) "Before either of us leave this place, you shall confess
it! You know that my duty to the Church bids me to go at once and
tell the priest of your grandfather's death. If I leave that duty
unfulfilled, remember it is through your fault! _You_ keep me
here--for here I stop till I'm obeyed. Do you hear that, idiot?
Speak! Speak instantly, or you shall repeat it to the day of your
death! I ask again--what did your grandfather say to you when he
was wandering in his mind last night?"
"He spoke of a crime committed by another, and guiltily kept
secret by him," answered Gabriel, slowly and sternly. "And this
morning he denied his own words with his last living breath. But
last night, if he spoke the truth--"
"The truth!" echoed Francois. "What truth?"
He stopped, his eyes fell, then turned toward the corpse. For a
few minutes he stood steadily contemplating it; breathing
quickly, and drawing his hand several times across his forehead.
Then he faced his son once more. In that short interval he had
become in outward appearance a changed man; expression, voice,
and manner, all were altered.
"Heaven forgive me!" he went on, "but I could almost laugh at
myself, at this solemn moment, for having spoken and acted just
now so much like a fool! Denied his words, did he? Poor old man!
they say sense often comes back to light-headed people just
before death; and he is a proof of it.
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