He seized Maggie's wrists, and all the evil of his violent
nature glared from his small bright eyes.
"Damn you!" he cried. "Jimmie, she's yours, and a father's got a right
to do anything he likes to his own daughter. Give it to her proper if
she don't come across with the truth!"
Jimmie stepped closer to her and bared his yellow teeth. "I haven't
given you a basting since you were fifteen--but I'll paste you one
right in the mouth if you don't talk straight talk!"
"You hear that!" Barney gritted at her. He believed there was justice
in his wrath--as indeed there was, of a sort. "Think what Jimmie and
I've put into this, in time and hard coin! We've given you your
chance, we've made you! And then, after hard work and waiting and our
spending so much, and everything comes out exactly as we figured, you
go and throw us down--not just yourself, but us and our rights! Now
you talk straight stuff! Tell us, why did you refuse Sherwood when he
proposed? And why did you tell me that lie about his not proposing?"
Maggie realized she was in a desperate plight, with these two inflamed
gazes upon her. Never had she felt so little of a daughter's liking
for Old Jimmie as now when she looked into his lean, harsh, yellow-
fanged face. And she had no illusions about Barney.
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