"Esther," he said, kneeling beside her, "can you ever forgive me?"
"Forgive you what?" she asked, almost in a whisper.
"For the lie I told you. The lie that was the beginning of all this misery."
"I forgive you. I had forgotten all about it. Now let me go. It is daylight, and I must get away before anyone sees me."
"Go away? What do you mean? Where are you going to?"
"I don't know--I don't care. But it must be somewhere where no one will know my name. You will find everything in order here, and Mrs. Fenwick knows all your wants. The boy is asleep in the room there. You will not let him even learn the story of my shame, will you?"
He put his arm around her waist, but she put it off with a little shiver.
"Because of what has happened to-night. I am the cause of it all. I know you cannot forgive me now; but oh, some day, for the child's sake, you may not think so hardly of me."
He moved on to the sofa and tried to hold her, but she fell on her knees at his feet and burst into a storm of passionate weeping.
"Esther, you are deceiving yourself. I have nothing to forgive. I love you as fondly now--nay, I am wrong, I love you more fondly now than ever. Fortunately I heard all that man said to you. I heard you refuse and repulse him. It was then that I interfered. You are as much my own true wife as you ever were. I love you still, and, as God hears me, I have never doubted you, not for one single moment."
He took her in his arms and kissed her tears away. She did not repulse him this time, but clung to him like one returned from the dead.
"Oh, my husband! my husband!" was all that she could say. "Now that I know you love me still, I can bear anything. Tell me, Cuthbert, all that has happened? Don't spare me."
Without more ado he told her everything--who Murkard really was; how Merton had cherished such a deadly hatred of him; the loss of the pearl; Merton's return to the island, and all the events connected with that fatal night. With the exception of the murder he told her everything. When he had finished, she said;
"And Murkard--where is he? My thanks are due to him."
"He will never receive them, dearest. He is dead."
"Dead!" she cried, in horrified amazement. "Oh, this is too horrible! How did he die?"