"Well, my dears?" said the father, looking up with a keen, rather
surprised glance, and in a tone which qualified with some severity the
"my dears."
The son had had some exceedingly fine beginnings in his head, but they
fled ignominiously with the calm that was necessary for their successful
delivery, and he blurted at once to the point.
"We have come to say that we are no longer comfortable at home, and have
decided to leave it."
"Henry," exclaimed the mother, hastily, "what do you mean, how can you
be so ungrateful?"
"Mary, my dear," interrupted the father, "please leave the matter to
me." Then turning to the son: "What is this you are saying? I'm afraid I
don't understand."
"I mean that Esther and I have decided to leave home and live together;
because it is impossible for us to live here any longer in happiness--"
"On what do you propose to live?"
"My salary will be sufficient for the present."
"Sixty pounds a year!"
"Yes!"
"And may I ask what is wrong with your home? You have every comfort--far
more than your mother or father were accustomed to.
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