It is impossible to convey to the reader the despair that was in those
words.

"Perhaps," said I, after a long pause and in a low voice, for I was awe-
stricken, "perhaps--if he be dead--he may have repented of all offence
to you before he died."

"Repented--ha, ha!"

"Or if he be not dead--"

"Hush, boy, hush!"

"While there is life, there is hope of repentance."

"Look you, nephew," said the Captain, rising, and folding his arms
resolutely on his breast,--"look you, I desired that that name might
never be breathed. I have not cursed my son yet; could he come to life
--the curse might fall! You do not know what torture your words have
given me just when I had opened my heart to another son, and found that
son in you. With respect to the lost, I have now but one prayer, and
you know it,--the heart-broken prayer that his name never more may come
to my ears!"

As he closed these words, to which I ventured no reply, the Captain took
long, disordered strides across the room; and suddenly, as if the space
imprisoned, or the air stifled him, he seized his hat and hastened into
the streets. Recovering my surprise and dismay, I ran after him; but he
commanded me to leave him to his own thoughts, in a voice so stern, yet
so sad, that I had no choice but to obey. I knew, by my own experience,