Page:In the name of a woman (1900).djvu/382

 "Leave it," and the movement of his fingers near his heart told me what he meant.

"On my honour, Zoiloff," I said earnestly. "God bless you! the staunchest friend man ever had. I never dreamt of this."

"Don't tell her," he whispered, trying to shake his head. Then I felt his hand try to lift mine, and, divining his wish, I laid mine to his lips, and he kissed it. This effort exhausted the little reserve of strength, and with a sigh his eyes closed, and his hand slipped utterly nerveless and flaccid from mine.

I thought he was gone; but he was not, and when I held a glass to his lips there was a faint dulling with his breath. Taking his hand again in mine, I waited for the end.

He lingered perhaps an hour longer till the twilight began to gloom the little chamber, and I was hoping that he would pass away in this peaceful slumber of unconsciousness, when I heard his breath strengthen suddenly. He opened his eyes; the fingers on the flower at his heart tightened into almost a firm clasp; a quiver shook his body, and raising his head slightly from the pillow, he cried in a voice strong enough to surprise and for an instant give me hope:

"Christina, Chris" The word was not finished before the spasm of strength was spent, and he fell back again with a deep sigh.

He was dead; and I thank God that in the last struggle of his strong brave soul to escape he had been comforted by the love which had controlled and impulsed every act and motive of his life, and which he had carried locked away from the knowledge of all the world in the deepest recess of his loyal, noble heart.

If I had treasured him as a friend in his life, I loved