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But Peter always answered him:
"No, you don't know what you ask. I am too vile, too great a sinner for
that. The very stones would cry out against me."
The clergyman thought him crazy, and after a time abandoned the effort,
and went but seldom to the farm-house, where Hannah had again entered
the dark cloud in which his coming had made a rift, and which now seemed
darker than ever, because of the momentary brightness which had been
thrown upon it. She, too, had labored with her father as Mr. Sanford had
done, telling him of the peace which was sure to follow a duty
performed, but he answered her:
"Never, child, never; for, don't you see, I must first confess, and that
is to put the halter around my own neck. They would hang me now, sure,
for the concealment, if for nothing more. It might have been better if I
had told at first, as you advised. I believe now they would have been
lenient toward me. A few years in prison, perhaps, and then freedom the
rest of my life. Oh, if I had done it. But now it is forever too late.


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