Kilmeny of the Orchard

no word of forgiveness could come to her from the grave. My poor sister never knew peace of conscience again, Master. But she was gentle and kind and humble until — until she began to fear that Kil- meny was never going to speak. We thought then that she would go out of her mind. Indeed, Master, she never was quite right again.

“ But that is the story and it’s a thank— ful woman I am that the telling of it is done. Kilmeny can’t speak because her mother wouldn’t.”

Eric had listened with a gray horror on his face to the gruesome tale. The black tragedy of it appalled him—the tragedy of that merciless law, the most cruel and mysterious thing in God’s universe, which ordains that the sin of the guilty shall be visited on the innocent. Fight against it as he would, the miserable conviction stole into his heart that Kilmeny’s case was indeed beyond the reach of any human skill.

212,