"It must not be more," he said, as he
told me the sum, "or they will be taking their passage with it."
"No more?" I asked, when he prepared to conclude this short letter.
"No. Smith reads all her letters."
"That is very hard on you."
"She meant to do well for me, but it was a great mistake. If Smith
comes home to prey upon Eustace, it will be a bad business."
"But he has no claim on Eustace, whatever he may think he has on
you."
"He is more likely to come now. He knows he can get nothing out of
me--" Then, as I looked at the order, he added, "Beyond my mother's
rights. Poor mother!"
I found that the schoolmaster had been induced to marry Alice Alison
in the expectation that her share in the proceeds of Boola Boola
would be much larger than it proved to be. He had fawned on the two
Eustaces, and obtained all he could from the elder, but, going too
far at last, had been detected by the Sydney bank in what amounted to
an embezzlement. Prosecution was waived, and he was assisted to
leave Australia and make a fresh start in New Zealand, whence he had
never ceased to endeavour to gain whatever he could from Boola Boola.
He could twist Eustace round his finger, and Harold, though loathing
and despising him, would do anything for his mother, but was
resolved, for Eustace's sake, to keep them at a distance, as could
only be done by never allowing them a sufficient sum at once to
obtain a passage home, and he knew the habits of Smith and his sons
too well to expect them to save it.
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