THAT was her sin , Master , -- and for that sin the curse fell on her unborn child . When father understood that she would not speak he closed his eyes and was like to have fallen if Thomas had not caught him . '' ` Oh , lass , you 're a hard woman , ' was all he said . And they were his last words . Thomas and I carried him back to his room , but the breath was gone from him before we ever got him there . `` Well , Master , Kilmeny was born a month afterwards , and when Margaret felt her baby at her breast the evil thing that had held her soul in its bondage lost its power . She spoke and wept and was herself again . Oh , how she wept ! She implored us to forgive her and we did freely and fully . But the one against whom she had sinned most grievously was gone , and no word of forgiveness could come to her from the grave . My poor sister never knew peace of conscience again , Master . But she was gentle and kind and humble until -- until she began to fear that Kilmeny was never going to speak . We thought then that she would go out of her mind . Indeed , Master , she never was quite right again . `` But that is the story and it 's a thankful woman I am that the telling of it is done . Kilmeny ca n't speak because her mother would n't . '' Eric had listened with a gray horror on his face to the gruesome tale . The black tragedy of it appalled him -- the tragedy of that merciless law , the most cruel and mysterious thing in God 's universe , which ordains that the sin of the guilty shall be visited on the innocent . Fight against it as he would , the miserable conviction stole into his heart that Kilmeny 's case was indeed beyond the reach of any human skill . `` It is a dreadful tale , '' he said moodily , getting up and walking restlessly to and fro in the dim spruce-shadowed old kitchen where they were .
`` And if it is true that her mother 's willful silence caused Kilmeny 's dumbness , I fear , as you say , XXXXX we can not help her .
against as at because beyond for in into that with