"
"What do you mean?"
"That I am in the house a paid servant, and must not allow anything
mischievous to go on in it without acquainting my master."
"You acknowledge, Mr. Grant, that you are neither more nor less than
a paid servant, but you mistake your duty as such: I shall be happy
to explain it to you.--You have nothing whatever to do with what
goes on in the house; you have but to mind your work. I told you
before, you are my brother's tutor, not mine! To interfere with what
I do, is nothing less than a piece of damned impertinence!"
"That impertinence, however, I intend to be guilty of the moment I
can get audience of your father."
"You will not, if I give you such explanation as satisfies you I
have done the girl no harm, and mean honestly by her!" said Forgue
in a confident, yet somewhat conciliatory tone.
"In any case," returned Donal, "you having once promised, and then
broken your promise, I shall without fail tell your father all I
know."
"And ruin her, and perhaps me too, for life?"
"The truth will ruin only those that ought to be ruined!" said
Donal.
Forgue sprang upon him, and struck him a heavy blow between the
eyes. He had been having lessons in boxing while in Edinburgh, and
had confidence in himself. It was a well-planted blow, and Donal
unprepared for it. He staggered against the wall, and for a moment
could neither see nor think: all he knew was that there was
something or other he had to attend to.
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