power resided, or how it was communicated, or how the manner of its
reception varied in different persons), he turned and ascended the
stair.

But when he reached the top, he stopped and looked down. The wife
was standing in the same place, twisting her ring round and round
upon her finger. The husband, with his head bent forward on his
breast, was musing heavily and sullenly. The children, still
clustering about the mother, gazed timidly after the visitor, and
nestled together when they saw him looking down.

"Come!" said the father, roughly. "There's enough of this. Get to
bed here!"

"The place is inconvenient and small enough," the mother added,
"without you. Get to bed!"

The whole brood, scared and sad, crept away; little Johnny and the
baby lagging last. The mother, glancing contemptuously round the
sordid room, and tossing from her the fragments of their meal,
stopped on the threshold of her task of clearing the table, and sat
down, pondering idly and dejectedly. The father betook himself to
the chimney-corner, and impatiently raking the small fire together,
bent over it as if he would monopolise it all. They did not
interchange a word.

The Chemist, paler than before, stole upward like a thief; looking
back upon the change below, and dreading equally to go on or
return.