"I did."
"Come still closer. Now I can see your face; yes, thank God, in my dying moments I can see it. It is good and strong, and like that of an angel—an archangel. Did you mean your words, archangel?"
"Yes."
"Thank God for that too. You, of all women on God's earth, could have made a good man of me, and for you alone on my death-bed I repent. Listen. The story I told you about Keith was false as hell. I wanted money, and I thought I could blackmail him, and I seemed to see my way when Aylmer was reported to be in danger. It was I who changed the medicines. I put a wrong label on each bottle. Little Kitty here is witness, and you are witness. I was at the bottom of that dastardly plot. It was I who caused the death of Aylmer. Keith is one of the best fellows living—yes, Mollie, one of the best; and take him, take him as your husband, for little Kitty and I give him to you."
"Yes, Major Strause and I give him to you," said Kitty, and she fell forward against the bed.
The major looked at her, and then he looked at Mollie, and he smiled and tried to put out his hand through the darkness to clasp Mollie's.
"The only good woman—I ever knew," he whispered once.
His hand relaxed its hold. He was dead.