The moment Tracy was alone his spirits vanished away, and all the misery of his situation was manifest to him.

To be moneyless and an object of the chairmaker's charity--this was bad enough, but his folly in proclaiming himself an earl's son to that scoffing and unbelieving crew, and, on top of that, the humiliating result--the recollection of these things was a sharper torture still.

He made up his mind that he would never play earl's son again before a doubtful audience.
His father's answer was a blow he could not understand.

At times he thought his father imagined he could get work to do in America without any trouble, and was minded to let him try it and cure himself of his radicalism by hard, cold, disenchanting experience.

That seemed the most plausible theory, yet he could not content himself with it.