“I say you are!”
“Not by a—” His feelings were carrying him away. He was forgetting that these dealings were with an impulsive girl. His anger was mounting. She was putting him on the plane of a blackleg.
“Go ahead and talk as strongly as you like, Captain Mayo. It will make it seem like man's business between us.”
“Those tricks may be all right in Wall Street, but they don't do for me. And you've got a pretty poor opinion of me if you think I'll do it.”
“Don't be quixotic,” she protested, impatiently. “We are living in up-to-date times, Captain Mayo. Some of those underlings have played a nasty trick on you. They must be exposed.”
“This is a girl's crazy notion!”
“Captain Mayo, is this the way you help me pay my debt?”
“You don't owe me anything.”
“And now you pay me an insult! Are my honor as a girl and my life worth nothing? You have saved both.”
“I don't know how to talk to you. I haven't had any experience in talking with women. I simply say that I'm not going to your father in any such manner. Certainly not!”