Page:Salem - a tale of the seventeenth century (IA taleseventeenth00derbrich).pdf/229

 that could alone have power to subdue his active nature. Pressing a light but fervent kiss upon the brow of each of her darlings, the mother returned to her own room.

Once more within the sacred privacy of their own apartment, the wife made a new attempt to convince her husband of the truth of her own convictions, but in vain; his incredulity was impenetrable at every point, and she had no proof to offer him beyond her own word and her own firm belief. She called his attention to the fact of the window which she had found open; but to him that fact offered no proof at all.

"Did you look at it before you went to bed, Hannah? Are you quite sure it was fastened then?"

No; she had not looked at it, as it was a window very rarely opened.

"Then," said he, "the fact of finding it open clearly proves nothing; it may have been, and very possibly had been, unfastened for some time past, and you had not noticed it—that is all."

"Then you do not believe in what I have told you?" said the wife.