“That will do!” Potter cut him off, and paced the floor, virulently brooding. “And so Talbot Potter's company is to be made up of actors engaged to suit the personal whims of L. Smith Packer's father, old Mister Packer of Baptist Ridge, near Seeleyville, Pennsylvania!”
“But, Mr. Potter, if you don't—”
“I said that would DO!” roared Potter. “Good-night!”
“Good-night, sir,” said the stage-manager humbly, and humbly got himself out of the room, to be heard, an instant later, bidding the Japanese an apologetic good-night at the outer door of the apartment.
Canby rose to take his own departure, promising to have the new dialogue “worked out” by morning.
“He is, too!” said Potter, not heeding the playwright, but confirming an unuttered thought in his own mind. He halted at the table, where he had set his tiny glass, and gulped the emerald at a swallow. “I always thought he was!”
“Was what?” inquired old Tinker.
“A hypocrite!”
“D'you mean Packer?” said Tinker incredulously.
“He's a hypocrite!” Potter shouted fiercely. “And I shouldn't be surprised if his father was another! Widower! I never saw the man in my life, but I'd swear it on oath! He is a hypocrite! Packer's father is a damned old Baptist hypocrite!”