" The great white father, " he would say to them in a very lordly manner, as they grovelled at his feet, " is glad to see the Piccaninny warriors protecting his wigwam from the pirates" .
" Groveling" is the noun form of the verb " to grovel." We never find out why these parents are so angry at Justin, but clearly he did something very, very wrong.
Hal Milton, do you propose to convince the vast majority of people that they should settle for being forelock-tugging plebs groveling before their social betters for the chance to scrub their toilets?