I say that nothing can do this. Fact--the sternest of
facts is against it. If you found a way, I shouldn't accept it.
Oliver Ostrander, under no circumstances and by means of no
sophistries, can ever marry the daughter of John Scoville. I
should think you would see that for yourself."
"But if John should be proved to have suffered wrongfully? If he
should be shown to have been innocent?"
"Innocent?"
"Yes. I have always had doubts of his guilt, even when
circumstances bore most heavily against him; and now, as I look
back upon the trial and remember certain things, I feel sure that
you had doubts of it, yourself."
His rebuke was quick, instant. With a force and earnestness which
recalled the court-room he replied:
"Madam, your hopes and wishes have misled you. Your husband was a
guilty man; as guilty a man as any judge ever passed sentence
upon."
"Oh!" she wailed forth, reeling heavily back and almost succumbing
to the shock, she had so thoroughly convinced herself that what
she said was true. But hers was a courageous soul. She rallied
instantly and approaching him again with face uncovered and her
whole potent personality alive with magnetism, she retorted:
"You say that, eye to my eye, hand on my hand, heart beating with
my heart above the grave of our children's mutual happiness?"
"I do."
Convinced; for there was no wavering in his eye, no trembling in
the hand she had clasped; convinced but ready notwithstanding to
repudiate her own convictions, so much of the mother-passion, if
not the wife's, tugged at her heart, she remained immovable for a
moment, waiting for the impossible, hoping against hope for a
withdrawal of his words and the reillumination of hope.
Pages:
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77