Part 27

“Nice!” said Barney contemptuously. “If you knew how the men speak of him about town you wouldn't call him nice. He has money, and he's in the swim, but he's a beast, all the same.”

“Oh, Barney, you mustn't say so!” cried Iola, “for you know he's been a great friend to me. He has been very kind. I am quite devoted to him.” Something in the tone of her voice, and more in the smile which she gave Barney, took the sting out of her words.

Before many minutes had passed the little group was broken up, chiefly because of the fact that Iola was soon surrounded by a circle of her own admiring friends, and among them the most insistent was Dr. Bulling, who finally, with bluff, good-natured but almost rude aggressiveness, carried her off to the tearoom. It took all the joy out of the day for Barney, and on his behalf, for Margaret and Dick, that for the rest of the afternoon Iola's attention was entirely absorbed by Dr. Bulling and his little coterie of friends.

And this feeling of disappointment in Iola and of resentment against Dr. Bulling he carried with him to a little stag dinner by the hospital staff at the Olympic that evening. The dinner was due chiefly to the exertions of Dr. Trent, and was intended by him not only to bring into closer touch with each other the members of the hospital staff, but also to be a kind of introduction of Barney to the inner circle of medical men in the city. For the past year Barney had acted as his clerk, almost as his assistant, and, indeed, Dr. Trent had made the formal proposition of an assistantship to him. Out of compliment to Barney, Dick had been invited, and young Drake also, who owed his parchment that day to Barney's merciless grinding in surgery, and perhaps more to his steadying friendship. Dr. Bulling, who, more for his great wealth and his large social connection than for his professional standing, had been invited, was present with Foxmore, Smead, and others who followed him about applauding his coarse jokes and accepting his favours. The dinner was purely informal in character, the menu well chosen, the wines abundant, and the drinking hard enough with some, with the result that as the dinner neared its end the men, and especially the group about Bulling, became more and more hilarious. Barney, who was drinking water and keeping his hand upon Drake's wineglass, found his attention divided between his conversation with Trent and the talk of Bulling, who, with his friends, sat across the table. As this group became more boisterous, they absorbed to themselves the attention of the whole company. Conscious of the prestige his wealth and social position accorded him, and inflamed by the wine he was drinking, Bulling became increasingly offensive. The talk degenerated. The stories and songs became more and more coarse in tone. It was Barney's first experience of a dinner of this kind, and it filled him with disgust and horror. Even Trent, by no means inexperienced in these matters, was disgusted with Bulling's tone. Following Barney's glances and aware of his wandering attention, he was about to propose a breakup of the party when he was arrested by a look of rigid and eager attention upon the face of his friend.

“Disgusting brute!” said Trent, in a low voice.

But Barney heeded him not. His attention was concentrated upon Bulling. He had his glass in his hand.

“Here's to the Lane!” he was saying, “the sweetest little Lane in all the world!”

“She's divine!” replied Foxmore. “And what a voice! She'll make Canada famous some day. Where did you discover her, Bulling?”

“In church,” replied Bulling solemnly, to the uproarious delight of his followers. “That's right,” he continued, “heard her sing, set things in motion, and now she's the leading voice in the cathedral. Introduced her to a few people, and there she is, the finest thing in her line in the city! Yes, and some day on the continent! A dear, sweet little lane it is,” he continued in a tone of affectionate proprietorship that made Barney grind his teeth in furious rage.

“That she is,” said Smead enthusiastically, “and thoroughly straight, too!”

“Oh,” said Foxmore, “there's no lane but has a turning. And trust Bulling,” he added coarsely, “for finding it out.”

“Well,” said Bulling, with a knowing smile, “this little Lane is straight. Of course there may be a slight deflection. Nature's lines run in curves, you know.” And again his wit provoked applauding laughter. But before the laughter had quite faded out a voice was heard, clear and cutting.

“Dr. Bulling, you are a base liar!” The words were plainly audible to every man in the room. A dead silence fell upon the company.

“What?” said the doctor, sitting up straight, as if he had not heard aright.

“I say you are a cowardly liar!”

“What the deuce do you mean?”

“You have just made an insinuation against the honour of a young lady. I say again you are a mean and cowardly liar. I want you to say so.”

For a moment or two Bulling's surprise kept him silent.

“Quite right,” said Trent. “Beastly cad!”

Then Dr. Bulling broke forth. “You impertinent young cub! What do you mean?”

For answer, Barney seized Drake's wineglass, half full of wine, and flung glass and contents full in Bulling's face. In an instant every man was on his feet. Above the din rose Foxmore's voice.

“Give it to him Bulling! Give it to the young prig!”

“No hurry about this, boys,” said Bulling quietly; “I'll make him eat his words before he's half an hour older.”

Meantime Dick was entreating his brother. “Let me at him. He's a great knocker. Held the 'varsity championship. You don't know anything about it. Let me at him, Barney. I can do him up.” Dick had been 'varsity champion in his own time. But Barney put Dick aside with quiet, stern words.

“Don't interfere, Dick. No matter what happens, don't interfere to-night. I won't have it, Dick, remember. It may take us an hour or it may take all night, but he'll say he lied before I'm through with him.”

Meantime the men, and chief among them Trent, were seeking to appease the doctor and to patch up the peace.

“If he apologizes I shall let the young cub off,” were the doctor's terms.

“If he says he lied,” was Barney's condition.