em
too much like running away, and that he had too much self-respect to do.

So in the evening, after his return from Reuben Gordon's, he said to
Mrs. Brent:

"I think I ought to tell you that I'm going away to-morrow."

Mrs. Brent looked up from her work, and her cold gray eyes surveyed Phil
with curious scrutiny.

"You are going away!" she replied. "Where are you going?"

"I think I shall go to New York."

"What for?"

"Seek my fortune, as so many have done before me."

"They didn't always find it!" said Mrs. Brent with a cold sneer. "Is
there any other reason?"

"Yes; it's chiefly on account of what you told me yesterday. You said
that I was dependent upon you."

"So you are."

"And that I wasn't even entitled to the name of Brent."

"Yes, I said it, and it's true."

"Well," said Phil, "I don't want to be dependent upon you. I prefer to
earn my own living."

"I am not prepared to say but that you are right. But do you know what
the neighbors will say?"

"What will they say?"

"That I drove you from home."

"It won't be true. I don't pretend to enjoy my home, but I suppose I can
stay on here if I like?"

"Yes, you can stay."

"You don't object to my going?"

"No, if it is understood that you go of your own accord."

"I am willing enough to take the blame of it, if there is any blame."

"Very well; get a sheet of note-paper, and write at my direction."

Phil took a sheet of note-paper from his father's desk, and sat down to
comply with Mrs. Brent's request.

She dictated as follows:

"I leave home at my own wish, but with the consent of Mrs. Brent,
to seek my fortune. It is wholly my own idea, and I hold no one else
responsible.

"PHILIP BRENT."

"You may as well keep the name of Brent," said his step-mother, "as you
have no other that you know of."

Phil winced at those cold words. It was not pleasant to reflect that
this was so, and that he was wholly ignorant of his parentage.

"One thing more," said Mrs. Brent. "It is only eight o'clock. I should
like to have you go out and call upon some of those with whom you are
most intimate, and tell them that you are leaving home voluntarily."

"I will," answered Phil.

"Perhaps you would prefer to do so to-morrow."

"No; I am going away to-morrow morning."

"Very well."

"Going away to-morrow morning?" repeated Jonas, who entered the room at
that moment.

Phil's plan was briefly disclosed.

"Then give me your skates," said