“We have Biblical assurance, Miss Hemster, of the fact that the labourer is worthy of his hire. My hire is all I expect, and all I shall accept.”
“Well, it is my hope that your term of employment will be as short as possible; therefore I ask you to resign your position as soon as we reach Nagasaki. Your presence on this ship is odious to me.”
“I am sorry for that.”
“Then you won’t resign?”
“I say that I am sorry my presence on this ship is odious to you.”
“You can at once solve the problem by resigning, as I have suggested.”
“I dispute your right to make suggestions to me. If you want me to leave the yacht, ask your father to discharge me.”
“There is always a certain humiliation in abrupt dismissal. If you do not go voluntarily, and without telling my father that I have asked you to resign, I shall put Hilda Stretton ashore at Nagasaki with money enough to pay her passage home.”
“How generous of you! First-class or steerage?”
Her face became a flame of fire, and she clenched her hands till the nails bit the pink palms.