“I shall never be a pauper while I have my health and strength, Mr. Wentworth.”
“You must think me a fool to surrender so large a sum as twenty thousand dollars on the demand of a half-grown boy like yourself!”
“No, Mr. Wentworth. I was only trying to find out whether you were a man of integrity!”
“Do you dare to impugn my integrity?” demanded the manufacturer angrily.
“A man of integrity keeps his engagements,” said Gerald briefly.
Bradley Wentworth regarded Gerald with a fixed and thoughtful glance. He had expected to twine the boy round his finger, but found that he was more resolute than he expected. He exhibited a force of character which his father had never possessed.
Wentworth was not a patient man, and the boy’s perverseness, as he called it, provoked him, and brought out his sterner and more disagreeable qualities.
“Boy,” he said harshly, “I have a piece of advice to give you.”
“What is it, sir?”