ut it's such blamed nonsense, I'm almost afraid to. It
shows what an infernal old fool he is."

"How old is pa?" I inquired.

"Oh, he's an old 'un."

"Says you're old enough to be her father, doesn't he?"

"That's it, but he's off; and how would you get around it, anyway--by
postponing it?"

Jim's notion of ages, and Tescheron's, I feared were both wide of the
mark, but I let that pass. One was vain and mad, and the other did not
observe closely.

"Is that all he said?" I asked.

"Well, no. I'll tell you just what he said as near as I can remember,
and see if you can figure out the answer. I came away to-day from his
office, squeezed out and dried up, but I gave him no back talk. I simply
said, 'Mr. Tescheron, I love your daughter, Gabrielle, and I am here,
sir, to ask you to set the day for the wedding,' just like that, as
pleasant as if I was chatting to him after church. Say, I thought he
would hurrah, or take me around to lunch (it was then after noon) and
introduce me to his friends. But he proceeded to breathe an early frost
on my green and tender leaves. As I was about to say, Ben, as near as I
can remember after rehearsing all this afternoon is this--and I tell
you, because if I don't the chances are I'll go right on rehearsing it
forever in some asylum, and then everybody will hear it till they are
sick and tired of it, and the curtain won't rise on the real show. Said
he: 'Well, so you say, so you say, so you say!' This beat me. I had
never heard a man talk that way."

"I've heard that kind," said I, knowingly. "He took stitches in his
conversation."

"'So you say, so you say. What say I? So? No.' That has been running
through my head in a way to set me crazy," continued Jim. "'Do I want a
son-in-law nearly as old as I am?' the little jackanapes asked me. 'Not
I. So you see, you are too old for Gabrielle.' Now, what do you think of
that? Doesn't that beat you? Why, the old chap is over fifty, and he
says I am older than he is. I actually believe he's crazy. Hair dye and
cologne and young men's clothes seem to give him the notion that he is
about thirty and became Gabrielle's father when he was about five years
old. He's got an idea from somewhere that I'm twice as old as I am
because I'm twice as big as he is--that's the most reasonable way I can
look at it. Well, I got so dry in the roof of my mouth I couldn't stub
my tongue on it to turn a word; my eyes burned and a cold sweat started.
No man his