Why had I bought a
six-shooter shortly after our marriage except to be equipped for just
such an emergency? It did certainly seem that I was bound by all the
laws of custom to pop at least once over the banisters, even though I
took no aim and scurried back into my bedroom immediately after. That
would have satisfied her, she subsequently admitted to me; but to drop a
pair of Indian clubs on the floor in order to make a clatter could be
regarded as little less than pusillanimous, philosophy or no philosophy.
We have talked it over many times since, and I have endeavored to make
plain to her that in the process of evolution thinking men have come to
the conclusion that the husband and father who chops logic at dead of
night with an accomplished burglar on the wrong side of his chamber door
is akin to a lunatic. She listens to my arguments attentively, and she
has done me the honor to admit that there is more to be said in my behalf
than she thought at first; but I remember that the last time we conversed
upon the subject she shook her head with the air of a woman who, in spite
of everything, is still of the same opinion, and she murmured gently:
"As I told you before, Fred, if you had fired once over the banisters, I
would say nothing."
"But I might have been killed or maimed for life as a consequence," I
blurted, feelingly.
Pages:
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28