“Don't laugh! It's wicked to laugh! It's heartless!” she cried, hysterically. “What will he do, poor fellow?”
“I've an idea that he will light on his feet, somehow. But, at any rate, he's doing the right thing in going to own up to Stoller.”
“Oh, Stoller! I care nothing for Stoller! Don't speak to me of Stoller!”
Burnamy fond the Bird of Prey, as he no longer had the heart to call him, walking up and down in his room like an eagle caught in a trap. He erected his crest fiercely enough, though, when the young fellow came in at his loudly shouted, “Herein!”
“What do you want?” he demanded, brutally.
This simplified Burnamy's task, while it made it more loathsome. He answered not much less brutally, “I want to tell you that I think I used you badly, that I let you betray yourself, that I feel myself to blame.” He could have added, “Curse you!” without change of tone.
Stoller sneered in a derision that showed his lower teeth like a dog's when he snarls. “You want to get back!”
“No,” said Burnamy, mildly, and with increasing sadness as he spoke. “I don't want to get back. Nothing would induce me. I'm going away on the first train.”
“Well, you're not!” shouted Stoller. “You've lied me into this—”
“Look out!” Burnamy turned white.