“Uncle! darling uncle! I love you more than ever! I did not know before that I could love so much! I could _kill_ that woman with my own hands! I wish I had killed her when I pulled her down that day! It is right to kill poisonous creatures: she is worse than any snake!”
He smiled a sad little smile, and shook his head. Then first I seemed to understand a little. A dull flash went through me.
I stood up, drew back, and gazed at him. My eyes fixed themselves on his. I stared into them. He had ceased to weep, and lay regarding me with calm response.
“Yes, little one, I do. That woman was the cause of the action for which she threatens to denounce me as a murderer. I do not say she intended to bring it about; but none the less was she the consciously wicked and wilful cause of it.--And you will marry her son, and be her daughter!” he added, with a groan as of one in unutterable despair.
I sprang back from him. My very proximity was a pollution to him while he believed such a thing of me!
“Never, uncle, never!” I cried. “How can you think so ill of one who loves you as I do! I will denounce _her!_ She will be hanged, and we shall be at peace!”
“John must look after himself!” I answered fiercely. “Because he chooses to have such a mother, am I to bring her a hair's-breadth nearer to my uncle! Not for any man that ever was born! John must discard his mother, or he and I are as we were! A mother! She is a hyena, a shark, a monster! Uncle, she is a _devil!_--I don't care! It is true; and what is true is the right thing to say. I will go to her, and tell her to her face what she is!”
I turned and made for the door. My heart felt as big as the biggest man's.
“If she kill you, little one,” said my uncle quietly, “I shall be left with nobody to take care of me!”
I burst into fresh tears. I saw that I was a fool, and could do nothing.
“Poor John!--To have such a mother!” I sobbed. Then in a rage of rebellion I cried, “I don't believe she _is_ his mother! Is it possible now, uncle--does it stand to reason, that such a pestilence of a woman should ever have borne such a child as my John? I don't, I can't, I won't believe it!”
“I am afraid there are mysteries in the world quite as hard to explain!” replied my uncle.