'So he says.'
'But--if he should be?'
I knew the thought which was in her mind; though I kept my eyes from off her face. I was conscious of an unusual contraction of the muscles about the region of the heart. What was this evil with which I was trafficking? She turned herself inside out, with a sublime unconsciousness of the troubled waters which I felt that I was entering.
'I'll be able to marry Reggie; and you may marry Edith. So that I needn't write to him. Why, Douglas, this bad man's death will usher in a peal of wedding bells. It ought to ease his final moments to know that he'll do so much good by dying.'
It galled me to hear her talk in such a strain. True, she had learnt it from me; but, just then, that made it none the better.
'Don't you think you're a trifle premature in marrying, and giving in marriage? He's not dead yet.'
'No, but he will be. I feel that he will be soon. You'll find that for once he's told the truth.'
'However that may be, I wish you wouldn't speak like that. It sounds a little inhuman. As if you anxiously anticipated his entering the fires of hell to enable you to enjoy the bliss of heaven.'
She looked up at me with a naïve surprise.
'Douglas, what ever do you mean by that? Haven't you always counted on his death? And isn't he a wicked man?'