[_He opens that door and goes in to Bernice. MARGARET stands motionless, searching, and as if something is coming to her from the rightness. When she speaks it is a denial from that inner affirmation._ MARGARET No! I say--No! [_Feeling some one behind her, swiftly turning she sees ABBIE outside, looking through the not quite drawn curtains of the door. She goes to the door and draws ABBIE in._] Yes, I _am_ here--and I say _no_. [_She has hold of her, drawing her in as she says it._] You understand--I say _no_. _I don’t believe it._ What you told me--_I don’t believe it_. ABBIE [_At first it is horror--then strange relief, as if nothing could be so bad as this has been._] Well, I’m glad you know. MARGARET [_Very slowly, knowing now it is fact she has come to._] Glad I know _what_? ABBIE That it isn’t true. That she didn’t do it. MARGARET Didn’t do it? Did _not_ take her own life? ABBIE No. Of course she didn’t. MARGARET [_Still very slowly, as if much more is coming than she can take in._] Then _why_--did you say she did? ABBIE Because she said I must. Oh--look at me! Look at me! But you knew her. You know the strength of her. If she’d told you the way she told me--_you’d have done it too_. You would! MARGARET [_Saying each word by itself._] I can not understand one word you’re saying. Something is wrong with you. [_Changing, and roughly taking hold of ABBIE._] Tell me. Quick, the truth. ABBIE Wednesday night, about eight o’clock, about an hour after she told me to telegraph you, she said, “Why, Abbie, I believe I’m going to die.” I said no, but she said, “I think so.” I said we’d send for Mr. Norris. She said no, and not to frighten her father. I--_I_ didn’t think she was going to die. All the time I was trying to get the doctor. There were two hours when she was--quiet. Quiet--not like any quiet I ever knew. Thinking. You could see thinking in her eyes--stronger than sickness. Then, after ten, she called me to her. She took my hands. She said, “Abbie, you’ve lived with me all my life.” “Yes,” I said. “You love me.” “Oh, yes,” I said. “Will you do something for me?” “You know I will,” I told her. “Abbie,” she said, looking right at me, _all_ of her looking right at me, “if I die, I want you to tell my husband I killed myself.” [_MARGARET falls back._] Yes, I did that too. Then I thought it was her mind. But I looked at her, and oh, her mind was there! It was terrible--how it was all _there_. She said--and then she [_The sobs she has been holding back almost keep ABBIE from saying this_]--held out her hands to me--“Oh, Abbie, do this last thing for me! After all there has been, I have a _right_ to do it. If my life is going--let me have _this_ much from it!” And as still I couldn’t--_couldn’t_--the tears ran down her face and she said, “I want to rest before pain comes again. Promise me so I can rest.” And I promised. And you would have too! MARGARET