I thought I heard Mrs. Billing say, "Brava!" At any rate, she tapped her fingers together as if in applause. I began to feel a more lenient spirit toward her.
"I'm quite willing to do that," my opponent said, in a moderate, long-suffering tone, "now that I see that you refuse to take Hugh's good into consideration. So long as you encourage him in his present madness—"
"I'm not doing that."
He took no notice of the interruption. "—I'm obliged to regard him as nothing to me."
"That must be between you and your son."
"It is. I'm only asking you to note that you—ruin him."
"No, no," I began to protest, but he silenced me with a movement of his hand.
"I'm not a hard man naturally," he went on, in his tranquil voice, "but I have to be obeyed."
"Why?" I demanded. "Why should you be obeyed more than any one else?"
"Because I mean to be. That must be enough—"