She heard him swallow down his tears, and then he began again: "Deleah and Franky have always been--have always been--"
"The dearest," she supplied, understanding him. "The dearest of your children, William?"
"Tell them that--after to-morrow, will you?"
She promised. "Bessie and Bernard have not such winning ways, perhaps, but they love you, William, I am sure."
To this he made no answer. After a time she spoke to him again: "Have you anything else to say to me, William? There have been too few words between us of late. It has been my fault, perhaps. But now, have you anything to say that might comfort us both to remember?"
"Nothing." He said the word drearily, but not unkindly, and she did not resent his silence. Full well she knew that volumes, if he could have spoken them, could not have lightened her helplessness in the present and terror of the future, nor his despair.
She lay for a few minutes, the tears pouring down her cheeks, unchecked in the darkness, then she forced herself to say the only few words she could think of which might comfort him in the time to come.
"William, I won't talk to you, I won't disturb you. I want you to go to sleep, to get a night's rest, if you can; but just this one thing I do wish to say to you--I do want you to remember. It is that you must be sure never to think I feel any anger against you. Only pity--only pity, William; and such a sorrow for you that I cannot put it into words. I have wanted to tell you all along, but--"
She left it there, and he received what she said in silence.
Only once again he spoke. "This has been Hell," he said, and she knew he spoke of the weeks he had spent, an alien in his own home, awaiting his trial. "Hell! Whatever comes, I am glad this is over."
Then he turned on his side, away from her, and lay quite quiet; and presently she knew with thanksgiving that he slept.
The prisoner in accordance with his counsel's advice pleaded Guilty. It was only a question of the length of the sentence, therefore, and the judge before whom William Day appeared did not err on the side of mercy. The heaviest sentence that it was in his power to allot to a malefactor of that class he passed upon William Day.
None of his own were present, but the Court was filled with people to whom the prisoner was a familiar figure of everyday life.