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his audience. Kitty stood in the doorway. “Hello, dear,” he said to her, in a kindly tone. “I hope you’ve gotten over any ill feelings you may have had against your old father.”
     
    “I’m going to marry him, and that’s that.”
     
    The General shrugged. He took her hand and gave it an affectionate squeeze. “What do you want to do — mother a race of super-idiots? He can’t concentrate on anything but his motorcycle for more than twenty seconds at a time. If you two were married and down to your last five dollars, he’d blow it on two fox tails and a chromium-plated exhaust-pipe extension. If it came to a choice between you or the motorcycle, sister, you’d lose.”
     
    “He’s brilliant,” declared Kitty. “He knows more about motors than anybody. And, while we’re getting mean about it, what about you? You’re as much in love with that German limousine of yours as Roy is with his motorcycle.”
     
    Haley saw that this rankled the General a little. “That car,” he said crisply, “is the only one of its kind in the world. It couldn’t be replaced for thirty thousand dollars. Moreover, young lady,
I do
have other interests. Take away Roy’s motorcycle, and he’d vanish. I could build a better man with an Erector Set.”
    Kitty turned white with fury. “He’s brilliant, and he’s good looking, and he’s a gentleman, and he’s considerate, and he’s from a good family, and he’s—”
     
    The roar of a motorcycle in the driveway cut her short. The front door slammed, and Roy Flemming marched into the sunroom. Haley saw that his movements were ponderous, imprecise, and that he brought with him a withering effluvium of whisky. “I know when I’ve been insulted,” Roy said hoarsely, “and I don’t have to stand for it, either. I don’t care if you’re King of the Universe, I still don’t have to. Nope.”
     
    The General held his nose.
     
    “So I’ve been drinking,” said Roy, with a flourish of his hand. “S’matter of small importance in the face of that with which I have been faced with. I offer my heart to your daughter, and all I get from you is shame and abuse, that’s all.” He snapped his fingers. “I’m here to wake you all up, to get you out of your ruts.”
     
    The General gave an experimental sniff, winced, and held his nose again.
     
    “Oh, I’m on to you,” said Roy. “You’re trying to use psychology on me by making me think my breath smells bad, so I’ll get confused and forget what I wanted to say. I’m one jump ahead of you, mister.”
     
    “Can’t be the septic tank,” murmured the General.
     
    “Could be your soul,” said Roy hotly. “You don’t bother to think; you just say no to everything.” He squinted to bring the General into focus. “Well, I’m here to tell you that it won’t work on the Sun and the stars and the Moon, and it won’t work with love like Kitty’s and mine, either.”
     
    The General arose, grasped Roy by the collar and a handful of trouser-seat, and propelled him to the front door. His expression was placid, patient. “You say you want to marry my daughter, and I say no,” he explained, releasing Roy on the front porch. “I couldn’t stop the Sun and the Moon and the stars, if I wanted to — but I expect to be quite effective in your particular case.”
     
    Haley heard Roy shout from his motorcycle as he sped away with an angry clashing of gears: “I’ll be back!”
     
    “That’s not original with him, you know,” commented the General, returning to the sunroom.
     
    After dinner, seated on the kitchen steps, Haley outlined the conversation to Hope, who nodded thoughtfully and made him repeat portions of it. “Roy’s right about the way he tries to solve everything by saying no,” she sighed. “That’s how he got to be a general, I guess, but he sure isn’t much fun as a father.”
     
    “I’m sure he’s got a very good heart, and is just trying to do what he thinks best,” said