A Point of Ethics
I was quite as competent to support myself as my brothers were, and that I could, if necessary, earn as much money in a year as they had earned during their first year of work.
"My father laughed good-naturedly at this," added Miss Bertram, smiling again at the recollection. "He scoffed at the whole idea as utterly absurd. It piqued me, and on the impulse of the moment I made a wager with him.
"On my twenty-first birthday he had invested a very large sum of money for me. I was to have the yearly income to spend. I offered to wager the entire sum (everything I had in the world, you see) that I could go to a strange city, take a new name, and earn my own living for six months. I was not to take a penny with me, except the money to pay for my ticket to New York, and I was not to borrow a cent from anybody. I was to pay for my own clothes, food, and lodgings for six months. If I failed, every cent I had in the world would go back to my father, and I was to live for five years on what he chose to give me. If I succeeded, he was to double the
177
