“You will have to do without me now,” retorted Lord Kemms. “I have written to the Times to say that my name was used without my authority.”
“You are confoundedly touchy about your name, if Miss Baldwin will excuse my saying so,” observed Mr. Stewart; which remark Miss Baldwin apparently took as a hint that the presence of ladies was undesired, for she rose and left the room, stating, with a gracious smile to Mr. Stewart, that she would not remain, and so prevent his saying whatever he liked. “I consider Frank has been very hasty,” she added, glancing defiantly in the direction where Mr. Raidsford sat; “but I profess to know nothing of business.”
“Then I wish, aunt, you would not interfere in mine,” answered Lord Kemms; “and, as for my name,” he went on, addressing Mr. Stewart, “how should you like yours to be put on any board of direction without your authority?”
“I should not like it at all,” replied his visitor; “but still I should not think it necessary to go perfectly insane on the subject, as you appear to have done. Dudley tells me you stormed at Mr. Black to-day like a woman; that you would not listen to a word of explanation; and that you dashed out of the office without giving either of them an opportunity of even attempting to arrange the matter with you.”
“Because Black had the audacity to tell me I did give him permission, and adhered to the statement. He first insinuated I was trying to back out of the affair, and then wished to know if some pecuniary compromise could not be effected. The insolent vagabond coolly told me, ‘that was always the way with gentlemen,—that a merchant’s word was as good as his bond, but that, unless you had everything with a swell (the expression he used) in black and white, there was no dependence to be placed upon how matters might turn out.’”
“Very foolish of Black to make such a speech,” Mr. Stewart commented. “You must have put up his temper by some means, Frank.”
“I made him confess he was a liar,” said Lord Kemms.
“My dear fellow, how very vehement you are!” expostulated his kinsman; “you could not express your meaning more strongly if you were a costermonger!”
“I do not see why I should not employ the only word which thoroughly expresses my meaning, even though it be used by a costermonger also. Mr. Black stated that I allowed my name to be put on the Direction. I asked him when? He declared at the time we were staying at Berrie Down. I reminded him, that the last occasion on which we met in Hertfordshire was one day I called at the Hollow, when I told him, in Mr. Dudley’s presence, I would have nothing to do with the Company. Then he said, he had made a mistake—it was when he saw me at my house in London. I told him he had never seen me at my house in London—that, at the time he inquired there for me, I was in Paris. Then he declared it must have been at Palinsbridge station; at any rate, he knew I had promised to let him have my name, and that it was too absurd for me, after having seen myself advertised for twelve months, to try to repudiate connection with the ‘Protector’ now.”
“And he was quite right there,” observed Mr. Stewart.