"Well, Pap; I'm not trying to nose into your business. You told Palmer that I knowed a heap about the show business, and you recommended me highly as a showman."
The father was sizzling. "Who told you so?"
"Why, Palmer himself. Now, I don't want to brag on myself," continued Alfred who had gained confidence as the interview progressed, "but I've seen a great deal of this show business and you've got to know what you're doing when you get into it. Why, look how many men have lost all their money." And here Alfred mentioned the names of several men, the details of whose losses in show schemes he had read in the New York Clipper.
"Why," he continued, in an outburst of confidence, "I"—and he emphasized the "I"—"I lost money on my last show." He should have added, "my first and last show." But the boy felt that he had pap going. "I had to borrow money from Sammy Steele to pay my debts."
The father gasped. "So you've been borrowing money to get into the show business?"
"No, I had to borrow money to get out of it and that's why I don't want you to loan Palmer money without you ask mother."
Alfred knew full well that this reference to the mother would bring the father to terms.
"Now look here, my boy; I warned you once before not to blab my business to your mother to make trouble in the family—"
"Well, I'm going to tell her," broke in the boy.
"You're going to tell her what?" threateningly asked the father.