g something while I did it. Then
Spitfire was off, clattering down the road--and suddenly the madness
died in me. I would have given my life for his, but I had killed him.
I had killed myself. I have never since been the man I was when
Terence and I were closer than brothers."

He ended with a sob.

"You can't forgive me, Mary?" he asked, in a terrified whisper, as she
did not speak. "For God's sake say something."

She got up and put her arms about his head. Whatever grief or horror
there was in her face he should not see it. She laid her face against
his, embracing him closely and softly.

"The only thing I find it hard to forgive," she whispered, "is your not
telling me. It would not have been so bad if you had told me, Shawn.
I could have helped you to bear it. I could have carried at least half
your burden."

"You understand, Mary," he asked in a wondering voice, "that when I
struck Spitfire, I meant to kill Terence."

"It was madness," she said. "I would almost say it was justifiable
madness. No one could believe it was deliberate."

"A jury might have brought it in manslaughter," he said. "Only for you
and Terence I would have tested it long ago. You cannot imagine what a
weight I have carried. Even telling it has eased me as though a stone
had been rolled from off my heart."

"You should have shared it," she said. "That is all I have to
forgive--that you carried it alone all those years."

"Oh, incomparable woman!" he said. "Indeed I have felt the wrong I did
you in marrying you, in chaining your brightness and sweetness to a
doomed man like me."

"You have made me perfectly happy," she said. "I would not have
changed my lot for anything else in the world. Why do you talk of
doom? It is going to be happiness for both of us now that you have
spoken at last."

"I have made you happy?" he asked wonderingly. "Why, if I have, it is
not so bad after all."

"Did Patsy know?" she asked on a sudden thought.

"Patsy knew, though he has tried to keep the fact of his knowledge from
me. He must have heard what I said. One other knew and has
blackmailed me ever since. No matter how much money I gave him he came
back again. I was so weary of it and so weary of the burthen I was
carrying that the last time I refused him. He went away cursing and
swearing that he would have me brought to justice. I felt I didn't
care. I told him to do his worst. He is the husband of that poor
thing yo