Remember, he is used to being obeyed just as your father was.

NATHANIEL

Yes, I remember that, dear Aunt; but John isn't my father. He is just a brother to whom fate gave a fifteen years' start by birth.

[As a voice calls, "Nathaniel, are you up there?" Nathaniel looks at Letitia.

NATHANIEL

His voice is just the same. (Calling) Yes, John, I am up here.

[The antagonism between the two brothers is apparent immediately.

John Clay enters. He is an austere, pompous man of fifty who has the softness of the tithe-collector and the hardness of the tax-collector. He speaks with an adamantine finality which is destined to rude shattering.

JOHN

How do you do, Nathaniel?