our mother has her recognized rights in the estate, and she has
a dower-house to which to retire; and the sooner she goes there now, the
better. You may tell her I say so."

"You may as well tell her yourself, Julius."

"Do you wish me to be insulted by your sister Charlotte again? It is
too bad to put me in such a position. I cannot punish two women, even
for such shameful innuendos as I had to take when she sat at the head of
the table. You ought to reflect, too, that the rooms they occupy are the
best rooms in the house,--the master's rooms. I am going to have the oak
walls polished, in order to bring out the carvings; and I think we will
choose green and white for the carpets and curtains. The present
furniture is dreadfully old-fashioned, and horribly full of old
memories."

"Well, then, I shall give mother to understand that we expect to make
these changes very soon."

"Depend upon it, the sooner your mother and Charlotte go to their own
house, the better for all parties. For, if we do not insist upon it,
they will stay and stay, until that Latrigg young man has his house
finished. Then Charlotte will expect to be married from here, and we
shall have all the trouble and expense of the affair. Oh, I tell you,
Sophia, I see through the whole plan! But reckoning without me, and
reckoning with me, are different things."

This conversation took place after a most unpleasant lunch. Julius had
come to it in a fretful, hypercritical mood. He had been calculating
what his proposed changes would cost, and the sum total had given him a
slight shock. He was like many extravagant people, subject to passing
spells of almost contemptible economy; and at that hour the proposed
future outlay of thousands did not trouble him so much as the actual
penny-half-penny value of his mother-in-law's lunch.

He did not say so, but in some way the feeling permeated the table. The
widow pushed her plate aside, and sipped her glass of wine in silence.
Charlotte took a pettish pleasure in refusing what she felt she was
unwelcome to. Both left the table before Julius and Sophia had finished
their meal; and both, as soon as they reached their rooms, turned to
each other with faces hot with indignation, and hearts angry with a
sense of shameful unkindness.

Charlotte spoke first. "What is to be done, mother? I cannot see you
insulted, meal after meal, in this way. Let us go at once. I have told
you it would come to this. We ought to have m