"My God!" Bob shouted at her. "Are you in trouble! Cut that out, I tell you. You ought to be thankful to get a decent man to marry you, after this."
She paid no attention to him. She was still looking imperturbably at Johnnie.
"You think it is a disgrace, I suppose, to have my name connected with his. So you come over and offer to marry me. To give me your precious name! Are you going into the movies, Johnnie?"
It is altogether likely that Bob, at this point, would have seized her by the arm and given her that shaking she had been so long inviting, if into the room just then had not stalked the cause of Johnnie's haste. His mother seemed to be perfectly in tune with the occasion, for she demanded, excitedly, having looked about and fixed her eyes on Emily:
"What has he been saying? I told you I'd tell the Kenworthys! Emily, what has Johnnie been saying to you?"
Before Emily could answer, Bob, to save her the trouble, exclaimed:
"He says he's engaged to her!" And then from those four, Emily being at one side, in less than a minute there came a volley of sharp sentences, as if they were standing in a circle firing at a target in the center.
Instantly Mrs. Benton exploded:
"Well, he isn't! He can't be! I will NOT give my consent! He can't stop school. He never earned a cent in his life. I won't allow him to marry! Understand that!"
Johnnie, ignoring her, cried to Bob, "I CAN earn my living!"