John felt the sudden tightening of the hand upon his arm, and hesitated. Then he faced Eliza with all the malevolence which a small boy is capable of expressing in his countenance, and muttered ungraciously: "I'm sorry, because I've got to be." "Try again," said Mr Sommers relentlessly; and Eliza sniffed louder, her light eyes on the child's angry face. John capitulated before overwhelming odds. "I'm sorry," he said more politely, and looked at his foot in preference to Eliza's hard face, the foot which had committed, the assault. "I've never been accustomed to be treated like that by children," said Eliza acidly. "Boys are troublesome, I know, but they oughtn't to be rude. I'm not used to it. I wouldn't take a place where there were children, especially boys--" "That will do, Eliza," observed Mr Musgrave, turning round. "You may go." At the curt finality of his tone Eliza withered. For a moment she appeared to be about to break, forth again, but, changing her mind, sniffed herself out of the room and closed the door viciously. Charlie Sommers, still holding his son between his knees, gazed sternly into the small rebellious face. "You cut away upstairs, John," he said. "And if ever you kick anyone again I'll whip you." He got up when his son, obeying his instructions with extraordinary alacrity, had made his exit, and faced his brother-in-law with a laugh. "John," he said, "I am of the opinion that the punishment was in excess of the fault. How can you endure that sour-faced she-devil in the house? The look of her is enough to put a man off his meals." "She is perhaps a little unsympathetic," John Musgrave allowed, recalling the look in Eliza's eyes while they had rested on the boy. "But she serves my purpose. In a bachelor establishment a middle-aged woman is more satisfactory than a--a younger person." "The single state has its disadvantages," Charlie Sommers said. "If to employ an Eliza is the penalty for bachelorhood I'd sooner be a Mormon." "I really think," remarked Belle, who during this discussion had been pursuing a train of thought of her own, "that John ought not to be allowed to go to the kinema party this afternoon. He deserves some punishment. A disappointment like that would leave a more lasting impression." "Isn't that," asked her brother quickly, "being unnecessarily severe? He is a very small sinner, remember." "You old dear?" she said, smiling. "You spoil that child. One has to be severe with John; he forgets his sins so readily." "So did you when you were his age," he answered. "As far as my memory serves, you were indulged more than John is; and I don't think it had a deteriorating effect on your character." "That settles it," Charlie Sommers put in. "John goes to the Hall."