human
My poor lad! my dear son! said his uncle, sobbingly, standing over the stricken boy, and laying a hand tenderly on the bowed head.
gpt
Would that you could have been spared this. I have tried, God knows I have tried, to hide this from you.
human
Yes, yes! muttered Abner, grasping his uncle's hand, but not looking up,
gpt
Uncle Richard, if that clandestine marriage with Sarah Pepper was valid, why the open marriage five months later?
human
Your poor mother asked that, my boy, Dudley replied,
gpt
But why, asked Abner,
human
Because, answered Dudley,
gpt
Was no trace of the scoundrel, if scoundrel he was, who performed the clandestine marriage ceremony, ever found?
human
Sarah never succeeded in locating him; but, years after, I, by accident, ascertained that without a doubt----
gpt
What?
human
I found, my boy, answered Richard, sadly,
gpt
What became of Sarah Pepper, or Sarah Logan?
human
But, Richard continued,
gpt
he continued presently, in explanation of his being unable to give any information about Sarah Pepper's whereabouts,
human
I never saw Mary's cousin. I married your Aunt Frances, who was seventeen years your mother's senior, at Plainfield, New Jersey, just before the death of John Hollis and his wife, and before Sarah Thornton, your mother's aunt, married Jackson Pepper. I brought my bride to Lawsonville, and she never saw her Pepper connections, who lived, as you are aware, in quite another part of the State.
gpt
There is another fact in regard to your mother which I had better tell you now, Abner, Dr. Dudley went on after a time.
human
She did not die at Lawsonville, although I erected a stone there to her memory.