"You dare treat your son in that way?
Horn--Murdoch--Warfield--all of you come out here! What I've got to say to Talbot Rutter I want you to hear, and I intend that not only you but every decent man and woman in Kennedy Square shall hear!" The colonel's lips quivered and his face paled, but he did not flinch, nor did his eyes drop.
"You are not a father, Talbot--you are a brute! There is not a dog in your kennels that would not treat his litter better than you have treated Harry! You turned him out in the night without a penny to his name; you break his mother's heart; you refuse to hear a word he has to say, and then you have the audacity to pass him on the steps of this club where he is my guest--my guest, remember--look him squarely in the face and ignore him.

That, gentlemen, is what Talbot Rutter did one minute ago.

You have disgraced your blood and your name and you have laid up for your old age untold misery and suffering.

Never, as long as I live, will I speak to you again, nor shall Harry, whom you have humiliated! Hereafter _I_ am his father! Do you hear ?" During the whole outburst the colonel had not moved a muscle of his face nor had he shifted his body a quarter of an inch.

He stood with his back to the door through which could be seen the amazed faces of his fellow-members--one hand tight shut behind his back, the other loose by his side, his eyes fixed on his antagonist.