She strode without hesitation to the instrument, explored its ribs with a firm finger, pushed something, and the orchestrion broke off in the middle of a bar. Then, walking serenely to the door, she passed out and closed it behind her.
The baser side of his nature urged Mr. Bennett to triumph over the vanquished.
“Now, what about it!” he said, ungenerously.
“Interfering girl!” mumbled Mr. Mortimer, chafing beneath defeat. “I’ve a good mind to start it again.”
“I dare you!” whooped Mr. Bennett, reverting to the phraseology of his vanished childhood. “Go on! I dare you!”
“I’ve a perfect legal right.... Oh well,” he said, “there are lots of other things I can do!”
“What do you mean?” exclaimed Mr. Bennett, alarmed.
“Never mind!” said Mr. Mortimer, taking up a book.
Mr. Bennett went back to bed in an uneasy frame of mind.
He brooded for half an hour, and, at the expiration of that period, rang for Webster and requested that Billie should be sent to him.