."
"I guess it"s from a girl, Mark," said his sister, as she handed the messenger boy a dainty epistle in a square envelope.
Mark opened it and read it aloud.
Miss Maud Gilbert asks the favor of Mr. Mark Mason"s company at her residence on the evening of Thursday, Sept. 23d.
"An invitation to a party," said Mark flashing with pleasure.
"Where, Mark?"
"At the house of Miss Maud Gilbert."
"Shall you go?"
"Yes, I can go now, for I shall have a nice suit."
"You are getting to be fashionable, Mark. Who knows but you will be counted among the Four Hundred some time?"
CHAPTER XXIV.
THE TWO SISTERS MEET.
SOLON TALBOT had two strong desires. One was to acquire wealth. The other was to get into good society.
He had moved to the city of New York with the idea of helping himself in both these particulars. He took a house on an up-town street at a considerable rental. It was really beyond his means, but he felt that he must make a good appearance.
He sent Edgar to a fashionable school where he instructed him to be especially attentive to his wealthier schoolfellows. Though Edgar made himself disagreeable to his poor relations, he flattered and fawned upon the boys who he thought could help him socially, for he, like his father, was ambitious to "get into society."
Thus he contrived to get invited to the party given by Maud Gilbert.
When he had compa.s.sed this he was greatly elated.
"Father," he said on his return home, "I am invited to Miss Gilbert"s party next Thursday evening."