The Sins of the Father: A Romance of the South
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CHAPTER VIII
BEHIND THE BARS
When Norton reached his room he locked the door and began to pace thefloor, facing for the hundredth time the stunning situation which thepresence of Helen had created.
To reveal to such a sensitive, cultured girl just as she was budding intowomanhood the fact that her blood was tainted with a negro ancestor wouldbe an act so pitifully cruel that every instinct of his nature revoltedfrom the thought.
He began to realize that her life was at stake as well as his boy's. Thathe loved this son with all the strength of his being and that he only knewthe girl to fear her, made no difference in the fundamental facts. Heacknowledged that she was his. He had accepted the fact and paid thepenalty in the sacrifice of every ambition of a brilliant mind.
He weighed carefully the things that were certain and the things that weremerely probable. The one certainty that faced him from every angle was thatCleo was in deadly earnest and that it meant a fight for the supremacy ofevery decent instinct of his life and character.
Apparently she had planned a tragic revenge by luring the girl to his home,figuring on his absence for three months, to precipitate a love affairbefore he could know the truth or move to interfere. A strange mentaltelepathy had warned him and he had broken in on the scene two monthsbefore he was expected.
And yet he couldn't believe that Cleo in the wildest flight of her insanerage could have deliberately meant that such an affair should end inmarriage. She knew the character of both father and son too well to doubtthat such an act could only end in tragedy. She was too cautious for suchmadness.
What was her game?
He asked himself that question again and again, always to come back to oneconclusion. She had certainly brought the girl into the house to force fromhis reluctant lips her recognition and thus fix her own grip on his life.Beyond a doubt the surest way to accomplish this, and the quickest, was bya love affair between the boy and girl. She knew that personally the fatherhad rather die than lose the respect of his son by a confession of hisshame. But she knew with deeper certainty that he must confess it if theirwills once clashed over the choice of a wife. The boy had a mind of hisown. His father knew it and respected and loved him all the more because ofit.
It was improbable as yet that Tom had spoken a word of love or personallyfaced such an issue. Of the girl he could only form the vaguest idea. Itwas clear now that he had been stricken by a panic and that the case wasnot so desperate as he had feared.
One thing he saw with increasing clearness. He must move with the utmostcaution. He must avoid Helen at first and find the boy's attitude. He mustat all hazards keep the use of every power of body, mind and soul in thecrisis with which he was confronted.
Two hours later when Andy cautiously approached his door and listened atthe keyhole he was still pacing the floor with the nervous tread of awounded lion suddenly torn from the forest and thrust behind the bars of aniron cage.