“I am only one of the voters in this town,” he said brusquely. The kindly sympathy had suddenly gone out of his face. A curious feeling of hostility entered his heart. The sudden angry thought came to him in these surroundings, and with that element on the other side of the door, “I’m only Seth Look’s boy, to be pitied, then used, then pitied some more and tossed aside.” “There is no one who exerts as much influence as you,” she persisted. “But I don’t appeal to you to secure for my father an office to which he is entitled by all fair play.” Her tone was proud now. “I only ask you to restrain that wretched brother of yours, who apparently has come back to this town simply and solely to make trouble. He is meddling in affairs that do not concern him; he is stirring up strife and factions in our town, and for the credit of Palermo and your family it is your duty to put him where he belongs.” The subdued clicking of a spring ratchet had sounded in the other room, and now the music box started in again on “Where is My Wandering Boy To-night?” “Where he belongs, eh?” he said in a voice that he tried to make calm. “And where would that be?” “Well, somewhere so far away that we’d never again hear the bellow of that elephant and the discord of that brass band,” she replied smartly, for the suppressed sneer in his tone touched her. “So it’s my wild beast brother who is responsible for all the troubles of your father, and you want me to cage him and ship him out of town?” He scowled at the door that shut off the music box and its persistent operator. “Night after night my poor old father sits there in his office alone, white and sick and weak and----” “I’ve seen a poor old father sit up nights, too,” he broke in, “and he was sitting up fighting off mortgages and executions and bills of sale let loose on him by _your_ father before he tucked himself away on his bed of down. Don’t let us get to comparing fathers, Sylvena! It will not be profitable.” His tone was harsh and his eyes flashed. “But it’s _my_ father,” she cried, “and I’ll fight for him. It’s well to know who all our enemies are. I was shocked and disappointed, Phineas, when you----” “Not one word about that affair--not a word from you!” he commanded. “You can tell me nothing that I don’t know and understand.” She paused stammeringly, frightened by his heat. After a moment she rose and pushed back her chair. “If I am to class you with your brother,” she began, but he checked her again by a furious exclamation. He stood up and threw upon his chair the soft hat that he had been crumpling between his broad palms. The music box kept on its monotonous tune. “That’s enough about my brother--enough!” he cried. “You are bound to have it that he is the man who has made your father sleepless and old, and childish and haggard. You are facing Hime Look--the Look family, as though it were your only enemy, when the wolf is behind you, Sylvena, behind you!”