CHAPTER XVII.
BETWEEN DUTY AND DUTY.
For a while Ellen stood silent, enjoying the luxury of a well-earned victory; then she turned and went upstairs to Henry’s room. The first thing that she saw was the crutch which her brother had used as a missile of war with such effect, still lying where it had fallen on the carpet. She picked it up and placed it by his chair.
“How do you do, Henry?” she said blandly. “I hear that you have surpassed yourself this morning.”
“Now, look here, Ellen,” he answered, in a voice that was almost savage in its energy, “if you have come to bait me, I advise you to give it up, for I am in no mood to stand much more. You sent Mr. Milward up here to insult me, and I treated him as he deserved; though now I regret that under intolerable provocation I forgot mysel
