I could have wept for him. Presently:
"Is it so hard to lose that which you never possessed?" I ventured
to ask.
"It is always bitter to fail."
"But you haven't really failed. You have succeeded in proving that
both Richard and Freeman were the victims of an insane jealousy and
a terrible revenge."
"Jessamine's confession might well be set aside: insane people often
accuse themselves of crimes committed only in their own disordered
brains. The one indisputable proof would be the jewels in my hands."
He added, with a faint smile: "I should have liked to see those
accursed things made clean by your wearing them, Sophy."
"I don't want them!" I said, and my head went up. "I don't care
_that_ for all the Hynds jewels ever lost! I wouldn't have come here
to-night for their sake or mine, not if they were worth an empire's
ransom! I wanted them for Richard's sake, and--and yours."
"I know, I know. At first I wanted them for him and me, too.
Afterward I wanted them for him and for you, Sophy."
"For me? _I_ have no right to them. What have _I_ to do with Hynds
jewels?" And then I stopped. If Jessamine's confession were
true--and I believed in my heart that every word Jessamine had
written was the truth--what right had I to Hynds House itself? "As
to that, I have no right to Hynds House, either.
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