Phyl turned from him and ran to the house. Pinckney and Hennessey were seated in the library when the door burst open and in came Phyl. Her eyes were bright and her lips were pale.
"You told me you would keep all the servants," said she. "Rafferty tells me you have dismissed him."
"I should think I had," said Pinckney lightly, and not gauging the mad disturbance of the other, "and it's lucky for him I haven't put him in prison."
The word prison was all that was wanted to fire the mine. Pinckney stood for a moment aghast at the change in the girl.
"I _hate_ you," she cried, coming a step closer to him. "I loathe you--master of us all, are you? Dare to touch any one here and I'll burn the house down with my own hands--you--you--"
She paused for want of breath, her chest heaving and her hands clenched.
The good old fiery Pinckney blood was up. Oh, without any manner of doubt our ancestors are still able to speak, and it was old Roderick Pinckney--"Pepper Pinckney" was his nickname--that blazed out now. It was also the fire of youth answering the fire of youth.
"Damn it!" he cried. "I've come here to do my best--I don't care--keep who you want--be robbed if you like it--I'm off--" He caught up all the sheets of paper he had been covering with figures and tore them across.
She rushed from the room and upstairs like a mad creature. The bang of her bedroom door closed the incident.
"Now don't be taking on so," said Hennessey. "You've both of you lost your temper."
"Lost my temper--maybe. I'm going all the same. Right back to the States. I'm off to Dublin by the next train and you'd better come and finish the business there. You'd better have her to stay with you in Dublin. I don't want to see her again. Anyhow, we'll settle all that later."
"Maybe that's the best," said Hennessey. "My wife will look after her till she's ready to go to the States--if she wants to."
"Please God she doesn't," replied the other.
Phyl did not see Pinckney again. He went off to Dublin by the two-ten train with Hennessey, the latter promising to be back on the morrow to arrange things.
Dublin can never have been a cheerful city. Even in the days when the butchers joined in street fights and hung their antagonists when caught on steel hooks--like legs of mutton--the gaiety of Dublin one may fancy to have been more a matter of spirits than of spirit.