Wilkie Collins

Armadale Wilkie Collins

THE first cool breathings of the coming dawn fluttered through the open window as Mr. Brockread the closing lines of the Confession. He put it from him in silence, without looking up. The firstshock of discovery had struck his mind, and had passed away again. At his age, and with his habitsof thought, his grasp was not strong enough to hold the whole revelation that had fallen on him. Allhis heart, when he closed the manuscript, was with the memory of the woman who had been thebeloved friend of his later and happier life; all his thoughts were busy with the miserable secret ofher treason to her own father which the letter had disclosed. He was startled out of the narrow limits of his own little grief by the vibration of the table atwhich he sat, under a hand that was laid on it heavily. The instinct of reluctance was strong in him;but he conquered it, and looked up. There, silently confronting him in the mixed light of the yellowcandle flame and the faint gray dawn, stood the castaway of the village inn-the inheritor of the fatalArmadale name. Mr. Brock shuddered as the terror of the present time and the darker terror yet of the future thatmight be coming rushed back on him at the sight of the man's face. The man saw it, and spoke first."Is my father's crime looking at you out of my eyes?" he asked. "Has the ghost of the drownedman followed me into the room?"The suffering and the passion that he was forcing back shook the hand that he still kept on thetable, and stifled the voice in which he spoke until it sank to a whisper."I have no wish to treat you otherwise than justly and kindly," answered Mr. Brock. "Do mejustice on my side, and believe that I am incapable of cruelly holding you responsible for yourfather's crime."The reply seemed to compose him. He bowed his head in silence, and took up the confessionfrom the table."Have you read this through?" he asked, quietly."Every word of it, from first to last.""Have I dealt openly with you so far. Has Ozias Midwinter-""Do you still call yourself by that name," interrupted Mr. Brock, "now your true name is knownto me?"