"Get it for me, girl! I will tell you what it is! If I had told you before, I had had it now, and I should be whole and well! whole and well.

You have a heart and can pity! Women can pity.

Then pity me! I am rich, but I am dying! I am a dying man, rising up and lying down, counting the days as I walk the streets, and seeing the shroud rise higher and higher upon my breast!" He paused for breath, endeavouring to gain some command of himself; while she, carried off her feet by this rush of words, stared at him in stupefaction.

Before he came he had made up his mind to tell her the truth--or something like the truth.

But he had not intended to tell the truth in this way until, face to face with her and met by her scruples, he let the impulse to tell the whole carry him away.
He steadied his lips with a shaking hand.