HESTER TEACH?" said Alaric, in disgust.

"Settled!" from Ethel, and she swept her finger slowly across the piano.

"Very well," said Alaric, determinedly: "I'll work, too." Mrs.
Chichester looked up pleadingly.

Alaric went on: "I'll put my hand to the plough. The more I think of it
the keener I am to begin. From to-day I'll be a workin' man."

At this Ethel laughed a queer, little, odd, supercilious note, summed
up in a single word: "Ha!" There was nothing mirthful in it. There was
no reproach in it. It was just an expression of her honest feeling at
the bare suggestion of her brother WORKING.

Alaric turned quickly to her:

"And may I ask WHY that 'Ha!'? WHY, I ask you? There's nothing I
couldn't do if I were really put to it--not a single thing. Is there,
mater?"

His mother looked up proudly at him.

"I know that, dear. But it's dreadful to think of YOU--WORKING."

"Not at all," said Alaric, "I'm just tingling all over at the thought
of it. The only reason I haven't so far is because I've never had to.
But now that I have, I'll just buckle on my armour, so to speak, and
astonish you all."

Again came that deadly, cold, unsympathetic "Ha!" from Ethel.

"Please don't laugh in that cheerless way, Ethel. It goes all down my
spine. Jerry's always tellin' me I ought to do something--that the
world is for the worker--and all that. He's right, and I'm goin' to
show him." He suddenly picked up the paper and looked at the date.
"What's to-day? The FIRST? Yes, so it is. June the first. Jerry's
comin' to-day--all his family, too. They've taken 'Noel's Folly' on the
hill. He's sure to look in here. Couldn't be better. He's the cove to
turn to in a case like this."

Jarvis, a white-haired, dignified butler who had served the family man
and boy, came in at this juncture with a visiting card on a salver.

Alaric picked it up and glanced at it. He gave an expression of disgust
and flung the card back on the salver.

"Christian Brent."

For the first time Ethel showed more than a passing gleam of interest.
She stopped strumming the piano and stood up, very erect and very still.

Mrs. Chichester rose too: "I can't see any one," she said imperatively.
"Nor I," added Alaric. "I'm all strung up." He turned to Jarvis. "Tell
Mr. Brent we're very sorry, but--"

"I'LL see him," interrupted Ethel, almost animatedly. "Bring Mr. Brent
here, Jarvis."

As Jarvis went in search of Mr. Brent, Mrs. Chichester went up the
great