"Cured of—life!" said John; and, stepping quickly forward, he fell at the doctor's feet.
The doctor seized the light as he fell, and attempted to raise him from the floor,—but John was dead in his arms.
Our history now returns to Israel Yorke, whom, with Ninety-One and the eleven, we left waiting in the dark, outside the artist's door.
"Hush, boys! hush!" whispered Ninety-One, and laid his hand upon the latch "Enter, Isr'el, and talk to yer tenant."
The door opened, and Israel entered, followed by Ninety-One and the eleven, all of whom preserved a dead stillness.
A single light was burning dimly in the artist's humble room. It cast its rays over the humble details of the place,—over the bed, which was covered by a white sheet. The place was deathly still.
"What does all this mean?" cried Israel. "There is no one here." Ninety-One took the light from the table, and led Israel silently to the bed. The eleven gathered round in silence; you could hear their hard breathing through the dead stillness of the room. Ninety-One lifted the sheet, slowly; his harsh features quivering in every fiber.
"That's what it means," he said hoarsely.
They were there, side by side; the husband and the wife, the sister and the children—there, cold and dead. The light, as it fell upon them, revealed the wasted face of the artist, his closed eyelids, sunken far in their sockets, his dark hair glued to his forehead by the moisture of death; and the face of his young wife, with her fair cheek and sunny hair; and the sad, beautiful face of his sister, whose dark hair lay loosely upon her neck, while the long fringes of her eyelashes rested darkly upon her cheek. There was a look of anguish upon the face of John, as though Poverty had struck its iron seal upon him as he died; but the faces of Annie and Nelly were calm, smiling—very full of peace. The little children—the dark-haired boy, and bright-haired girl—slept quietly, their hands clasped and their cheeks laid close together. The poor artist, in the last wild hour of his life, had indeed gathered them up in his arms and taken them with him. They had all gone together.