"Who are you, girl—tell me, who you are—I have heard your voice somewhere! My God! was it you? was it you?"
"Yes," said Pearl, "it was me; and when the women of the city here, who had come to you and tried to break down your stubborn prejudices, tried to reason with you, but found it all in vain; when they told me that first night to think of some sad case that I had known of women who had suffered from the injustice of the law and men's prejudice, and strike without mercy, I thought of your daughter-in-law and all that she had suffered. I saw again the hungry look in her sweet face, when I went to see her. I saw the gray hairs and the lines of sorrow; I saw again the heroic efforts she makes to give her boy everything that the world is bent on denying him—I thought of these things—and the rest was easy. There was no other way, sir; you would not listen; you would not move an inch—you had to be broken!"
Speechless, almost breathless, he looked at her—all the fight had gone out of him.
"I am going now, sir," she said. "I have delivered her message. She only wanted to clear your son's memory. She will tell the people now who she is, and prove her marriage, for little Jim's sake.
"Don't go, girl," he cried, "sit down—tell me more. Tell me what the boy is like—how big is he?" "The boy is like you," said Pearl, "a tall lad for ten; clever far beyond his years."
"Does he know about me—does he hate me—has she told him?" His voice was pitiful in its eagerness.
"Not a word—the boy has a heart of love, and as sunny a disposition as any child could have. She has made his life a dream of happiness, in spite of all."
The old man's face began to quiver, and a sob tore its way upward from his heart. His face was hidden in his hands.
"Would she ever forgive me?" he said, at last, lifting his head. "Would she believe me if I said I was sorry—would she have pity on a broken old man, who sees the evil he has done—would the boy let me love him—and try to make it up to him and his mother? You know her—why don't you answer me girl? Is there no hope that she might forgive me?"
Pearl stepped back without a word, as Annie Gray came quickly across the lawn. She had been standing in the shade of a maple tree, waiting for Pearl's signal.