stand. The two out there are of the
same sort as the one that broke, and I did not think them safe."

"Think, sir! What business had you to think? I tell you what it is, you
are much too fond of thinking. If you would only leave the thinking to
me, and do what you are told, it would be much better for you."

Tom's first impulse was to make a sharp reply, and to express his
willingness to leave, but for certain private reasons he was silent.
Encouraged by the apparent absence of resistance, Mr. Furze continued--

"I've meant to have a word or two with you several times. You seem to
have forgotten your position altogether, and that I am master here, and
not you. You, perhaps, do not remember where you came from, and what you
would have been if I had not picked you up. Let there be no
misunderstanding in future."

"There shall be none, sir. Shall I call at the factory and explain your
wishes about the grindstone? I will tell them I was mistaken, and that
they had better have one of those in stock."

"No, you cannot do that now; let matters remain as they are; I must lose
the sale of the stone and put up with it."

Tom withdrew. That evening, after supper, Mr. Furze, anxious to show his
wife that he possessed some power to quell opposition, told her what had
happened. It met with her entire approval. She hated Tom. For all
hatred, as well as for all love, there is doubtless a reason, but the
reasons for the hatreds of a woman of Mrs. Furze's stamp are often
obscure, and perhaps more nearly an exception than any other known fact
in nature to the rule that every effect must have a cause.

"I would get rid of him," said she. "I think that his not replying to
you is ten times more aggravating than if he had gone into a passion."

"You cannot get rid of him," said Catharine.

"Cannot! What do you mean, Catharine--cannot? I like that! Do you
suppose that I do not understand my own business--I who took him up out
of the gutter and taught him? Cannot, indeed!"

"Of course you _can_ get rid of him, father; but I would not advise you
to try it."

"Now, do take _my_ advice," said Mrs. Furze: "send him about his
business, at once, before he does any further mischief, and gets hold of
your connection. Promise me."

"I will," said Mr. Furze, "to-morrow morning, the very first thing."

Morning came, and Mr. Furze was not quite so confident. Mrs. Furze had
not relented, and as her husband went out at the d