club mr deliberately wrote down the address well remember that in affairs of this kind moments are worth their weight in gold if i may use that expression and i will trust you not to leave your club too long so that any information may reach me as soon as possible good morning good when got back to his club he found a awaiting him from william at park it ran as follows no wire received several letters forwarded to army and navy club by that time it was approaching the and having put the into an envelope sent it off by special messenger to mr in court then he ordered his luncheon and set himself to await the arrival of the country post evidently william must have sent the letters to be posted in at the same time as the had been returned from park for between four and five o clock he turned into the club again and found that some letters had just arrived there were half a dozen or so of looking and one in a square plain envelope which he seized with a great throb at his heart for the handwriting upon it was s in order to read the letters better he had turned into the smoking room and he sank into the first easy chair that he saw then he took out a closely written sheet and began to read it began my dear a circumstance which in itself was sufficient to make him catch his breath and sit up straight in the great lounging chair as if he had come face to face with a situation of great gravity and danger my dear it said � i feel that an apology is due to you for having left park without telling you what my plans were for the future for letting you think that i intended to return to hollow cottage and wait there till you should join me my dear for you and me there the price of a wife can be no future no meeting no an but separation and if possible forgetfulness i tried so hard to tell you all that was in my mind before i left your father s house you would not understand me although my meaning must have been as clear to you as it was to me why why did you pretend when i told you that i could never be happy again that you did not know what i meant when you came to park taking advantage of my absence as you did you as surely killed your father as if you had given him poison or struck him his death blow when you blew the light out and thrust me on one side did you tor one moment believe that i did not recognize you surely that is incredible you put out the light of my life when you put out that candle when you thrust me on one side you thrust me out of your heart forever i will not reproach you for i know that you had my welfare at heart as much as your own but you must see how impossible it is for us to think of living together with such a secret between us so i am going away right out of your life where you will never see or hear of me again pray do not i look for me or in any way try to me back i could never never come i saved you by putting the keys back again but it is the last service that i shall ever render you my heart is full to breaking my head on fire my eyes burning as though they would never never close again oh why why did you do this hideous thing no money was worth it i thought you cared for me for myself i find that you can care for me second to your father s money if ever a heart was broken you have broken mine and not only my heart but my joy of life my faith all that went to make the sum of my earthly happiness i am going to a life of hard work of ceaseless toil of utter and entire self i shall try in the hard path of duty to forget the dream that i once had of happiness that was too beautiful for this cruel and world i have loved you heart and soul surely i have no need to prove it to you by the memory of that love i entreat you to let me pass out of your life now as if i had never been knowing what we do know we could never never be happy so that our only chance of finding happiness is to put o the price of a wife land and sea between us so that we may never meet again i feel this is the only way by which one or both of us may find happiness or if not happiness the peace of oblivion oh why did you do it why did you do it i would have borne so much for you � poverty obscurity � everything except your wife chapter xix reflection when came to the end of the letter signed your wife the whole truth lay as clearly planned out before him as a printed page so this was the meaning of it all this was why she had declared that she could never be happy again this was the cause of her distress and of her wan looks it was characteristic of that he was not in the least annoyed or angry the first instinct of some men would have been one of pain or anger that a wife could so mistake the nobility of her husband s character not so to him the situation was absolutely natural and one of his first thoughts was that her attitude was perfectly the 