“I am not afraid of threats, sir,” said Stephens quietly.
Anthony had been speaking in an authoritative tone, as if his decision quite set the matter at rest, and opposition irritated him as usual.
“I simply tell you what will happen if you come where you’re not wanted,” he said, raising his voice. “And as to the chapel, we’ll take care that is never built. You may call it a threat if you please, but it’s one that will find itself a fact.”
“Mr Miles, the word of God has borne down fiercer things than you are like to hold over me, and it will do so yet again. I am sorry to go against you, but I must either do that or against the inward conviction.”
“Cant,” muttered Anthony wrathfully. “And so you suppose you’re to have that field?”
“Mr Maddox has as good as promised it, sir.”
“You’ll find him in a different mind now.”
“He’ll not go against his word!”
For the first time during the interview Stephens’s quietness was broken by a touch of passion. His eyes, lit up by a sudden fire, fastened themselves anxiously upon Anthony. Anthony, who had hitherto been the angry one of the two, felt a contemptuous satisfaction at having raised this wrath.
“His word! Things are not done quite so easily as all that. You had better turn and go back again, for all the good you’ll get by going on.”