"Jane!" said her husband warningly.
"Oh, you needn't stand up for her," she said airily. "I'm not going to stand by and see my brother treated so. But what's a talking-to with a brazen hussy like that? Wait a bit, I haven't thought how to do it yet, but I'm going to pay her out. Trust me!"
And then Jim did what he had never done in his life before,—he took his wife by the shoulders and forcibly marched her into the bedroom and shut the door upon her.
"Come, Tom!" he said touching him gently on the shoulder, "we've had enough of this."
They passed down the stairs together, but on the landing below Tom stopped, and covering his face with his hands, leaned against the wall.
"Oh Pattie, Pattie," he moaned, "that's my last chance gone. And my own sister too."
Jim said nothing. He was not good at words, but he waited till Tom had recovered himself, and then he went right to his home with him and made a cup of tea for him and sat and chatted till past midnight.
"Don't be downhearted, old fellow," he said when he parted from him.
But as he went home again he muttered to himself and frowned.
"I wonder what Jane means to do? I wonder what she could do?"