n? Could I do
that, and bear my father's name? Could I do that, and have ever been
found worthy of you?

MARY. It is my duty ... my duty. Why will you make it so hard for me? So
hard, Walter, so hard!

LESLIE. Do I pursue you only for your good fortune, your beauty, the
credit of your friends, your family's good name? That were not love, and
I love you. I love you, dearest, I love you. Friend, father, brother,
husband ... I must be all these to you. I am a man who can love well.

MARY. Silence ... in pity! I cannot ... O, I cannot bear it.

LESLIE. And say it was I who had fallen. Say I had played my neck and
lost it ... that I were pushed by the law to the last limits of ignominy
and despair. Whose love would sanctify my gaol to me? whose pity would
shine upon me in the dock? whose prayers would accompany me to the
gallows? Whose but yours? Yours!... And you would entreat me--me!--to do
what you shrink from even in thought, what you would die ere you
attempted in deed!

MARY. Walter ... on my knees ... no more, no more!

LESLIE. My wife! my wife! Here on my heart! It is I that must kneel ...
I that must kneel to you.

MARY. Dearest!... Husband! You forgive him? O, you forgive him?

LESLIE. He is my brother now. Let me take you to our father. Come.

SCENE IV

_After a pause, BRODIE through the window_

BRODIE. Saved! And the _alibi_! Man, but you've been near it this
time--near the rope, near the rope. Ah, boy, it was your neck, your neck
you fought for. They were closing hell-doors upon me, swift as the wind,
when I slipped through and shot for heaven! Saved! The dog that sold me,
I settled him; and the other dogs are staunch. Man, but your _alibi_ will
stand! Is the window fast? The neighbours must not see the Deacon, the
poor, sick Deacon, up and stirring at this time o' night. Ay, the good
old room in the good, cosy old house ... and the rat a dead rat, and all
saved. (_He lights the candles._) Your hand shakes, sir? Fie! And you
saved, and snug and sick in your bed, and _it_ but a dead rat after all?
(_He takes off his hanger and lays it on the table._) Ay, it was a near
touch. Will it come to the dock? If it does! You've a tongue and you've a
head, and you've an _alibi_; and your _alibi_ will stand. (_He takes off
his coat, takes out the dagger, and with a gesture of striking._) Home!
He fell without a sob. "He breaketh them against the bosses of His
buckler!" (_Lays the dagger on the table._) Y