nderstood, but she went away and
forgot. Never mind, it will be all right when I am a man.
I will come back, for you mustn't think I don't love you."
"--Your affect. son,"
"C. Rosewarne."

As Hester looked up she found Mr. Samuel's eyes fixed on her for the first
time, and fixed on her curiously.

"You don't approve, perhaps, of cousins marrying?" he asked slowly.

Was the man mad, as Susannah had hinted?

"I--I don't understand you, Mr. Rosewarne."

"Your mother had an only sister--an elder sister--who went out to
Dominica, and there married a common soldier. Did you know this?"

"I knew that my mother had a sister, and that there had been some
disgrace. My father never spoke of it, and my mother died when I was very
young; but in some way--as children do--I came to know."

"I thought you might know more, but it does not matter now. My father was
that common soldier, and the disgrace did not lie in her marrying him.
Before the marriage--I have a copy here of the entry in the register--a
child was born. Yes, stare at me well, Cousin Hester, stare at me, your
cousin, though born in bastardy!"

His eyes seemed to force her backward, and she leaned back, clasping the
arms of her chair.

"I learnt this a short while before my father died. I had only his word
for it--he gave me no particulars; but I have hunted them up, and he told
me the truth. Knowing them, I concealed them for the sake of the child
that was drowned to-day; otherwise, the estate being entailed, his
inheritance would have passed to Clem, and he and I were interlopers.
Are you one of those who believe that God has punished me by drowning my
son? You have better grounds than the rest for believing it."

"No," said Hester, after a long pause, remembering what thoughts had been
in her mind as she crossed the ferry.

"Why not?"

"The child had done no evil. God is just, or God does not exist. He must
have had some other purpose than to punish you."

"You are right. He may have used that purpose to afflict me yet the
more--though I don't believe it; but my true punishment--my worse
punishment--began long before. Cousin, cousin, you see clearly!
How often might you have helped me during these months I have been in
hell! Can you think how a man feels who is afraid of himself?
No, you cannot; but I say to you there is no worse hell, and through tha