The physician had only repeated his advice that Emily must have a change
of climate. Her father had already decided to accompany her to the North
himself. Clarence declared that Flora must not stay in the city during
the sickly season. He had been married a month before, and if we had
remained in Torrentville, the letter he wrote to us just before the
happy event would doubtless have reached us. It had been his plan to
start for New York early in August, and to return to New Orleans by the
way of the West in October, taking Flora and me with him. Our unexpected
arrival changed his purpose. In the course of a week it was arranged
that we should go to Torrentville at once, and Mr. Goodridge and his
daughter were to accompany us.

Flora and I remained at the house of the merchant during our stay in the
city, though we frequently saw my brother's wife. She soon became much
attached to Flora; the gentle invalid was so patient and loving that she
could not help it. If there had been no cloud hanging over me, I should
have been very happy in the bright prospect before me; but I hoped, when
we arrived at Torrentville, that Squire Fishley would find a way to
extricate me from my dilemma.

"Buck," said Clarence to me, on the day before we started, "you begin
life under brighter auspices than I did. Mr. Goodridge has just paid
over to me the sum of ten thousand dollars, to be invested for you, and
to be paid over to you when you are of age."

"Ten thousand dollars!" I exclaimed, amazed at the magnitude of the sum.

"And the same sum for Flora. Well, twenty thousand dollars is not much
for him. He is a very rich man, and Emily is his pet. He has three sons;
but all of them are bad boys, and all his hope in this world rests in
his daughter. You are a lucky fellow, Buck."

"I didn't think of anything of this kind," I added, filled with wonder
at my good fortune.

"I don't say you didn't deserve it; for, according to all accounts, you
behaved well, and the girl would certainly have been drowned if you had
not saved her. I am proud of you, Buck; but I wish you were well out of
this Torrentville scrape."

That worried him; and, indeed, it worried me, after I had heard so much
said about it. If I had understood the matter as well in the time of it
as I did afterwards, doubtless I should not have trusted to flight for
safety, but faced my accusers. My sudden departure could not have failed
to confirm the suspicions of Captain Fi