determined to wait until you wrote
definitely regarding your coming."

"You have overstepped all bounds, you have presumed beyond excuse,"
retorted her brother, in a voice of thunder. "I know that you are my
senior by fifteen years, and as a boy I was taught to look up to you, and
to render you the respect due an elder. But I am a child no longer. I am a
man, and you forget that I am not only my own master, but the master of
Heathdale as well. I have a right to choose for myself in all matters, and
you are not to consider that I am in leading strings, as I was before
your marriage, when you exercised, to a certain extent, authority over
me. And now if--I abhor thrifts, but I wish you to distinctly understand
me--if you cannot bring yourself to regard my marriage in a proper and
sensible light, and make up your mind to receive my wife as becomes a
sister of the house, the doors of Heathdale will henceforth be closed to
you."

Lady Linton was astounded at this outburst.

Her brother, heretofore, had always been a pattern of amiability and
gentleness, and had allowed her to have her own way mostly in the house.
In minor matters she had always ruled him, and she had never imagined that
he could rise to such a height as this.

She saw that she had gone too far, that she must change her tactics, or
forever lose all influence with him, and make an enemy of him.

She could ill afford to do this for several reasons.

She was the widow of Lord Percival Linton, who had married her chiefly for
her large dowry.

He had been a fast, unprincipled man, who had run through his own property
and most of hers before death put an end to his mad career.

They had one son, Percy, and a daughter, Lillian, and Lady Linton, with
her two children, had been largely dependent upon the generosity of her
brother ever since her husband's death, and he was even now bearing all
the expense of the education of his nephew and niece.

They had made their home chiefly at Heathdale, because Lady Linton's pride
could not tolerate life at Linton Grange when they had no means to keep it
up in proper style, and it was very pleasant and comfortable to be in her
brother's home, where there was abundance of everything, and where she had
been allowed to manage the household in her own way.

It would therefore be very mortifying to have its hospitable doors closed
against her, and, finding herself liable to be ignominiously checkmated if
she persisted in