'It would be hard to find the one grain of right on the part of the Ramsbotham cabal.'
'Perhaps you would not think so, if you were a boy's mother.'
'Oh!' cried Isabel, with tears in her eyes, 'if he thought he had been too hasty, he always made such reparation that only cowards could help being touched. I'm sure they deserved it, and much more.'
'No doubt,' said Louis; 'but, alas! if all had their deserts—'
'Then you really think he was too severe?'
'I think his constitutional character was hardly fit for so trying a post, and that his family and school troubles reacted upon each other.'
'You mean Clara's conduct; and dear grandmamma—oh! if she could but have stayed with us! If you could have seen how haggard and grieved he came home from Cheveleigh! I do not think he has been quite the same ever since.'
'And No. 5 has never been the same,' said Louis.
'Tell me,' said Isabel, suddenly, 'are we very poor indeed?'
'I fear so, Isabel. Till James can find some employment, I fear there is a stern struggle with poverty before you.'