"By what name, then, will you be pleased to be known in future, that I may say when I hear it that you are none of mine?"
"Oh, the devil!" burst out Tom, beside himself with his father's behavior and treatment.
"Very well. Then I beg again to inform you, Mr. Devil, that it is your own fault. Give up that girl, and I will provide for the lovely siren and her harridan of a grandam for life; and take you home to wealth and a career which you shall choose for yourself."
"No, father. I will not."
"Then take yourself off, and be—" It is needless to print the close of the sentence.
Thomas rose and left the room. As he went down the stairs, his father shouted after him, in a tone of fury:
"You're not to go near your mother, mind."
"I'm going straight to her," answered Tom, as quietly as he could.
"If you do, I'll murder her."
Tom came up the stairs again to the door next his father's where the clerks sat. He opened this and said aloud: