"You have heard my proposition, Lansing; I mean to stand by it; unless you can accept my terms I shall change my will."
Could Markham only have understood he would have known that it was the pride of his race, not the Hertfords', that spurred Lansing to retort angrily:
"I did not know I was being bought. I thought you were doing it for what you believed was my good!"
"And so I am!" The incongruity of thus arguing with a boy of seventeen did not strike Markham. It was man to man, with the influence of Olive Treadwell in the reckoning!
"Give me my college first, Uncle Levi, and consider the business afterward."
"I have worked this thing out, Lansing. I am not likely to change my mind."
And just then Sandy Morley passed by the window with his dog at his heels.
"Who is that?" asked Lans indifferently, and a blind impulse spoke through Markham.
"The boy who will accept the offer I make if you decline it!"
Lansing Hertford got upon his feet. All the forced affection and respect he had been trained to observe dropped from him. His uncle seemed a coarse, hard stranger, the surroundings distasteful. A certain mental homesickness for all the pleasant luxury and environment of his Aunt Olive's life overcame him. He spoke boyishly.