CHAPTER XXXVI. AT THE FIFTH AVENUE HOTEL.

 On arriving in New York Mark took his young charge at once to the house of Mr. Gilbert.

 

It was at the close of the day, and Mr. Gilbert had returned from his office. He received Mark with great cordiality.

 

"True and faithful, as I expected!" he said. "How did you enjoy your trip?"

 

"Very much, sir. I hope, some day, to visit California again."

 

"So you are Philip Lillis, my boy," continued Mr. Gilbert kindly¹. "Do you think you shall like to live in New York?"

 

"Yes, sir."

 

"Were you sorry to leave California?"

 

"No, sir; Mr. Sprague and Oscar did not treat me well. I would rather live with you."

 

"Your father was a cousin and dear friend. I will try to make his boy comfortable and happy. Mark, will you stay to supper?"

 

"I should like to very much, but I have not yet seen my mother."

 

"That is sufficient excuse. Your first duty is to her. Wait a moment. I must express my acknowledgments to you in a substantial manner."

 

Mr. Gilbert sat down at his desk and wrote a check, which he inclosed in an envelope.

 

"Open it when you get home," he said.

 

"I have a balance of about forty dollars belonging to you, Mr. Gilbert, from my expense money."

 

"Keep it. I am sure it will be more useful to you than to me."

 

"How kind you are, Mr. Gilbert!"

 

"I hope to continue so. Take a few days for rest, and then come round to my counting-room and we will talk of your future prospects²."

 

Mrs. Mason gave Mark a glad welcome.

 

"I am so glad to see you," she said.

 

"I hope you did not want for money while I was gone."

 

"No; I still have half the money you gave me from Mr. Gilbert when you went away. Shall I give it back to you?"

 

"No, mother; keep it for current expenses. Mr. Gilbert gave me a check just now, but I don't know how much it is."

 

He opened the envelope and took out the check.

 

"It is for two hundred dollars!" he exclaimed. "Mother, we are growing rich. With the balance in my hands, which Mr. Gilbert told me to keep, I have two hundred and forty dollars."

 

"We have much to be thankful for, Mark. Compare our present state with three months since. Shall you go back to the telegraph office?"

 

"No; Mr. Gilbert will probably give me a place in his counting-room, but I shall wait a few days first. Is there any news?"

 

"Your uncle has been to see me again. He offered me five hundred dollars if I would sign a release to him as executor."

 

"You didn't do it?"

 

"No."

 

"I am glad. Mother, Uncle Solon is trying to swindle us out of a large sum. I heard about the Golden Hope mine when I was away. The shares are booming, and I shall to-morrow call on my friend the lawyer and request him to communicate with Mr. Talbot."

 

"I leave the matter in your hands, Mark. Though you are so young, you seem to have a judgment³ beyond your years."

 

"Thank you for the compliment, mother. I am afraid Uncle Solon would not agree with you. That reminds me. I have an engagement with Edgar to-morrow evening."

 

"Indeed! I thought you and Edgar were not friendly."

 

"He has got into a scrape, and I have promised to help him out."

 

"Is it anything serious?"

 

"He owes an adventurer seventy-five dollars, and the latter is trying to frighten him into paying it. I know the man to be a swindler, and shall be able to foil him in his plans."

 

"If you can be of service to Edgar I hope you will. He has not treated you well, but he is your cousin."

 

The next evening Edgar Talbot walked into the Fifth Avenue Hotel. He felt nervous, for he did not understand how Mark could help him. It seemed strange to him that he should be indebted to his poor and almost despised cousin for help in his time of trouble.

 

A minute after Mark entered looking cheerful and happy.

 

"Good evening, Edgar," he said. "Has our friend Schuyler appeared?"

 

"Not yet."

 

"I don't want him to see me at first. I will go into the reading room, and when you get ready invite him in there. First, draw him out and see what he proposes to do."

 

Mark's confident manner somewhat allayed⁴ Edgar's alarm. He was proud and arrogant⁵, but he had little courage.

 

He sat down on the sofa at the left hand side of the entrance and in about five minutes Hamilton Schuyler swaggered in. He was carefully dressed and had a rose in his buttonhole.

 

"I am going to the opera this evening with a fashionable party," he said, "and I shall have to hurry up my business with you."

 

"I am here on time," said Edgar.

 

"I see. Well, I suppose you have brought the money with you."

