ing anything to do with him when he came back; but my
father, just at the last, consented to let him teach you, on condition
that he never attempted to see your mother. I must, in justice,
acknowledge that I believe they both observed that condition faithfully
to the end. It is a very deplorable business; but----"

Arthur looked up. All the life and expression had gone out of his face;
it was like a waxen mask.

"D-don't you think," he said softly, with a curious stammering
hesitation on the words, "th-that--all this--is--v-very--funny?"

"FUNNY?" James pushed his chair away from the table, and sat staring at
him, too much petrified for anger. "Funny! Arthur, are you mad?"

Arthur suddenly threw back his head, and burst into a frantic fit of
laughing.

"Arthur!" exclaimed the shipowner, rising with dignity, "I am amazed at
your levity!"

There was no answer but peal after peal of laughter, so loud and
boisterous that even James began to doubt whether there was not
something more the matter here than levity.

"Just like a hysterical woman," he muttered, turning, with a
contemptuous shrug of his shoulders, to tramp impatiently up and
down the room. "Really, Arthur, you're worse than Julia; there, stop
laughing! I can't wait about here all night."

He might as well have asked the crucifix to come down from its pedestal.
Arthur was past caring for remonstrances or exhortations; he only
laughed, and laughed, and laughed without end.

"This is absurd!" said James, stopping at last in his irritated pacing
to and fro. "You are evidently too much excited to be reasonable
to-night. I can't talk business with you if you're going on that way.
Come to me to-morrow morning after breakfast. And now you had better go
to bed. Good-night."

He went out, slamming the door. "Now for the hysterics downstairs," he
muttered as he tramped noisily away. "I suppose it'll be tears there!"

*****

The frenzied laughter died on Arthur's lips. He snatched up the hammer
from the table and flung himself upon the crucifix.

With the crash that followed he came suddenly to his senses, standing
before the empty pedestal, the hammer still in his hand, and the
fragments of the broken image scattered on the floor about his feet.

He threw down the hammer. "So easy!" he said, and turned away. "And what
an idiot I am!"

He sat down by the table, panting heavily for breath, and rested his
forehead on both hands. Presently he rose, and, g