A Millionaire at Sixteen by Oliver Optic

Mr. Frinks Fobbington was not over twenty-five years old, was well dressed in seemly black, and used the English language as though he was liberally educated. The only inconsistency Louis noticed about him was that his hands were hard, rough, and discolored, as though he used them in some manual labor, to which, however, he did not object.

The hotel at Von Blonk Park was a very respectable establishment, usually filled with boarders engaged in business in New York, distant less than half an hour's ride. Mr. Fobbington appeared to be a guest there, and had taken considerable trouble to make the acquaintance of Louis Belgrave; but he seemed to be a stranger, and there was no one to introduce him.

Professor Seveignien was a boarder at the hotel. Louis had taken lessons of him two years, though he had now discontinued them; but he and his instructor were still warm friends, and his pupil occasionally called upon him. While waiting to see him on the piazza one day, Mr. Fobbington spoke to him. He was very polite, and the young millionaire endeavored to make himself agreeable.

Of course they talked about the weather in due form, as an introduction to more inviting topics. Then the stranger thought the Park was a beautiful place, and as Louis was a native of the delightful resort, as few of its present inhabitants were, he was duly appreciative of the compliment; but by this time the resident of the town could not help seeing that the stranger had some object in view, and he began to wonder what he was driving at.

"I sat within hearing of you last evening, Mr. Belgrave, when you were in conversation with Professor Seveignien," said Mr. Fobbington, apparently coming a little nearer to the subject.

"Are you acquainted with the professor, sir? " asked Louis.

"No, sir; not at all, I regret to say, for he is a very attractive person. " Mr. Fobbington had inquired about him of the clerk.

"But we were speaking in French," added Louis, looking with interest into the face of the stranger.

"Precisely so," replied Mr. Fobbington, with an expressive smile.

"I always talk French with the professor for the sake of practice."

"It requires a great deal of practice to enable one to speak French fluently," said the stranger, using that language. "I was very much surprised to observe how well you spoke it. You handle it better than I do, though I have lived a year in Paris."

Louis suggested that he had lived there long enough to acquire the art of complimenting. Mr. Fobbington had made a long reach into the good-will of Louis by speaking French to him, for the young man was a very enthusiastic student of the language. Still using it the accomplished gentleman from Louis knew not where, though he thought his companion must be an Englishman, for his English was even better than his French, came still nearer the subject he was clearly trying to introduce.

"You were talking with the professor about yachting," continued Mr. Fobbington. "I was exceedingly pleased with your views on that subject, especially as they fully conform to my own."

"I am happy to meet a gentleman whose views agree with mine."

"More than that, Mr. Belgrave, I have had no little experience in carrying out those views," added the stranger, with a gush of enthusiasm.

"Indeed?"

"I am an Englishman, an Oxford graduate as you would say in America, and it was my good or evil fortune to inherit an estate which yields a large income. Of course I have to look about me to find the means to spend this income," Mr. Fobbington proceeded, laughing heartily at the gigantic witticism he had perpetrated, though Louis thought Uncle Moses had exhausted that fountain. "Well, I had some trouble about it, for I am not a fast man. In fact, I never had any wild oats to sow."

"You are fortunate," added the embryo yachtsman.

"I don't even drink wine or beer; and which way should a poor fellow with ten thousand pounds a year turn to get rid of his income?"

Mr. Fobbington laughed heartily again; but Louis had just come from a banquet of precisely this sort of humor.