"Just a minute. To my wife I am—Robert. To my wife's sister I am—Robert. But to you I am—Mr. Stafford—even when I'm drunk."
Somewhat taken aback at this unexpected rebuff, the young man tried to bluff it out. Raising his voice, he protested:
"You call me Jimmie—you don't even call me James!"
"So I do," laughed the millionaire, who never remained in a bad humor long. It was beneath him to bandy words with his employee. The fellow was impertinent, but what of it? He simply did not know any better.
Fanny, who had been an anxious observer of the little passage at arms, spoke up. Turning to her husband, she said quickly:
"That's very different—"
"How?" demanded Jimmie, with an air of offended dignity.
"In every way," replied his wife, making dumb signs to him to desist.
But the clerk was not to be silenced so easily.
"I don't see it," he said doggedly.