'No, child; you ought to know. It was a quarrel on the subject of religion.'
'How, sir?'
'Our family have been Independents from all time. But my father married a second wife, belonging to the Church of England. She won him over to her way of thinking. I was the only child of the first marriage; and when I came home from India I found a houseful of younger brothers and sisters, all belonging, of course, to the Establishment, and my father with them. I was a kind of outlaw. The advancement of the family was thought to depend very much on the stand I would take, as after my father's death I would be the head of the family. At least my stepmother made that a handle for her schemes; and she drove them so successfully that at last my father declared he would disinherit me if I refused to join him.'
'In being a Church of England man?'
'Yes.'
'But, papa, that was very unjust!'
'So I thought. But the injustice was done.'
'And you disinherited?'
'Yes.'
'Oh, papa! Just because you followed your own conscience!'