"Take seats, gentlemen," said Gideon. "Mrs. Foot will be with you in a moment."
Gideon returned to the hall where Hercules was waiting.
"Go fetch the parson," said Gideon. "Make haste!"
Hercules hurried away, and Gideon returned to the back parlor and locked both doors. He then stood in the middle of the floor and elevated himself to his full height, so that his head almost seemed to touch the low ceiling, as he gazed sternly at Love, Dove, and Bliss, who sat on a sofa, and who now began to tremble.
"Look here!" said Gideon, "I am a man of few words. Do you know what you have got to do?"
"What?" said Love, looking dreadfully frightened.
"You three fellows have been hanging around my daughters for the last six months," said Gideon. "You have come to the house in the morning; you have come in the afternoon; you have come at all hours, and the girls have had no time to do any household work on account of you. Even at night, when they were in bed, you would be under their windows making more noise than so many tomcats with your serenades. Now, what do you intend to do?"
"Nothing," said little Love, very meekly.
"Nothing!" exclaimed the gigantic Gideon Foot. "Nothing! Just say that again and I will wring your neck! Come! I'll have no fooling! You have got to marry my three daughters!"
The eyes of the three little men widely dilated, and were fixed on Gideon's towering form, but their tongues were silent; they were dumb with terror.