ind dungeon bars
could I have won my husband's heart, which holds for me the whole wide
world of earthly peace and hope. For your sin, you have suffered. Its
consequences to others from the destruction of the will, have been
averted by the prompt transfer of all the property which Gen'l
Darrington left, to his chosen heir Prince. Pecuniarily no one was
injured by your act. Dear Bertie--Bertie, are you listening?"

He smiled but made no answer, and his eyes had a strained and exultant
expression. After a long silence, he cried huskily:

"The curse is taken away--out of my blinded eye I see--Agnus Dei qui
tollis peccata mundi--"

A slight spasm shook him, and feeling his cheek grow colder, Beryl
threw off the fur cloak, and folded it closely around the wasted body
which leaned heavily against her. The sunny short rings of hair clung
to his sunken, blue veined temples, where cold drops gathered; and a
gray seal was set about the wan lips that writhed in the fight for
breath.

"Bertie, kiss me--tell me you are not afraid."

She fancied he nestled his face closer, but the wide eyes were fixed on
the golden light that was fading fast across the narrow doorway.

Pressing her quivering lips to his, she sobbed:

"Tell mother, her little girl was faithful--"

Another spasm shook the form, and after a little while, the eyes
closed; the panting ceased, and the tired breath was drawn in long,
shuddering sighs.

Mr. Dunbar beckoned to the cowled form who, rosary in hand, paced the
terrace, and the two laid the dying man back on his pallet of straw.

Fainter grew the slow breath, and the voice of the monk rolled through
the silence, like the tremolo swell of an organ:

"Delicta juventutis, et ignorantias ejus, quoesumus, ne memineris,
Domine; sed secundum magnam misericordiam tuam memor esto illius in
gloria claritatis tuoe."

On the stone floor Beryl knelt, with her brother's icy hand clasped
against her cheek, and as she watched, the twitching of the muscles
ceased, the lips so long distorted, took on their old curves of beauty.
A marble pallor blanched the dark stain of the branded cheek, and the
Bertie of innocent youth came slowly out of the long eclipse.

Death, God's most tender angel, laid her divine lips upon the scars of
sin, that vanished at her touch; drew her white fingers across the
lines and shadows of suffering time, and leaving the halo of eternal
peace upon the frozen features, gave back to Beryl her