It was a terrible disappointment to Frank and his wife, who had looked
forward to enjoying a winter in Washington, where they intended to take
a house and enjoy all society had to offer them in the national
metropolis. Particularly were they anxious for the change now that
Arthur had come home, for it was not altogether pleasant to be ruled
where they had so long been rulers, and to see the house turned upside
down without the right to protest.
'I can't stand it, and I won't,' Frank said to his wife in the first
flush of his bitter disappointment. 'Ever since he came home he has
raised Cain generally, with his carpenters, and masons, and painters,
and stewing about water-pipes, and sewer-gas, and smells. He's mad as a
March hare, and if I can't get rid of him by going to Washington, I'll
do it in some other way. You know he is crazy, and so do I, and I'll
swear to it on a stack of Bibles as high as the house.'
And Frank did swear to it, not on a stack of Bibles, but before two or
three physicians and Mr. St. Claire, who, at his solicitation, came to
Tracy Park, and were closeted with him for an hour or more, while he
related his grievances, asserting finally that he considered his brother
dangerous, and did not think his family safe with him, citing as proof
that he had on one occasion threatened to kill his son Tom for accusing
Harold Hastings of theft.
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