"That's all right, then." She looked at him long. "I wonder if you'll ever forgive me for hurting you like this. Try, won't you, Peter?" Her eyes were luminous with unshed tears. "Will you get me a glass of—water. On the table by my bed." She waited as he eagerly fetched it, grateful that he could do even this much. "Thanks. Now, a handkerchief—over there on the bureau." Again she waited, this time until he was across the room by her dressing-table. Then she raised the glass and spoke softly. "I'm glad I took this from your hands—Peter!"
She had not thought him capable of such quickness. Not a drop had passed her lips before he was upon her with the leap of a frightened deer. A vicious sweep of his hand sent the glass from her fingers out the window and through the moonlit night, to fall harmless on the lawn.
"Ocky—what were you doing?" he demanded almost furiously.
"Peter—what have you done?" she retorted. "That was all I had—all I had! Oh, that was a cruel of you! Why do you want me to suffer? Could you not let me die in peace?"
"You aren't going to die!" he cried. "Listen—how long will it be before another of those attacks comes on?"
"I—don't know. Several hours, p-perhaps." She stared at him open-eyed. "Wh-what are you going to do?"
"Local doctor, for temporary relief. To-morrow, the best diagnosticians—and surgeons if necessary—in New York." He was alert, now, coolly capable, free of the stupor of grief and despair. His face was grimly defiant as he added, "We'll see how much those gentlemen in Rome and Paris really know!"
"Oh—it's useless, Peter. And—and I can't live! They'll h-hang me! Peter, there's something I haven't told you. I hadn't stopped to think until lately that an unsolved crime leaves so much ugly suspicion in its wake! Innocent people—suspected all their lives! I couldn't die with that on my soul so—so this afternoon I wrote a full confession and mailed it to Norvallis—"
"Oh—that!" he said contemptuously. He reached into his pocket, plucked forth two letters and dropped them in her lap. "There!"
"Peter!" She stared at them. "Where on earth—? I couldn't go to town s-so I gave them to young Merrill to post. And he—he—"