for woman's
whining. Thy brother and I can settle this business betwixt us
twain. But stay, go thou to my room and fetch thence the strong
whip wherewith I chastise the unruly hounds. Those who disobey like
dogs must be beaten like dogs.

"But, an thou wilt swear to do my bidding in the future, and avoid
all pestilent controversy with those false scions of thy house, thy
chastisement shall be light. Defy me, and thou shalt feel the full
weight of my arm as thou hast never felt it before."

Petronella had never seen her father so angry in all her life
before. True, he had always been a harsh, stern man, an unloving
father, a captious tyrant in his own house. But there had been
limits to his anger. It had taken more generally the form of sullen
brooding than of wild wrath, and the irritation and passion which
had lately been increasing visibly in him was something
comparatively new.

Of late, however, there had been growing friction between Cuthbert
and his father. The youth, who had remained longer a boy in his
secluded life than he would have done had his lot been cast in a
wider sphere, was awakening at last to the stirrings of manhood
within him, and was chafing against the fetters, both physical and
spiritual, laid upon him by the life he was forced to lead through
the tyrannical will of his father. He was beginning, in a
semi-conscious fashion, to pant for freedom, and to rebel against
the harsh paternal yoke.

When a struggle of wills commences, the friction continues a long
while before the spark is produced; but when some unwonted contest
has ignited this, the flame often bursts out in wonderful fury, and
the whole scene is thence forward changed.

If the old man's blood was up today, Cuthbert's was no less so. He
shook himself free for a moment from his father's grasp and stood
before him, tall, upright, indignant, no fear in his face, but a
deep anger and pain; and his words were spoken with great emphasis
and deliberation.

"I will swear nothing of all that. I claim for myself the right of
a man to judge for myself and act for myself. I am a boy no longer;
I have reached man's estate. I will be threatened and intimidated
no longer by any man, even though he be my father. I am ready and
willing to leave your house this very day. I am weary of the life
here. I would fain carve out fortune for myself. It is plain that
we cannot be agreed; wherefore it plainly behoves us to part. Let
me then go, but let