 

"You mean the seventy-five dollars?"

 

"Of course I do."

 

"No, Mr. Schuyler, I have not brought the money."

 

"And why not, I should like to know?" demanded Schuyler with a dark frown.

 

"Because I have no means of getting it."

 

"That isn't my lookout⁶. It is yours. That money I must and will have."

 

Edgar had been told by Mark what to say, and he replied, "Then, I think, Mr. Schuyler, you will have to sue me."

 

"Nonsense! I shall adopt quite a different course."

 

"What is that?"

 

"I will lay the matter before your father."

 

Edgar winced⁷, but he was prepared with a reply.

 

"I don't think it will do you any good. Father won't pay such a bill as that."

 

"At any rate it will get you into trouble with him."

 

"Yes it might," said Edgar nervously⁸.

 

Schuyler saw his advantage. He must play upon the fears of his young dupe.

 

"Come, Edgar," he said, "suppose we talk over this matter sensibly. You are indebted to me in the sum of seventy-five dollars."

 

"I never got any value for it."

 

"It is the result of several fair and honest bets which you lost. As a boy of honor, you must pay me."

 

"I have told you that I don't know where to get the money."

 

"And I suggested a plan."

 

"You suggested that I should appropriate some of the money I was given by my employer to deposit in the Park Bank."

 

"Hush⁹!" said Schuyler apprehensively¹⁰. "Don't blurt¹¹ out secrets."

 

"Well, you hinted at some such thing."

 

"I don't care how you get the money. If you know what is best for yourself, you'll get it somehow and somewhere."

 

"I thought you were wealthy, Mr. Schuyler. I didn't think you would press me like this."

 

"I am wealthy, but as I told you I have met with some losses recently, or I would have given you more time on this debt."

 

"Suppose I can't pay you?"

 

"Then you will have to take the consequences."

 

"That means that you will go to my father?"

 

"Not alone that. I will let it be known everywhere that you have refused to pay a debt of honor and that will exclude you from the society of gentlemen."

 

Edgar was unprepared to go further, and he thought it time to obtain Mark's assistance.

 

"Let us go into the reading room," he said. "Perhaps we can settle the matter there."

 

"All right! I want to be easy with you, and I will agree to take off ten dollars if you will pay me the balance."

 

"I will see what I can do."

 

Edgar led the way into the reading room at the rear of the office. He saw Mark sitting on a chair at the opposite side of the room, and he led Schuyler up to it.

 

Schuyler was short-sighted, and did not make out Mark till Edgar said: "Mr. Schuyler, let me introduce you to my cousin, Mark Mason!"

 

"The telegraph boy!" ejaculated Schuyler, his face changing.

 

"I see you know me, Mr. Schuyler," said Mark. "My cousin tells me you want him to pay you seventy-five dollars."

 

"I don't know what you have to do with the matter," said Schuyler stiffly.

 

"Then I will tell you. You have imposed yourself upon Edgar as a respectable man of good social position while I know you to be an adventurer and a swindler."

 

"Do you mean to insult me?" demanded Schuyler looking around the room nervously.

 

"I mean to protect my cousin. Give him the memorandums you have, or tear them up and cease to persecute¹² him, or I will call in a policeman."

 

Hamilton Schuyler looked furious, but he knew Mark and his resolute¹³ spirit, and felt afraid he would do as he threatened.

 

"You cub¹⁴!" he hissed¹⁵. "You are always interfering¹⁶ with me."

 

He turned upon his heel and left the reading room.

 

"He won't trouble you any more, Edgar," said Mark.

 

"How can I thank you, Mark?" said Edgar gratefully. "You have got me out of a bad scrape. That fellow has drained me of every cent. I had to borrow five dollars of a clerk in the office to satisfy him, and if I pay it I shall have nothing to spend for a week."

 

"Then let me be your banker, Edgar," said Mark as he drew a five-dollar note from his pocket and offered it to his cousin.

 

"Can you spare this, Mark?" asked Edgar in surprise and relief.

 

"Yes."

 

"I don't know when I can repay you."

 

"Take your own time. Pay a dollar a week if you like."

 

"Won't you call round at the house?" asked Edgar.

 

"Thank you, not this evening. I hope the time will come when we can meet each other often."

 

"Mark is a good fellow," thought Edgar as he walked up Fifth Avenue. "I thought he was poor, but he seems to be better off than I am."

