Teddy stared at him, mortified and abashed. With all eyes turned toward him, he felt as though he would like to sink through the floor.
“I mean it,” said his father. “Go straight to your room and stay there. I’ll have something to say to you later on. But before you go, I want you to apologize to your Uncle Aaron for the danger you put him in this afternoon.”
Teddy turned toward his uncle, and the sour smile he saw on the latter’s thin lips made him almost hate his relative.
“Of course, I’m sorry,” he blurted out sullenly. “I told him so, down at the bridge. He knows well enough, that I didn’t mean—”
“That will do now,” interrupted his father. “There’s no need of adding impudence to your other faults.”
Teddy took his hand from the back of the chair and started for the hall, after one despairing glance at the table.
“But, Father—” ventured Fred.
“Wouldn’t it be enough to make him go without dessert?” interposed Mrs. Rushton. “Can’t you let him have at least a piece of bread and butter? The child’s health, you know—”
“Well,” hesitated Mr. Rushton. But he caught sight of the sarcastic grin on Aaron’s face.
“No,” he went on more firmly, “he can’t have a thing. It won’t hurt his health to go without his supper for once. No, nothing at all!”