Page:The Plutocrat (1927).pdf/505

 "Now, Mamma! Now, Hon"

"Stop it!" she cried. "Don't you dare call me that!"

Olivia moaned. "Oh, dear! Can't you ever quiet down, Mother? How many more days of this have we"

Her mother paid no attention to the remonstrance; she began to talk wildly. "I expect he'd have been glad if I'd been murdered! All those screeching faces and horrible glaring eyes—they wanted to murder me! You think you know that man, Olivia; but you don't. If I'd been put out of the way so that he could be a fine rich widower with French adventuresses flattering him and patting his shoulder and getting him to sneak out to meals with them and"

"Listen!" Tinker said. "There wasn't any more chance of those people murdering you than there would be of a chicken's murdering an elephant. They just got excited for a minute, and if John Edwards had been with us even that wouldn't 'a' happened."

"Why wasn't he with us, then? You're very sweet to call your wife an elephant! What did you let him start so long ahead of us for?"

"Because you weren't ready at the time we planned