"Louder! I cannot hear! Louder!"
Again she whispered, more distinctly this time, and casting an imploring glance at Orsino, who was too much disturbed to understand.
"Louder!" gasped the dying man, struggling to sit up. "Louder! O my God! I shall die without hearing you—without knowing—"
It would have been inhuman to torture the departing soul any longer. Then Maria Consuelo made her last sacrifice. She spoke in calm, clear tones.
"I married to save the man I loved."
Spicca's expression changed. For fully twenty seconds his sunken eyes remained fixed, gazing into hers. Then the light began to flash in them for the last time, keen as the lightning.
"God have mercy on you! God reward you!" he cried.
The shadowy figure quivered throughout its length, was still, then quivered again, then sprang up suddenly with a leap, and Spicca was standing on the floor, clasping Maria Consuelo in his arms. All at once there was colour in his face and the fire grew bright in his glance.
"Oh, my darling, I have loved you so!" he cried.
He almost lifted her from the ground as he pressed his lips passionately upon her forehead. His long thin hands relaxed suddenly, and the light broke in his eyes as when a mirror is shivered by a blow. For an instant that seemed an age, he stood upright, dead already, and then fell back all his length across the bed with wide extended arms.