Murder tends a little to repentance, and he does not want that.
Anyhow, we cherish the devil like a spoiled child, till he gets too bad
and we find him unendurable. Departing then, he takes a piece of the
house with him, and the tenant is not so likely to mistake him when he
comes again. Must I confess it at this man so much before the multitude
of men, that he was annoyed, even angry, to see this unpleasant son of
his asleep in _his_ chair! "The sneak!" he said! "he dares not show
his face when I'm at home, but the minute he thinks me safe, gets into
my room and lies in my chair! Drunk, too, by Jove!" he added, as a fume
from the sleeper's breath reached the nostrils beginning to dilate with
wrath. "What can that wife of mine be about, letting the rascal go on
like this! She is faultless except in giving me such a son--and then
helping him to fool me!" He forgot the old forger of a bygone century!
His side of the house had, I should say, a good deal more to do with
what was unsatisfactory in the lad's character than his wife's.
The devil saw his chance, sprang up, and mastered the father.
"The snoring idiot!" he growled, and seizing his boy by the shoulder and
the neck, roughly shook him awake.
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