"Then make it ten. It's only for once. I hope that will be the last we
shall hear of him."

The room in which this conversation took place was a handsomely
furnished breakfast room, all the appointments of which spoke not only
of comfort, but of luxury. Mr. Stanton had been made rich by a series of
lucky speculations, and he was at present carrying on a large wholesale
store downtown. He had commenced with small means twenty years before,
and for some years had advanced slowly, until the tide of fortune set in
and made him rich. His present handsome residence he had only occupied
three years, having moved to it from one of much smaller pretensions on
Bleecker Street. Tom and Maria were forbidden to speak of their former
home to their present fashionable acquaintances, and this prohibition
they were likely to observe, having inherited to the full the worldly
spirit which actuated their parents. It will be seen that Herbert Mason
was little likely to be benefited by having such prosperous relations.




CHAPTER II

INTRODUCING THE HERO


If my young readers do not find the town of Waverley on the map of Ohio,
they may conclude that it was too small to attract the notice of the
map-makers. The village is small, consisting of about a dozen houses, a
church, a schoolhouse, and, as a matter of course, one of that well-
known class of stores in which everything required for the family is