"Ain't there, indeed? We'll see. Madam"--he addressed Mrs.
Darlington--"will you be kind enough to inform the lady and gentleman
who now occupy one of our rooms"--

"Mr. Scragg!" said Mrs. Darlington, in whose fainting heart his
outrageous conduct had awakened something of the right spirit--"Mr.
Scragg, I wish you to understand, once for all, that the front room is
taken and now occupied, and that you cannot have it."

"Madam!"

"It's no use for you to waste words, sir! What I say I mean. I have
other rooms in the house very nearly as good, and am willing to take
you for something less in consideration of this disappointment. If that
will meet your views, well; if not, let us have no more words on the
subject."

There was a certain something in Mrs. Darlington's tone of voice that
Scragg understood to mean a fixed purpose. Moreover, his mind caught at
the idea of getting boarded for something less than sixteen dollars a
week.

"Where are the rooms?" he asked gruffly.

"The third story chambers."

"Front?"

"Yes."

"I don't want to go to the third story."

"Very well. Then you can have the back chamber down stairs, and the
front chamber above."

"What will be your charge?"

"Fourteen dollars."

"That will do, Peter," said Mrs. Scragg. "Two dollars a week is
considerable abatement."

"It's something, of course. But I don't like this off and on kind of
business. When I make an agreement, I'm up to the mark, and expect the
same from everybody else. Will you let my wife see the rooms, madam?"

"Certainly," replied Mrs. Darlington, and moved towards the door. Mrs.
Scragg followed, and so did all the juvenile Scraggs--the latter
springing up the stairs with the agility of apes and the noise of a
dozen rude schoolboys just freed from the terror of rod and ferule.

The rooms suited Mrs. Scragg very well--at least such was her report to
her husband--and, after some further rudeness on the part of Mr.
Scragg, and an effort to beat Mrs. Darlington down to twelve dollars a
week, were taken, and forthwith occupied.

CHAPTER IV.

MRS. DARLINGTON was a woman of refinement herself, and had been used to
the society of refined persons. She was, naturally enough, shocked at
the coarseness and brutality of Mr. Scragg, and, ere an hour went by,
in despair at the unmannerly rudeness of the children, the oldest a
stout, vulgar-looking boy, who went racing and rummaging about the
house from the garret to the ce