She looked earnestly at him; she wanted sorely to find out what he
really thought.

But Ascott took it, as he did every thing, very easily. "I don't see
why Aunt Selina should make such a fuss. Why need you do anything,
Aunt Hilary? Can't we hold out a little longer, and live upon tick
till I get into practice? Of course, I shall then take care of you
all; I'm the head of the family. How horribly dark this room is!"

He started up, and gave the fire a fierce poke, which consumed in
five minutes a large lump of coal that Hilary had hoped--oh, cruel,
sordid economy--would have lasted half the evening.

She broke the uneasy silence which followed by asking Johanna to give
her opinion.

Johanna roused herself and spoke:

"Ascott says right; he is the head of the family, and, by-and-by. I
trust will take care of us all. But he is not able to do it now, and
meantime we must live."

"To be sure, we must Auntie."

"I mean, my boy, we must live honestly; we must not run into debt:"
and her voice sharpened as with the reflected horror of her young
days--if, alas! there ever had been any youth for Henry Leaf's eldest
daughter. "No, Ascott, out of debt out of danger. For myself"--she
laid her thin old fingers on his arm, and looked up at him with a
pitiful mixture of reliance and hopelessness--"I would rather see you