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“ It is too late , Basil . ” “ It is never too late , so let us kneel down and try to remember a prayer . Isn’t there a verse somewhere : ‘ Though your sins be as scarlet , yet I will make them as white as snow ’ ? ” “ Those words mean nothing to me now . ” Dorian looked at the picture , and suddenly a wild hatred for Basil Hallward came over him , as if the grinning lips on the canvas had whispered it in his ear . He looked wildly round the room , and on top of the old painted chest lay a knife that he had brought up a few days before to cut some string . He moved slowly towards it and passed behind Basil . Then he seized the knife and turned . As Basil began to rise from his chair , Dorian rushed at him and drove the knife into the great vein behind his ear . He pressed the man’s head down on the table and struck again and again . There was a terrible choking sound , and the man’s arms rose three times into the air . Then everything was still , and Dorian heard nothing but the drip , drip of blood on the old carpet . How quickly it had all been done ! He felt strangely calm as he opened the window and looked down at the square , where a policeman was walking past the silent houses with his lamp . Then he locked the room behind him and crept downstairs . He hid Basil’s bag and coat in a secret cupboard in the library . Nobody had seen the painter come back into the house , and everyone thought that he had gone to Paris . It would be months before anyone missed him . Then a clever idea came to him . He put on his fur coat , went quietly out into the street and rang his own bell . After about five minutes his servant opened the door , half asleep . “ I am sorry to wake you , Francis , but I had forgotten my key , ” said Dorian . “ What time is it ? ” “ Ten minutes past two , sir . Mr Hallward called this evening and waited until eleven , sir , and then he went to catch his train . ” “ Oh , I am sorry I missed him , but that will do , Francis . ” When the servant had gone back to bed , Dorian took a book of addresses from the shelf and turned the pages . “ Alan Campbell , 152 Hertford Street , Mayfair . ” Yes , that was the man he wanted . XII . Alan Campbell The next morning Dorian slept peacefully until nine , like a boy who was tired after a long day of play . Then slowly the events of the night came back into his mind . He wrote two letters and sent one of them with Francis to Alan Campbell . While he waited , he drew on a piece of paper , but every face that he drew looked like Basil Hallward .
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