cargo lost--"

Another and a longer pause. In it Georgina seemed to hear Cousin
Mehitable's husky voice, half whispering:

_"And the lamp threw a shadow on the yellow blind, plain as a
photograph. The shadow of an old man sitting with his arms flung out
across the table and his head bowed on-them. And he was groaning, 'Oh, my
Danny! My Danny! If you could only have gone that way.'"_

For a moment Georgina felt the cruel hurt of his grief as if the pain had
stabbed her own heart. The old man went on:

"If it had only been any other kind of a load, anything but
_disgrace_, I could have carried it without flinching. But that, it
seemed I just couldn't face. Only the good Lord knows how I lived through
those first few weeks. Then your grandfather Huntingdon came to me. He
was always a good friend. And he asked me to row him out here on the
water. When we passed the Figurehead House he pointed up at that head. It
was all white and fair in those days, before the paint wore off. And he
said, 'Dan'l Darcy, _as long as a man keeps Hope at the prow he keeps
afloat_. As soon as he drops it he goes to pieces and down to the
bottom, the way that ship did when it lost its figurehead. You mustn't
let go, Dan'l. You _must_ keep Hope at the prow.

"'Somewhere in God's universe either in this world or another your boy is
alive and still your son. You've got to go on hoping that if he's
innocent his name will be cleared of this disgrace, and if he's guilty
he'll wipe out the old score against him some way and make good.'