"
"There's what I call a master worth serving," remarked Woodden.
"Very well, young man," said Sir Alexander, "you have purchased this
article. Will you be so good as to tell me how you propose it should
be paid for."
"I propose, father, that you should pay for it," replied Mr. Stephen
sweetly. "Two thousand three hundred pounds, or ten times that amount,
would not make you appreciably poorer. But if, as is probable, you
take a different view, then I propose to pay for it myself. As you
know a certain sum of money came to me under my mother's will in which
you have only a life interest. I shall raise the amount upon that
security--or otherwise."
If Sir Alexander had been angry before, now he became like a mad bull
in a china shop. He pranced round the room; he used language that
should not pass the lips of any respectable merchant of bullion; in
short, he did everything that a person in his position ought not to
do. When he was tired he rushed to a desk, tore a cheque from a book
and filled it in for a sum of ?2,300 to bearer, which cheque he
blotted, crumpled up and literally threw at the head of his son.
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