"Oh, _come_ in, Laura!" cried her sister, as Laura appeared in the
doorway. "Don't _stand_ there! Come in if you want to take part in
a grand old family row!" With a furious and tear-stained face, she
was confronting her father who stood before her in a resolute
attitude and a profuse perspiration. "Shut the door!" shouted Cora
violently, adding, as Laura obeyed, "Do you want that little Pest
in here? Probably he's eavesdropping anyway. But what difference
does it make? I don't care. Let him hear! Let anybody hear that
wants to! They can hear how I'm tortured if they like. I didn't
close my eyes last night, and now I'm being tortured. Papa!" She
stamped her foot. "Are you going to take back that insult to me?"
"`Insult'?" repeated her father, in angry astonishment.
"Pshaw," said Laura, laughing soothingly and coming to her. "You
know that's nonsense, Cora. Kind old papa couldn't do that if he
tried. Dear, you know he never insulted anybody in his----"
"Don't touch me!" screamed Cora, repulsing her. "Listen, if you've
got to, but let me alone. He did too! He did! He _knows_ what he
said!"
"I do not!"
"He does! He does!" cried Cora. "He said that I was--I was too
much `interested' in Mr. Corliss."
"Is that an `insult'?" the father demanded sharply.
"It was the way he said it," Cora protested, sobbing. "He meant
something he didn't _say_. He did! He did! He _meant_ to insult
me!"
"I did nothing of the kind," shouted the old man.
"I don't know what you're talking about. I said I couldn't
understand your getting so excited about the fellow's affairs and
that you seemed to take a mighty sudden interest in him."
"Well, what if I _do_?" she screamed. "Haven't I a right to be
interested in what I choose? I've got to be interested in
_something_, haven't I? _You_ don't make life very interesting, do
you? Do you think it's interesting to spend the summer in this
horrible old house with the paper falling off the walls and our
rotten old furniture that I work my hands off trying to make look
decent and can't, and every other girl I know at the seashore with
motor-cars and motor-boats, or getting a trip abroad and buying
her clothes in Paris? What do _you_ offer to interest me?"
The unfortunate man hung his head. "I don't see what all that has
to do with it----"