Victoria enjoyed hugely the widow’s proposal, and insisted upon his telling it to Andrew. Perhaps it might rouse him from the strange, almost comatose state which had seemed to hold him since he had regained his senses. To lie and dream with his eyes wide open, following Victoria as she moved about the room, was all he had cared to do. He did not often speak, and Victoria grew alarmed at this lethargy, which was so foreign to his nature; so the doctor, one day, at Victoria’s bidding, sat down beside the bed and told Andrew of his recent adventure, making it as ridiculous as possible, thereby trying to win from his patient a hearty laugh, but Andrew only smiled dreamily, and watched Victoria as she arranged some flowers in a vase, and placed them near his bedside.
“She is the fairest flower of them all,” the doctor heard him murmur. “There is not one to compare with her. No, not one.”
The physician saw that Andrew’s mind had not been on the story he had just related. In all probability he had not heard a word of it, and the doctor formed a resolution which he immediately put into execution. He asked, abruptly, keeping his eye on the invalid’s face: “Have you thought what the future has in store for you, Andrew?”
The deep-sunken eyes turned inquiringly upon the doctor.
“The future, the future,” he repeated, “What have I to do with the future? There is no future for me.”
“Then you do not care what becomes of you? You are not desirous of living?”
For the first time Andrew evinced some interest, and there was a flash of the old imperiousness in his manner as he replied: “Who would wish to live if they knew a prison cell stood waiting to receive them? Ask a bird which is suddenly caught and caged after having been free all its life; ask it if it chooses freedom with death as a penalty, or long life behind prison bars, though gilded? It will soon answer by beating its little life out against the cruel wires which cage it.”
He stopped and caught his breath with almost a sob. Victoria turned surprised to hear his voice which rang out strong and almost as firm as of old.
“Then you acknowledge your crime, and are willing to suffer the penalty?” asked the doctor bending forward.
Andrew’s eyes sought Victoria as if he were seeking strength. “No punishment which man can inflict will exceed that which God has already given. Victoria and the child are lost to me forever, and it is just. My angel who is so pure, so spotless, will return to the man she loves. What matters the tortures inflicted upon this body by a cruel world, I shall not heed them. The heart only can feel, and my heart is gone from me, gone into the keeping of my angel where it will be safe from all sin. Everything she touches becomes pure, you know.”