Pagina 771 van 896

"I said, 'I have seen her.'

"'She is my sister, Doctor. They have had their shameful rights,

these Nobles, in the modesty and virtue of our sisters, many

years, but we have had good girls among us. I know it, and have

heard my father say so. She was a good girl. She was betrothed to

a good young man, too: a tenant of his. We were all tenants of

his--that man's who stands there. The other is his brother, the

worst of a bad race.'

"It was with the greatest difficulty that the boy gathered bodily

force to speak; but, his spirit spoke with a dreadful emphasis.