"May the Lord give the peace that he only can bestow; may the Lord pity you, comfort you, bless you and save you forever, Herman, poor Herman!"
A few minutes longer her hand rested on his head, and then she removed it and murmured:
"Now leave me for a little while; I wish to speak to my sister."
Herman arose and went out of the hut, where he gave way to the pent-up storm of grief that could not be vented by the awful bed of death.
Nora then beckoned Hannah, who approached and stooped low to catch her words.
"Sister, you would not refuse to grant my dying prayers, would you?"
"Oh, no, no, Nora!" wept the woman.
"Then promise me to forgive poor Herman the wrong that he has done us; he did not mean to do it, Hannah."
"I know he did not, love; he explained it all to me. The first wife was a bad woman who took him in. He thought she had been killed in a railway collision, when he married you, and he never found out his mistake until she followed him home."
"I knew there was something of that sort; but I did not know what. Now, Hannah, promise me not to breathe a word to any human being of his second marriage with me; it would ruin him, you know, Hannah; for no one would believe but that he knew his first wife was living all the time. Will you promise me this, Hannah?"