"I shall tell mother how impertinent she's been and get her dismissed!" he exclaimed as the young woman left the room. "She had no business to speak to me in such a manner as that."
"I think you were trying to show off, though," Roger told him candidly, "for really it's a beautiful cake, and the bread and butter is much thinner than we ever have it at home, even if we have strangers to tea. Yes, I'll have a little more strawberry jam, please. I'm making a very good tea."
So was Edgar, though he would not admit it. He felt exceedingly humiliated, for he had desired to make Roger believe that the servants of the household were under his control, and he had certainly not succeeded in his attempt. For a short while he looked extremely cross; but he soon brightened up after tea, when he led the way into his father's study, and exhibited to his companion a collection of coins, and another of foreign stamps, both of which he represented to be his own. As a matter-of-fact that was perfectly untrue, and he had no right to show either the coins or the stamps without his father's permission. Of course, Roger did not know that, and he began to look on his cousin as a person of property.
"I wonder you don't sell some of those stamps if they're worth such a heap of money as you say," he said, as he watched Edgar replace the stamps in the cabinet from which he had taken them, "I am sure I should."
"But, you see, I don't want the money," Edgar reminded him.
"No, I suppose not."
The coins were kept in the shallow drawers of another cabinet which Edgar had unlocked with a key—one of a bunch he had taken from a desk on the writing-table. He would not permit Roger to touch them, only to look, and afterwards he locked the drawers and returned the keys to the exact spot where he had found them. Then he took up a cigarette case which he opened and offered to Roger.
"Have one?" he asked with an assumption of carelessness.
"No, thank you," Roger responded, laughing, for he had not taken the offer seriously; "I don't smoke."
"I do," was the astounding reply, as Edgar selected a cigarette from the case and proceeded to light it with a wax match he took from a match-box which he produced from his pocket. Roger watched him take two or three whiffs in silence, dumbfounded at the sight. At last he cried wonderingly: