"I do."
"But if you do that, what shall I do?"
"Go to work and make a man of yourself. Do that, and perhaps in time I will do something for you."
Frederic Vernon shook his head slowly. Then he faced Robert, and his proud face became black with illy-suppressed rage.
"This is your work, you young rascal----" he began, when his aunt stopped him.
"I will hear no talk like that here, Frederic," she said. "Robert is my best and truest friend, and you must respect him as such."
"He has done everything he could to cut me out!" howled the young spendthrift bitterly.
"That ain't so," burst out Robert. "You cut yourself out. Your aunt would never have discharged you had you done your work properly--she has told me that a number of times."
"I say it's a plot against me!" said Frederic Vernon, hardly knowing how to go on.
"Frederic, you are a very foolish young man," came from Mrs. Vernon gravely. "There was a time when I had unlimited confidence in you, and you could have retained that confidence had you chosen so to do. Instead, you became a spendthrift. Now you must go out into the world and earn your own living."