going to whip Mr Tom, are you?"

"Silence, woman! Go down to your kitchen!" roared her master.

"Yes, sir--directly, sir; but Mr Sam's allus at him, and he begun it
to-night, for I heared him."

"Will you go down and mind your own business, woman?"

"Yes, sir; but I can't bear to see you lay your hand on that poor boy,
as ain't done nothing to deserve it, and I will speak out, so there."

"Silence, woman!"

"No, sir, nor I won't silence neither; and don't you please call me
woman, because I won't take it from nobody, not for no wages. I behaves
respectful to you and missus, and expect the same, so there."

"Cook, you leave at a month's end," cried Mrs Brandon. "Oh, Sam, Sam,
speak to your broken-hearted mother."

"Cert'ny, mum, and very glad to go," said cook, who was working herself
up into a passion. "To-night if you like. No, I won't; I'll go now, as
soon as I've packed my boxes; and if Mary's the girl I take her for,
she'll go too, and not stand here sweeping up your nasty old china."

"Am I to take you by the shoulders, woman, and bundle you down-stairs?"
roared Mr Brandon.

"No, sir, you ain't. Just you dare to touch me, that's all; and what's
more, you ain't a-going to beat Master Tom, so there now. I wouldn't
stand here and see him punished for what he don't deserve. It's all
that Mr Sam, who's ma's spoilt him, and indulged him, till he's grown
into a nasty, overbearing, cigarette-smoking wretch, as treats servants
as if they was the dirt under his feet."

"Fanny," cried the lawyer, who felt that he was losing dignity in an
unequal struggle, "send this woman down-stairs. Now, sir, you let go of
that balustrade and come here."

"No," cried Tom, between his teeth; "you shan't beat me for nothing. It
was all Sam."

"Come here!" roared his uncle, making a savage drag at the boy, which
was intercepted by cook forcing herself between, and trying to shelter
him.

"You shan't beat him, not while I'm here," she cried.

"He is not going to beat him," said a quiet, firm, grave voice; and all
started to see that "the company," who had been standing quite
unobserved on the upper landing, a silent spectator of the scene, was
now coming down.

"Oh, Richard!" cried Mrs Brandon; "look here! The wretch--the wretch!"

"Yes, he does look a pretty object certainly," said the visitor. "Here
you, sir, get up and go to your room, and wash yourself. Don't lie
groaning there."

"Oh--oh--oh!" cried Mrs