Nevertheless, I am satisfied that it is as it is. I am an
old man, as deeds as well as years go, and I have caused,
no doubt, more than my share of earth's worries. But,
in this evening that you have granted me, the last that
I shall know, I shall make what restitution I can at
this late day for my greatest error, the culmination of
all my folly, for which God alone knows the price I
have paid.
There will be a note addressed to you, Mr. Bliss,
waiting for you on this desk where I am writing, when
you come to see me in the morning. It is a " confes-
sion,'* the worth of which you may appreciate when you
have read it. This note and a true statement of my case
I shall hand to your agent across the hall, to be given
to you when I am past the power of doing so. It is a
bit of biography — a statement of conditions that no



^'THE WAGES OF SIN'' 339

one now on earth ever knew to exist, and I beg ybn to
destroy it as soon as you have read it.
I do not seek commiseration — I who must lie in a
murderer^s grave — but I think that even he who has
reason never to forgive may think less harshly of me
when he knows all.
