"Then you'll wait till I choose to move."
"If you don't get out of the way I shall take the soles off your boots,"
said Bunce, putting back his rubber.
"I'll speak to papa about your insolence," cried the boy, with his eyes
flashing and his fists clenched; and I thought he was going to strike
Bunce.
"Well," said a sharp ringing voice, "speak to him then. What is it?"
I started to my feet, and Bunce touched his cap to a tall elderly
gentleman with closely-cut grey hair and a very fierce-looking white
moustache, whose keen eyes seemed to look me through and through.
"I said, what is it, Phil?" cried the newcomer, whom I felt to be Sir
Francis before Philip spoke.
"This fellow called me a pauper, pa!"
Sir Francis turned sharply on Bunce, who did not seem in the slightest
degree alarmed.
"How dare you call my son a pauper, sir?" he said sternly.
"I--"
"Stop!" cried Sir Francis. "Here, you boy, go away and wait till I call
you. Not far."
"Yes, sir," I said; and I walked away thinking what a fierce quick man
he seemed, and not knowing then that he was one of the magistrates.
A minute later he called to me to go back, and as soon as I had reached
him, with Philip by his side and Bunce before him, Philip stepped back
and held up his fist at me menacingly.
He thought the movement was unobserved by his stepfather; but Sir
Francis, who was an old Indian officer, noted the act, as he showed us
directly after.
"Now, boy," he said, "what's your name?"
"Grant, Sir Francis."
"Well, Grant, did this under-gardener call Master Philip a pauper?"
I told him exactly what had occurred, and Sir Francis turned sharply on
his step-son.
"You were already self-condemned, Philip," he said sternly. "I saw you
threaten this boy with your fist. The way to win respect from those
beneath you in station is to treat them with respect."
"But, papa--"
"Hold your tongue, sir," said Sir Francis sternly.
"I had eight hundred men in my regiment, and all the band came from one
of the unions, and better fellows could not be found. My lad," he
continued, "I dare say you know that pauper only means poor. It is no
disgrace to be poor. Philip, go indoors."
"That's a flea in his ear," said Bunce chuckling, as Sir Francis went
one way, Philip the other. "What do you think of the master?"
"He seems very sharp and angry," I said, returning to my work.
"He's all that," said the man; "but he's a reg'lar gentleman. He always
drops on to them two if he catches 'em up to their larks. Nice boys
both of 'em."