top to it!' he threatened. 'I'll take and pack
her off, and you at the back of her, "my gentleman"!' George knew
that the use of this expression signified especial bitterness on
his father's part. 'I'll have an end of this nonsense--a painted
jade like her!'

'Wait a minute, please,' said George, shutting the knife with a
little snap, and settling himself back upon the window-sill; 'you
are a little hard to follow, or I am slow at catching your meaning,
perhaps. I understand that you had some object in sending for me.
Are you explaining it to me now? I am quite prepared to listen, as
you see.'

'You're very condescending, I'm sure,' said Mr. Piper, with such
withering sarcasm that George stroked his moustache and smiled. 'You
put yourself about for your father a deal too much, "my gentleman,"
there's no doubt of it.' Then, with a sudden break in his voice:
'No, George; it's not much of a son you've been to me, and no one
can say I've stood in your light. I'd like you to show me another
young man who could carry on top ropes like you. There's not many
fathers 'ud have stood it. Most fathers 'ud made you turn to long
ago.'

'Do you want anything done for you?' interrupted George, with the
air of a man who is laying himself out to oblige--'another tour of
inspection in the north?'

Whenever Mr. Piper made allusion to George's want of occupation, it
was the young man's policy to refer to this tour of inspection--a
memorable tour, seeing that it had given him employment for at least
three months....

If there was anything humiliating in being rated as an 'able-bodied
young man who wasn't worth his salt,' as a loafer who was hardly fit
to 'jackaroo' on a station, as a 'lazy lubber' who would 'go to the
dogs if it weren't for his father,' George never betrayed that he
felt humiliated by so much as the twitching of an eyelid.
Persistently stroking the ends of his moustache with an air of
profound abstraction, he made it apparent, as soon as Mr. Piper
stopped to take breath, that he was suppressing an inclination to
yawn.

'I dare say it's all very true, governor,' was all he said in reply.
'It's very nice and complimentary, I'm sure, and I ought to be very
much obliged to you. But, _a propos_ of your compliments, may I ask
if it was only to treat me to them in full t