“No; I will provide for you.  I will allow you fifty dollars a month and Conrad half as much, and you can board where you please.”

“While that boy usurps our place?” said Mrs. Hill bitterly.

“That is a matter to be decided between Ben and myself.”

“We will go at once,” said the housekeeper.

“I don’t require it.  You can stay here until you have secured a satisfactory boarding place.”

But Conrad and his mother left the house the next morning.  They saw that Mrs. Hamilton was no longer to be deceived, and they could gain nothing by staying.  There was an angry scene between the mother and son.

“Were you mad, Conrad,” said his mother, “to steal, where you were sure to be found out?  It is your folly that has turned Cousin Hamilton against us?”

“No; it is that boy.  I’d like to wring his neck!”

“I hope he will come to some bad end,” said Mrs. Hill malignantly.  “If he had not come to the house none of this would have happened.”

Meanwhile Ben and his patroness had a satisfactory conversation.

“I hope you are satisfied with my management, Mrs. Hamilton?” said our hero.

“You have done wonderfully, Ben.  Through you I am the richer by thirty-five thousand dollars at the very least, for the farm would have been dear at five thousand, whereas it was sold for forty thousand.”

“I am very glad you are satisfied.”

“You shall have reason to be glad.  I intend to pay you a commission for selling the place.”

“Thank you,” said Ben joyfully.

He thought it possible Mrs. Hamilton might give him fifty dollars, and this would have been very welcome.

“Under the circumstances, I shall allow you an extra commission—­say 10 per cent.  How much will 10 per cent. amount to on forty thousand dollars?”

“Four thousand,” answered Ben mechanically.

“Consider yourself worth fourth thousand dollars, then.”

“But this is too much, Mrs. Hamilton,” said Ben, scarcely crediting his good fortune.

“Then give half of it to your mother,” said Mrs. Hamilton, smiling.

“Now we can pay off the mortgage!” exclaimed Ben, joyfully.

“What mortgage?”

Ben told the story, and it aroused the lively sympathy of his patroness.

“As soon as the purchase money is paid,” she said, “you shall have you commission, and sooner if it is needed.”

CHAPTER XXXVI A LETTER FROM ROSE GARDINER

Ben resumed his place as the secretary and confidential clerk of Mrs. Hamilton.  He found his position more agreeable when Mrs. Hill and Conrad were fairly out of the house.  In place of the first a pleasant-faced German woman was engaged, and there were no more sour looks and sneering words.

Of course Ben kept up a weekly correspondence with his mother.  He did not tell her the extent of his good fortune—­he wished that to be a surprise, when the time came.  From his mother, too, he received weekly letters, telling him not unfrequently how she missed him, though she was glad he was doing so well.