Mrs.Bates gazed at him anxiously.

Was he so surprised and angry he was choking?
Might it be a stroke?
It was! It was a master stroke.

He got no farther than "taught me things you didn't know yourself," when he lowered the sheet, threw back his head and laughed as none of his family ever had seen him laugh in his life; laughed and laughed until his frame was shaken and the tears rolled.

Finally he looked at the dazed Nancy Ellen.

"Get Sally Whistler, nothing!" he said.