He is not only my nephew, but my ward. I have a moderate sum
of money in my charge which belongs to him--enough, if he were a
young man of correct habits, to buy him an interest in a respectable
business. That use I had proposed to make of it when he reached
twenty-one, or rather, to recommend to him, but for his yielding to
temptation in more than one form, and, finally, running away from my
protection."
"Where is he now, sir?"
"In California. Three months since he disappeared, and it was some
weeks before I learned where he had gone. As I do not intend to
conceal anything from you, I must tell you that he carried with him
five hundred dollars purloined from my desk. This grieved me most of
all. I wrote out to a mercantile friend in San Francisco, who knows
the boy by sight, to hunt him up, and see if he could do anything
for him. He writes me--this is the letter I hold in my hand--that he
has seen Gregory, and expostulated with him, but apparently without
effect. The boy has pretty much run through his money, and will soon
be in need.
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