CHAPTER XXX
IN WHICH RONALD BARRYMAINE MAKES HIS CHOICE
There was a moment of strained silence, then, as Barnabas sank back on the rickety chair, Mr. Chichester laughed softly, and stepped into the room.
"Salvation, was it, and a new life?" he inquired, "are you the one to be saved, Ronald, or Smivvle here, or both?"
Ronald Barrymaine was dumb, his eyes sought the floor, and his pale cheek became, all at once, suffused with a burning, vivid scarlet.
"I couldn't help but overhear as I came upstairs," pursued
Mr. Chichester pleasantly, "and devilish dark stairs they are—"
"Though excellent for eavesdropping, it appears!" added Barnabas.
"What?" cried Barrymaine, starting up, "listening, were you—s-spying on me—is that your game, Chichester?" But hereupon Mr. Smivvle started forward.
"Now, my dear Barry," he remonstrated, "be calm—"
"Calm? I tell you nobody's going to spy on me,—no, by heaven! neither you, nor Chichester, nor the d-devil himself—"