“Let me say a word with you, Edward.”

There happened to be no customer in to engage the clerk’s attention, and he retired, with his employer, to the back part of the store.  Jasper then turned and confronted him with a stern aspect.

“Well, young man!” said he sharply, “it seems that you have been making rather free with my good name, of late; representing me as a cheat and a swindler.”

For a few moments the mind of Claire was strongly excited and in a perfect maze of confusion.  The blood mounted to his face, and he felt a rising and choking sensation in his throat.  Wisely he forbore any answer until he had regained his self-possession.  Then, with a coolness that surprised even himself, he said—­

“That’s a broad accusation, Mr. Jasper.  Will you go with me to your authority?”

Jasper was not just prepared for a response like this; and he cooled down, instantly, several degrees.

“My authority is quite satisfactory,” he returned, still manifesting angry feeling.  “That you have been slandering me is plain; and, also, betraying the confidential transactions of the house.  It is full time we parted—­full time.  I didn’t dream that I was warming an adder to sting me?”

“I must insist, Mr. Jasper,” said Claire firmly, “that you give me your authority for all this.  Let me stand face to face with the man who has so broadly accused me.”

“Then you deny it all?”

“I shall neither affirm nor deny any thing.  You have angrily accused me of having done you a great wrong.  All I ask is your authority, and the right to stand face to face with that authority.  This is no light matter, Mr. Jasper.”

“Well said, young man.  It is no light matter, as you will, perhaps, know to your sorrow in the end.  Don’t suppose, for a moment, that I shall either forget or forgive this outrage.  Leave me because I cheat in my business!” An expression of unmitigated contempt was on his face.  “Poh!  What hypocrisy!  I know you!  And let Mr. Melleville beware.  He, I more than suspect, is at the bottom of this.  But he’ll rue the day he crossed my path—­he will!”

And Jasper ground his teeth in anger.

By this time, Claire had become entirely self-possessed.  He was both surprised and troubled; yet concealed, as far as possible, the real state of his feelings.

“So far as Mr. Melleville is concerned,” said he, “I wish you to understand, that I applied to him for the situation.”

“Exactly!  That is in agreement with what I heard.  I was such a rogue that you could not live with me and keep a clear conscience—­so you sought for a place with an honest man.”

Claire dropped his eyes to the floor, and stood musing for some considerable time.  When he raised them, he looked steadily at his employer and said—­

“Mr. Jasper, I never made use of the words you have repeated.”

“If not the very words, those of a like signification?”