I tell you----"

Well, it's the usual irate parent stuff, only a little more wild and
ranty than anything Belasco would put over. He abuses Gilkey up and
down, threatens him with all kinds of things, from arrest to sudden
death, and gets purple in the face doin' it. While Gilkey, he just
stands there, takin' it calm and patient. Then, when there comes a lull,
he remarks casual:

"If that is all, Sir, I wish to say to you that Edna and I are engaged,
and that I intend to marry her early next week."

Wow! That's the cue for another explosion. It starts in just as fierce
as the first; but it don't last so long, and towards the end Pa Pulsifer
is talkin' husky and puffing hard.

"Go!" he winds up. "Get out of my house before I--I----"

"Oh, I say," breaks in Gilkey, "before you do what?"

"Throw you out!" bellows Pulsifer.

"Don't be absurd," says Gilkey, statin' it quiet and matter of fact.
"You couldn't, you know. Besides, it isn't being done."

And it takes Pa Pulsifer a full minute before he can choke down his
temper and get his wind again. Then he advances a step or so, points
dramatic to the door, and gurgles throaty:

"Will--you--get--out?"

"No," says Gilkey. "I came to see Edna. I've had no dinner either, and
I'd like a bite to eat."

Pulsifer stood there, not two feet from him, glarin' and puffin', and
tryin' to decide what to do next; but it's no use. He'd made his grand
roarin' lion play, which had always scared the tar out of his folks, and
he'd responded to an encore. Yet here was this mild-eyed young gent
with the pale hair and the square jaw not even wabbly in the knees from
it.

"Come, Edna," says Gilkey, holdin' out a hand to her. "Let's go into the
dining-room."

"But--but see here!" gasps Pa Pulsifer, makin' a final effort.
"I--I----"

"Oh, hush up!" says Gilkey, turnin' away weary. "Come, Edna."

And Edna, she went; also Mrs. Pulsifer; likewise Vee and Marjorie. Trust
women for knowin' when a bluff has been called. I expect they was wise,
two or three minutes before either me or Gilkey, that Pa Pulsifer was
beat. I stayed long enough to see him slump into an easy-chair, his
under lip limp and a puzzled look in his eyes, like he was tryin' to
figure out just what had hit him. And over by the fireplace is Ferdie,
gawpin' at him foolish, and exercisin' his gears, I expect, on the same
problem. Neither of them had said a word up to the time I left.

It took the women half an hour or mo