Mutimer, growing daily more ambitious
and more punctilious in his intercourse with all whom, notwithstanding
his principles, he deemed inferiors from the social point of view,
often regretted keenly that he had allowed any relation between
himself and Rodman more than that of master and man. Experience
taught him how easily he might have made the most of Rodman
without granting him a single favour. The first suggestion of
the marriage enraged him; in the conversation with Rodman, which
took place, moreover, at an unfavourable moment, he lost his temper
and flung out very broad hints indeed as to the suitor's motives.
Rodman was calm; life had instructed him in the advantages of a
curbed tongue; but there was heightened colour on his face, and his
demeanour much resembled that of a proud man who cares little to
justify himself, but will assuredly never forget an insult. It was
one of the peculiarities of this gentleman that his exterior was
most impressive when the inner man was most busy with ignoble or
venomous thoughts.
But for Alice's sake Mutimer could not persist in his hostility.
Alice had a weapon which he durst not defy, and, the marriage being
inevitable, he strove hard to see it in a more agreeable light, even
tried to convince himself that his prejudice against Rodman was
groundless.
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