"You've killed him, at last!" Philip flayed her with word and look as
she sped for other help; but he forgot her as he knelt and raised
Latimer's head to his knee. He would have carried him to a couch, but
Arthur motioned that he could not endure that pain. The look of trust
that greeted Danvers was returned with one of love and fidelity.
With a sigh of utter content Latimer, by a supreme effort, raised his
hands to Philip's shoulders.
"Arthur!" Danvers groaned, holding him close as he looked into the
glazing eyes.
"Did I doubt you?" whispered the judge. "Forgive me--my
dear--friend--Phil!"
[Illustration]
Chapter XIV
The Keystone
When Senator Blair learned of Judge Latimer's death he thought himself
its prime cause and suffered as only a man can who is not wholly
heartless. How poorly he had rewarded the friendship which had relieved
him in his need at Fort Macleod! All his passion for Mrs. Latimer had
died in that fearful moment when he looked on the curiously passive
husband in the doorway; remorse bit like acid into the depths of his
heart. The meaning glances and the interrupted conversations that met
him everywhere the morning after the judge's death drove him to
solitude. He even avoided his sister, Danvers and the doctor; but most
of all he shunned the Honorable Mr. Moore. He had had enough of
temptation! He would not allow himself again to be approached!
His belief that in the sight of God he was a murderer made Blair
collapse during the day. He was confined to his room; and it was then
that he told the Fort Benton physician all that was haunting him, hour
by hour. Blair did not attempt to palliate his sin, and although the
doctor had known much and suspected more, he could hardly find it in his
heart to forgive either Winifred's brother or the woman who had led him
on. The only ray of mercy he felt was that matters were not so bad as he
had feared between these old friends of his; but in his bitterness at
Arthur's death, he would not give Blair the consolation of knowing that
it was only a question of a short time, at best, when the judge's weak
heart must have failed. Let him suffer! Arthur had! For the first time
the lenient doctor did not want to relieve pain. Neither he nor Blair
knew of what had taken place between Eva and her husband after Charlie
had left their rooms.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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