"Never, never!" she cried, with hysterical bitterness. "Oh, I loathe the very thought of that man; his name, even, has become a terrible nightmare to me. How could I have been so blind and wicked as to forget your strength and nobility! Lyman, oh, Lyman, my husband, is there no possible way to regain your pity, if not your love? Must I forever be separated from our little Harry? Yes, I shall go away from this home, if you insist, and shall never return, but for God's sake, Lyman, believe me, here on my bended knees before you and before God, when I say that I shall never again willingly look upon the face of Lenox Avondale. Should I meet him by chance, I would not even speak to him. Believe this of me, and all else shall be as you wish."
The captain looked into her tear-stained free, and he saw truth written thereon.
"Lucy, do not kneel to me: kneel to your God."
"God will forgive me," she sobbed, turning her eyes toward heaven, "but, Lyman, you will not."
She arose and came close to him, and gazed sorrowfully up into his face.
"You do not understand me," said the captain. "My pity you already have, although it is worth but little. Pity comes from the heart, and my heart has been made poor with long and bitter suffering."
"But, Lyman, have you no forgiveness for the penitent? Must I go out into the world alone, believing that you will never forgive my sins? I do not ask you to compromise yourself by forgetting them; but, oh, will you not tell me that you forgive them?"
Captain Osborn sighed, as if a scalding tear had fallen down into his withered heart. His eyes rested for a moment upon her, and then he walked thoughtfully back and forth. His just resentment struggled with his innate tenderness of soul. He returned to where she was standing and said, in a low, husky voice, "Lucy, you have sinned against yourself, against me, against our baby boy, and against God; but if your contrition can gain the forgiveness of the Infinite, it certainly should gain the forgiveness of a poor, finite being like myself." He turned away, and for a moment seemed to be struggling for mastery over himself. "Lucy," said he, "our paths from this night must lead in opposite directions; but as I, myself, hope to be forgiven in the world to come, where mortal souls are weighed in the unerring scales of justice, so I, in my poor, weak heart forgive you."