He groaned, with outstretched hands, revealing his love and the gap in his armor where he could still be pierced.
“Yes. I thought it would be best. I wrote a full confession of everything, such a letter as would cover my father with shame, and send him to his grave, dreading to meet his Maker. I meant to poison myself, but I thought of you in your double sorrow, John—what would you do without me?—and Netty, motherless when she most needs guidance. I 158 thought of the disgrace and the shame of it, the inquest and the newspaper accounts—oh, I’ve been through horrors untold, John. I’ve been punished a hundred times for all I’ve done. John! John! Don’t stand away from me like that! If you do, I shall go upstairs now—now!—and put an end to everything. I’ve got the poison there. I’ll go. God is my judge. I won’t live to be condemned by you and everybody, and have my name a by-word for all time—the daughter who ran away with a parson, and robbed her father to save her husband, and then was flung into jail by the godly man, who would rather see his daughter a social outcast and his wife in penal servitude than stand by her.”
“It’s a sin—a horrible sin!”
“Who are you to judge me? Would Dick have betrayed his mother?”
“Mary—Mary! Don’t tempt me—don’t—don’t! You know what my plain duty is. You know what our duty to our dead son is. Your father must be appealed to. We will go to him on our bended knees, and beg forgiveness. The bank people must be told the truth, and they must contradict publicly the slander upon Dick.”
“Then, you would have your wife humiliated and publicly branded as a thief and a forger? What do you think people will say of us, then? Shall I ever dare to show my face among my friends again?” 159
“We must go away, to a new place, a new country, where no one knows us and we mustn’t come back.”
“And Netty?”
“Netty must bear her share of the burden you have put upon us. We will bear it together.”
“No; Netty is blameless. You and I, John, must suffer, not she. It would be wicked to ruin her young life. You won’t denounce me, John. You can’t. You won’t have me sent to prison. You won’t disgrace me in the eyes of my friends. You won’t do anything—at least, until Netty is married—will you?”