"You!—great God!"
"Yes, she came into my life at last—a sensuous young animal with wide, bold eyes that knew everything and was not afraid. That sentence means the shame from which I've guarded you with such infinite care——"
He paused and pointed again to the letter, tracing its words:
"'Rear our boy free from the curse!'—you—you—see why I have been so desperately in earnest?"—Norton bent close with pleading eagerness: "And that next sentence, there, you can read it? 'I had rather a thousand times that he should die than this—My brooding spirit will watch and guard'"—he paused and repeated—"'that he should die'—you—you—see that?"
The boy looked at his father's trembling hand and into his glittering eyes with a start:
"Yes, yes, but, of course, that was only a moment's despair—no mother could mean such a thing."
Norton's eyes fell, he moved uneasily, tried to speak again and was silent. When he began his words were scarcely audible:
"We must part now in tenderness, my boy, as father and son—we—we—must do that you know. You—you forgive me for striking you to-night?"
Tom turned away, struggled and finally answered: