The First and the Last by John Galsworthy
page 43 of 44 (97%)
page 43 of 44 (97%)
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it and reads:]
"I, Lawrence Darrant, about to die by my own hand confess that I----" [He reads on silently, in horror; finishes, letting the paper drop, and recoils from the couch on to a chair at the dishevelled supper table. Aghast, he sits there. Suddenly he mutters:] If I leave that there--my name--my whole future! [He springs up, takes up the paper again, and again reads.] My God! It's ruin! [He makes as if to tear it across, stops, and looks down at those two; covers his eyes with his hand; drops the paper and rushes to the door. But he stops there and comes back, magnetised, as it were, by that paper. He takes it up once more and thrusts it into his pocket.] [The footsteps of a Policeman pass, slow and regular, outside. His face crisps and quivers; he stands listening till they die away. Then he snatches the paper from his pocket, and goes past the foot of the couch to the fore.] All my----No! Let him hang! [He thrusts the paper into the fire, stamps it down with his foot, watches it writhe and blacken. Then suddenly clutching |
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