“Did you know that this letter was coming?”
“Yes, I did.”
“It is perhaps as you have advised Fleming?”
“No. I gave him no advice; but I knew he would not let the boy stay here.”
“Do you then approve?” said Alvar, in a curious sort of voice.
“From their point of view—yes. You are right in saying that you must make yourself felt as the master; but there is no good in enforcing your authority in a way that is not customary, to say the least of it. In England we can’t lay hands on other people; and they might have summoned you for an assault, you know.”
“What! before a judge?”
“Before a magistrate.”
“I?” exclaimed Alvar, in a tone of such amazement that Cheriton nearly laughed. “Who would listen to that little boy against me, who am a gentleman and his master?”
“The little boy is your equal in the eyes of the law, and might meet with more attention just because you are his master. Not that I mean to say it would not be regarded as very annoying to convict you,” said Cheriton, thinking of the feelings of Sir John Hubbard on such an emergency.