Death was quickly approaching, and it was useless to trouble the dying man further.

After a little while the man who had gone for Mrs.Clarkson arrived, with the poor woman half stunned by the shock of his news, and the two gentlemen left husband and wife together.
Later Mr.Bayne came back to his post in the more natural and congenial character of a Christian priest; but Clarkson was not a man to whom a deathbed repentance could be possible.

The one human sentiment of his nature--a half-instinctive love of wife and children--was the only one that seemed to influence him at the last, and from the moment of his confession he spoke little except of them.

Gradually his consciousness began to fail, and he spoke no more.

Two hours later the doctor and Mr.
Bayne quitted the house together.