Heart of Darkness

No one, whether scholar or layman, has given a satisfactory account why the domino game with which Conrad's Heart of Darkness opens is not finished. Marlow comes in the end to Mrs Kurtz narrating to her her husband's death whose dying words were, "the horror! the horror!", but when she asks Marlow what her husband's last words were, Marlow lies to her by saying that her husband's last dying word was her name. Does this show Conrad's cynicism towards women that one's wife's name is synonymous of the word horror? Or does it show another cynicism towards women that tell women lies to make them happy and put them in a self-congratulatory mood?