When Ozark Briskow answered Gray's request for admittance, he was deeply embarrassed to find Miss Montague also waiting; his stammered protest was interrupted by her sharp inquiry:
"What is the meaning of all this mystery? He said you were too sick to see me."
"Permit me to explain," Gray began, as he closed the door behind them. "Buddy and I came to blows over you; you were, in a manner of speaking, an apple of discord between us, and the melancholy results you behold. Jealousy of your charms was not my motive; I merely asked Buddy to defer a contemplated action. He refused; I insisted. Argument failed to budge either of us and—"
The young woman's sympathetic regard of Gray's victim changed to a glare of hostility as she turned upon the speaker, crying: "You brute! You ought to be arrested!"
"He ast me to wait, Arline—"
"To delay asking you a question which I felt should be more seriously considered. In the absence of his family I took it upon myself to—"
"To butt in!" Miss Montague exclaimed, with curling lip.
"Quite so. I merit your disapproval, but not your disdain."
With some heat Buddy declared: "Pa an' Ma know that I got a mind of my own. It won't do 'em any good to come."
"See here," the woman demanded. "What have you been telling Buddy about me? I told him all there was to tell."