irit. That was
between you and him. I hated very much to have to do it."

"Oh, I understand all that!" said Lester. "Don't let that worry
you."

Mr. O'Brien was very grateful.

During the reading of the will Lester had sat as stolid as an
ox.

He got up after a time, as did the others, assuming an air of
nonchalance. Robert, Amy, Louise and Imogene all felt shocked, but not
exactly, not unqualifiedly regretful. Certainly Lester had acted very
badly. He had given his father great provocation.

"I think the old gentleman has been a little rough in this," said
Robert, who had been sitting next him. "I certainly did not expect him
to go as far as that. So far as I am concerned some other arrangement
would have been satisfactory."

Lester smiled grimly. "It doesn't matter," he said.

Imogene, Amy, and Louise were anxious to be consolatory, but they
did not know what to say. Lester had brought it all on himself. "I
don't think papa acted quite right, Lester," ventured Amy, but Lester
waved her away almost gruffly.

"I can stand it," he said.

He figured out, as he stood there, what his income would be in case
he refused to comply with his father's wishes. Two hundred shares of
L. S. and M. S., in open market, were worth a little over one thousand
each. They yielded from five to six per cent., sometimes more,
sometimes less. At this rate he would have ten thousand a year, not
more.

The family gathering broke up, each going his way, and Lester
returned to his sister's house. He wanted to get out of the city
quickly, gave business as an excuse to avoid lunching with any one,
and caught the earliest train back to Chicago. As he rode he
meditated.

So this was how much his father really cared for him! Could it
really be so? He, Lester Kane, ten thousand a year, for only three
years, and then longer only on condition that he married Jennie! "Ten
thousand a year," he thought, "and that for three years! Good Lord!
Any smart clerk can earn that. To think he should have done that to
me!"

CHAPTER XLIII

This attempt at coercion was the one thing which would definitely
set Lester in opposition to his family, at least for the time being.
He had realized clearly enough of late that he had made a big mistake;
first in not having married Jennie, thus avoiding scandal; and in the
second place in not having accepted her proposition at the time when
she wanted to leave him; There were no two ways about it, he had m