comfortable when you have gone. Whatever trouble there is with my husband is entirely your making. I only wonder that he puts up with your ways as he does. If his temper was not as good as yours is bad he would not be able to do so.'
' All right, mother,' Ned said. ' He is an angel, he is, we all know, and I am the other thing. Well, if you are contented, that's the great thing, isn't it ? I only hope you will always be so; but there,' he said, calming himself with a great effort as his father's last words again came into his mind, ' don't let's quarrel, mother. I am sorry for what I have said. It's quite right that you should stick up for your husband, and I do hope that when I go you will, as you say, be more comfortable and happy. Perhaps you will. I am sure I hope so. Well, I know I am not nice with him. I can't help it. It's my beastly temper, I suppose. That's an old story. Come, mother, I have only a short time to be at home now. Let us both try and make it as pleasant as we can, so that when I am thousands of miles away, perhaps in India, we may have it to look back upon. You try and leave my friends alone and I will try and be as pleasant as I can with your husband.'
Mrs. Mulready was crying now.
' You know, Ned, I would love you if you would let
me, only you are so set against my husband. I am sure he always means kindly. Look how he takes to little Lucy, who is getting quite fond of him.'
'Yes, I am very glad to think that he is, mother,' Ned said earnestly. ' You see Lucy is much younger, and naturally remembers comparatively little about her father, and has been able to take to Mr. Mulready without our prejudices. I am very glad to see that he really does like her—in fact I do think he is getting quite fond of her. I shall go away feeling quite easy about her. I wish I could say as much about Charlie. He is not strong, like other boys, and feels unkindness very sharply. I can see him shrink and shiver when your husband speaks to him, and am afraid he will have a very bad time of it when I am gone.'
' I am sure, Ned, he will get on very well,' Mrs. Mulready said. 'I have no doubt that when he gets rid of the example you set him—I don't want to begin to quarrel again—but of the example you set him of dislike and disrespect to Mr. Mulready, that he will soon be quite different. He will naturally turn to me again instead of looking to you for all his opinions, and things will go on smoothly and well.'
' I am sure I hope so, mother. Perhaps I have done wrong in helping to set Charlie against Mulready. Perhaps when I have gone, too, things will be easier for him. If I could only think so I should go away with a lighter heart. Well, anyhow, mother, I am glad we have had this talk. It is not often we get a quiet talk together now.'
' I am sure it is not my fault,' Mrs. Mulready said in a slightly injured tone.
'Perhaps not, mother,' Ned said kindly. 'With the best intentions, I know I am always doing things wrong. It's my way, I suppose. Anyhow, mother, I really have meant well, and I hope you will think of me kindly after I have gone.'
' You may be sure I shall do that, Ned,' his mother said, weeping again. ' I have no doubt the fault has been partly mine too, but you see women don't understand boys, and can't make allowances for them.'
And so Ned kissed his mother for the first time since the day when she had returned home from her wedding tour, and mother and son parted on better terms than they had done for very many months, and Ned went with a lightened heart to prepare his lessons for the next da ,T .
CHAPTER XII.
MURDERED!
N spite of Ned's resolutions that he would do nothing to mar the tranquillity of the last few weeks of his being at home, he had difficulty in restraining his temper the following day at tea. Never had he seen his stepfather in so bad a humour. Had he known that things had gone wrong at the mill that day, that the new machine had broken one of its working parts and had brought everything to a standstill till it could be repaired, he would have been able to make allowances for Mr. Mulready's ill-humour.
Not knowing this he grew pale with the efforts which he made to restrain himself as his stepfather snarled at his wife, snapped at Lucy and Charlie, and grumbled and growled at everything throughout the meal. Everything that was said was wrong, and at last, having silenced his wife and her children, the meal was completed in gloomy silence. The two boys went into the little room off the ball which they used of an evening to prepare their lessons
for next day. Charlie, who came in last, did not shut the door behind him.
'That is a nice man, our stepfather,' Ned said in a cold fury. ' His ways get more and more pleasant every day; such an amiable, popular man, so smiling and pleasant!'
' Oh! it's no use saying anything,' Charlie said in an imploring voice, ' it only makes things worse.'
' Worse!' Ned exclaimed indignantly; ' how could they be worse ? Well may they call him Foxey, for foxey he is, a double-faced snarling brute.'
As the last word issued from Ned's lips he reeled under a tremendous box on the ear from behind. Mr. Mulready was passing through the hall—for his gig was waiting at the door to take him back to the mill, where some fitters would be at work till late, repairing the damages to the machine—when he had caught Ned's words, which were spoken at the top of his voice.
The smouldering anger of months burst at once into a flame heightened by the ill-humour which the day's events had caused, and he burst into the room and almost felled Ned to the ground with his swinging blow. Recovering himself, Ned flew at him, but the boy was no match for the man, and Mr. Mulready's passion was as fierce as his own; seizing his throat with his left hand and forcing him back into a corner of the room, his stepfather struck him again and again with all his force with his right.
Charlie had run at once from the room to fetch his mother, and it was scarcelv a minute after the commence-
ment of the outbreak that she rushed into the room, and with a scream threw her arms round her husband.
' The young scoundrel!' Mr. Mulready exclaimed panting, as he released his hold of Ned; ' be has been wanting a lesson for a long time, and I have given him one at last. He called me Foxey, the young villain, and said I was a double-faced snarling brute; let him say so again and I will knock his head off.'
But Ned just at present was not in a condition to repeat his words; breathless and half stunned he leaned in the corner, his breath came in gasps, his face was as pale as death, his cheek was cut, there were red marks on the forehead which would speedily become black, and the blood was flowing from a cut on his lip, his eyes had a dazed and half-stupid look.
'Oh! William!' Mrs. Mulready said as she looked at her son, 'how could you hurt him so!'
'Hurt him, the young reptile!' Mr. Mulready said savagely. ' I meant to hurt him. I will hurt him more next time.'
Mrs. Mulready paid no attention to his words, but went up to Ned.
' Ned, my boy,' she said tenderly, ' what is it? Don't look like that, Ned; speak to me.'
His mother's voice seemed to rouse Ned into consciousness. He drew a long breath, then slowly passed his hand across his eyes, and lips, and mouth. He looked at his mother and seemed about to speak, but no sound came from his lips. Then his eye fell on his stepfather, who,
rather alarmed at the boy's appearance, was standing near the door. The expression of Ned's face changed, his mouth became set and rigid, his eyes dilated, and Mr. Mulready, believing that he was about to spring upon him, drew back hastily half a step and threw up his hands to defend himself. Mrs. Mulready threw herself in Ned's way; the boy made no effort to put her aside, but kept his eyes fixed over her shoulder at his stepfather.
' Take care!' he said hoarsely, ' it will be my turn next time, and when it comes I will kill you, you brute.'
'Oh, go away, William!' Mrs. Mulready cried; 'oh! do go away, or there will be more mischief. Oh! Ned, do sit down, and don't look so dreadful; he is going now.'
Mr. Mulready turned and went with a laugh which he intended to be scornful, but in which there was a strong tinge of uneasiness. He had always in his heart been afraid of this boy with his wild and reckless temper, and felt that in his present mood Ned was capable of anything. Still as Mr. Mulready took his seat in his gig his predominant
