Molly and Morse slowly got to their feet. They stood looking down upon the young millionaire with jaws apart and startled eyes.
“Well, you needn’t look as if I were about to commit some crime,” he said, quizzing them with laughing eyes. 223 “I suppose a chap can get married if he wants to; can’t he?”
“It’s ridiculous,” blurted Miss Merriweather.
A drawn, helpless expression had crept into her eyes, making her appear like an old woman.
Theodore got to his feet.
“What’s ridiculous?” he demanded, immediately on the defensive. “My wanting to be happy?”
“Not that quite,” replied the woman, “but surely you can’t––”
“I can and I will!” exclaimed Theodore decidedly. “I couldn’t be happy without her, and mother––”
“It’ll kill ’er,” warned Molly significantly.
“Not at all,” denied Theodore. “My mother’s a woman of sense! When she knows her big boy’s madly in love with the sweetest girl in the world, she’ll take it as a matter of course.”