CHAPTER I.
HENRY THRESK The beginning of all this difficult business was a little speech which Mrs.Thresk fell into a habit of making to her son.

She spoke it the first time on the spur of the moment without thought or intention.

But she saw that it hurt.

So she used it again--to keep Henry in his proper place.
"You have no right to talk, Henry," she would say in the hard practical voice which so completed her self-sufficiency.

"You are not earning your living.