The entire family were almost choking with suppressed laughter, but none dare give vent to it.
“Why don't you laugh—all of you?” asked he, looking around fiercely.
“Because you frighten their laughter away,” Mrs. Darrell replied. “They fear to offend you.”
“Offend me? Me? And since when such consideration? Since when, I say?”
“Since they were old enough to know you as their father,” calmly replied Mrs. Darrell.
“Ah! I am glad to hear it. Well, sir,” he said, addressing Clarence again, to the terror of all the family, “I have at last learned that you have been making clandestine bargains with your future father-in-law, placing me in a most ridiculous position, for which I don't thank you.”
“I am sorry, father. My intention was most kind,” Clarence answered, respectfully, but very calmly.
“You only thought that as I was a fool, you would be my sense-bearer, and act for me—you, the man of brains.”
“No, sir. All I thought was, that as you seem to love my mother, you would prefer to give her the kind of home that she desires. I thought that when you came to know all, you would approve of my having obeyed my mother's wishes.”
“If you were so sure of my approval, why didn't you tell me the whole thing before?”