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! BRODIE (_to MARY_). I know you forgive me now; I ask no more. That is a good man. (_To LESLIE._) Will you take her from my hands? (_LESLIE takes MARY._) Jean, are ye here to see the end? JEAN. Eh man, can ye no' fly? Could ye no' say that it was me?