“Sworn to secrecy! that’s queer too!  Who swore you?”

“Poor Nora, who died forgiving all her enemies and at peace with all the world!”

“With him too?”

“With him most of all!  And now, Reuben, I want you to listen to me.  I met your ideas of vengeance and argued them upon your own ground, for the sake of convincing you that vengeance is wrong even under the greatest possible provocation, such as you believed that we had all had.  But, Reuben, you are much mistaken!  We have had no provocation!” said Hannah gravely.

“What, no provocation! not in the wrong done to Nora!”

“There has been no intentional wrong done to Nora!”

“What! no wrong in all that villainy?”

“There has been no villainy, Reuben!”

“Then if that wasn’t villainy, there’s none in the world; and never was any in the world, that’s all I have got to say!”

“Reuben, Nora was married to the father of her child.  He loved her dearly, and meant her well.  You must believe this, for it is as true as Heaven!” said Hannah solemnly.

Reuben pricked up his ears; perhaps he was not sorry to be entirely relieved from the temptation of killing and the danger of hanging.

And Hannah gave him as satisfactory an explanation of Nora’s case as she could give, without breaking her promise and betraying Herman Brudenell as the partner of Nora’s misfortunes.

At the close of her narrative Reuben Gray took her hand, and holding it, said gravely: 

“Well, my dear girl, I suppose the affair must rest where it is for the present.  But this makes one thing incumbent upon us.”  And having said this, Reuben hesitated so long that Hannah took up the word and asked: 

“This makes what incumbent upon us, lad?”

“To get married right away!” blurted out the man.

“Pray, have you come into a fortune, Reuben?” inquired Hannah coolly.

“No, child, but—­”

“Neither have I,” interrupted Hannah.

“I was going to say,” continued the man, “that I have my hands to work with—­”

“For your large family of sisters and brothers—­”

“And for you and that poor orphan boy as well!  And I’m willing to do it for you all!  And we really must be married right away, Hannah!  I must have a lawful right to protect you against the slights as you’ll be sure to receive after what’s happened, if you don’t have a husband to take care of you.”

He paused and waited for her reply; but as she did not speak, he began again: 

“Come, Hannah, my dear, what do you say to our being married o’ Sunday?”

She did not answer, and he continued: