Bitterly he recalled the
stain upon his family in generations gone by. He had never forged or
stolen himself, yet the possibility had remained latent in him, else how
could he have transmitted it? Perhaps there were things in which he
might have been more honest, and so have killed the latent germ and his
child not have had it to develop! Far into the distance he saw a
continuous succession of dishonest Raymounts, nor succession only but
multiplication, till streets and prisons were swarming with them. For
hours he would sit with his hands in his pockets, scarcely daring to
think, for the misery of the thoughts that came crowding out the moment
the smallest chink was opened in their cage. He had become short, I do
not say rough in his speech to his wife. He would break into sudden
angry complaints against Hester for not coming home, but stop dead in
the middle, as if nothing was worth being angry about now, and turn away
with a sigh that was almost a groan. The sight of the children was a
pain to him. Saffy was not one to understand much of grief beyond her
own passing troubles; it was a thing for which she seemed to have little
reception; and her occasionally unsympathetic ways were, considering her
age, more of a grief to her mother than was quite reasonable; she feared
she saw in her careless glee the same root which in her brother flowered
in sullen disregard.
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