"I do! I do!" cried poor Bobo. "I'll put a stop to that. I'll speak to him!"
"Yes," she said with a kind of plaintive spitefulness, "tell him I told you, and then he'll act worse to me than ever. If you cared about me at all, you wouldn't keep him for another day."
"You just leave it to me, I'll fix it," said Bobo desperately.
"That's what you say every day, but I don't see any change."
"So this is an everyday affair!" thought Jack. "Poor Bobo!"
"It can't go on," she said gloomily. "I think too much of you as a friend to stand seeing another man run you. I'd rather give you up—as a friend. If I've got to put up with Jack Robinson, I don't want to see you any more."
The softest creature, pushed to the wall, shows fight. "I won't fire Jack," said Bobo sullenly. "You're just trying to run me the same way you say he is. If I've got to go, I'll go!"
"Good for Bobo!" thought Jack.
She quickly performed the undignified maneuver known as climbing down. "No, Bobo," she said meltingly. "You are right. I shouldn't have spoken that way. It is none of my business. But I can't bear to see you imposed on. It made me forget myself!"
"I can take care of myself," muttered Bobo.