nd our lunch," said the doctor. "There, try and
behave as we do at the table, and keep your elbows off the cloth."

Dexter obeyed so quickly that he knocked a glass from the table, and on
leaving his seat to pick it up he found that the foot was broken off.

The doctor started, and uttered a sharp ejaculation.

In an instant the boy shrank away into a corner, sobbing wildly.

"I couldn't help it. I couldn't help it, sir. Don't beat me, please.
Don't beat me this time. I'll never do so any more."

"Bless my soul!" cried the doctor, jumping up hastily; and the boy
uttered a wild cry, full of fear, and would have dashed out of the open
window into the garden had not Helen caught him, the tears in her eyes,
and her heart moved to pity as she read the boy's agony of spirit. In
fact that one cry for mercy had done more for Dexter's future at the
doctor's than a month's attempts at orderly conduct.

"Hush, hush!" said Helen gently, as she took his hands; and, with a look
of horror in his eyes, the boy clung to her.

"I don't mind the cane sometimes," he whispered, "but don't let him beat
me very much."

"Nonsense! nonsense!" said the doctor rather huskily. "I was not going
to beat you."

"Please, sir, you looked as if you was," sobbed the boy.

"I only looked a little cross, because you were clumsy and broke that
glass. But it was an accident."

"Yes, it was; it was," cried the boy, in a voice full of pleading, for
the breakage had brought up the memory of an ugly day in his young
career. "I wouldn't ha' done it, was it ever so; it's true as goodness
I wouldn't."

"No, no, Maria, not yet," cried Helen hastily, as the door was opened.
"We will ring."

Maria walked out again, and the boy clung to Helen as he sobbed.

"There, there," she said. "Papa is not cross. You broke the glass, and
you have apologised. Come: sit down again."

If some one had told Helen Grayson two hours before that she would have
done such a thing, she would have smiled incredulously, but somehow she
felt moved to pity just then, and leading the boy back to his chair, she
bent down and kissed his forehead.

In a moment Dexter's arms were about her neck, and he was clinging to
her with passionate energy, sobbing now wildly, while the doctor got up
and walked to the window for a few moments.

"There, there," said Helen gently, as she pressed the boy down into his
seat, and kissed him once again, after seeing that her father's ba