'
"'You don't leave me much freedom to do that,' I tried to answer;
but she interrupted me, rocking her body to and fro. 'Neither of
us wi11 ever see Aaron Boynton again; you no more than I. He's in
the West, and a man with two families and no means of providing
for them doesn't come back where he's known.--Come and take her
away, Eliza! Take her away, quick!' she called.
"I stumbled out of the room and the woman waved me upstairs. 'You
mustn't mind Hetty,' she apologized; 'she never had a good
disposition at the best, but she's frantic with the pain now, and
good reason, too. It's about over and I'11 be thankful when it
is. You'd better swallow the shame and take the child; I can't
and won't have him and it'11 be easy enough for you to say he
belongs to some of your own folks.'
"By this time I was mentally bewildered. When the iron first
entered my soul, when I first heard the truth about your father,
at that moment my mind gave way--I know it now."
"Poor, poor mother! My poor, gentle little mother!" murmured
Ivory brokenly, as he asked her hand.
"Don't cry, my son; it is all past; the sorrow and the bitterness
and the struggle. I will just finish the story and then we'11
close the book forever.
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