"My allowance not from this firm!" cried Rayner in open-mouthed astonishment. "Do I not receive half yearly from your house the sum of five thousand rupees?"
"It is true that the money does pass through our hands—more I am not at liberty to disclose," said Mr. Fyson firmly.
"A plot, I declare!" cried the young man with flashing eyes. "Not at liberty to disclose where my income is derived from? Why, you forget that you are not addressing a child, but a member of the Madras bar and a sharp one too!" His temper visibly rose as he spoke.
Mr. Fyson's keen face twitched uneasily. He patted the crisp papers which lay on his writing table and lowered his eyes as if to seek counsel in a dilemma. Then, fixing his keen grey orbs on his visitor, he looked at him steadily as if to take stock of him more fully. He then seemed to decide on his course of action, and began to speak in a matter of fact tone:
"You mention your allowance—I should tell you that I have before me your recent application for an increase——"
"That won't satisfy me now! I want my rights," broke in Rayner sulkily.
"Will you allow me to finish what I have to say without interruption?" There was a severe note in the senior partner's voice which acted as a check. "I was about to write to you on the subject. My reply was to be that your allowance will be increased on one condition only, that you will give a pledge,—for the keeping of which due means will be taken—namely, that you will give up all betting, card-playing for money, gambling in any form. If you agree to this I think I can venture to say—in fact I am authorised to state that your allowance will be doubled"; and again Mr. Fyson patted his papers.
As he listened to the calm, even tones, Alfred Rayner's face darkened to a scowl which seemed to transform the smiling young fellow, who had walked into Mr. Fyson's room a few minutes before, into an evil spirit.
"I never heard a more insulting proposal from one man to another!" he exclaimed in a choking voice. "Do you take me for a kid you can tie to the leg of a table, that you are trying this impertinence on me? I tell you I won't stand it for a moment! I'll have a case filed against you."
The older man passed his fingers through his whitening hair and shook his head in evident perplexity.