"Christ took a child on His knee.The priests call themselves ministers of Christ.They have left me, because of _this_ child, here on my knee.Wrong, wrong, wrong.Winterfield, Death is a great teacher.I know how I have erred--what I have lost.Wife and child.How poor and barren all the rest of it looks now!"He was silent for a while.Was he thi nking? No: he seemed to be listening--and yet there was no sound in the room.Stella, anxiously watching him, saw the listening expression as I did.
Her face showed anxiety, but no surprise.
"Does it torture you still?" she asked.
"No," he said; "I have never heard it plainly, since I left Rome.
It has grown fainter and fainter from that time.It is not a Voice now.It is hardly a whisper: my repentance is accepted, my release is coming.--Where is Winterfield?"She pointed to me.
"I spoke of Rome just now.What did Rome remind me of?" He slowly recovered the lost recollection."Tell Winterfield," he whispered to Stella, "what the Nuncio said when he knew that I was going to die.The great man reckoned up the dignities that might have been mine if I had lived.From my place here in the Embassy--""Let me say it," she gently interposed, "and spare your strength for better things.From your place in the Embassy you would have mounted a step higher to the office of Vice-Legate.Those duties wisely performed, another rise to the Auditorship of the Apostolic Chamber.That office filled, a last step upward to the highest rank left, the rank of a Prince of the Church.""All vanity!" said the dying Romayne.He looked at his wife and his child."The true happiness was waiting for me here.And Ionly know it now.Too late.Too late."
He laid his head back on the pillow and closed his weary eyes.We thought he was composing himself to sleep.Stella tried to relieve him of the boy."No," he whispered; "I am only resting my eyes to look at him again." We waited.The child stared at me, in infantine curiosity.His mother knelt at his side, and whispered in his ear.A bright smile irradiated his face; his clear brown eyes sparkled; he repeated the forgotten lesson of the bygone time, and called me once more, "Uncle Ber'."Romayne heard it.His heavy eyelids opened again."No," he said.
"Not uncle.Something better and dearer.Stella, give me your hand."Still kneeling, she obeyed him.He slowly raised himself on the chair."Take her hand," he said to me.I too knelt.Her hand lay cold in mine.After a long interval he spoke to me."Bernard Winterfield," he said, "love them, and help them, when I am gone." He laid his weak hand on our hands, clasped together."May God protect you! may God bless you!" he murmured."Kiss me, Stella."I remember no more.As a man, I ought to have set a better example; I ought to have preserved my self-control.It was not to be done.I turned away from them--and burst out crying.
The minutes passed.Many minutes or few minutes, I don't know which.
A soft knock at the door aroused me.I dashed away the useless tears.Stella had retired to the further end of the room.She was sitting by the fireside, with the child in her arms.I withdrew to the same part of the room, keeping far enough away not to disturb them.
Two strangers came in and placed themselves on either side of Romayne's chair.He seemed to recognize them unwillingly.From the manner in which they examined him, I inferred that they were medical men.After a consultation in low tones, one of them went out.
He returned again almost immediately, followed by the gray-headed gentleman whom I had noticed on the journey to Paris--and by Father Benwell.
The Jesuit's vigilant eyes discovered us instantly, in our place near the fireside.I thought I saw suspicion as well as surprise in his face.But he recovered himself so rapidly that I could not feel sure.He bowed to Stella.She made no return; she looked as if she had not even seen him.
One of the doctors was an Englishman.He said to Father Benwell:
"Whatever your business may be with Mr.Romayne, we advise you to enter on it without delay.Shall we leave the room?""Certainly not," Father Benwell answered."The more witnesses are present, the more relieved I shall feel." He turned to his traveling companion."Let Mr.Romayne's lawyer," he resumed, "state what our business is."The gray-headed gentleman stepped forward.
"Are you able to attend to me, sir?" he asked.
Romayne, reclining in his chair, apparently lost to all interest in what was going on, heard and answered.The weak tones of his voice failed to reach my ear at the other end of the room.The lawyer, seeming to be satisfied so far, put a formal question to the doctors next.He inquired if Mr.Romayne was in full possession of his faculties.
Both the physicians answered without hesitation in the affirmative.Father Benwell added _his_ attestation."Throughout Mr.Romayne's illness," he said firmly, "his mind has been as clear as mine is."While this was going on, the child had slipped off his mother's lap, with the natural restlessness of his age.He walked to the fireplace and stopped--fascinated by the bright red glow of the embers of burning wood.In one corner of the low fender lay a loose little bundle of sticks, left there in case the fire might need relighting.The boy, noticing the bundle, took out one of the sticks and threw it experimentally into the grate.The flash of flame, as the stick caught fire, delighted him.He went on burning stick after stick.The new game kept him quiet: his mother was content to be on the watch, to see that no harm was done.
In the meantime, the lawyer briefly stated his case.
