"Something wrong, son?" he asked.
"Oh, Mary Jane wants me to go to somebody's birthday party, and now she's mad because I have to take Cindy Lou out for a fast run."
Mr. Hartford took off his glasses and looked at his son strangely. It was as if he had suddenly discovered a completely new aspect of his character.
"Cindy Lou for a fast run?" he said.
"Cindy Lou is Woody's hot rod," Mrs. Hartford explained, and his father relaxed.
"Oh," he grunted. There were times when he realized that Woody lived in a world completely different from his own, and this was one of them.
"Never mind," said Mrs. Hartford comfortingly. "Mary Jane's a sensible girl. She'll see things in their right light after a while. Your father and I had many misunderstandings before we were married."
"Yes," said Woody gloomily. "But there wasn't a Bob Peters with a yellow Buick convertible hanging around in the background."
"As I recall it," said Mr. Hartford, "there was a young medical student by the name of Saunders who drove a Stutz Bearcat. But for my happy intervention, my boy, you might be the son of a doctor, devoting your life to the dissection of frogs."
Mrs. Hartford laughed, and for a moment she seemed, even to Woody, a young girl.