"Has anybody offended you ?" "Do you _really_ wish to know ?" "Yes, I certainly do, Captain Selwyn." "Very well; it's because I don't like your business methods, I don't like--several other things that are happening in this office.

It's purely a difference of views; and that is enough explanation, Mr.
Neergard." "I think our views may very easily coincide--" "You are wrong; they could not.

I ought to have known that when I came back here.

And now I have only to thank you for receiving me, at my own request, for a six months' trial, and to admit that I am not qualified to co-operate with this kind of a firm." "That," said Neergard angrily, "amounts to an indictment of the firm.

If you express yourself in that manner outside, the firm will certainly resent it!" "My personal taste will continue to govern my expressions, Mr.Neergard; and I believe will prevent any further business relations between us.
And, as we never had any other kind of relations, I have merely to arrange the details through an attorney." Neergard looked after him in silence; the tiny beads of sweat on his nose united and rolled down in a big shining drop, and the sneer etched on his broad and brightly mottled features deepened to a snarl when Selwyn had disappeared.
For the social prestige which Selwyn's name had brought the firm, he had patiently endured his personal dislike and contempt for the man after he found he could do nothing with him in any way.
He had accepted Selwyn purely in the hope of social advantage, and with the knowledge that Selwyn could have done much for him after business hours; if not from friendship, at least from interest, or a lively sense of benefits to come.