never will. How I hate the fellow!"
With this, Mr. Owen composed a letter to Mrs. Bonnifay, in which his
regrets at the miscarriage of their plans were skilfully interwoven
with insinuations that possibly Peveril had found America to hold even
greater attractions than Norway. He also promised to keep them
informed concerning the latest New York news.
This promise he redeemed two weeks later by forwarding whatever of
gossip he could gather regarding Peveril. It included the information
that the latter had not only lost his fortune, but had sought so
unsuccessfully for employment in the city that he had finally been
obliged to leave it, and no one knew whither he had gone. Having
accomplished this piece of work, Mr. Owen also departed from New York,
and turned his face westward.
In the mean time, Peveril, happily unconscious of these several
epistles, was finding his own path beset by trials such as he had
never encountered on any previous journey, for they were those caused
by a scarcity of funds with which to meet his every-day expenses.
His determination to economize failed because of his ignorance of the
first principles of economy. Besides that, his appearance, his manner,
his dress, and his personal belongings were all so many protests
against economy. Thus, when he inquired concerning a hotel in Buffalo,
no one thought of naming any save the most expensive, and he drove to
it in a carriage, because he did not know how else to reach it. Then
it happened that the first boat leaving for the Superior country was
the _Northland_, one of the most luxurious and extravagant of lake
craft. To be sure, she was also the swiftest, and would carry him
through without loss of time; but when he left her at the Sault, as he
found he must in order to reach the copper country, his scanty stock
of money was depleted beyond anything he had deemed possible on so
short a trip. From the Sault he travelled by rail, and finally reached
Hancock with but five dollars in his pocket.
Then, failing to find the only person to whom he had a note of
introduction, and also being unable to obtain work, he finally
expended his last dollar for transportation to Red Jacket, where he
knew he must either find employment or starve. And thus was our hero
led to the point at which we first made his acquaintance.
CHAPTER V
THE TREFETHENS
As Peveril walked with his newly made acquaintance through the brisk
mining-town, of whose ver
|