“Can’t you speak?” said the boy sharply.

“I am very unwilling to speak, Charley. If I must, I must. I cannot authorize you to say any such thing to Mr. Headstone: I cannot allow you to say any such thing to Mr. Headstone. Nothing remains to be said to him from me, after what I have said for good and all, tonight.”

“And this girl,” cried the boy, contemptuously throwing her off again, “calls herself a sister!”

“Charley, dear, that is the second time that you have almost struck me. Don’t be hurt by my words. I don’t mean⁠—Heaven forbid!⁠—that you intended it; but you hardly know with what a sudden swing you removed yourself from me.”

“However!” said the boy, taking no heed of the remonstrance, and pursuing his own mortified disappointment, “I know what this means, and you shall not disgrace me.”