‘Well?’
‘He is quite willing to settle upon you a third of his income from the collieries; he tells me it will represent between seven and eight hundred a year. I think it rather little, you know; but I congratulate myself on having got this out of him.’
‘Don’t speak in that unpleasant way! It was only your abruptness that made any kind of difficulty.’
‘I have my own opinion on that point, and I shall beg leave to keep it. Probably he will think me still more abrupt when I request, as I am now going to do, an interview with his solicitors.’
‘Is that allowable?’ asked Maud, anxiously. ‘Can you do that with any decency?’
‘If not, then I must do it with indecency. You will have the goodness to remember that if I don’t look after your interests, no one else will. It’s perhaps fortunate for you that I have a good deal of the man of business about me. Dolomore thought I was a dreamy, literary fellow. I don’t say that he isn’t entirely honest, but he shows something of a disposition to play the autocrat, and I by no means intend to let him. If you had a father, Dolomore would have to submit his affairs to examination.
I stand to you in loco parentis, and I shall bate no jot of my rights.’
‘But you can’t say that his behaviour hasn’t been perfectly straightforward.’
‘I don’t wish to. I think, on the whole, he has behaved more honourably than was to be expected of a man of his kind. But he must treat me with respect. My position in the world is greatly superior to his. And, by the gods! I will be treated respectfully! It wouldn’t be amiss, Maud, if you just gave him a hint to that effect.’
‘All I have to say is, Jasper, don’t do me an irreparable injury. You might, without meaning it.’