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> 「にわかに目をキラキラさせ始めた友蔵 **を** 前に、さすがのおかあさんも、ズバリ、  
>  そんな物は必要ないとは言いにくいらしく珍しく口ごもった。」

I'm struggling to parse this sentence. In particular I don't understand which
verb the を in bold is marking the object of.

We have: にわかに目をキラキラさせ始めた友蔵 "Tomozou whose eyes suddenly began to sparkle" is
the object.

前に "in front of Tomozou..."

さすがのおかあさんも...珍しく口ごもった "Even mother (as she is) unusually, hesitated to say..."

Now I get confused. There is no と to mark what it is that she hesitated to
say. Instead we have an adverbial phrase, which I think is:

物は必要ないとは言いにくいらしく "seemingly difficult to say that such a thing is unnecessary"

On second thoughts, perhaps this is the linking form 言いにくいらしく **て** rather
than adverbial.

So I get something like:

> Even for (someone like) mother it seemed to be difficult to say in front of
> Tomozou that such a thing was unnecessary and, unusually, she hesitated to
> say it.

That seems to make sense but I still can't figure out the function of the を in
bold. I fear I've messed something up here.

Please help me to parse this sentence correctly and understand the を in bold.
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-13T23:33:51.197
32892
2016-03-15T18:55:41.933
2016-03-13T23:53:38.330
7944
question
grammar translation particle-を adverbs ellipsis
For which verb is を marking the object
友蔵を前に is a shorthand for 友蔵を前にして

Xを前にする means "with X in front of [the subject]"
CC BY-SA 3.0
2016-03-15T18:55:41.933
32919
2016-03-15T18:55:41.933
13840
32892
answer