But I should only require it a few days longer, and then he could do as he pleased." This insolent demand was not seconded by Mr.Moncton, and I took no further notice of it.
That my uncle had a game of his own to play, when he took me from the obscurity of the office and introduced me into society, I was now more than ever convinced.

Whilst in the presence of his son he treated me with marked attention and respect, which rendered my situation far more trying and irksome, as I mistrusted the designs of the one and detested the other.
I felt that Mr.Moncton acted thus, on purpose to annoy Theophilus, and make him feel the weight of the resentment, which for good reasons he dared not openly express; while he praised my talents and application to business, on purpose to rouse the envy and hatred of my cousin.
One afternoon, as we were sitting over the dessert, Mr.Moncton as usual addressed his conversation exclusively to me, which irritated Theophilus to such a degree, that he turned suddenly to his father, and exclaimed with much violence: "You seem, sir, to forget you have a son ?" "Yes, when that son forgot what was due to himself, and to his father's house." "You have to thank yourself for _that_," was the insolent reply.

"I have trod too closely in your own footsteps, and followed too strictly the honest principles of my father." He laughed bitterly.

"It seems strange, that you should be surprised, that such an example should have produced corresponding effects upon the mind and character of your son." Shocked at this horrible speech (for in spite of its awful truth, it seemed terrible from the mouth of a son,) I looked from Theophilus to his father, expecting to see the dark eye of the latter alive with the light of passion.

But no--there he sat, mute as a marble statue; it was frightful to contemplate the glossy stare of his glittering eye, the rigid immobility of his countenance.
"Heavens!" I mentally exclaimed, "can he be insulted in this manner by his only son, and remain thus calm ?" But calm he was, without even attempting a reply, whilst his insolent son continued.
"By heaven! if you think that advancing that puppy into my place will bend me to your purpose, you grossly deceive yourself.