But Mrs. Dodge interrupted him. “Did you understand me? I said, ‘Stand away from my daughter!’ ”
“I would,” he said, deferentially. “I would, but—but——”
He was unable to explain in words a difficulty that was too evident without them: the clinging Lily resisted his effort to detach himself, and it was clear that in order to obey her mother’s command he would need assistance. This, however, was immediately forthcoming.
“Lily!” Mrs. Dodge rushed upon her; but Lily clung only the more tragically.
“No, no!” she moaned. “This is my place and it is my right!”
Mrs. Dodge set really violent hands upon her, and unmistakably there hovered a possibility, in the imminent future, that Lily would not only be removed from her lover but would also get a shaking. Rather than be seen under such undignified circumstances, she succumbed upon a sofa, weeping there. “You see,” she wailed;—“you see how they treat me!”
“Now, before you march out of here,” her mother said to the intruder, “you explain how you dared to come.”
“Well, that’s what I came for,” he responded. “I wanted to explain.”
“You make it perfectly clear in one stroke,” Mrs. Dodge said. “You came here to explain why you came here!”
“Yes, ma’am.”