“Ah, yes, your mother! Would you like to go there, Betty? Then I’ll take you. We’ll be married right away, won’t we, dear?”
“You know, Richard, I believe I would be perfectly––absolutely––terribly happy––if––if I could only get over being mad at your uncle. He was so stubborn, he was just wicked. I hated him––I––I hated him so, and now it seems as if I had got used to hating him and couldn’t stop.”
She had been so brave and had not once given way, but now at the thought of all the bitterness and the fight of her will against that of the old man, she sobbed in his arms. Her whole frame shook and he gathered her close and comforted her. “He––he––he was always saying––saying––”
“Never mind now what he was saying, dear. Listen.”
“I––I––I––am afraid––I can never see him––or––or look at him again––I––I––hate him so!”
“No, no. Don’t hate him. Any one would have done the same in his place who believed as firmly as he did what he believed.”
“B––b––but he didn’t need to believe it.”
“You see he had known through that Dane man––or 505 whatever he is––from the detective––all I told you that night––how could he help it? I believed Peter was dead––we all did––you did. He had brooded over it and slept upon it––no wonder he refused even to look at Peter. If you had seen Uncle Elder there in the court room after the people had gone, if you had seen him then, Betty, you would never hate him again.”
“All the same, if––if––you hadn’t come home when you did,––and the law of Wisconsin allowed of hanging––he would have had him, Peter Junior––he would have had his own son hanged,––and been glad––glad––because he would have thought he was hanging you. I do hate––”
“No, no. And as he very tersely said––if all had been as it seemed, and it had been me––trying to take the place of Peter Junior––I would have deserved hanging––now wouldn’t I, after all the years when Uncle Elder had been good to me for his sister’s sake?”