"How else could I take it?"
"You know what it means to me, Huber?"
"Yes. I know what the firm means to you, but I can't do what you ask. You want me to give up what I think is right for the sake of saving your firm. I can't do it."
"It's your firm, too, Huber."
"Then I've got a right to hurt it."
"I'm not asking you to do anything wrong; I'm only asking you to wait."
"That's just what I can't do," said Luke.
Forbes would hear no more. He twitched with a spasm of weak rage. His voice rang high.
"You're a fool!" he cried. "You talk as if I were trying to compound a felony with you. What am I asking? I'm only asking you to hold off for this campaign. I'm only asking you to stand by the man that took you into his business—my Business, the one that my grandfather founded and my father handed down to me. Haven't I stood by you? Didn't I trust you? I've kept out of all these big combinations, but I know how they work—nobody can help knowing these days—and when I took you in, how was I to be sure you weren't a dummy representing somebody else, and so on, higher and higher up, till the trail ended with just these same men? But no, I trusted you. I trusted you, and now—— You've no right to humiliate me! You've no right to wreck my Business! Do you know what you're doing? You're making a beggar out of my daughter—out of the girl you told me last night you wanted to be your wife!"
Luke had been expecting this. The muscles about his mouth tightened, but all that he said was: