“My boy’s word is all I need,” replied his mother.
Eva came and put her arms about him.
“They wouldn’t send you to jail, would they?” she demanded. “It would break my heart!”
“Not if you knew I was innocent.”
“N-no, not then, I suppose; but it would be awful. If you were guilty, it would kill me. I’d never want to live if my brother was convicted of a crime, and was guilty of it. I’d kill myself first!”
Her brother drew her face down and kissed her tenderly.
“That would be foolish, dear,” he said. “No matter what one of us does, such an act would make it all the worse—for those who were left.”
“I can’t help it,” she said. “It isn’t just because I have had the honor of the Penningtons preached to me all my life. It’s because it’s in me—the Pennington honor. It’s a part of me, just as it’s a part of you, and mother, and father. It’s a part of the price we have to pay for being Penningtons. I have always been proud of it, Custer, even if I am only a silly girl.”
“I’m proud of it, too, and I haven’t jeopardized it; but even if I had, you mustn’t think about killing yourself on my account, or any one’s else.”
“Well, I know you’re not guilty, so I don’t have to.”