He himself would have seen Rutter in Hades before he would have apologized to him.

In fact his anger choked him so every time he thought of the brutal and disgraceful scene he had witnessed when the boy had been ordered from his home, that he could hardly get his breath.

But then Kate was not his sweetheart, much as he loved her.
"I don't know, Harry.

I am not his son," he answered in an undecided way.

Then something the boy's mother had said rose in his mind: "Didn't your mother say that your father's loneliness without you was having its effect ?--and wasn't her advice to wait until he should send for you ?" "Yes--that was about it." "Well, your mother would know best.