"She is woman enough to be firm and faithful."
"You approve it all, then?"
Hepworth sat down by his sister and threw his arm around her.
"My poor Rachael! how I wish this, or anything else, could make you really happy!"
She did not answer; but he felt her form trembling under his arm.
"But I only see in it new troubles for you and dishonor for myself. There is really but one way for me to act—I must leave this place."
"And Clara? After what you have said, that would, indeed, be dishonorable."
"She is so young; the pain would all go with me. In a few months I shall probably have scarcely a place in her memory."
"You wrong the dearest and finest girl in the whole world when you say that, Hepworth! To desert her now would be profound cruelty."
"Then in what way am I to act?"