“Certainly, dear.” His astonishment was equal to her own. “Surely, you didn’t think I intended to leave my mother?”
“Well, don’t every boy and every girl leave their mothers when they get married? You ain’t no different!”
“No—but my mother’s different,” he answered tenderly. “Why, she’s a brick, I tell you. She stood by me through thick and thin! She had a lot of money two years ago, but she spent every dollar of it for me!”
“Well, it’s a mother’s duty to stand by her children, ain’t it?”
“I don’t know about that! I hadn’t been such a wonderful son to her, and it’s only in the last two years we’ve grown so close to each other. I wouldn’t hurt her for the world!” he declared.
“Oh, all right, kid!” Katie moved away from him. “If that’s the way you feel about it—let’s just call our engagement off!”
“Katie! You wouldn’t do that! I love you too much!”
“And I love you, Howard. But there ain’t goin’ to be no mother-in-law business in my life. My ma says to me: ‘Take it from me, Kitty, there ain’t no home big enough for two families.’ And she ought to know. She’s been married three times.”
“But there wouldn’t be anything like that with my mother—you’re bound to love her.”
“Sure! That’s all right,” she answered heartily. “I want to love her, and I want her to love me! But I don’t want to live with her.”