the young men who came to his house.




V



"Father's just gone downstairs. I think we had better wait a minute or
two. In that way we shall escape a scolding. Father won't miss the ten
o'clock."

"Not a bad idea. You are always up to some cunning dodge. What's the
time?"

"Twenty minutes to nine. I'll slip down the passage and tell Grace to
go down and give him his breakfast. He won't say anything to her; he
knows well that since Fatty went to India she wouldn't see a soul if
she could help it."

"Father never says anything to you either; you tell him a lot of lies,
and leave him to understand that I do everything."

"That's not true; I never speak against you to father; but at the same
time I must say that if it weren't for you we could do as we liked.
You don't try to manage father."

"Manage him, indeed! that's what I can't bear in you, you're always
trying to manage some one; I hate the word."