He returned to his humble roof joyous and inspired.As he entered the hall he heard his wife's voice and his own name mentioned,followed by that awkward,meaningless silence on his entrance which so plainly indicated either that he had been the subject of conversation or that it was not for his ears.It was a dismal reminder of his boyhood at Sidon and Tasajara.But he was too full of hope and ambition to heed it to-night,and later,when Mr.
Fletcher had taken his departure,his pent-up enthusiasm burst out before his youthful partner.Had she realized that their struggles were over now,that their future was secure?They need no longer fear ever being forced to take bounty from the family;they were independent of them all!He would make a name for himself that should be distinct from his father's as he should make a fortune that would be theirs alone.The young wife smiled."But all that need not prevent you,dear,from claiming your RIGHTS when the time comes.""But if I scorn to make the claim or take a penny of his,Loo?""You say you scorn to take the money you think your father got by a mere trick,--at the best,--and didn't earn.And now you will be able to show you can live without it,and earn your own fortune.
Well,dear,for that very reason why should you let your father and others enjoy and waste what is fairly your share?For it is YOURshare whether it came to your father fairly or not;and if not,it is still your duty,believing as you do,to claim it from him,that at least YOU may do with it what you choose.You might want to restore it--to--to--somebody."The young man laughed."But,my dear Loo!suppose that I were weak enough to claim it,do you think my father would give it up?He has the right,and no law could force him to yield to me more than he chooses.""Not the law,but YOU could."
"I don't understand you,"he said quickly.
"You could force him by simply telling him what you once told me."John Milton drew back,and his hand dropped loosely from his wife's.The color left his fresh young face;the light quivered for a moment and then became fixed and set in his eyes.For that moment he looked ten years her senior."I was wrong ever to tell even you that,Loo,"he said in a low voice."You are wrong to ever remind me of it.Forget it from this moment,as you value our love and want it to live and be remembered.And forget,Loo,as Ido,--and ever shall,--that you ever suggested to me to use my secret in the way you did just now."But here Mrs.Harcourt burst into tears,more touched by the alteration in her husband's manner,I fear,than by any contrition for wrongdoing.Of course if he wished to withdraw his confidences from her,just as he had almost confessed he wished to withdraw his NAME,she couldn't help it,but it was hard that when she sat there all day long trying to think what was best for them,she should be blamed!At which the quiet and forgiving John Milton smiled remorsefully and tried to comfort her.Nevertheless an occasional odd,indefinable chill seemed to creep across the feverish enthusiasm with which he was celebrating this day of fortune.And yet he neither knew nor suspected until long after that his foolish wife had that night half betrayed his secret to the stranger!
The next day he presented a note of introduction from Mr.Fletcher to the business manager of the "Clarion,"and the following morning was duly installed in office.He did not see his benefactor again;that single visit was left in the mystery and isolation of an angelic episode.It later appeared that other and larger interests in the San Jose valley claimed his patron's residence and attendance;only the capital and general purpose of the paper--to develop into a party organ in the interest of his possible senatorial aspirations in due season--was furnished by him.Grateful as John Milton felt towards him,he was relieved;it seemed probable that Mr.Fletcher HAD selected him on his individual merits,and not as the son of a millionaire.
He threw himself into his work with his old hopeful enthusiasm,and perhaps an originality of method that was part of his singular independence.Without the student's training or restraint,--for his two years'schooling at Tasajara during his parents'prosperity came too late to act as a discipline,--he was unfettered by any rules,and guided only by an unerring instinctive taste that became near being genius.He was a brilliant and original,if not always a profound and accurate,reporter.By degrees he became an accustomed interest to the readers of the "Clarion;"then an influence.Actors themselves in many a fierce drama,living lives of devotion,emotion,and picturesque incident,they had satisfied themselves with only the briefest and most practical daily record of their adventure,and even at first were dazed and startled to find that many of them had been heroes and some poets.The stealthy boyish reader of romantic chronicle at Sidon had learned by heart the chivalrous story of the emigration.The second column of the "Clarion"became famous even while the figure of its youthful writer,unknown and unrecognized,was still nightly climbing the sands of Russian Hill,and even looking down as before on the lights of the growing city,without a thought that he had added to that glittering constellation.