"Good-by," he said. "I am sorry to have offended you."
"Must you go?" responded she with a society manner which cut him to the quick. "Let me give you a rose."
She broke one off, and handed it to him. He took it awkwardly, wholly at a loss to understand her.
"They are lovely, aren't they?" she said. "Mr. Stanford sent them to me this morning."
He looked at her until her eyes fell. Then he laid the rose on the table near the hand which had given it to him, and without further speech went out.
XXIV
FAREWELL AT ONCE, FOR ONCE, FOR ALL, AND EVER
Richard II., ii. 2.
Although Ashe had said that he should not go again to the poverty-stricken dwelling of Mrs. Murphy, he found himself a few days later beside her bed. Word had been brought to him that she was dying, and that she begged to see him before her death. There was no resisting a call like this, and on a gloomy afternoon he had gone down to the dingy court, torn by memories and worn with inward struggles.
He found the old woman almost speechless with weakness. The room was more comfortable, and he knew that Maurice had been at work. The slatternly girl was in attendance, and there was also the pleasant-faced priest whom Philip and Maurice had encountered in the court. The priest had come with an acolyte to administer the last rites, and the woman had made her confession. So intent, however, was Mrs. Murphy upon the purpose for which she had summoned Ashe that she cried out to him as he entered, and apparently for the moment forgot all else.
Ashe looked at the priest in apology, but the latter said kindly:—