possibly have to say about the little junior
clerk? and yet they were sure he was the subject of their conversation.

Mrs. Gregory looked more anxious than curious. Mr. Murray was a very old
friend of the Rivers' family, and though absence from England for
several years caused him to be quite ignorant of the calamities that had
overtaken the master of Riversdale, the death of his brother Frank, and
the loss of his fortune, he was still deeply interested in the family,
and heard with regret of the almost friendless condition of Mr. Rivers'
sons.

"I wish you had told me all this sooner," he said at length. "We might
have done something better for that fine lad."

"He will do very well," Mr. Gregory replied, a little coldly. "You
should be the last person in the world to object to business."

"I don't object, only the boy is too young--a mere child. Why did not
you send him to school with your boys, for a few years at least?"

"I do not think that would be any true kindness. It would only make him
dissatisfied with his future position, perhaps. Bertie is doing very
well."

Mr. Murray said no more, but all the remainder of the afternoon he
thought a great deal of his old friend Mr. Rivers and his boys, and the
more he reflected the less pleased he felt at Mr. Gregory's treatment of
Bertie, and the undisguised contempt Dick and Harry expressed for their
cousin. He resolved to call the very next morning on Mr. Clair, and have
a talk with him about the lads, for Mr. Murray had a very strong reason
for being interested in their future. It was he who had persuaded their
father to invest money in the speculation that ended so disastrously,
but he had no idea that Mr. Rivers became such an extensive shareholder;
he forgot that a simple country gentleman, without either knowledge or
experience, could not be as prudent and far-seeing as a man all his life
acquainted with business. Mr. Murray had been a loser in the mines
himself, but to a comparatively slight extent, and as he was an
exceedingly rich man, he only regarded the matter as one of the casual
losses incurred in business. But his old friend's losses troubled him
deeply, and he resolved to do everything in his power to repair the
effects of his well-meant, but unfortunate, advice.

Mr. Murray was an old bachelor, very rich, and some people said very
eccentric, though, in truth, his eccentricity was only indiscriminate
generosity. He was very fond of children, boys e