My factories were now scattered all along the coast, even to California, where I made the cans for the great quantities of canned fruits they ship from that section every year.
Of course the business made me rich, and I bought real estate with my extra money, and doubled my fortune again and again.
"I never married, for all my heart was in the business, and I thought of nothing else.

But a while ago a big consolidation of the canning industries was effected, and the active management I resigned to other hands, because I had grown old, and had too much money already.
"It was then that I remembered the family, and went back quietly to the village where I was born.

They were all dead or scattered, I found; but because Jane had inherited a fortune in some way I discovered where she lived and went to see her.

I suppose it was because my clothes were old and shabby that Jane concluded I was a poor man and needed assistance; and I didn't take the trouble to undeceive her.
"I also found my three nieces at Elmhurst, and it struck me it would be a good time to study their characters; for like Jane I had a fortune to leave behind me, and I was curious to find out which girl was the most deserving.

No one suspected my disguise.