"Say that you have lied!"
Whenever Buteau in his younger days had felt a buffet coming he had raised his elbow to shield himself, his teeth chattering the while; but now he merely shrugged his shoulders with an air of insolent contempt.
"You are vastly mistaken. You imagine that you frighten me," he said. "It was all very well when you were the master to treat us like that!"
"I am the master—the father!"
"Nonsense, you old joker; you are nothing at all. Ah, so you won't leave me alone, won't you?"
Then seeing that the old man's unsteady arm was descending to deal a blow, he seized hold of it, and crushed it in his rough grasp.
"What a pig-headed fellow you are!" he cried. "Can't you get it into that old noddle of yours that no one cares a fig about you now? Do you suppose that you are good for anything at all? You are so much expense, and that's all! When a man has outlived his time, and passed his land over to others, he ought to be content with chewing his grub quietly, and keep from being a nuisance to other folks."
He shook his father to emphasise what he was saying; and then, giving the old man a final shake, he hurled him backwards, trembling and quaking, upon a chair near the window. And there the old man remained, half choking, for a moment, conquered and humiliated by the complete loss of his old authority. It was all over with him. He counted for nothing at all, now that he had stripped himself of his property.
Complete silence reigned in the kitchen, and all remained in embarrassed inactivity. The children had scarcely dared to breathe for fear of receiving a cuffing. Presently, however, work was begun again as if nothing unusual had happened.
"Is that grass going to be left out in the yard?" asked Lise.