"Something's upon his mind still," Elma cried, looking hard at
him. "He's dying! he's dying! But he wants to say something else
before he dies, I'm certain. ... Mr. Kelmscott, it's to you. Oh,
Cyril, stand back! Mother, leave them alone! I'm sure from his
eye he wants to say something to Mr. Kelmscott."
They all fell back reverently. They stood in the presence of death
and of a mighty sorrow. Sir Gilbert still held Granville's hand
fast bound in his own. "It'll kill her," he muttered. "It'll kill
her! I'm sure it'll kill her! She'll never get over the thought
that her father was--was the cause of Montague Nevitt's death. And
you'll never care to marry a girl of whom people will say, either
justly or unjustly, 'She's a murderers daughter'.... And that will
kill her, too. For, Kelmscott, she loved you!"
Granville held the dying man's hand still more gently than ever.
"Sir Gilbert," he said, leaning over him with very tender eyes,
"no event on earth could ever possibly alter Gwendoline's love for
me, or my love for Gwendoline. I know you can't live. This shock
has been too much for you. But if it will make you die any the
happier now to know that Gwendoline and I will still be one, I give
you my sacred promise at this solemn moment, that as soon as she
likes I will marry Gwendoline.
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