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"
"Oh, father," Hannah cried in terror. "Is there no other way? If I find
this woman and give her her own, must I tell her the whole truth? Will
it not be enough if I say he is dead, that I saw him die, that I helped
to lay him in his coffin? I would not mention you, or that I had a
father. Surely she would be satisfied."
"Yes, _she_ might, but not the law. I do not understand the ins and outs
myself, there are so many questions necessary to make a thing legal, but
this I am sure of; the whole thing would be ripped up, and I hanged, as
I told you. No, Hannah, you cannot find this woman while I live, which,
please God, may not be long. When I am gone, find her, if you like, but
you must shield me. Remember your vow, and--and--swear again, not to
move in the matter while I live."
He was growing so excited with this new fear that his daughter shrank
from him in alarm, and at last yielding to his importunities took
another oath of secrecy, which doomed the blue-eyed woman in Wales to a
life of poverty, if such now were her portion.


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