“I was very sorry for ’e when your old faither died.”

“So was I.”

“He never would speak to me after—”

“Faither was a very great man for justice. An Old Testament man, you might say. ’Twas he as digged your husband’s grave, Mrs. Thorn. I couldn’t do it.”

“Amos Thorn wronged you more’n ever a man wronged a man—God rest his soul.”

“An’ he wronged you?”

“I’ve forgived him,” she said.

“He told you as I had a woman an’ a child hidden down to Newton Abbot.”

“I’ve forgived him.”

“An’ you could believe it?”