Bessy, up to this time, had not spoken a word. Sometimes she had tried to stop her husband, but her own sobs had prevented her.
“I do forgive you with all my heart, William. You did what you thought was right; you never meant to make me unhappy, you never thought——” and here she broke down again.
“No, Bessy,” he said, sadly, “I never did think, but I ought to have thought. I was a dreamer, and I wilfully blinded myself. I have not even the satisfaction of knowing that I was ignorant. I knew you suffered, I knew you wanted bread, but I went on. Oh Bessy, Bessy! I have gone all wrong, but it is hard upon you. I was born to be a blight and a curse to you.”
“No, no, William!” the wife broke out; “no, no, not that.”
“Yes, Bessy, it is so. I know my brother and his wife are good people. They will take care of you, dear. I shall never see you again. Hear me out, darling. I only hope that it will not be for long. I am not strong, and I do not think I shall last many months. I hope not, I pray to God not. It is all I can do for you now, Bessy; to die and set you free. But you will think of me kindly, dear: think of me as I used to be before I went mad, as the William who courted you long ago. Will you promise me this, Bessy?”
Bessy was crying too much to speak.
“Oh! William,” she sobbed out at last; “you must not talk so, you will kill me. We are going to be happy yet. Yes, yes,” she said, as he shook his head in sad denial; “you don't know, you have not heard what I have to tell you. I am coming out to you, dear. In a little time, they tell me, they will let you out of prison to work with a farmer, and in a year I am to start to you; only a year, William, think of that. Mr. Maynard, God bless him, has given me the money, and in a year after you get out I shall be by your side. Think of it, William. And he said, too, there was no disgrace in being sent out for politics, and that some day you would get on and be well thought of again. Yes, it is all true, William, I am only come to say good-bye for a year.”
William Holl had listened at first with incredulity, then with a flash of joyful hope, and then with the deep silent thankfulness of conviction. Then he got up and held his wife to his heart.
“Yes, yes, I feel it is true,” he said; “my own Bessy, once again my own, we shall be happy yet.” Then again releasing her, he said solemnly: “Let us kneel down, Bessy, and thank God together, and let us pray Him to bless the man who has thus, in the time of our misery, given us new life and hope.” Bessy knelt in silence beside her husband, and in a voice broken by deep emotion he went on: “Thou merciful God, I thank thee that in our hour of misery Thou has had mercy upon us. Grant us a re-union in the land to which I go; and enable me, by a life of earnest toil, to atone for my error here, and to console my wife for the grief I have caused her. And, O God, bless, I pray thee, our benefactor, and shower blessings and mercies upon him, as he has blessed and been merciful to us, Amen.”