Page:Cuthbert Bede - The White Wife.djvu/27

8 although there was now a cause why he should have shown her more affection, even if he could not comply with her often-urged request, to proclaim their marriage to their friends. Some weeks had passed without her seeing him or hearing from him, when her great trouble fell upon her, somewhat before the time, and her child was born. It was a fine lusty lad that was thus born to its heritage of guilt and shame. Her father was a pious man, but stern and unbending; and he vowed to turn his daughter and her brat out of his doors so soon as ever she was upon her feet again. In her despair, but more to save her child than herself, she told her father of her secret marriage.

The old man went up to the farmer's house, and told him how his son was wedded to his daughter. The farmer was furious, for, to all appearance, his son was on the point of being united to the daughter of a retired sea-captain, who had settled near to our town. He ordered the old man to quit his house; charged him with falsehood and defamation of character; said that he was not answerable for his son's escapades; that young men were but young men; that there was no marriage, and that he would