Somewhat re-assured by what I had just heard, I resolved on boldly facing the difficulty, whatever it might be.
"You think my views—my peculiar views, as you call them—would, if known to Hulmar, outweigh all his present good will toward me. What need is there for him to know any thing about them?"
Utis regarded me with a smile, half mournful, half. amused. Then, shaking his head,—
"My poor boy, you are under the influence of that passion to which we excuse much; but for me there is no such excuse. I would do for you all I would for my own son; but, even could I so far forget what is due to my oldest friend as to keep from his knowledge what so greatly concerns him to know, there are others who would not be so reticent."
"Then, others know beside you?"
"Yes: two others. Your grand-uncle Ruart, the old gentleman we met the day of your arrival. It was with him your mother first communicated in regard to your coming here. Ulmene is the other. It is her right to know the antecedents of a new inmate of her household."
"In what light do you think Hulmar will regard the matter?" inquired I, with a sinking heart, after a long pause.
"The most favorable supposition is, that he will regard you as a monomaniac, or, at least, as a person whose memory of the past has undergone a peculiar change. Now, there is nothing we dread so much as mental disease. Death we can face with equanimity; the untimely taking away of those dearest to us we try to bear with resignation; but insanity admits of no consolation. Cases
