it would have been easy enough to bid Mr. Henry Mutimer betake
himself--whither his mind directed him. Richard could not adopt that
rough-and-ready way out of his difficulty. Just as he suffered in
the thought that he might be treating his mother unkindly, so he was
constrained to undergo annoyances rather than abandon the hope of saving
'Arry from ultimate destruction.

'Will he live at the Manor?' Alice asked uneasily.

Richard mused; then a most happy idea struck him.

'I have it! He shall live with Rodman. The very thing! Rodman's the
fellow to look after him. Yes; that's what we'll do.'

'And I'm to live at the Manor?'

'Of course.'

'You think Adela won't mind?'

'Mind? How the deuce can she mind it?'

As a matter of form Adela would of course be consulted, but Richard had
no notion of submitting practical arrangements in his own household to
his wife's decision.

'Now we shall have to see mother,' he said. 'How's that to be managed?'

'Will you go and speak at her door?'

'That be hanged! Confound it, has she gone crazy? Just go up and say I
want to see her.'

'If I say that, I'm quite sure she won't come.'

Richard waxed in anger.

'But she _shall_ come! Go and say I want to see her, and that if she
doesn't come down I'll force the door. There'll have to be an end to
this damned foolery. I've got no time to spend humbugging. It's four
o'clock, and I have letters to write before dinner. Tell her I must see
her, and have done with it.'

Alice went upstairs with small hope of success. She knocked twice before
receiving an answer.

'Mother, are you there?'

'What do you want?' came back in a voice of irritation.

'Dick's here, and wants to speak to you. He says he _must_ see you; it's
something very important.'

'I've nothing to do with him,' was the reply.

'Will you see him if he comes up here?'

'No, I won't.'

Alice went down and repeated this. After a moment's hesitation Mutimer
ascended the stairs by threes. He rapped loudly at the bedroom door. No
answer was vouchsafed.

'Mother, you must either open the door or come downstairs,' he cried
with decision. 'This has gone on long enough. Which will you do?'

'I'll do neither,' was the angry reply. 'What right have you to order me
about, I'd like to know? You mind your business, and I'll mind mine.'

'All right. Then I shall send for a man at once, and have the door
forced.'

Mrs. Mutimer knew well the tone in which these words