And finding the light gone out of the place, Frank groped to the door,
like a blind man feeling his way, and departed.

CHAPTER IX

THE NIGHT BROUGHT COUNSEL

Mr. Britt, left with the father and mother, got his voice first because
he had been pricked most deeply; furthermore, the girl's method of
expression had touched him on the spot which had been abraded by Prophet
Elias's daily rasping.

The suitor drove his fist down on the center table with a force that
caused the model of Mr. Harnden's doors to jump and snap. "By the
joo-dinged, hump-backed Hosea, I've just about got to my limit in this
text business!"

"The dear girl is all wrought up. She don't realize what she's saying.
I'll run up to her room and reason with her. Don't mind what a girl says
in a tantrum, Mr. Britt," Mrs. Harnden pleaded.

Mr. Britt, left with the father, began to stride back and forth across
the room. The title of the book jeered up at him from the carpet where
he had tossed the volume; he kicked the book under the table.

"The wife said a whole lot just now," affirmed Mr. Harnden, soothingly.
"Consider where the girl has been this evening, Tasper! Off elocuting
dramatic stuff! Comes back full of high-flown nonsense. Gets off
something that was running in her head. Torched on by that fly-by-night
who'll be getting out of town and who'll be forgotten inside a week.
Where's your optimism?" He reached up and slapped Britt's back when the
banker passed him.

"She is in love with him," complained the suitor; his anger was
succeeded by woe; his face "squizzled" as if he were about to weep a
second time that day.

"Piffle! She's a queer girl if she didn't have the usual run of childish
ailments, along with the whooping cough and the measles. I have always
known how to manage my womenfolks, Tasper. Not by threats and by
tumulting around as you have been doing! You've got a lot to learn.
Listen to me!"

Mr. Britt paused and blinked and listened.

Mr. Harnden plucked out a pencil and made believe write a screed on the
palm of his hand while he talked. "'By the twining tendrils of their
affections you can sway 'em to and fro,' as the poet said, speaking of
women. I am loved in my home. I have important prospects, now that you
are backing me."

Mr. Britt blinked more energetically, but he did not dispute.

"Another poet has said that's it's all right to lie for love's sake--or
words to that effect. I know the right line of talk t