"A fool's trick—a lifelong fool's trick to hide it—a cruel, witless thing—a wrong against generations unborn—scandalous—infamous—beyond belief in a sane man."
"I don't understand you. God's my——"
"Hush—hush! I'm not an enemy. You needn't put out your claws; you needn't lie to me. You needn't break oaths to me. It's a secret still; but I know it—only me. You were his mistress, Priscilla Lintern—his mistress and the mother of his children."
"He never told you that."
"Not he."
"Who did tell you?"
"Cora told me."
"She'd rather have——"
"She told me—not in words; but every other way. I knew it the hour she came to see me, after she was engaged to marry my son. She strokes her chin like Nat stroked his beard. Have you marked that? She thinks just like Nat thought in a lot of ways, though she's not got his heart. She's not near so silly as he was. Her voice was the echo to his as soon as I got the clue. Her eyes were his again. She handles her knife and fork just like he was wont to do it; she sets her head o' one side to listen to anybody in the way he did. There's birds do it too—when they gather worms out of the grass. And from that I took to marking t'others. Your second girl be more like you; but Heathman will be nearer his father every day as he gets older. If he growed a beard, he'd be nearer him now. Wait and watch. And he's got his heart. Don't speak till you hear more. From finding out that much, I sounded Nathan himself. Little he guessed it, but what I didn't know, I soon learned from him. Cora was the apple of his eye. She could do no wrong. 'Twas Vivian and Ned over again. He spoke of you very guarded, but I knew what was behind. It came out when he was dying, and he was too far gone to hide it. And let me say this: I'll never forgive him for doing such a wicked thing—never. God may; but I won't. I wouldn't forgive myself if I forgave him. But you—you—dull man as I am, I can see a bit of what your life was."
"A better life—a more precious life than mine no woman ever lived."