'Does it matter what he perceives?' railed the lady
'What I perceive is that if I had not intervened this man would have been shot on the spot by her ladyship's orders, and this because innocent of all offence he resisted the threat — again by her ladyship's orders — of having the flesh cut from his bones. Those were her gentle words.'
'It is certainly what will happen to him now,' she spitefully announced. 'That is, unless Sir James prefers to hang him.'
'As a scapegoat for me, because I intervened?' demanded the Captain of Sir James, and Sir James, stung by the sneer, made haste to answer: 'No, no. For threatening the overseer.'
This brought down upon him a fresh attack from her ladyship.
'His insolence to me, of course, is of no account. Nor, it seems, is this gentleman's.'
Between the two of them, Sir James was in danger of losing his stern habitual calm. He slapped the table so that the dishes rattled.
'One thing at a time, madam, if you please. The situation is nasty enough, God knows. I've warned you more than once against venting your spleen upon this fellow Hagthorpe. Now you force me to choose between flogging him for an insubordination that I cannot regard as other than fully provoked, and imperilling all discipline among the slaves. Since I cannot afford that, I have to thank your tantrums, madam, for compelling me to be inhuman.'
'Whilst I have none but myself to thank for having mated with a fool.'
'That, madam, is a matter we may presently have occasion to argue,' said he, and there was something so mysteriously minatory in his tone that her astonishment deprived her pertness of an answer.