"No; I wrote a line this afternoon, which I should have sent to the office at once."
"When it was too late!"
"Your reproaches are unseemly and uncalled for," said his step-mother, quite coldly.
"I think differently," said Jasper, bitterly. "You should have sent for me as soon as my father got worse than usual."
"In consideration of your grief I will overlook your impertinence," said Mrs. Kent, compressing her thin lips, as she left the room.
The doctor followed her out, and Jasper was left alone with the dead.
He did not realize it, but his father's death was to seriously affect his fortunes.
A DECLARATION OF WAR.
Half an hour later Jasper left the room where his father lay dead. He did not seek the presence of his step-mother, who, he felt, had done him wrong in keeping from him his father's condition. He went instead to the kitchen, where he found Margaret.