“There, there, my boy, remember your aunt is a lady, and such expressions are not permissible before her——”
“Pish! Tush!” snorted Miss Prall, who would not have herself objected to that descriptive verb, since it gives the very impression she wanted to convey, “If I did not permit such expressions Richard would not use them, rest assured of that.”
Bates smiled and lighted a fresh cigarette. These tilts between his elders greatly amused him, they seemed so futile and inane, yet of such desperate interest to the participants.
“Then that’s all right,” Sir Herbert conceded. “Now, Richard, for the last time, I offer you the chance to fall in with my wishes, to consent to my fondest desire, and attach yourself to my great, my really stupendous enterprise. I want, with my whole soul, to keep Binney’s Buns in the family,—I want a worthy partner and successor, and one of my own blood kin,—but, I can’t force you into this agreement,—I can only urge you, with all the powers of my persuasion, to see it rightly, and to realize that your refusal will harm you more than any one else.”
“I’ll take a chance on that, Uncle Bin.” Bates gave him a cheery smile that irritated by its very carelessness.
“You’ll lose, sir! You’ll see the day that you’ll wish you had taken up with my offers. You’ll regret, when it’s too late——”
“Why, what’s your alternative plan?”
“Aha! Interested, are you? Well, young sir, my alternative plan is to find somebody with more common sense and good judgment than your rattle-pated, pig-headed self! That’s my alternative plan.”
“Got anybody in view?”
“And if I have?”