He even found
some ameliorating circumstances for the persistent pressure which
Roger and his affairs were now coming to bring upon the paternal
estate--Roger, who had served so valiantly his father and his family, and
who was now demanding a compensatory assistance amid the thickening risks
and dangers of his own business operations. Not only had he extricated
Truesdale from his difficulties, but he had supported his father in his
demand for the dismissal of the unseemly Andreas Leppin from the
business.
"He shall go!" cried David Marshall, with a trembling voice and a shaking
hand, which, without reinforcement, would have constituted but a feeble
demonstration.
"He shall stay!" returned Belden, with a cold insolence. "He is useful to
me. Besides, he has suffered enough wrong from you already."
"He shall go!" cried Roger, rising into a threatening savagery over the
brazen hypocrisy of such a pretence. "If he is here another hour, I will
drag him out with my own hands." The young man seemed to tear out all his
powers from his own person, as one draws a sword from its sheath, and to
wield his vehemence and indignation over Belden's head as one might sweep
a burning brand. He exercised the compelling power that is to be
attained sometimes only by the free and impassioned employment of all
one's energies; he seemed capable of an instant physical violence in more
directions than one, and he carried his point.
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