"Why, Reuben, my lad, I could not tell you if I were inclined to do so. I am sworn to secrecy!"
"Sworn to secrecy! that's queer too! Who swore you?"
"Poor Nora, who died forgiving all her enemies and at peace with all the world!"
"With him too?"
"With him most of all! And now, Reuben, I want you to listen to me. I met your ideas of vengeance and argued them upon your own ground, for the sake of convincing you that vengeance is wrong even under the greatest possible provocation, such as you believed that we had all had. But, Reuben, you are much mistaken! We have had no provocation!" said Hannah gravely.
"What, no provocation! not in the wrong done to Nora!"
"There has been no intentional wrong done to Nora!"
"What! no wrong in all that villainy?"
"There has been no villainy, Reuben!"
"Then if that wasn't villainy, there's none in the world; and never was any in the world, that's all I have got to say!"