"How is it that you don't dine at home?" he asked. "I believe, however, that your mother is away."
"It isn't that, for Jane prepares the meals."
"You want a change then?" said Mr. Jameson smiling.
"No, it isn't that either. Mother has got home," he added bluntly.
"And you go away at such a time?"
"I may as well tell you—everybody will know it soon. She has come home with a new husband."
"You amaze me! And you don't like the arrangement?" he asked, with a keen glance at his young companion.
"No; he's not a gentleman," answered Robert bitterly. "I don't see how she could have married him—or anybody, after my father."
"It is natural for you to feel so. Still, she had a right to do so."
They talked further, and Mr. Jameson gradually modified Robert's excited feelings. He made the boy promise that if Mr. Talbot should show a disposition to be friendly, he would at any rate treat him with courtesy.