But Zeke was there to keep his "sense of duty" strong.

And that he might nerve himself and hide and put down any tendency to be a "soft-hearted fool"-- a tendency that threatened to grow as he looked at the girl--the child--he assumed the roughest manner he could muster.
"It ain't a question of what you want," he repeated.

"It's a question of what's got to be done, to save my family and you, too--from disgrace.

We ain't going to have any more bastards in this family." The word meant nothing to the girl.

But the sound of it, as her uncle pronounced it, made her feel as though the blood were drying up in her veins.
"We ain't going to take any chances," pursued Warham, less roughly; for now that he had looked the situation full and frankly in the face, he had no nerve to brace himself.