“Tell him I’ve not said anything against him, Jimmie,” she cried.
“It’s not for want of something to say, I’ll be bound.”
Basil was growing bored, and saw no reason for concealing the fact. He sat down at his desk to write a letter, and took a sheet of note-paper. Jimmie watched him viciously, smarting under the bitter things the other had said, and wondering what the next move would be. Basil glanced at him indifferently.
“I’m getting rather tired, brother James. I’d go if I were you.”
“I shan’t go till I choose,” answered Bush very aggressively.
Basil looked up with a smile.
“Of course, we’re both of us Christians, dear James, and there’s a good deal of civilization kicking about the world nowadays. But the last word is still with the strongest.”
“What d’you mean by that?”
“Merely that discretion is the better part of valour. They say that proverbs are the wealth of nations.”
“That’s just the sort of thing you’d do—to ’it a feller smaller than yourself.”