But not yet, alas, had the fatal inheritance of his house relaxed its hold upon the unhappy earl, who, when the first sad week of bereavement was over, and the frail mortal body, over which he had for days wept in secret agony, had been committed to the grave, was suddenly attacked with relentless force by the old spirit of evil, and Primrose, for the second time since she had been under his roof, witnessed in shame and sorrow the dread effects of that awful curse which her unhappy father was doomed to bear. Then with new joy and thankfulness did she realise and fully experience the strength and power of the true heart which shared her every burden, feeling that without the holy friendship and unselfish devotion of Percival life could not have been borne amid these scenes of suffering, and realising too, more deeply each day, in the sight of her father's misery, the wisdom of her own decision and sacrifice, which though daily renewed with bitter tears and struggles, yet grew ofttimes light with the radiance of that yet higher love, in the strength of which she and her lover trod bravely their path of mutual suffering. And in these dark seasons, which, as the months rolled on, she now, unshielded by a mother's love, witnessed only too frequently, none had power to soothe the earl like his young chaplain, in whose pure presence evil things trembled and hid themselves, and whose strong will seemed to give new life and strength to the weak and irresolute victim of Ap Gryffyth's malediction. CHAPTER XXXV. THE BOATMAN'S REFUSAL. "So, for us no world? Let throngs press thee to me! Up and down amid men, heart by heart fare we! Welcome squalid vesture, harsh voice, hateful face! God is soul, souls I and thou: with souls should souls have place." --ROBERT BROWNING. Old Jack the boatman bore his grief at his daughter's death in resolute silence, although his rapidly whitening hair and the new furrows of pain on his weather-beaten face showed plainly the inward suffering he endured. As before her death he had steadily refused to allow himself to be publicly made known as her father, so now he obstinately adhered to his resolution in spite of the earl's efforts to move him.