Now, anger was Valentine's easily besetting sin, the one dangerous internal foe he had constantly to combat. Now, indignation rose and swelled in his bosom. And not from fear or from policy, but from Christian principle, he strove to quell its ragings. He answered only with a bow, and left the room for that silent, solitary struggle with himself that no eye but the Father's ever witnessed. He obeyed the mandate; it was galling, but he obeyed it; and each evening presented himself to his master with something like this style of request, which, as a compromise between asking a permission and intimating a purpose, was not so difficult to make:
"I have got through all my business here for to-day, sir, and am ready to go to town if you don't want me."
"Very well; take yourself off; only be sure to come back early in the morning, to be ready when I rise," would be the frequent answer. "The proud rascal! I believe he would almost as lief die as ask leave to do anything; but it is my own fault; I have treated that boy like a brother, until he is so spoiled as to be quite above his condition," Mr. Waring would add, half jesting, half in earnest.
But sometimes, when Valentine asked, leave would not be granted him; and this occasioned an irregularity in his nightly attendance at the shop, that finally obliged Monsieur Leroux to say to him:
"Valentine, my man, unless you can attend better, I shall have to discharge you altogether, and get a full clerk, which would be better anyway, as he could be here all the time."
Full of trouble at this prospect, Valentine the next day mentioned this to his master, who, happening to be in an ill-humor, answered:
"What the fiend is all that to me, sir? Old Leroux is liable to prosecution for hiring your services at all without a permit."
"But it was in over-hours--in my own time," remonstrated Valentine.
"Your own time! Pray, sir, what time is that? I have yet to learn that you have any time of your own!"
Valentine suppressed his indignation, but that was as much as he could do. He dared not trust himself to reply.
"Leave the room! The sight of you irritates me. And be very thankful that I do not prosecute your friend, old Leroux, with his mulatto clerks and shop-girls! These beasts of Frenchmen have not the slightest idea of the distinctions of race."