“Did he always drink?”
“He’s drank, more or less, for ten years, but the habit seems to have grown upon him. Till five years ago two-thirds of his earnings came to me to spend for the house, but now I don’t average a dollar a week.”
“It’s too bad, Aunt Jane!” said Robert energetically.
“So it is, but it does no good to say so. It won’t mend matters.”
“I wish I was a man.”
“I am glad you are not, Robert.”
“Why are you glad that I am a boy?” asked Robert in surprise.
“Because when you are a man you won’t stay here. You will go out into the world to better yourself, and I shan’t blame you. Then I shall be left alone with your uncle, and Heaven only knows how I shall get along. I shall starve very likely.”
Robert pushed back his chair from the table and looked straight at his aunt.
“Do you think, Aunt Jane,” he demanded indignantly, “that I will desert you and leave you to shift for yourself?”