ispute, not from a knowledge of deception or any
small meanness, but deliberate, well-considered treachery. It would have
been manlier had he said to Jack, "Our ways lie apart, and in the future
we shall meet so seldom, it is hardly worth while to keep up a pretence
of friendship." He had skulked away instead, kept out of sight,--basely
shunned the strong, tender soul that had helped to make a peevish
boyhood sunny and bright.

Black as this ingratitude looked to him now, he experienced a strange
and intense desire to see his olden friend once more. What was he doing
at Hope Mills? Had he found a place?

The next morning's mail brought him a check for sixty dollars, for an
article he had thought little of himself, and sent merely because he had
happened to finish it, and was despatching his ventures out on the sea
of chance. Then he went over to Mrs. Minor's: he had not seen his mother
for several days.

He was quite in the habit of going directly up to her room; but, as he
neared it, he heard voices raised in no gentle discussion. Agatha stood
in the middle of the room, flushed, angry, an open note in her hand;
Mrs. Lawrence was weeping hysterically, while Irene sat pale and sullen,
but her eyes gleaming with a dangerous fire.

"Very well: if you deliberately decide to take a beggar's portion, then,
do not look to me for any further help," said Mrs. Minor. "This marriage
would have afforded you every luxury; and you have thrown aside the
chance, like a silly school-girl. Perhaps you _have_ some secret,
favored lover!" and the glittering eyes might have annihilated a weaker
woman than Irene Lawrence.

"If I had, I should go to him. I would live on crusts and a cup of cold
water with him, rather than luxury," with a bitter, stinging emphasis,
"and my own humiliation. The man would drive me mad, Agatha! Some day,
yielding to an irresistible impulse, I should murder him;" and she gave
a shrill, unnatural laugh.

Fred went over to her, and took her hand. His business in life was to be
her champion, her defender, her support,--not only against this
monstrous marriage, at which her soul revolted, but Agatha's sneers and
flings, and the dependence a proud soul must naturally feel when the
very bread turns to ashes in one's mouth. How it was to be done, he
could not tell at that moment; but he drew one long breath of honest,
hopeful manliness, and resolved to leave no stone unturned.

His mother wept in his comforting a