"I'll show you who's boss of this show," he managed to articulate at
last. Suddenly his knees gave way under him. He sagged heavily
forward, dropping to the board seat. With one last desperate, stricken
glare in his eyes, he lowered his head to his arms. A mighty sob of
utter humiliation rent his body.
Mary Braddock hesitated for an instant, then impulsively laid her hand
on her husband's shoulder. A wave of pity for this wretch surged into
her heart.
"Don't, Thomas! Be a man! Everything will be well again, boy, if
you'll only make a stand for yourself. I will help you--I will always
help you, Tom. You know I--"
He shook off her pitying hand and struggled to his feet. Without a
glance at her or at their terrified daughter, he flung himself from
the tent and tore across the lot as though pursued by demons. By the
time he found Colonel Grand and David in the animal tent, however, his
blind rage had dwindled to ugly resentment; the overwhelming shame his
own child had brought to the surface shrank back into the narrow
selfishness from which, perhaps, it had sprung.
Five minutes before, he had wanted to kill.
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