The faithfulness of love, the strength of gratitude, were of no avail; the one perished in agony, the other was powerless to save.
In that momentary hush, as the winds sank low, the heavy eyes, half sightless now, sought with their old wistful, doglike loyalty the face to which so soon they would be blind forever.
“Would you tell me once, sir—now? I never asked—I never would have done—but may be I might know in this last minute. You never sinned that sin you bear the charge on?”
“God is my witness, no.”
The light, that was like sunlight, shone once more in the aching, wandering eyes.
“I knew, I knew! It was—”
Cecil bowed his head over him, lower and lower.
“Hush! He was but a child; and I—”
With a sudden and swift motion, as though new life were thrilling in him, Rake raised himself erect, his arms stretched outward to the east, where the young day was breaking.
“I knew, I knew! I never doubted. You will go back to your own some day, and men shall learn the truth—thank God! thank God!”