Page:Steadfast Heart.djvu/181

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CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Henry G. Woodhouse, no less erect than he had been eight years before, when his bounty had made it possible for Angus Burke to escape from Rainbow, watched unobtrusively and with interest the conduct and accomplishments of his protégé. Angus was, to the splendid old gentleman, a great experiment in humanity, more engrossing to him than a story with an intricate plot. Not only did he watch with the scientific interest of your experimenter, but with the sympathetic eye of one who hopes for, and is willing to do much to bring about, a happy outcome to the experiment…. Having no child of his own, his lonely heart made secret plans for the boy’s future. There were times when he wondered at this; was inclined to question himself, asked why it was he should feel such concern about the development of Angus when there, ready to his hand and docile, was one of his own flesh and blood—young Malcolm Crane…. The answer was, perhaps, that young Crane did not need him. Less apparent

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