is
fingers on the paper and looked up, the last minute of the last interval
faced her, recorded on the clock.

She bent over him, and gave him her farewell kiss.

"Live, my angel, live!" she murmured, tenderly, with her lips just
touching his. "All your life is before you--a happy life, and an honored
life, if you are freed from _me_!"

With a last, lingering tenderness, she parted the hair back from his
forehead. "It is no merit to have loved you," she said. "You are one of
the men whom women all like." She sighed and left him. It was her last
weakness. She bent her head affirmatively to the clock, as if it had
been a living creature speaking to her; and fed the funnel for the last
time, to the last drop left in the Flask.

The waning moon shone in faintly at the window. With her hand on the
door of the room, she turned and looked at the light that was slowly
fading out of the murky sky.

"Oh, God, forgive me!" she said. "Oh, Christ, bear witness that I have
suffered!"

One moment more she lingered on the threshold; lingered for her last
look in this world--and turned that look on _him_.

"Good-by!" she said, softly.

The door of the room opened, and closed on her. There was an interval of
silence.

Then a sound came dull and sudden, like the sound of a fall.

Then there was silence again.

* * * * *

The hands of the clock, following their steady course, reckoned the
minutes of the morning as one by one they lapsed away. It was the
tenth minute since the door of the room had opened and closed, before
Midwinter stirred on his pillow, and, struggling to raise himself, felt
the letter in his hand.

At the same moment a key was turned in the staircase door. And the
doctor, looking expectantly toward the fatal room, saw the Purple Flask
on the window-sill, and the prostrate man trying to raise himself from
the floor.

EPILOGUE.

I. NEWS FROM NORFOLK.

_From Mr. Pedgift, Senior (Thorpe Ambrose), to Mr. Pedgift, Junior
(Paris)_.

"High Street, December 20th.

"MY DEAR AUGUSTUS--Your letter reached me yesterday. You seem to be
making the most of your youth (as you call it) with a vengeance. Well!
enjoy your holiday. I made the most of my youth when I was your age;
and, wonderful to relate, I haven't forgotten it yet!

"You ask me for a good budget of news, and especially for more
information about that mysterious business at the Sanitarium.

"Curiosity, my dear boy, is a quality which