ly were they anxious for the change now that
Arthur had come home, for it was not altogether pleasant to be ruled
where they had so long been rulers, and to see the house turned upside
down without the right to protest.

'I can't stand it, and I won't,' Frank said to his wife in the first
flush of his bitter disappointment. 'Ever since he came home he has
raised Cain generally, with his carpenters, and masons, and painters,
and stewing about water-pipes, and sewer-gas, and smells. He's mad as a
March hare, and if I can't get rid of him by going to Washington, I'll
do it in some other way. You know he is crazy, and so do I, and I'll
swear to it on a stack of Bibles as high as the house.'

And Frank did swear to it, not on a stack of Bibles, but before two or
three physicians and Mr. St. Claire, who, at his solicitation, came to
Tracy Park, and were closeted with him for an hour or more, while he
related his grievances, asserting finally that he considered his brother
dangerous, and did not think his family safe with him, citing as proof
that he had on one occasion threatened to kill his son Tom for accusing
Harold Hastings of theft.

How the matter would have terminated is doubtful, if Arthur himself had
not appeared upon the scene, calm, dignified, and courtly in his manner,
which insensibly won upon his hearers, as in a few well-chosen and
eloquent words, he proceeded to prove that though he might be peculiar
in some respects, he was not mad, and that a man might repair his own
house, and cut off his own water-pipes, and take up his sewer, and
detect a bad smell, and still not be a subject for a lunatic asylum.

'And,' he continued, addressing his brother, 'it ill becomes you to
take this course against me--you, who have enriched yourself at my
expense, while I have held my peace. Suppose I require you to give an
account of all the money which you have considered necessary for your
support and salary--would you like to do it? Would the world consider
you strictly honorable, or would they call you a lunatic on the subject
of money and not responsible for your acts? But I have no wish to harm
you. I have money enough, and cannot forget that you are my brother. But
molest me, and I shall molest you. If I go to the asylum you will leave
Tracy Park. If I am allowed to stay here in peace, you can do so,
too--at least, until Gretchen comes, when it will, perhaps, be better
for us to separate. Two masters may manage to scra