"So you keep him to early hours," said Tom. "I left Eva talking to her mother."
"He's in bed because he's naughty, and it's the only punishment I can inflict, and I should not be surprised any day if he refused to go, and what my next move would be does not yet appear. It's quite certain I can't beat him."
"But your father could. I'm no advocate for beating, but occasionally a boy in the puppy stage is better for it."
"Father is too old and too lenient. Besides, he's my responsibility," said Betty, with a little laugh that had tears behind it.
"You should send him home."
"I would if my brother-in-law had anyone there to mother him, although I should be sending half my heart with him."
"Well, depend upon it he's only passing through one of the rather tiresome stages of development, which every man-child experiences in a more or less degree."
"But which it needs a man's hand to guide him through."
"I'm not at all sure that a mother's or aunt's influence does not go further," said Tom consolingly, "but I shall be here for a few weeks now, and will do what I can. Besides, I'm so fond of the boy. I don't think little Jack the Englishman can have gone far astray. Does your present clergyman have much to say to him?"
"Mr. Curtis?" answered Betty. "He's quite a good man and a very hard worker, but he has no knack with children. He is shy of them, and the feeling is mutual."