1 kindly   

adj.和蔼的，温和的，爽快的；adv.温和地，亲切地

参考例句：

• Her neighbours spoke of her as kindly and hospitable.她的邻居都说她和蔼可亲、热情好客。
• A shadow passed over the kindly face of the old woman.一道阴影掠过老太太慈祥的面孔。

2 prospects   

n.希望，前途(恒为复数)

参考例句：

• There is a mood of pessimism in the company about future job prospects. 公司中有一种对工作前景悲观的情绪。
• They are less sanguine about the company's long-term prospects. 他们对公司的远景不那么乐观。

3 judgment   

n.审判；判断力，识别力，看法，意见

参考例句：

• The chairman flatters himself on his judgment of people.主席自认为他审视人比别人高明。
• He's a man of excellent judgment.他眼力过人。

4 allayed   

v.减轻，缓和( allay的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• His fever is allayed, but his appetite is still flatted. 他发烧减轻了，但食欲仍然不振。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》
• His fever was allayed by the medicine. 这药剂使他退烧了。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

5 arrogant   

adj.傲慢的，自大的

参考例句：

• You've got to get rid of your arrogant ways.你这骄傲劲儿得好好改改。
• People are waking up that he is arrogant.人们开始认识到他很傲慢。

6 lookout   

n.注意，前途，瞭望台

参考例句：

• You can see everything around from the lookout.从了望台上你可以看清周围的一切。
• It's a bad lookout for the company if interest rates don't come down.如果利率降不下来，公司的前景可就不妙了。

7 winced   

赶紧避开，畏缩( wince的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He winced as the dog nipped his ankle. 狗咬了他的脚腕子，疼得他龇牙咧嘴。
• He winced as a sharp pain shot through his left leg. 他左腿一阵剧痛疼得他直龇牙咧嘴。

8 nervously   

adv.神情激动地，不安地

参考例句：

• He bit his lip nervously,trying not to cry.他紧张地咬着唇，努力忍着不哭出来。
• He paced nervously up and down on the platform.他在站台上情绪不安地走来走去。

9 hush   

int.嘘，别出声；n.沉默，静寂；v.使安静

参考例句：

• A hush fell over the onlookers.旁观者们突然静了下来。
• Do hush up the scandal!不要把这丑事声张出去！

10 apprehensively   

adv.担心地

参考例句：

• He glanced a trifle apprehensively towards the crowded ballroom. 他敏捷地朝挤满了人的舞厅瞟了一眼。 来自辞典例句
• Then it passed, leaving everything in a state of suspense, even the willow branches waiting apprehensively. 一阵这样的风过去，一切都不知怎好似的，连柳树都惊疑不定的等着点什么。 来自汉英文学 - 骆驼祥子

11 blurt   

vt.突然说出，脱口说出

参考例句：

• If you can blurt out 300 sentences,you can make a living in America.如果你能脱口而出300句英语，你可以在美国工作。
• I will blurt out one passage every week.我每星期要脱口而出一篇短文！

12 persecute   

vt.迫害，虐待；纠缠，骚扰

参考例句：

• They persecute those who do not conform to their ideas.他们迫害那些不信奉他们思想的人。
• Hitler's undisguised effort to persecute the Jews met with worldwide condemnation.希特勒对犹太人的露骨迫害行为遭到世界人民的谴责。

13 resolute   

adj.坚决的，果敢的

参考例句：

• He was resolute in carrying out his plan.他坚决地实行他的计划。
• The Egyptians offered resolute resistance to the aggressors.埃及人对侵略者作出坚决的反抗。

14 cub   

n.幼兽，年轻无经验的人

参考例句：

• The lion cub's mother was hunting for what she needs. 这只幼师的母亲正在捕猎。
• The cub licked the milk from its mother's breast. 这头幼兽吸吮着它妈妈的奶水。

15 hissed   

发嘶嘶声( hiss的过去式和过去分词 )； 发嘘声表示反对

参考例句：

• Have you ever been hissed at in the middle of a speech? 你在演讲中有没有被嘘过？
• The iron hissed as it pressed the wet cloth. 熨斗压在湿布上时发出了嘶嘶声。

16 interfering   

adj. 妨碍的 动词interfere的现在分词

参考例句：

• He's an interfering old busybody! 他老爱管闲事！
• I wish my mother would stop interfering and let me make my own decisions. 我希望我母亲不再干预，让我自己拿主意。