"Mean! Mean! Don't stand there cross-examining your own father. You know what I mean! If half they say about the young b— .... is true she's fit enough for it, anyway."
"If any other man had said that," said Alick, quivering, "I should have knocked him down, Sir."
"What's that? You threaten me?" cried the Speaker. His voice was like the scream of a sea-gull, and making a step towards Alick he lifted his clenched fist to him.
Mrs. Gell intervened, and Alick retreated a pace or two.
"Take care, Sir," he said. "You can't treat me like that now. I'm not a child any longer."
"Then get away to your woman .... and to hell, if you want to."
"There was no need to tell me twice, Sir. I'm going. And as God is my witness, I'll never set foot in this house again."
At the next moment the peacocks were screaming outside, and the Speaker, who had thrown up the window, was shouting through it in a broken roar,
"Alick! Alick Gell! Come back, you damned scoundrel! Alick! Alexander...."
They had to carry him upstairs and send for Dr. Clucas. It had been another of his paralysing brain-storms. It was not to be expected that he could bear many more of them.