"I know what I want and I'm going to get it," said I. Tapp doggedly.
"Dorothy is the girl for you. Don't you get entangled with anybody
else. Not a penny of my money will you ever handle if you don't do as
I say, young man!"
"You needn't holler till you're hit, dad," Lawford said, trying to speak carelessly.
"Oh! I sha'n't holler," snarled the Taffy King. "I warn you. One such play as that and I'm through with you. I'm willing to support an idle, ne'er-do-well; but he sha'n't saddle himself with one of those theatrical creatures and bring scandal upon the family. Do you know what I was doing when I was your age? I had a booth at 'Gansett, two at Newport, a big one at Atlantic City, and was beginning to branch out. I worked like a dog, too."
"That's why I think I don't have to work, dad," said Lawford coolly.
CHAPTER IX
SUSPICION HOVERS
Betty Gallup, clothed as usual in her man's hat and worn pea-coat, but likewise on this occasion with mystery, seized Louise by the hand the instant she appeared and drew her into the kitchen, shutting the door between that and the living-room.
"What is the matter?" the girl asked. "Have you broken something—or is the canary dead?"
"Sh!" warned Betty, her little brown eyes blinking rapidly. "I heard something last night."
"I didn't. I slept like a baby. The night before I heard that old foghorn——"