“The misery in Upworthy is my business.”
“Ho, is it?”
“Yes; I can break a hornet’s nest about your ears, and I’m in the mood to do it. I can get the medical officer of health for the county down here, and if I do, you and your father’s business, which you manage as abominably as he did, will be blown to—to your ultimate destination.”
Gridley stared at him in stupefaction. Hitherto, the local sanitary inspector, with well-greased palms, had seen to it that his chief should be spared such visitations. Altering his tone slightly, he growled out:
“Her ladyship will have something to say to that.”
“Cut her ladyship out of this. I propose to deal with you. Her ladyship has entrusted you with powers which you have abused, grossly abused, to your own advantage.”
Gridley, with unpleasant memories of John Exton, and confronted by a tense athletic figure, said sullenly:
“I suppose I can’t stop you talking.”
“You can’t. You like being top dog. And because you came from the people, you’re hard on the people. You treat them as dirt.”
Gridley laughed brutally, as a not unreasonable fear of personal violence passed from him.