"Claire told you," the younger said.
"Yes," Lee replied briefly. It wouldn't, after all, be difficult to
talk to Peyton; he was obviously miserable from the necessity of
suppressing what absorbed his entire consciousness.
"Well, I suppose you think there's nothing to be said for me," his
voice was defiant; "and that I ought to be shot."
"Very much to the contrary," Lee asserted; "there is so much to say
that it's difficult to know where to begin. With another situation
practically the same, I might have agreed with you thoroughly; but,
with Claire and what I have gathered of you, in this special one I
can't."
"It isn't absolutely necessary," the other pointed out; "Mina and I
will have a lot to ignore."
"The first thing you'll have to manage," Lee observed sharply, "is to
grow up. You are not in a place to be helped by leather-headed satire
and visions of solitary grandeur. My interest comes only from Claire
and some personal curiosity; Mina Raff doesn't require anyone's
assistance. Of you all, her position is clearest. I don't know if you
can be brought to see it, but this is only incidental, a momentary
indulgence, with her."
"What you don't seem to get," Peyton told him, with a brutally cold
face, "is that I may smash you; now, where you are."
"That was possible," Lee agreed; "and you are right--I had overlooked
it. I think that's passed, though; I'm going to keep on as if it were.
Pages:
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125