had somewhat the effect of a
bomb. Mr. Saxon turned to his son with a sudden keen expression, as if
he had convicted him of a crime. Mrs. Saxon's face also was full of
suppressed meaning, while Egbert colored furiously, looked thunderous at
his sister, and relapsed into sulky silence. Poor Ingred felt that she
had, quite unconsciously, put her foot in it, though how or why she
could not tell. She said no more at the time, and when, afterwards, she
ventured to refer again to the subject, she was so tremendously shut up
that she saw clearly it was discreet to make no further inquiry. Plainly
there was some tremendous quarrel between Egbert and his father, for
they were barely on speaking terms.

Mr. Saxon threw out occasional inuendoes that caused his son finally to
stump from the room. Mrs. Saxon went about with a cloud of distress on
her face, and Quenrede, to whom Ingred applied for enlightenment,
promptly and pointedly changed the subject. It was miserably
uncomfortable, for father and son were like two Leyden jars charged with
electricity, and ready to let fly at any moment. It was only the
mother's influence that averted a family thunderstorm. Athelstane, too,
seemed in the depths of gloom. He was willing, however, to communicate
his woes.

"I want a whole heap more medical books," he confided to his sister,
"and Dad says he can't get them, and I must manage without. How on earth
_can_ I manage without. What's the use of my going to College if I
haven't the proper textbooks? I can't always be borrowing. If I fail in
my exams, it will be his fault, not mine. He's the most absolutely
unreasonable man anybody could have to deal with. Of course I know
they're expensive, and funds are low, but I've simply _got_ to have
them, or chuck up medicine!"

"It's so terrible to be poor!" sighed Quenrede, thinking of the old,
happy pre-war days at Rotherwood, when everything came so easily, and
there were no struggles to make ends meet.

She talked the matter over afterwards with Ingred.

"If I could only help somehow!" she mourned. "I've often thought I might
go out and earn something, but Mother's not strong, and I really do a
great deal in the house. If I went away and left her with only 'The
Orphan,' she'd be laid up in a fortnight. As it is, she tries to do far
too much. How could we possibly get some money for Athelstane's books?
We'd rather die than ask our friends!"

Ingred shook her head sadly. Wild ideas surged t