"Nothing?" repeated the minister, in surprise.
"Nothing," she reiterated.
"What! will you leave the stigma of undeserved reproach upon your sister
in her grave and upon her child all his life, when a single revelation
from you, supported by my testimony, will clear them both?" asked the
minister, in almost indignant astonishment.
"Not willingly, the Lord above knows. Oh, I would die to clear Nora from
blame!" cried Hannah, bursting into a flood of tears.
"Well, then, do it, my poor woman! do it! You can do it," said the
clergyman, drawing his chair to her side and laying his hand kindly on
her shoulder. "Hannah, my girl, you have a duty to the dead and to the
living to perform. Do not be afraid to attempt it! Do not be afraid to
offend that wealthy and powerful family! I will sustain you, for it is
my duty as a Christian minister to do so, even though they--the
Brudenells--should afterwards turn all their great influence in the
parish against me. Yes, I will sustain you, Hannah! What do I say? I? A
mightier arm than that of any mortal shall hold you up!"
"Oh, it is of no use! the case is quite past remedying," wept Hannah.
"But it is not, I assure you! When I first heard the astounding news of
Brudenell's first marriage with the Countess of Hurstmonceaux, and his
wife's sudden arrival at the Hall, and recollected at the same time his
second marriage with Nora Worth, which I myself had solemnized, my
thoughts flew to his poor young victim, and I pondered what could be
done for her, and I searched the laws of the land bearing upon the
subject of marriage. And I found that by these same laws--when a man in
the lifetime of his wife marries another woman, the said woman being in
ignorance of the existence of the said wife, shall be held guiltless by
the law, and her child or children, if she have any by the said
marriage, shall be the legitimate offspring of the mother, legally
entitled to bear her name and inherit her estates. That fits precisely
Nora's case. Her son is legitimate. If she had in her own right an
estate worth a billion, that child would be her heir-at-law. She had
nothing but her good name! Her son has a right to inherit
that--unspotted, Hannah! mind, unspotted! Your proper way will be to
proceed against Herman Brudenell for bigamy, call me for a witness,
establish the fact of Nora's marriage, rescue her memory and her child's
birth from the slightest shadow of reproach, and let the consequences
fall where they should fall, upon the head of the man! They will not be
more serious than he deserves. If he can prove what he asserts--that he
himself was in equal ignorance with Nora of the existence of his first
wife, he will be honorably acquitted in the court, though of course
severely blamed by the community. Come, Hannah, shall we go to Baymouth
to-morrow about this business?"