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Alone with my second son, I tried to

rationalize, as I always did "Bart, why do you talk so ugly to Cindy?" I began "She's at a very vulnerable age and is a decent hu who needs to be appreciated She's not a trairl who is very thrilled to be pretty and attracting soin to every one She has scruples, honor That one episode with Lance Spalding has not corrupted her"

"Mother, she was corrupted long ago, only you don't want to believe that Lance Spalding wasn't the first"

"How dare you say that?" I asked, really enraged "What kind of man are you, anyway? You sleep hom you please, do what you please, but she's supposed to be an angel with a halo and wings on her back Now you go upstairs and apologize to Cindy!"

"An apology is soet from me" He sat down to finish his meal "The servants talk about Cindy You don't hear them, for you're too busy with those two babies you can't leave alone But I hear them as they clean and dust Your Cindy is a red-hot nuel You think that just because she looks like one"

I sank down to lean ht-iron white table, feeling overwhelly tired, just as Jory did, and he hadn't said one word for or against Cindy To be for any length of ti one wrong thing kept you wired tight

My eyes fixed on the cri's centerpiece "Bart, has it ever occurred to you that Cindy may feel she's been contaminated, so that now she doesn't care? And certainly you don't give her any reason to value her self-esteem"

"She's a wanton, loose 'slut" Said with absolute conviction

My voice turned as unco as his "Apparently from what I overhear when the servants whisper, you are drawn to the very type of woman you condemn"

Standing, he thren his napkin and stalked purposefully into the house "I'll fire every daossips about me!"

I sighed Soon ouldn't be able to hire any servants if he kept hiring and firing

"Mo to hit the sack," said Jory "This pleasant evening meal on the terrace has turned out just as I could have predicted"

That very evening Bart fired every servant but Trevor, who seldo except to me or Chris If Trevor had left every tio Trevor had an understanding way of knowing just when to believe Bart was serious Never, never did he rebuke Bart, nor did he ht he had Trevor cowed I thought Trevor forgave Bart, because he understood and pitied him

I headed for Cindy's roo Chris as he came down "She's very upset Try to cal here and never co back"

Cindy was face down on her bed Sroans came from her throat "He ruins