"To try," she said,—"to try to do something for the girl."
He did not understand what she meant until she had dragged herself up upon the pillow and leaned forward touching him with her hand; she had gathered all her strength for the effort.
"I am an outcast," she said,—"an outcast!"
The simple and bare words were so terrible that he could scarcely bear them, but he controlled himself by a strong effort.
A faint color crept up on her cheek.
"You don't understand," she said.
"Yes," he answered slowly, "I think I do."
She fell back upon her pillows.
"I wont tell you the whole story," she said. "It is an ugly one, and she will be ready enough with it when her turn comes. She has understood all her life. She has never been a child. She seemed to fasten her eyes upon me from the hour of her birth, and I have felt them ever since. Keep her away," with a shudder. "Don't let her come in."
A sudden passion of excitement seized upon her.
"I don't know why I should care," she cried. "There is no reason why she should not live as I have lived—but she will not—she will not. I have reached the end and she knows it. She sits and looks on and says nothing, but her eyes force me to speak. They forced me to come here—to try—to make a last effort. If Stephen Murdoch had lived——"
She stopped a moment.
"You are a poor man," she said.
"Yes," he answered. "I am a mechanic."
"Then—you cannot—do it."
