She did recognize that altered wretch, and
kept her counsel.
Before the bells rang for morning service the tramp was lying in the
dead-house of Kingston Union, whither he had been conveyed very quietly
in the early morning, unknown to any one but the constable who
superintended the removal, and the servants of Mr. Hawkehurst's
household. Only the next day did Ann Woolper tell Valentine what had
happened. There was to be an inquest. It would be well that some one
should identify the dead man, and establish the fact of Philip Sheldon's
decease.
Valentine was able to do this unaided. He attended the inquest, and made
arrangements for the outcast's decent burial; and in due course he gave
Mrs. Sheldon notice of her freedom. Beyond that nameless grave whose
fancy shall dare follow Philip Sheldon? He died and made no sign. And in
the last dread day, when the dead, small and great, from the sea and from
the grave, press together at the foot of the great white Throne, and the
books of doom are opened; when above shines the city whose light is the
glory of God, and below yawns the lake of fire,--what voice shall plead
for Philip Sheldon, what entreating cry shall Pity send forth that
sentence against him may be stayed?
Surely none; unless it issue from the lips of that one confiding friend,
whose last words upon earth thanked and blessed him, and whose long
agonies he watched with unshaken purpose, conscious that in every
convulsive change in the familiar face, and every pang that shook the
stalwart form, he saw the result of his own work.
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