Now, if anybody should be in a bad temper, it is I, not you.
Don't you see that? You are not acting your part well at all. I'm
astonished at you!'
'Mr. Longworth, I wish to have nothing whatever to say to you. If you
have anything to ask, I wish you would ask it as quickly as possible, and
then leave me alone.'
'The chief fault I find with you, Kenyon,' said Longworth, throwing one
leg over the other, and clasping his hands round his knee--'the chief
fault I have to find is your painful lack of a sense of humour. Now,
you remember last night I offered you the managership of the mine. I
thought, certainly, that by this time to-day I should be owner of it,
or, at least, one of the owners. Now, you don't appear to appreciate the
funniness of the situation. Here you are the owner of the mine, and I am
out in the cold--"left," as they say here in America. I am the man who
is left----'
'If that is all you have to talk about,' said Kenyon gravely, 'I must ask
you to allow me to go on with my packing. I am going to the mine
to-morrow.'
'Certainly, my dear fellow; go at once and never mind me. Can I be of any
assistance to you? It requires a special genius, you know, to pack a
portmanteau properly. But what I wanted to say was this: Why didn't you
turn round, when you had got the mine, and offer _me_ the managership of
it? Then you would have had your revenge. The more I think of that
episode in Von Brent's office, the more I think you utterly failed to
realize the dramatic possibilities of the situation.
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