"Oh, well!" said Sam, straightening his tie modestly. "Of course, if you say so ... It's awfully good of you...."
"But, father," cried Billie, "I never really loved Bream. I like him very much, but I could never love him. I only got engaged to him because you were so anxious for it, and because ... because I had quarrelled with the man I really loved ... I don't want to marry Bream."
"Naturally!" said Sam. "Naturally! Quite out of the question. In a few days we'll all be roaring with laughter at the very idea."
Mr. Bennett scorched him with a look compared with which his earlier effort had been a loving glance.
"Wilhelmina," he said, "go into the outer office."
"But, father, you don't understand. You don't realise that Sam has just saved my life."
"Saved your life? What do you mean?"
"There was a lunatic in here with a pistol, and Sam saved me."
"It was nothing," said Sam modestly. "Nothing."
"Go into the outer office!" thundered Mr. Bennett, quite unmoved by this story.
"Very well," said Billie. "I shall always love you, Sam," she said, pausing mutinously at the door.
"I shall always love you," said Sam.
"Nobody can keep us apart."
"They're wasting their time, trying," said Sam.
"You're the most wonderful man in the world."
"There never was a girl like you!"
"Get out!" bellowed Mr. Bennett, on whose equanimity this love-scene, which I think beautiful, was jarring profoundly.
"Now, sir!" he said to Sam, as the door closed.
"Yes, let's talk it over calmly," said Sam.
"I will not talk it over calmly!"
"Oh, come! You can do it if you try."
"Bream Mortimer is the son of Henry Mortimer."
"I know," said Sam. "And, while it is no doubt unfair to hold that against him, it's a point you can't afford to ignore. Henry Mortimer! You and I have Henry Mortimer's number. We know what Henry Mortimer is like! A man who spends his time thinking up ways of annoying you. You can't seriously want to have the Mortimer family linked to you by marriage."
"Henry Mortimer is my oldest friend."
"That makes it all the worse. Fancy a man who calls himself your friend treating you like that!"
"The misunderstanding to which you allude has been completely smoothed over. My relations with Mr. Mortimer are thoroughly cordial."