“That's my business.”
“Well, it's my business, too, when I find the name of my son posted for expulsion on the board of my pet club. You used to be sweet on Cheever's wife. You weren't fighting about her, were you?”
This chance hit jolted the bridegroom so perceptibly that his father regretted having made it. He gasped:
“Great Lord, but you're the busy young man! Solomon in all his glory—”
“Let him alone now,” Mrs. Dyckman broke in, “or you'll have me on your hands.” She needed only her husband's hostility to inflame her in defense of her son. “If he's married, he's married, and words won't divorce him. We might as well make the best of it. I've no doubt the girl is a darling, or Jim wouldn't have cared for her. Would you, Jimsy?”
“Naturally not,” Jim agreed, with a rather sickly enthusiasm.
“Is she nice-looking?”
“She is famous for her beauty.”
“Famous! Oh, Heavens! That sounds ominous. You mean she's well known?”
“Very—in certain circles.”