"
"Wine, you young jack-donkey!" cried John Seaton. "And don't you
appreciate the difference between a home meal like this and one you
pick up in Minetta Lane?"
"I dunno!" Nucky's face darkened sullenly and he pushed his pudding
away.
There was silence around the table for a few moments. Mrs. Seaton,
quietly watching the boy, thought of what her husband had told her of
Officer Foley's account. The boy did act not unlike a bull pup put for
the first time on the lead chain. She was relieved and so was Mr.
Seaton when Nucky, immediately after the meal was finished, said that
he was sleepy, and went to bed.
"I don't envy you your trip, John," said Mary Seaton, as she settled to
her embroidery again. "What on earth possesses you to do it? The boy
isn't even interesting in his badness."
"He's got the face either of a great leader or a great criminal," said
Seaton, shaking out his paper. "He makes me so mad I could tan his
hide every ten minutes, but I'm going to see the thing through. It's
the first time in three years I've felt interested in anything."
Quick tears sprang to his wife's eyes. "I'm so glad to have you feel
that way, John, that I'll swallow even this impossible boy. What makes
him so ugly? Did he want to go to reform school?"
"God knows what any boy of his age wants!" replied John briefly.
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