His stormy blue eyes snapped at Sudden as though he would force some display of emotion into that smooth, impassive, well-fed countenance, the very sight of which lashed his indignation into a kind of fury.
"If you really think I don't amount to any more than to hang around here for you to support, why the devil don't you kick me out and tell Mary V not to marry me?
You must think you're going to have a fine boob in the family! And it's to show you--it's--why the hell don't you--what I can't stand for," he blurted desperately, "is your insinuating right to my face that I'd want to marry Mary V to get a third interest in the Rolling R.
I want to tell you right now, Mr.Selmer, you couldn't give me any third interest nor any one millionth interest.

If I thought Mary V had put you up to that I'd absolutely--but she didn't.

She knows where I stand.
I've told her straight out.

Mary V's got more sense--she knows me better than you do.

She knows--" "There's another thing I neglected to mention," Sudden drawled, blowing smoke with maddening placidity under the tirade.