CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE
Titus Burke became a familiar figure on Rainbow’s streets. At first he had been a nine days’ wonder, but, strangely enough, there was no reaction against Angus—even when interest in his coming was at its height Rainbow seemed unable to look upon the man as Angus’s father. From the beginning it disassociated the two and did not hold Titus Burke against his son. Rather than reviving the town’s prejudice, it called forth its sympathy. Rainbow had been slow in making a place for Angus, but having taken him into its heart it would not displace him except for gravest cause. Rainbow was hidebound, stiff-necked in its virtues as well as in its shortcomings.
So Rainbow regarded Titus Burke as a sort of visitation, not as a flesh and blood individual; as a burden to be borne, a trial, in the scriptural sense….
Titus was not a pleasing individual even in his best moments; he was sullen, morose, whining, fault-finding. Also he was exceedingly un-
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