Bibbs warned you Edith would marry Lamhorn in New York?"

Sheridan went completely to pieces: he swore, while his wife screamed
and stopped her ears. And as he swore he pounded the table with
his wounded hand, and when the doctor, after storming at him
ineffectively, sprang to catch and protect that hand, Sheridan
wrenched it away, tearing the bandage. He hammered the table till
it leaped.

"Fool!" he panted, choking. "If he's shown gumption enough to guess
right the first time in his life, it's enough for me to begin learnin'
him on!" And, struggling with the doctor, he leaned toward Bibbs,
thrusting forward his convulsed face, which was deathly pale. "My
name ain't Tracy, I tell you!" he screamed, hoarsely. "You give in,
you stubborn fool! I've had my way with you before, and I'll have my
way with you now!"

Bibbs's face was as white as his father's, but he kept remembering
that "splendid look" of Mary's which he had told her would give him
courage in a struggle, so that he would "never give up."

"No. You can't have your way," he said. And then, obeying a
significant motion of Gurney's head, he went out quickly, leaving
them struggling.



CHAPTER XXVII

Mrs. Sheridan, in a wrapper, noiselessly opened the door of her