"There's a document left to that effect," eagerly put in Mr. North.
"And what though you were appointed fifty times over and and fifty to that; do you suppose it would give you the right to bring her here--to thrust her into my home?" shrieked madam. "Do not believe it, Richard North."
"Madam," said Richard, quietly, "the home is mine."
"On sufferance," was the scornful rejoinder. "But I think the sufferance has been allowed too long."
"You have known me now many years, madam: I do not think in all those years you have found me advance a proposition that I could not substantiate. In saying the home here was mine I spoke what is literally true. I am the lessee of Dallory Hall. You and my father----My dear father"--turning to him--"I know you will pardon me for the few plain words I must speak----are here on sufferance. My guests, as it were."
"It is every word Gospel truth," spoke up poor Mr. North, glad that the moment of enlightenment had at length come. "Dick holds the lease of Dallory Hall, and he is its real master. For several years now we have all been pensioners on his bounty. He has worked to keep us, madam, in this his own house; and he has done it nobly and generously."
It seemed to madam that her brain suddenly reeled, for the words brought conviction with them. Richard the master! Richard's money that they had been living upon!
"I am grieved to have been obliged to state this, madam," Richard resumed. "I shall wish never to allude to it again, and I will continue to do the best I can for all. But--in regard to Miss Ellen Adair, she must remain here, and she shall be made welcome."