punishment of your obstinate and perverse conduct. The boy whom you sent
here proved a fitting messenger. He seems, if possible, to be even worse
than yourself. He was very impertinent to me, and made a brutal and
unprovoked attack on my poor boy, Peter, whose devotion to your father
and myself forms an agreeable contrast to your studied disregard of our
wishes.

"Your friend had the assurance to ask for a weekly allowance for you
while a voluntary exile from the home where you have been only too well
treated. In other words, you want to be paid for your disobedience.
Even if your father were weak enough to think of complying with this
extraordinary request, I should do my best to dissuade him."


"Small doubt of that!" said Carl, bitterly.


"In my sorrow for your waywardness, I am comforted by the thought that
Peter is too good and conscientious ever to follow your example. While
you are away, he will do his utmost to make up to your father for his
disappointment in you. That you may grow wise in time, and turn
at length from the error of your ways, is the earnest hope of your
stepmother,

"Anastasia Crawford."


"It makes me sick to read such a letter as that, Gilbert," said Carl.
"And to have that sneak and thief--as he turned out to be--Peter, set up
as a model for me, is a little too much."