“Well,” said Stephens, “you can investigate, if you like. You can find out all about me. You can write to—”
“No! It won’t do!... No, I’ll have to ask you to—to discontinue the intimacy.”
“There isn’t any intimacy.”
“There’s not to be any intercourse whatever.”
“I don’t see how you can stop it,” said Stephens.
“I forbid it!” said Gilbert, with a scowl.
“You can’t forbid me, you know. As for your ‘family,’ I don’t know whether you can forbid them or not. That’s their business. If they consider it the best policy to knuckle down, why, I shan’t think any the worse of them. It’s the way of the world to dance when the fellow with the money fiddles. You—”
“Look here, you damned, impudent, vulgar jackanapes—”
“Don’t begin calling names, or I might call you a damn’ vulgar bully. But I won’t. I don’t lose my temper so easily. Fellows like me know that when they do lose their tempers, they’ve got to back it up with their fists. Something your sort never do, do you? You yell and curse, and that’s the end of it.”
They were disturbed by the distressful voice of Mrs. Dewey, outraged by these loud voices, but respectful before two such profitable persons.