“No, I won’t,” he replied bitterly, “not till you’ve thrown all this nonsense aside, and made friends. What a temper! Now, look here, Rich, I’ve been afraid of you. I’ve come here to see the doctor, and I’ve shivered when I’ve seen you. I’ve wanted to speak to you, but my tongue has seemed to stick to the roof of my mouth; but that’s all over now, and we’re going to understand one another before I go.”
“Sir, this is insolence!”
“Insolence!” he said, with the champagne effervescing as it were, in his veins. “No, it’s love.”
Richmond rang the bell.
“Bah!” he said, “what of that? When the girl comes—if she does—I shall tell her to go, for I mean to be master here now.”
“Coward!”
“No, not a coward now,” he replied, laughing. “Rich, do you know what I can do if I like? I can come down on brother Hendon for all he owes me, and how would it be then?”
Richmond winced, and the flush in her cheeks paled away, while Poynter saw it, and went on:
“What should you say if I was to act like a business man would, and come down on your father!”
“What? My father! He does not owe you money?”