Monica, Volume 3 (of 3)

“Conrad’s grave – yes,” she answered quietly. “Randolph, look at the date.”

He did so, and started a little.

“He died at dawn that day, Randolph. You know what was happening then at the other side of the world?”

There was a strange look of awe upon her face as she spoke, which was reflected in his also. She came and stood close beside him.

“Randolph, do you know that he was there – that night? – that he tried to kill you?”

He had taken off his hat as he stood beside the grave, with the instinctive reverence for the dead – even though it be a dead foe – characteristic of a noble mind. Now he passed his hand across his brow and through his thick dark hair.

“I thought that was a delusion of fever – a sort of hideous vision founded on no reality. Monica, was it so?”

“It was.”

“How do you know?”

“I had it from his own lips.”

He gazed at her without speaking; something in her face awed and silenced him.

“Randolph, listen,” she said. “I must tell you all. Six weeks ago, the evening before that day, he was brought, shattered and dying, to Trevlyn; he had fallen from the cliffs, no skill could serve to prolong his life. I knew nothing then – he was profoundly unconscious, yet as the night wore away some strange intuition came upon me that he wanted me, that he was beseeching me to come to him. I went – he was still unconscious. I sent Wilberforce away and watched by him myself. Randolph, at dawn he awoke to consciousness – he told me all his awful tale – he said he had murdered you – I believed it was true. He was dying – dying in darkness and in dread, and he prayed for my forgiveness as if his salvation hung upon it. Randolph, Randolph, how can I tell you? – I cannot, no I cannot – no one could understand,” for a moment she pressed her hand upon her eyes, looking up again in a few seconds with a calm glance that was like a smile. “He was dying, Randolph, and I forgave him – I forgave him freely and fully – and he died in peace. Stop, that is not all. Randolph, as I knelt beside his bed, praying for the sin-stained spirit then taking its flight, I felt that you were with me; I had never before felt the strange overshadowing presence that I did then – you were there, your own self. I heard your voice far away, yet absolutely clear, like a call from some distant, snow-clad mountain-top, infinitely far – ‘Monica! Monica! My wife!’ I think Conrad heard it too, for he died with a smile on his lips. Randolph, I am sure that you were with me in that strange, awful hour. I knew it then – I know it better now. Randolph, I think that love is stronger than all else – time, space, death itself. Nothing touched our love. I think it is like eternity.”

A deep look of awe had stamped itself upon Randolph’s face. He put his arm round Monica, and for a very long while they stood thus, neither attempting to speak or to move.

At last he woke from his reverie, and looked down at her with a strange light shining in his eyes.

“And you forgave him, Monica?”

She looked up and met his gaze unfalteringly.

“I forgave him, Randolph; was I wrong?”

He stooped and kissed her.

“My wife, I thank God that you did forgive him. His life was full of sin and sorrow – but at least its end was peace. May God pardon him as you did – as I do.”

There was a strange sweet smile in her eyes as she lifted them to his.

“Ah, Randolph!” she said softly, “I knew you would understand. Oh, my husband, my husband!”

He held her in his arms, and she looked up at him with a sweet, tender smile. Then her eyes wandered dreamily out over the wide sea beneath them.

“There is nothing sad there now, Randolph. It will never separate us again.”

He looked down at her with a world of love in his eyes; yet as they turned away his glance rested for one moment upon the lonely grave he had been brought to see, and lifting his hat once more, he murmured beneath his breath – “Requiescat in pace.”

Then drawing his wife’s hand within his arm, he led her homewards to Trevlyn, whilst the sun set in a blaze of golden glory over the boundless shining sea.

THE END