'What was there in that look that went so home to the heart of the
stern father--in those loving, broken words of the poor abused boy? If
they did not stagger the conviction of his guilt, they made him feel
most unhappy. Had he acted well, or wisely, or like a Christian? Was
the punishment that he had inflicted--so harsh and degrading to a
sensitive mind--likely to produce the desired effect? He could not
answer the question in a manner at all satisfactory to his mind, or
still the sharp upbraidings of conscience; and flinging himself upon
his knees, he buried his face in his hands, and offered up to God an
agony of repentant tears.
CHAPTER III.
'George Leatrim's first thought was to go to his mother; but then she
was ill, and happily unconscious of what had taken place. Besides, like
his father, she might believe the evidence that Ralph had witnessed
against him, and he had not the fortitude to bear that. As his passion
subsided, he had courage to recall the painful events of the past hour,
and to acknowledge that the circumstances by which he was surrounded
were suspicious enough to condemn him in any court of law, and must be
maddening to a proud, sensitive man like his father. Struggling with
the shame and agony of his position, he could not recognise this
before, or admit that both his father and Ralph might be deceived.
'He had never felt the severe corporeal punishment during its
infliction.
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