"No! If Madelene's satisfied, I am," replied Frederick, flipping the ash from his cigarette.
"Then be ready to get away by, let me see, early in March," his brother-in-law announced.
Early in March, and this was but December! He had that much grace then. He could do something for Tess if the family relaxed its vigilance upon him a little.
"And there's something else," proceeded Waldstricker. "It's—it's this!"
Then he deliberately made a statement that brought a red fire into Frederick's eyes. He staggered to his feet.
"You wouldn't, you couldn't do that, Ebenezer," he groaned.
"Oh, ho!... That gets you on the raw, does it, young man?" sneered the elder, one lip-corner rising to an unusual height. "So you do care that much, eh?... A while ago you made the statement she was nothing to you."
"I want to be human," Frederick managed to get out.
"Human, eh? No, that's not it! What you want is a few other women on your staff besides your wife. But you won't as long as you're married to my sister, and I'm running things. I'll see that none of the members of my family disobey my law or God's law either."
The big man got to his feet, slipped his hands into his pocket, and stared at his white-faced, young brother-in-law.