“I hope so,” said Henry, with a sort of laugh. “When I tell you to keep out of the way, mind, I’m advising you against myself. The more you and the old boy wool each other, the better for Hal.”
“He can’t unsettle the place, Harry—not that I want to see him—I never owed him much love, and I think now he’d be glad to see me a beggar.”
Harry laughed again.
“Did you ever hear of a bear with a sore head?” said Harry. “Well, that’s him, at present, and I give you fair notice, I think he’ll leave all he can away from you.”
“So let him; if it’s to you, Harry, I don’t grudge it,” said the elder son.
“That’s a handsome speech, bless the speaker. Can you give me a glass of brandy? This claret I never could abide,” said Harry, with another laugh; “besides it will break you.”
“I’ve but two bottles, and they have been three years here. Yes, you can have brandy, it’s here.”
“I’ll get it,” said Alice, brightening up in the sense of her house-keeping importance. “It’s—I think it’s in this, ain’t it?” she said, opening one of the presses inserted in the wainscot.
“Let me, darling, it’s there, I ought to know, I put it there myself,” said Charles, getting up, and taking the keys from her and opening another cupboard.
“I’m so stupid!” said Alice, blushing, as she surrendered them, “and so useless; but you’re always right, Charlie.”