"
I rose at once.
"May I take the letter with me, uncle?" I asked.
He rubbed his forehead with a still trembling hand. The trembling of that
beloved hand filled me with such a divine sense of pity, that for the
first time I seemed to know God, causing in me that consciousness! The
whole human mother was roused in me for my uncle. I would die, I would
kill to save him! The worm was welcome to swallow me! My very being was a
well of loving pity, pouring itself out over that trembling hand.
He took up the letter, gave it to me, and turned his face away with a
groan. I left the room in strange exaltation--the exaltation of merest
love.
I went to the study, and there read the hateful letter.
Here it is. Having transcribed it, I shall destroy it.
"Sir,--For one who persists in coming between a woman and her son, who
will blame the mother if she cast aside forbearance! I would have spared
you as hitherto; I will spare you no longer. You little thought when you
crossed me who I was--the one in the world in whose power you lay! I
would perish ever-lastingly rather than permit one of my blood to marry
one of yours. My words are strong; you are welcome to call them
unladylike; but you shall not doubt what I mean. You know perfectly that,
if I denounce you as a murderer, I can prove what I say; and as to my
silence for so many years, I am able thoroughly to account for it.
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