"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. "He had always been so prudent himself, and
worked hard at his profession, and there Edward had never done
anything but spend, and it must have looked to him as if Edward was
living at his expense, but he wasn't."

"No, he wasn't."

"It was the way father left the property--that all the children
should have a home here--and he left money enough to buy the food
and all if we had all come home."

"Yes."

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

"Yes, he ought."