"And does Ruth believe you?" I said.
"Yes," he shrieked, "and she shudders at the mention of your name. You are the terror of her life, and I have made you so."
Again I had to struggle or I should have hated him again. Ay, I began to hate him in spite of my trouble, and then I prayed as I had prayed away in Smyrna, "Lord, help me to love," and even as I prayed all my bitter feelings passed away, as they had passed away then.
"Brother Wilfred, I love you still," I said.
He seemed staggered at my words, and he turned to his mother as though in astonishment.
"Are you going to be a fool?" cried she, "are you going to yield to his folly? Surely, if he is a fool you need not be one. He believes that Trewinion's curse is an old wives' fable—let him believe it. But you are the younger brother, and according to it you have the power to curse him. Curse him, then; let all the darkness that can befall a Trewinion fall on him. If he be married, let curses fall on him and his wife. If he has children, let curses rest upon them. While he lives let darkness ever be in him and around him, and when he dies may powers of darkness attend him even as they attended his father's father."
My mother spoke in a voice full of passion, and I knew if such a curse could take effect she would hurl it at me. Her words, too, seemed to fan Wilfred's hate into a flame, a hatred which, I thought, lessened when I told him I loved him.
"Ah, yes," he cried, "you do not believe in those lines our father showed you on your fifteenth birthday They have become to you but an idle tale, but you will know they are true, and you will know, too, that Wilfred cannot be thwarted without making you suffer. Listen to them:—
If from God's pure laws he stray,
Trewinion's power shall die away,
His glory given to another,
And he be cursed by younger brother.
Then this son, though born the first,
By the people shall be cursed;
And for generations three,
Trewinion's heirs shall cursed be.
I tell you you cannot escape, and if there is any power in the curse of the younger brother, I call it upon you now."