brother.

George, after looking at the cup, raised it, opened his hand, and let it
fall on the marble slab below him. Harry had tried in vain to catch it.

"It is too late, Hal," George said. "You will never mend that
again--never. Now, mother, I am ready, as it is your wish. Will you come
and see whether I am afraid? Mr. Ward, I am your servant. Your servant?
Your slave! And the next time I meet Mr. Washington, madam, I will thank
him for the advice which he gave you."

"I say, do your duty, sir!" cried Mrs. Esmond, stamping her little foot.
And George, making a low bow to Mr. Ward, begged him to go first out of
the room to the study.

"Stop! For God's sake, mother, stop!" cried poor Hal. But passion was
boiling in the little woman's heart, and she would not hear the boy's
petition. "You only abet him, sir!" she cried.--"If I had to do it
myself, it should be done!" And Harry, with sadness and wrath in his
countenance, left the room by the door through which Mr. Ward and his
brother had just issued.

The widow sank down on a great chair near it, and sat a while vacantly
looking at the fragments of the broken cup. Then she inclined her head
towards the door--one of half a dozen of carved mahogany which the
Colonel had brought from Europe. For a while there was silence: then a
loud outcry, which made the poor mother start.

In another minute Mr. Ward came out bleeding, from a great wound on his
head, and behind him Harry, with flaring eyes, and brandishing a little
couteau-de-chasse of his grandfather, which hung, with others of the
Colonel's weapons, on the library wall.

"I don't care. I did it," says Harry. "I couldn't see this fellow strike
my brother; and, as he lifted his hand, I flung the great ruler at him.
I couldn't help it. I won't bear it; and, if one lifts a hand to me or
my brother, I'll have his life," shouts Harry, brandishing the hanger.

The widow gave a great gasp and a sigh as she looked at the young
champion and his victim. She must have suffered terribly during the few
minutes of the boys' absence; and the stripes which she imagined had
been inflicted on the elder had smitten her own heart. She longed
to take both boys to it. She was not angry now. Very likely she was
delighted with the thought of the younger's prowess and generosity.
"You are a very naughty disobedient child," she said, in an exceedingly
peaceable voice. "My poor Mr. Ward! What a rebel, to strike you! Papa's
great ebony r