Twelve years of unappeased
longing, of smothered love, rising above doubts, persisting in
spite of doubts, were concentrated into that one instant of mutual
recognition. The eye of the father was upon that of the son and
that of the son upon that of the father and for them, at least in
this first instant of reunion, the years were forgotten and sin,
sorrow and on-coming doom effaced from their mutual consciousness.
Then the tide of life flowed back into the present, and the judge,
motioning to his son to rise, observed very distinctly:
"DON'T is an ambiguous word, my son, and on your lips, at this
juncture, may mislead those whom I have called here to hear the
truth from us and the truth only. You have heard what happened
here a few days ago. How a long-guarded, long-suppressed
suspicion--so guarded and so suppressed that I had no intimation
of its existence even, found vent at a moment of public
indignation, and I heard you, you, Oliver Ostrander, accused to my
face of having in some boyish fit of rage struck down the man for
whose death another has long since paid the penalty. This you have
already been told."
"Yes." The word cut sharply through the silence; but the fire with
which the young man rose and faced them all showed him at his
best. "But surely, no person present believes it. No one can who
knows you and the principles in which I have been raised. This
fellow whom I beat as a boy has waited long to start this damnable
report.
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