By her marriage with Mr. Smithers, Tommy's mother had two children, a boy and a girl, who had respectively received the high-sounding names of Harold Stamford Smithers and Alice Regina Smithers.
Mr. Smithers himself was a clerk in a New York dry-goods house, and he resided in a quiet part of Jersey City, about half a mile from the ferry.
He prided himself upon being high-toned, and above all things boasted that he was master in his own house.
Poor little Mrs. Smithers knew this to her cost, for she received many a scolding, especially on Tommy's account, without daring to "talk back."
Smithers was very fond of his own two children, Harold Stamford and Alice Regina, both of whom he spoiled dreadfully.
One was eleven, the other ten, and they were as disagreeable, self-willed and conceited as overindulgence could make them.
Perhaps Smithers had a stepfather's dislike for Tommy.
One thing is certain, he frequently beat him and rarely said a word to the others.
Mrs. Smithers always looked sad and worried, which was no wonder, as she had to put up with a great deal from her husband.
She was a bad manager, was idle, and hated a disturbance of any kind, so that the children might do almost anything without her interfering with them.