The old man is thoroughly aroused. He will not even allow Aleck to carry her over to the bed, but raises the slight form himself. God alone knows the rush of holy feelings that sweep over him as his arms encircle this fragile body, once as dear to him as the apple of his eye. They see his tear-dewed eyes and must guess the rest.
He places a tender hand upon her brow and smooths back the white hair. John has come in, after seeing a young lady home, and as the old man notices him he beckons.
“My son,” he says brokenly, “the story of the bitter past can no longer be withheld from you. There is your mother!”
Amazed, John falls on his knees beside the bed. The poor woman opens her eyes and looks up in his face, startled, frightened.
“My poor mother!” John murmurs—he does not comprehend beyond the one fact that she suffers agony. Out from the rug struggle the poor burned hands and clasp him in a fierce embrace as though she would never let him go again. For years her heart has yearned for him, yet fear of his reproach has kept her aloof. Now the pent-up emotion of a lifetime breaks forth.
Her lips move as if uttering a prayer, and then exhausted nature again causes her to swoon.
The doctor comes and drives them all from the room save Samson and the housekeeper, who is a trained nurse. All the guests have gone but Aleck, and with John he sits in the deserted parlor, talking, while Dorothy changes her dress upstairs.
John is feverish with impatience, and, as best he can, Aleck tells him the sad story of the past. It causes him intense agony, but the depths of his heart are stirred with love for the poor mother who so bitterly paid the penalty the world exacts for a single sin.
When Craig describes with enthusiasm how his friend Wycherley saved the poor woman from the burning tenement John is running over with gratitude toward the actor. Indeed, all of them have pretty much the same feeling for him.
Then Dorothy joins them, looking very sweet, Craig thinks, in her dark robe, though the color has left her cheeks, and a look of sadness and fear haunts her eyes.