"And to think how I always idealized him!--how I had believed in his love for me and cherished his memory! To discover that even at the last--on his deathbed--he was thinking of that woman!" She wept gently, wiping her eyes with a resigned and suffering gesture on the handkerchief Kesiah had handed her. "I feel as if my whole universe had crumbled," she said. "But it was no affront to you, mother--it all happened before he saw you, and was only an episode. Those things don't bite into a man's life, you know." "Of course, I knew there had been something, but I thought he had forgotten it--that he was faithful to his love for me--his spirit worship, he called it. Then to find out so long after his death--when his memory had become a part of my religion--that he had turned back at the end." "It wasn't turning away from you, it was merely an atonement. Your influence was visible even there." "I am sorry for the child, of course," she said sadly, after weeping a little--"who knows but she may have inherited her mother's character?" "The doctor said you were to be quiet, Angela," remarked Kesiah, who had stood at the foot of the bed in the attitude of a Spartan. "Jonathan, if you begin to excite her, you'd better go." "Oh, my boy, my darling boy," sobbed Mrs. Gay, with her head on his shoulder, "I have but one comfort and that is the thought that you are so different--that you will never shatter my faith in you. If you only knew how thankful I am to feel that you are free from these dreadful weaknesses of men." Cowed by her helplessness, he looked down on her with shining eyes. "Remember the poor devil loved you, mother, and be merciful to his memory," he replied, touched, for the first time, by the thought of his uncle. "I shall try, Jonathan, I shall try, though the very thought of evil is a distress to me," she replied, with a saintly look. "As for the girl, I have only the tenderest pity for the unfortunate creature." "That's like you, mother." "Kesiah says that she has behaved very well. Didn't you say so, Kesiah?" "Yes, Mr. Chamberlayne told me that she appeared perfectly indifferent when he spoke to her. She even remarked, I believe, that she didn't see that it concerned her." "Well, she's spirit enough. Now stop talking, mother, I am going." "God bless you, my darling boy--you have never failed me."