The flash and that fall
enlightened me. I had just witnessed the suicide of the last Moore
saving myself; a suicide for which I was totally unprepared and one
which I do not yet understand.
"I did not go over to her. She was as dead when she fell as she
ever would be. In the flash which lit everything, I had seen where
her pistol was pointed. Why disturb her then? Nor did I return
upstairs. I had small interest now in anything but my own escape
from a situation more or less compromising.
Do you blame me for this? I was her heir and I was where I had no
legal right to be. Do you think that I was called upon to publish
my shame and tell how I lingered there while my own niece shot
herself before my eyes? That shot made me a millionaire. This
certainly was excitement enough for one day - besides, I did not
leave her there neglected. I notified you later - after I had got
my breath and had found some excuse. That wasn't enough? Ah, I
see that you are all models of courage and magnanimity. You would
have laid yourselves open to every reproach rather than let a
little necessary perjury pass your lips. But I am no model. I
am simply an old man who has been too hardly dealt with for seventy
long years to possess every virtue. I made a mistake - I see it
now - trusted a dog when I shouldn't - but if Rudge had not seen
ghosts - well, what now?"
We had, one and all, with an involuntary impulse, turned our backs
upon him.
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