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Geraldine's, on which
there were diamonds enough to more than liquidate the debt due to
Elizabeth Rogers and her heirs; and no wonder that her dress, which so
often offended her brother's artistic and critical eye, was coarse, and
plain, and selected with a view to durability rather than comeliness.
She had done what she could, and what few women would have done, and
Burton knew it, and was conscious of a great feeling of respect and
pity, if not affection, for her, as she stood before him in a stooping
posture, with her toil-worn hands clasped together as if asking his
pardon for having intruded her own joyless life upon his notice. But
above every other feeling in his heart was the horrible fear of
exposure if she attempted restitution, and he said to her at last:
"I am sorry for you, Hannah, and I can understand how, with your extreme
conscientiousness, you believed it your duty to do as you have done. But
this must go no further. To discover Elizabeth Rogers is to confess
ourselves the children of a murderer, and this I cannot allow.


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176 177 178 179 180 181 182 183 184 185 186 187 188 189 190 191 192 193 194 195 196 197 198 199 200