“There isn’t now,” replied the other bitterly. “You’re a nice one to talk that way, aren’t you?”
“I can’t help it,” answered Hansel stubbornly. “You mustn’t do it, Bert; it isn’t right! It’s your duty to——”
“Oh, cut it out!” flamed Bert. “Don’t you lecture me about duty! You who didn’t care enough whether we won or didn’t win to stand by us when we needed you! You lost the game to-day; we didn’t! Think about that a while and don’t talk duty to me, or tell me what I ought or ought not to do!”
He turned again to his note, signed his name with a sputter of ink, and blotted it.
“Are you going to send that?” asked Hansel quietly.
“Yes.”
“Do you know what it means?”
“Did you know when you refused to play?”
Hansel was silent. Bert folded the note, thrust it into an envelope and addressed it to Mr. Ames. Then,