"Young shaver, we don't want you," said Ralph, rudely.
"My father ordered me to take a walk this morning, sir."
"There are two ways—I and Rosalind go one, and you the other," said Ralph.
"My father bade me on no account leave Rosalind."
Ralph growled and went on, the boy following. Mr. Grym led the way for six miles, and the child became utterly wearied. The father made every effort to shake off the boy. He swore at him, he threatened him, money he had not got to offer him; all was in vain. At last, when the little girl sat down exhausted, and began to cry, the father with an oath left her.
"That," said Henry, in after life, "was the first time I had to do with Ralph Grym, and then I beat him."
Many years after he had again to stand as Rosalind's protector against Ralph, then striking at his child with a dead hand, and again he beat him.
After her mother's death Ralph invited his daughter to Grimstone, but only with the object of extorting from her the three thousand pounds she had inherited from her mother. When she refused to surrender this, he let her understand that her presence was irksome to him. He shifted the hour of dinner from seven to nine, then to ten, and finally gave orders that no dinner was to be served for a week. Still she did not go.
"I want your room, Rosalind," he said roughly; "I have a friend coming."
"The house is large, there are plenty of apartments; he shall have mine, I will move into another."