"I was just across the hall in the south parlor, and that door was open
and this door ajar," replied Rebecca with a slight flush.

"Then you must have----"

"I couldn't help it."

"Everything?"

"Most of it."

"What was it?"

"The old story."

"I suppose Henry was mad, as he always was, because Edward was living on
here for nothing, when he had wasted all the money father left him."

Rebecca nodded, with a fearful glance at the door.

When Emma spoke again her voice was still more hushed. "I know how he
felt," said she. "It must have looked to him as if Edward was living at
his expense, but he wasn't."

"No, he wasn't."

"And Edward had a right here according to the terms of father's will,
and Henry ought to have remembered it."