overing his temper, and Reed seemed to be revolving thoughts of deep
import.

As they rose from table, Crane touched the arm of Reed.

"Come into the office, will you? I have something I want to say to you."

"And I to you," said Reed, with feeling.

XII

ONCE in the little office, Crane did not immediately speak. He drew up
two chairs, put a log on the fire, turned up the lamp, and in short made
it evident that he intended to do that cruel deed sometimes perpetrated
by parents, guardians and schoolmasters in interviews of this sort--he
was going to leave it to the culprit to make a beginning.

Reed, fidgeting in a nearby chair, did not at once yield to this
compulsion, but finally the calm with which Crane was balancing a pen on
a pencil broke down his resolution and he said crossly:

"I understood you had something to say to me, Mr. Crane."

Crane threw aside pencil and pen. "I thought it might be the other way,"
he answered. "But, yes, if you like. I have something to say to you. I
have decided to break my lease and leave this house to-morrow."

"You don't mean to go without paying the second instalment of the rent?"

"Why not? The Revellys have broken, or rather have never fulfilled
their part of the contract. I took the house on the written
understanding that servants were to be supplied, and you are my witness,
Mr. Reed, that to-night I have no one left but a cook."

"Oh, come, Mr. Crane! We only agreed to provide the servants. We could
not guarantee that you would not dismiss them. You must own they showed
no inclination to leave the house."

"No, I'll not deny that," returned Burton grimly.

"No sane man," continued Reed eagerly, "would allow the payment of his
rent to depend on whether or not you chose to keep a staff of servants
in many ways above the average. You'll not deny, I think, sir, that the
cooking has been above the average?"

Crane had reached a state of mind in which it was impossible for him to
discuss even the culinary powers of Jane-Ellen, particularly with Reed,
and so he slightly shifted the ground.

"Let us," he said, "run over the reasons for which I dismissed them: The
housemaid, for calling one of my guests an old harridan; the boy, for
habitually smoking my cigarettes, for attempting to strike Mr. Tucker,
and finally, for stealing a valuable miniature belonging to the house;
the butler, for again introducing this same larcenous boy