“Is there anything? Think, Constance. Langley Holme was your ancestor. He was done to death by mine.”
“Yes. There is one way. Oh, Leonard, in this time of trouble and anxiety I have watched you day by day. I have found the man beneath the scholar. If I had accepted your offer three weeks ago, it would have been out of respect for the scholar. But a woman can only love a man--not a scholar, believe me, nor a student, nor a poet, nor an artist, nor anything except a man.”
“Constance! It is impossible! You are his daughter.”
“It is fortunate that I am, as you say, the daughter of the man who was killed. He suffered less than the other. The suffering was but a pang, but the other’s--oh, it was a lifelong agony! If I marry the son of the man who did the wrong, it is because the message I carried to the dying man was a sign that all was forgiven, even to “‘the third and fourth generation.’”
“Tell me, Constance, is this pity, or----”
“Oh, Leonard, I know not what flowers there are which grow out of pity and sympathy, but----”
She said no more, because there was no need.
Typographical errors corrected by the etext transcriber:
Algernoon was frequently=> Algernon was frequently { pg 56}
lines of conquence=> lines of consequence { pg 129}
when it the children left it=> when it the children left it { pg 142}
be will lie there and suffer=> he will lie there and suffer { pg 153}
has ever been been known=> has ever been known { pg 186}
yov spare the time=> you spare the time { pg 265}
to reach the the wood=> to reach the wood { pg 297}
End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Fourth Generation, by Walter Besant