“Gentlemen!” she said. “Please ...!”
Gilbert turned on his heel and strode out of the room. He went, of course, to his wife.
“I’ve been having a talk with that gentlemanly friend of yours,” he said, with a desperate effort to steady his voice. “And I want to tell you, once and for all, I’ll have—I’ll have ... I’ll have.... Understand me, both of you—and I want you to tell Andrée, too—you’re not to speak to the fellow again. Under any circumstances.”
“I’ll have to answer him if he speaks to me,” said Edna.
Both her parents were astonished.
“No, you don’t!” said her father. “I won’t have it!”
“I can’t be rude to him,” said Edna, in her most tranquil, sensible voice.
“I tell you!” shouted Gilbert. “I won’t have it!”
Edna said nothing, but the expression of her face was not obedient. Gilbert didn’t know how to proceed; he hesitated a moment, then he turned away.
“Claudine,” he said, from the doorway, “this is your business! You brought them up, and now you can handle them. You see to it that my—wishes are carried out. Understand, I’ll have no nonsense!”