‘But as you love me,’ she said, ‘you’ll make me this vow—you’ll swear to me if ever you can help my poor Phil you’ll do it; not for his own sake, Sebastian (an’ forgettin’ Dick Sundon an’ all his lies), but for mine, as was Phil’s mother, and gave him half her soul?’
‘Annie, Annie, I’d do more than that for you!’ said Sebastian. He prayed her then to lie still—she had spoken beyond her strength. Anne obeyed, and till late in the day she did not speak again, then she spoke suddenly—half-wanderingly this time.
‘You’ll live long and happy, Sebastian,’ she said; ‘you’ll marry, my pretty man, and another woman but me, she’ll be the joyful mother o’ your sons.’ Then with no change in her voice, but as if she suddenly addressed a third person in the room, she continued: ‘And, God, you’ll avenge me on Dick Sundon? You understand how it’s been with me, an’ how ’tis impossible I should forgive him? And, Lord, have a care of Phil, and give him a white heart—my caring of him be past an’ done with now.’ There fell a long silence then, poor Anne having disposed of all her earthly cares.
‘Come, Sebastian,’ she cried, then quickly—with that awful chanting voice of the dying—and she held out her arms to him. But even as he bent down, Sebastian felt a long straining shiver pass through her, the sorrows of death compassed her, the pains of hell took hold upon her. He caught her to his heart for a moment, but a Stronger than he was drawing Anne away from his embrace. As their lips met she smiled a far-away dreamy smile.
‘Ha’ done, my man—ha’ done,’ she said; ‘no more of earth.’
‘I’ll bury Annie,’ said Sebastian, ‘and then I’ll kill Richard Meadowes.’
It was in compliance with this resolution that Sebastian Shepley, a few days later, waited again upon Richard Meadowes.
Meadowes sat writing at the table with his back to the door, but at the sound of its opening he turned round, and at sight of his visitor sprang up; the two men faced each other silently for a moment. Sebastian’s eyes from under their overhanging brows flashed like blue flames.