How to get it
into his possession: that was the question that produced the
undiverted stare and the lowering droop at the corners of his mouth.
"I've got to get that wad," he was saying to himself, over and over
again, with almost tearful insistence. Driven by the value of
propinquity, he finally made his way to the dressing-tent. The
performers were surprised to find him unnaturally sober and quite
jovial. A certain nervousness marked his manner. He chatted amiably
with the leading men and women in his company; the fact that he
removed the cigar from his lips while conversing with Ruby Noakes and
the Iron-jawed Woman, created no little amazement in them. He was
especially gentle with his wife, and superlatively so with his
daughter, both of whom were slow to show the slightest sense of
responsive warmth. He proudly, almost belligerently, proclaimed
Christine to be the loveliest creature that ever stepped into the
sawdust ring. In spite of that fact, however, it was his plan to have
her retire at the end of the season, when, if all went well, she was
to go to a splendid school for young ladies.
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