MARY. Not so, dear; not while you live. Wherever you are, I shall not be alone, so you live. BRODIE. While I live? I? The old house is ruined, and the old master dead, and I! . . . O Mary, try and believe I did not mean that it should come to this; try and believe that I was only weak at first. At first? And now! The good old man dead, the kind sister ruined, the innocent boy fallen, fallen . . . ! You will be quite alone; all your old friends, all the old faces, gone into darkness. The night (_with a gesture_) . . . it waits for me. You will be quite alone. MARY. The night! BRODIE. Mary, you must hear. How am I to tell her, and the old man just dead! Mary, I was the boy you knew; I loved pleasure, I was weak; I have fallen . . . low . . . lower than you think. A beginning is so small a thing! I never dreamed it would come to this . . . this hideous last night. MARY. Willie, you must tell me, dear. I must have the truth . . . the kind truth . . . at once . . . in pity. BRODIE. Crime. I have fallen. Crime. MARY. Crime? BRODIE. Don’t shrink from me. Miserable dog that I am, selfish hound that has dragged you to this misery . . . you and all that loved him . . . think only of my torments, think only of my penitence, don’t shrink from me. MARY. I do not care to hear, I do not wish, I do not mind; you are my brother. What do I care? How can I help you? BRODIE. Help? help _me_? You would not speak of it, not wish it, if you knew. My kind good sister, my little playmate, my sweet friend! was I ever unkind to you till yesterday? Not openly unkind? you’ll say that when I am gone. MARY. If you have done wrong, what do I care? If you have failed, does it change my twenty years of love and worship? Never! BRODIE. Yet I must make her understand . . . ! MARY. I am your true sister, dear. I cannot fail, I will never leave you, I will never blame you. Come! (_Goes to embrace_.) BRODIE (_recoiling_). No, don’t touch me, not a finger, not that, anything but that! MARY. Willie, Willie! BRODIE (_taking the bloody dagger from the table_). See, do you understand that? MARY. Ah! What, what is it! BRODIE. Blood. I have killed a man. MARY. You? . . . BRODIE. I am a murderer; I was a thief before. Your brother . . . the old man’s only son! MARY. Walter, Walter, come to me! BRODIE. Now you see that I must die; now you see that I stand upon the grave’s edge, all my lost life behind me, like a horror to think upon, like a frenzy, like a dream that is past. And you, you are alone. Father, brother, they are gone from you; one to heaven, one . . . ! MARY. Hush, dear, hush! Kneel, pray; it is not too late to repent. Think of our father dear; repent. (_She weeps_, _straining to his bosom_.) O Willie, my darling boy, repent and join us. SCENE VI _To these_, LAWSON, LESLIE, JEAN LAWSON. She kens a’, thank the guid Lord!