“If you please, Mr. Crabb.”
“Then, sir, you shall have it. Your proposal that I should apologize to that overgrown bully for restraining him in his savage treatment of a fellow-pupil is both ridiculous and insulting.”
“You forget yourself, Mr. Crabb,” said Socrates, gazing at the hitherto humble usher in stupefaction.
“As to promising not to do it again, you will understand that I shall make no such engagement.”
“Then, Mr. Crabb,” said Socrates, angrily, “I shall adhere to what I said the other day. At the end of this week you must leave me.”
“Of course, sir, that is understood!”
“You haven’t another engagement, I take it,” said Mr. Smith, very much puzzled by the usher’s extraordinary independence.
“Yes, sir, I have.”
“Indeed!” said Socrates, amazed. “Where do you go?” Then was Mr. Crabb’s time for triumph.
“I have received this morning an offer from the city of New York,” he said.