He could get no satisfaction from his father and by and by began to be ashamed to ask him; why, he did not know.

Although he could not help hearing the abominable talk of the High School boys, he at first refused to believe that part of it which he could understand.

For all that he was ashamed of his innocence and ignorance and affected to appreciate their stories nevertheless.
At length one day he heard the terse and brutal truth.

In an instant he believed it, some lower, animal intuition in him reiterating and confirming the fact.

But even then he hated to think that people were so low, so vile.