“Are you suffering?” he asked sardonically. “What, what are you suffering? Do you have any idea what people are going through all over the world? Did you understand nothing of what you just saw? I only hope that in the future you’re spared any real reason to cry. I hope and pray that in the days ahead your family—” He stopped abruptly, clearly unaccustomed to an undignified eruption of irrational emotion, particularly in the handling of an insignificant child. Even I could understand that his argument was with something other than me, but that didn’t lessen the shock of my having to bear the
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