"I see even less point in treating her on a different plane from any of the other servants."
"It almost seems, Tuck, as if you enjoyed your constant interviews with her."
"That is just, I regret to say, Burton, what I was thinking about you."
"It seems to me," said Crane, "that this discussion is not leading anywhere, and might as well end."
"One moment," exclaimed the other, "my story is not finished. When it came to be the turn of that boy Brindlebury, in whom I may as well tell you I have no confidence whatever, his manner was so insolent, his refusal to answer my questions so suspicious—Well, to make a long story short, your boot-boy, Burton, attempted to knock me down, and I had, of course, to put him out of the room. The situation is perfectly simple. I must ask you either to dismiss him, or to order the motor to take me to the train."
There was a short pause, during which Crane very deliberately lit a cigarette. Then he said in a level tone:
"The boy is already dismissed. He is out of the house at this moment, probably. As to the other alternative—the ordering the motor—I will, of course, do that, too, if you insist."
But Tucker did not insist.
"On the contrary," he said, "you have done all I could desire—more, indeed, for you have evidently decided against the boy before you even heard my side of the case."
"One cannot always decide these cases with regard for eternal justice," said Crane.