"Yes; they came to take my statement—ante-mortem, I think they call it!"
"Oh, Liz! I hope it may not be true! Do not you know, dear, how we had planned to go away and live together? If you will only get well, Liz, we can do that now."
The smile upon the poor tired face deepened.
"That was before Dick died," she replied, with as much cheerfulness as a rapidly dying woman can express.
"But you would need me all the more now!"
"No. I shall never trouble any one again. God has been very good to me, after all, Leonie. He knew that I could never live without Dick, and he placed a means in my power without making me responsible for it. They tell me that I sprung out that window, but I have no remembrance of it, and I know that He will not hold me guilty. My boy is waiting for me, Leonie, just across the river, and when I close my eyes I can see him as distinctly as I can you, only that he is robbed of his deformity and his rags. It does not seem like little Dick, and yet I know that it is he. The Lord has sent him to help his mother safely over. I have not lived a guiltless life, Leonie, but for Dick's sake the Lord will forgive."
"And you are not afraid, Liz?" whispered Leonie, the awe of her tone making it extremely low.
"Afraid of my God?" returned the woman wonderingly. "Afraid of Heaven when I have known such torture here upon earth? Oh, no! I have been praying to God to have mercy upon Ben and send him repentance. That is my one torture now that I am dying. I have not forgotten you, dear, and I never shall; but here, just at the last, when I remember all the wickedness of his life, I do not see how God ever could forgive him!"
"And yet you can!"
"Upon that I found my hope. Oh, Leonie, it seems so sweet to know that it is all over and done with at last. All the old heartaches, the terror, the fear lest Ben should kill my poor, helpless baby. No one but God could ever know what a hideous nightmare it was, but it will be over now in a few hours at most. I hope you may be happy, my dear girl, and that we may meet in that heaven that is promised to us all."