“Shut up! Not a word out of you! There may be murder done in this house to-night! You’re not too big yet for me to thrash, even if you can line the help up against me in my own factory.” Despite his white-hot rebellion Nathan saw a facial expression that made him fear his father. It cowed him. Beside, at heart he was still much of a boy and the habit of obedience was strong in him. “Now,” declared Johnathan, “you’re going to listen to me. Edith! Anna! Go out! This is my affair and Nathan’s—alone!” The terrified women withdrew. Father and son faced one another beneath that ghastly white light from the burner sticking out from the wall. “You’ve been going with that girl—unbeknown to me—you’ve been seen with her!” Johnathan began moving back the chairs dramatically. “All right! Suppose I have! What of it?” “Then you—you—admit it!” “Yes. I admit it!” “Unbeknown to me—against all I’ve told you—you’ve gone with her and now you admit it!” “Do you want me to say I haven’t? Do you want me to lie to you?” “I want you to keep your mouth shut! Don’t speak unless you’re spoken to!” “But you did speak to me, didn’t you?” Johnathan walked over deadly close. “Nathan,” he said gutturally, “you’re my son—and murder is punishable by hanging. But I swear if you give me any more of your lip, I’m going to send you to the undertaker and I’m going to do it to-night!” The boy backed away from his father against the wall, as far as he could retreat. He did not answer. He waited. “Six or eight years ago,” went on Johnathan, when he saw he had browbeaten his boy into silence, “six or eight years ago I told you you were to have nothing to do with girls! Not until you were old enough to know your own mind, became of age and reached years of discretion. You understood me plainly enough then, didn’t you? What? You may answer! What?” “Yes, sir!” “And all down the years you’ve understood I insisted on obedience, didn’t you—right down until to-night?” “Yes, sir!” “But regardless of the fact that you knew my wishes and preferences in the matter perfectly, regardless of my warnings, my whippings, my admonitions—just like you did that picnic day with the Gridley girl—you’ve deliberately disobeyed me, haven’t you? You may answer me that too! What?” “Yes, sir!” “Then what’s the answer? What is it you deserve—deserve terribly?” “Nothing, sir!” “What?” “I said ‘Nothing’!” “Nothing!” “Precisely! Nothing! You can’t lay down a law that runs contrary to human nature and expect obedience.” “Nathan—I’m—going—to—kill you!” The boy never batted an eyelid. “No, father, you’re not going to kill me. And when you go talking so, I’ve cause to believe you’re not quite sane.”