"Oh, speak! Speak to me! Nora, speak to me and tell me," he wailed.
He reached to take her hands and remembered how he had bound the arms. Quickly he set them free and chafed the limp fingers.
"Rum--quick--drink," came in a wavering whisper, and he poured some of the potent spirit between the lips.
Holding her in his arms, with her head resting on his shoulder, he waited, listening to her faint breathing.
She was able to raise her hand to steady the bottle which he held. Then her head fell over again and she lay inert.
He turned his face to watch her. In a momentary fit of remorse and grief he pressed his lips to hers.
One of her arms stole round his neck and held him to her.
"Oh, my darling, my darling, how I have loved you," he heard her whisper. "Why did you come to me so late?"
Like a chill of death the words went through his brain.
"Who are you?" he said. "What is your real name?"
"Nora O'Guire. I am Kitty Lambton's youngest daughter. I told you her story."
"Yes. He is at the house--dead--Dudgeon--shot him."
A shudder of horror passed over him. The woman whom he had loved with such an abandon, this woman whom he held even then in his arms--he shrank away from her, letting her fall against the stone as the grim, sordid horror of the tragedy she was revealing grew plain before him.
"Ah, don't leave me--don't--don't," she moaned. "Let me die in your arms--let me--oh, I love you, love you beyond all else. I will tell you everything--everything--only still hold me."
"How did Eustace die?" His voice rang hard and pitiless.
"Oh! Give me this one last joy on earth. I am not all bad. Don't deny me now. Hold me in your arms, beloved. I had no faith in man or God till I met you, and you were good to me--in the coach--have you forgotten? Don't desert me--now."
Like a jagged claw rending harp-strings the phrases jarred and jangled every chord within his being.
"Oh, why--why----?" he cried. "Why did you come to this?"
He knelt by her side, taking her head again upon his shoulder while she clutched at his hand.
He held the bottle to her mouth in silence, loving, loathing, pitying, and condemning.
"Now. Don't stop me. Don't interrupt--only listen."
She lay still for a few minutes, gathering the last of her energy. Presently she began.