‘Turning economical with advancing years,’ observed Gilbert, with polite sarcasm. ‘Let me tell you that fire and water and bad luck never spare a man because he had not money to insure himself against them, and——’ ‘How you preach!’ almost snarled Otho. ‘Tell you I don’t mean to insure. Come away.’ ‘I should like to speak to you before you go,’ observed Roger, composedly. Otho, hearing this, turned sharp upon him, grasping his whip in his hand, and the insolence in his eyes growing bolder. Gilbert looked quietly, but with equal interest. ‘What is it?’ asked Otho, his hand on the door-handle. ‘Merely that I am thinking of leaving Bradstane. To-day is the twenty-fourth;—it was the twenty-fourth when I came to you. I wish to give three months’ notice to you, as I shall leave you at the end of that time.’ ‘What the devil is the meaning of all this?’ demanded Otho, loosing the door-handle, but holding the whip faster, and turning upon Roger with a black look of anger. Roger, eyeing him fixedly, thought within himself— ‘How did I ever bear with him for this length of time, the brute!’ But he answered civilly and tranquilly— ‘That is scarcely the way in which to speak to me. I say that I wish to leave your employment this day three months. Isn’t that simple enough?’ ‘I’ll be hanged if it is!’ said Otho, savagely. ‘It’s usual to give a reason when you leave a place,—and I want to know yours.’ ‘I would advise you not to ask for it,’ was Roger’s answer, his face growing paler, his lips tighter, his eyes more dangerous, as his anger grew hotter within him. ‘What! may a man not ask his servant’s reasons for leaving him?’ began Otho. ‘It’s the first time I ever——’ ‘Don’t be a fool, Otho!’ here observed Gilbert. ‘Roger Camm has as good a right to give you three months’ notice as anybody else; and he’s in the right of it, when he says you had better not ask his reasons. Of course you’ll want a written notice, and of course you’ll get one. So come away.’ ‘I say,’ observed Otho, suddenly changing his angry demeanour into one of facetiousness, and with an impudent smile, ‘perhaps you disapprove of my attentions to a certain young lady, last night; but I can tell you——’ ‘If you mention her name, I’ll give you the hiding you deserve!’ thundered Roger, springing up, and walking very close up to Otho, whose laugh now changed to a look of furious anger. ‘You are threatening me!’ he demanded, in a voice of suppressed rage. ‘I shall not confine myself to threats very long,’ was the breathless reply. Otho’s eyes looked dangerous still, but he seemed also amused, in a curious manner. ‘Then it is about the little girl that you have cut up rough. Lord bless you, she isn’t worth thinking about twice!’ he said, bursting into a loud laugh. ‘Which was the worst, eh?—she or I?’ ‘You blackguard!’ said Camm, between his clenched teeth. ‘I’ll——’