Page:Alice Stuyvesant - The Vanity Box.djvu/311

 the story come in talk between us now," she answered, "unless you want me to read."

"I will tell you, then," he said. "I meant to write you a separate letter, the—last thing of all; posting it myself, so it shouldn't be found here. And don't think I should have left your letter, if you had written it, for other eyes to see. I would have"

"Don't talk about what you would have done!" she begged. That's all over now. You have changed your mind for the better."

"If I had changed, it would not be for the better," he insisted. "When you hear all, Terry, it is you who will change. You'll admit, if you are as brave and frank as you always were, that if atonement is possible for me, it can only be through quitting this world. My confession, with what Nora Verney knows and can tell, will save Ian Barr. There can be no possible doubt of that—no fear of ultimate danger for him, or for this unfortunate Liane. Nora and Ian will be happy together, and forget their black days. I have made my will, and left Friars' Moat to him, as is only fair, considering his parentage, since I die without children. To you I've given nothing which can be put in a will, Terry. Yet I leave you my undying worship. It was yours unwaveringly, even when I believed you cruel and faithless. I could not take it from you. And it must live, it seems to me, even when I am in my grave. When I have finished the confession—it's