“He’s got a heart, if one could only reach it, I suppose.”

“A very hot heart.  I shall try to extend his sympathies when he comes back.”

Her intention added further fuel to the fire burning in Raymond’s own thoughts.  He saw both danger and hope in the situation, as it might develop from this point.  The time was drawing nearer when he meant to ask Estelle to marry him, and since he looked now at life and all its relations from this standpoint, he began to consider his son therefrom.

On the whole he was cheered by Estelle’s achievements and argued well of them.  The danger he set aside, and chose rather to reflect on the hope.  With Abel back at school again and his mother in a more placid temper, there came a moment of peace.  Ironsyde was able to forget them and did so thankfully, while he concentrated on the task before him.  He felt very doubtful, both of Estelle’s response and her father’s view.  The girl herself, however, was all that mattered, for Waldron would most surely approve her choice whatever it might be.  Arthur had of late, however, been giving it as his opinion that his daughter would not marry.  He had decided that she was not the marrying sort, and told Raymond as much.

“The married state’s too limited for her:  her energies are too tremendous to leave any time for being a wife.  To bottle Estelle down to a husband and children is impossible.  They wouldn’t be enough for her intellect.”

This had been said some time before, when unconscious of Ironsyde’s growing emotions; but of late he had suspected them and was, therefore, more guarded in his prophecies.

Then came a shock, which delayed progress, for Abel thrust himself to the front of his mind again.  Estelle corresponded with her new friend, and the boy had heard from her that in future he must thank his father for his education.  She felt that it was time he knew this, and hoped that he would now be sane enough to let the fact influence him.  It did, but not as she had expected.  Instead there came the news that Abel had been expelled.  He deliberately refused to proceed with his work, and, when challenged, explained that he would learn no more at his father’s expense.

Nothing moved him, and Estelle’s well-meant but ill-judged action merely served to terminate Abel’s education for good and all.

The boy was rapidly becoming a curse to his father.  Puritans, who knew the story, welcomed its development and greeted each phase with religious enthusiasm; but others felt the situation to be growing absurd.  Raymond himself so regarded it, and when Abel returned home again he insisted on seeing him.

“You can be present if you wish to be,” he told Sabina, but she expressed no such desire.  Her attitude was modified of late, and, largely under the influence of Estelle, she began to see the futility of this life-enmity declared against Raymond by her son.  Of old she had thought it natural, and while not supporting it had made no effort to crush it out of him.  Now she perceived that it could come to nothing and only breed bitterness.  She had, therefore, begun to tone her indifference and withhold the little bitter speeches that only fortified Abel’s hate.  She had even argued with him—­lamely enough—­and advised him not to persist in a dislike of his father that could not serve him in after life.