“I don’t understand you,” returned Ben coldly.

“I mean that, knowing her to be rich, you have done well to get on the blind side of her.”

“I can’t accept the compliment, if you mean it as such.  I don’t think Mrs. Hamilton has any blind side, and the only way in which I intend to commend myself to her favor is to be faithful to her interests.”

“Oh, you’re mighty innocent; but all the same, you know how to feather your own nest.”

“In a good sense, I hope I do.  I don’t suppose anyone else will take the trouble to feather it for me.  I think honesty and fidelity are good policy, don’t you?”

“I don’t pretend to be an angel,” answered Conrad sullenly.

“Nor I,” said Ben, laughing.

Some days later, Conrad came to Ben one day, looking more cordial than usual.

“Ben,” he said, “I have a favor to ask of you.”

“What is it?”

“Will you grant it?”

“I want to know first what it is.”

“Lend me five dollars?”

Ben stared at Conrad in surprise.  He had just that amount, after sending home money to his mother, but he intended that afternoon to deposit three dollars of it in the savings bank, feeling that he ought to be laying up money while he was so favorably situated.

“How do you happen to be short of money?” he asked.

“That doesn’t need telling.  I have only four dollars a week pocket money, and I am pinched all the time.”

“Then, supposing I lent you the money, how could you manage to pay me back out of this small allowance?”

“Oh, I expect to get some money in another way, but I cannot unless you lend me the money.”

“Would you mind telling me how?”

“Why, the fact is, a fellow I know—­that is, I have heard of him—­has just drawn a prize of a thousand dollars in a Havana lottery.  All he paid for his ticket was five dollars.”

“And is this the way you expect to make some money?”

“Yes; I am almost sure of winning.”

“Suppose you don’t?”

“Oh, what’s the use of looking at the dark side?”

“You are not so sensible as I thought, Conrad,” said Ben.  “At least a hundred draw a blank to one who draws a small prize, and the chances are a hundred to one against you.”

“Then you won’t lend me the money?” said Conrad angrily.

“I would rather not.”

“Then you’re a mean fellow!”

“Thank you for your good opinion, but I won’t change my determination.”

“You get ten dollars a week?”

“I shall not spend two dollars a week on my own amusement, or for my own purposes.”

“What are you going to do with the rest, then?”

“Part I shall send to my mother; part I mean to put in some savings bank.”

“You mean to be a miser, then?”

“If to save money makes one a miser, then I shall be one.”