"Do you think he will be bigger than me?" asked the child, drawing his slender, graceful form to its full height.
"I don't know, sir."
"I wonder if he will want to fight," musingly.
"Fight!" cried Jane, in horrified accents. "I should think not, indeed! What can you mean, Master Theodore?"
"Tom Blake says boys always fight to see which is the master. I shall not touch the—the strange woman's little boy if he is smaller than me—that would be cowardly. But if he is about my size," with flashing eyes and clenched teeth, "I shall thrash him."
Having delivered this speech, Theodore drew his hand away from Jane's clasp, and ran off toward the house. His nurse followed hastily, whilst old John Bawdon gazed after them with troubled eyes.
[CHAPTER II.]
THEODORE BECOMES ACQUAINTED WITH HIS STEPMOTHER AND HER LITTLE SON.
THE following afternoon the inmates of Afton Hall were in a great state of excitement. The servants, headed by Mrs. Hussey, the housekeeper, were ranged in a line in the entrance hall, awaiting the arrival of the travellers.
Suddenly there was a slight commotion heard, and Jane darted downstairs, her face pale with consternation.