ld not have left you to come at such a time."

"I didn't wish him to inconvenience himself, Mr. Manning. If it had been
his mother, it would have been different."

Mr. Manning did not reply. He understood very well that there was no
love lost between Mark and his stepson.

CHAPTER III

FRANK'S BEREAVEMENT

Early in the evening Mark made his appearance. Supper had been over for
an hour, and everything was cold. In a house where there is sickness,
the regular course of things is necessarily interrupted, and, because he
could not have his wants attended to immediately, Mark saw fit to
grumble and scold the servants. He was not a favorite with them, and
they did not choose to be bullied.

Deborah, who had been in the house for ten years, and so assumed the
independence of an old servant, sharply reprimanded the spoiled boy.

"You ought to be ashamed, Mr. Mark," she said, "of making such a fuss
when my poor mistress lies upstairs at the point of death."

"Do you know who you are talking to?" demanded Mark, imperiously, for he
could, when speaking with those whom he regarded as inferiors, exchange
his soft tones for a voice of authority.

"I ought to know by this time," answered Deborah, contemptuously. "There
is no other in the house like you, I am glad to say."

"You are very impertinent. You forget that you are nothing but a
servant."

"A servant has the right to be decently treated, Mr. Mark."

"If you don't look out," said Mark, in a blustering tone, "I will report
you to my father, and have you kicked out of the house."

Deborah was naturally incensed at this rude speech, but she was spared
the trouble of replying. Frank entered the room at this moment in time
to hear Mark's last speech.

"What is this about being kicked out of the house?" he asked, looking
from Mark to Deborah, in a tone of unconscious authority, which
displeased his stepbrother.

"That is my business," replied Mark, shortly.

"Mr. Mark has threatened to have me kicked out of the house because he
has to wait for his supper," said Deborah.

"It wasn't for that. It was because you were impertinent. All the same,
I think it is shameful that I can't get anything to eat."

"I regret, Mark," said Frank, with cool sarcasm, "that you should be
inconvenienced about your meals. Perhaps you will excuse it, as my poor
mother is so sick that she requires extra attention from the servants.
Deborah, if possible, don't let Mark wait much