Silas started and glanced wonderingly at the planter.
"Ay, you may stare," said Augustus; "never you mind my motives. I say he must go!"
"But, my dear young friend, my impetuous friend, that is utterly impossible. I have no particular affection for Mr. Paul Lisimon, I assure you, but his articles have been signed."
"Let them be canceled, then; let the fellow be kicked out of the office."
Silas looked thoughtfully at his visitor, and then rubbing his hands, said, with a sly chuckle:
"But, my dear Mr. Horton, allow me to remind you that, in the first place, I have no excuse for canceling these articles, or for kicking Paul Lisimon out of my office; and that, in the second, I cannot see why I am bound to comply with any absurd whim which even my most important client may happen to take into his head."
Augustus Horton threw his cigar aside with a contemptuous and impatient gesture.
"I am not used," he said with a chilling hauteur, "to ask for any service for which I am not prepared to pay liberally. Send this young man about his business—making it appear that he has been to blame in the affair, and besides what you lose by canceling the articles I will give you five thousand dollars."
"Send him about his business?"
"Yes. If possible in such a manner as to disgust Don Juan with his protege."