“No, but I’m my mother’s.”
“Naturally,” said Garstang, with a supercilious smile.
“You need not sneer, sir. If you hadnt deluded my poor mother into marrying you I should have been well off.”
“Your mother had a right to do as she pleased, sir. Where have you been?”
“Away from the office.”
“I know that. Where to?”
“Where I liked,” said the young man sulkily, “I’m not a child.”
“No, and this conduct has become unbearable. It is time you went away for good. What do you say to going to Australia with your passage paid and a hundred pounds to start you?”
“’Tisn’t good enough.”
“Then you had better execute your old threat and enlist in a cavalry regiment. I promise you that I will not buy you out.”