Nevertheless, to stand in open revolt against I. Tapp's command was a very serious thing to do. Lawford appreciated his own shortcomings in the matter of intellect. He knew he was not brilliant enough to make his wit entirely serve him for daily bread--let alone cake and other luxuries. If his father disinherited him he must verily expect to earn his bread by the sweat of his brow. It was that evening, after his fruitless call at Cap'n Abe's store, that the young man met his father and had it out. Lawford came back to Tapp Point in the motor boat. As he walked up from the dock there was a sudden eruption of voices from the house, a door banged, and the Taffy King began exploding verbal fireworks as he crunched the gravel under foot. "I'll show him! Young upstart! Settin' the women on me! Ha! Thinks he can do as he pleases forever and ever, amen! I'll show him!" Just then he came face to face with "the young upstart." I. Tapp seized his son's arm with a vicious if puny grasp and yelled: "What d'you mean by it?" "Mean by what, dad?" asked the boy with that calmness that always irritated I. Tapp. "Settin' your ma and the girls on me? They all lit on me at once. All crying together some foolishness about your marrying this Grayling girl and putting the family into society." "Into society?" murmured Lawford. "I--I don't get you." "You know what they're after," cried the candy manufacturer. "If a dynamite bomb would blow in the walls of that exclusive Back Bay set, they'd use one. And now it turns out this girl's right in the swim------I thought you said she was a picture actress?" "I thought she was," stammered Lawford. "Bah! You thought? You never thought a thing in your life of any consequence." The young man was silent at this thrust. His silence made I. Tapp even angrier. "But it makes no difference--no difference at all, I tell you. If she was the queen of Sheba I'd say the same," went on the candy manufacturer wildly. "I've said you shall marry Dorothy Johnson--I've always meant you should; and marry her you shall!" "No, dad, I'm not going to do any such thing." Suddenly the Taffy King quieted down. He struggled to control his voice and his shaking hands. A deadly calm mantled his excitement and his eyes glittered as he gazed up at his tall son. "Is this a straight answer, Lawford? Or are you just talking to hear yourself talk?" he asked coldly. "I am determined not to marry Dot." "And you'll marry that other girl?" "If she'll have me. But whether or no I won't be forced into marriage with a girl I do not love." "Love!" exploded the Taffy King. Then in a moment he was calm again, only for that inward glow of rage. "People don't really love each other until after marriage. Love is born of propinquity and thrives on usage and custom. You only _think_ you love this girl. It's after two people have been through a good deal together that they learn what love means."