"No, sir-ree!" Tom Farrell's long arm came out and scooped out of Jimmy's grasp the youngster, who started to cry; "it's got to be settled right here an' now who's boss of this establishment. I ain't goin' to let no woman run on me. Here, Bet—take this kid, and put him to bed like I told you!" The husband was now so far beside himself that he, for the moment, neither knew nor cared what impression he made. As he spoke, he held out the baby boy, who yelled and kicked vigorously.
But Betty Farrell backed away, letting young Tommy dangle from his father's outstretched arms.
"I don't have to take no orders from you," she said, putting her hands obstinately behind her back, "and I won't, not if you rave till you're blue in the face. I'll show everybody how much authority you have over me."
At this, young Tom felt himself set down hard on a chair. Tom Farrell, having thus freed his hands, hopped ragingly across the room and slapped his wife on the side of the face. Betty, true to the color of her hair, flared up, looked about for something to throw, and swept her hand with temper's wastefulness toward the cut-glass vase in the centre of the table.
"Hey!" Jimmy Knight reached across and rescued the vase; "you ain't mad five dollars' worth, surely, Bet." Then the brother got up and came around the table.
"Break away, break away," he said, casting a deprecating grin toward Daisy as he put one hand on his sister's shoulder and the other on Tom Farrell's chest, and pushed the two apart; "hittin' in the clinches is barred, boys. How about a little card-game, everybody? Bet and me will take on Daisy and you, Tom, and beat yous flat."
"Nothing doing," Farrell nasalled, closing his eyes and rocking his head from side to side in an obdurate negative; "this here thing's got to be settled first. Let a woman get the upper hand of you once, an' you'll never get her back in her place."
"Aw, go on, Bet," Jimmy gave his sister a little coaxing nudge, "put the kid to bed."
Betty Farrell raised eyelids, nose, chin and right foot, and brought them all down simultaneously.