Christine is in no way responsible
for your transgressions. I am only sorry that she has such a father.
If she still cares for me, I shall ask her to be my wife, even though
you are strung up a hundred times. But this is beside the question.
_You_ should think of her happiness, her peace of mind. All her life
she will have to think of you as a--a--well, I won't say it. You--"
"I'll say it for you," interrupted the gray-faced listener: "as a
gallows bird--as scaffold fruit."
"Please don't, Tom," cried Ruby.
"You would better a thousand times shoot yourself than to bring that
black shadow into her life," said David. "Suicide is bad enough but--
ugh!" He shuddered.
"Look here, Jenison, I might have been a good man if it hadn't been
for Bob Grand. I always would have been a showman, I reckon, but I'd
have been fairly self-respecting. Today, instead of being what I am,
I'd still have the love of my wife, the respect of my girl, and--oh,
well, you can't understand. You all are against me--and have been for
years. I don't blame you--not a bit of it. I deserve it. Grand
deliberately set out to ruin me--to pull me down.
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