t
to men who can manage their limbs, and don't inflict yourself on women
who are too high-bred to refuse to dance with a man who ought to be a
gentleman. Stay at home, sir! Stay at home, and don't make a disgraceful
spectacle of yourself in public, particularly when there are lovely women
present to witness your humiliation."

It was the figurative last straw. Tom's mind had been dark and gloomy
enough to begin with, but when during his father's harangue he glanced up
and saw De Courcy bending his aquiline face over his paper with a
slightly sardonic smile, he could stand no more.

To the utter dumfounding of his mother and sisters, and even the irate
Judge himself, he pushed his chair back and sprang to his feet with an
actual roar of rage and pain. His great body seemed to swell until its
size overwhelmed them; his eyes blazed, he shook his tremendous fist.

"Leave me alone!" he shouted, "leave me alone! Yes, I did make a fool of
myself! Yes, I did knock a woman down and tear her dress and look like an
ass and set the whole room laughing at me, women and all--the best-bred
and sweetest of them! It's all true, every word of it, and more too--more
too! And that's not enough, but my own father serves it up again, and you
fellows sit there and grin over it to make it worse. That's right, pitch
in, all of you, and drive me mad and put an end to it."

He upset his chair and a small negro boy with a plate of waffles, and,
striding over the scattered ruins, dashed out of the room with tears of
fury in his eyes.

It was the turning-point of his existence. He made his bitter resolve as
he walked out of the house down the street. Early as it was, he went
straight to Delia, and when he found himself alone with her, poured forth
all the misery of his sore heart.

"If I had been born a clod-hopper it would have been better for me," he
said. "I have no place here among men with decently shaped bodies and
clear heads. I'm a great clumsy fool, and there's no help for it. If I'd
had more brain, I might have managed the rest; but I'm a dullard too.
They may well sneer at me. I think I will go away and bury myself
somewhere among the people I ought to have lived among by rights. In some
simple country place I might find those who know less than I do, and
forget the rest; and perhaps be content enough in time. I shall never
marry. I--I suppose you know that, Delia." And he took her little hand
and laid it on his own open palm and sa