ther to snap at Charlie or Lucy, or to snarl at his wife, whose
patience astonished Ned, and who never answered except by a smile or
murmured excuse. The lad was almost as far separated from her now as
from his stepfather. She treated him as if he only were to blame for
the quarrel which had arisen. They had never understood each other, and
while she was never weary of making excuses for her husband, she could
make none for her son. In the knowledge that the former had much to vex
him she made excuses for him even in his worst moods. His new machinery
was standing idle, his business was getting worse and worse, he was
greatly pressed and worried, and it was monstrous, she told herself,
that at such a time he should be troubled with Ned's defiant behavior.

A short time before the school Christmas holidays Ned knocked at the
door of Mr. Porson's study. Since the conversation which they had had
when first Ned heard of his mother's engagement Mr. Porson had seen in
the lad's altered manner, his gloomy looks, and a hardness of expression
which became more and more marked every week, that things were going
on badly. Ned no longer evinced the same interest in his work, and
frequently neglected it altogether; the master, however, had kept
silence, preferring to wait until Ned should himself broach the subject.

"Well, Sankey, what is it?" he asked kindly as the boy entered.

"I don't think it's any use my going on any longer, Mr. Porson."

"Well, Sankey, you have not been doing yourself much good this half,
certainly. I have not said much to you about it, for it is entirely your
own business: you know more than nineteen out of twenty of the young
fellows who get commissions, so that if you choose to give up work it is
your own affair."

"I have made up my mind not to go into the army," Ned said quietly.

Mr. Porson was silent a minute.

"I hope, my dear lad," he said, "you will do nothing hastily about this.
Here is a profession open to you which is your own choice and that of
your father, and it should need some very strong and good reason for you
to abandon it. Come let us talk the matter over together, my boy, not as
a master and his pupil, but as two friends.

"You know, my boy, how thoroughly I have your interest at heart. If you
had other friends whom you could consult I would rather have given you
no advice, for there is no more serious matter than to say anything
which might influence the career of a young fello