The hired men were still at table.
They looked down at their plates and said nothing.

Kurt left the sitting-room door open, and, turning, he asked Martha if his father had been to dinner.
"No, an' what's more, when I called he takes to roarin' like a mad bull," replied the woman.
Kurt crossed the sitting-room to knock upon his father's door.

The reply forthcoming did justify the old woman's comparison.

It certainly caused the hired men to evacuate the kitchen with alacrity.

Old Chris Dorn's roar at his son was a German roar, which did not soothe the young man's rising temper.