who seemed scarcely able to put one foot before another what is the matter i exclaimed taking madame de him by the arm what has happened � for i saw by his ghastly face that some catastrophe must have occurred what has happened he repeated in a strange thick voice haven t you heard � no of course you haven t she is dead that s all � yes dead i don t know whether you can believe it or not can t though there isn t a doubt about its being true to the best of my recollection i did not believe it i thought the lad must have been drinking or that he was the victim of some he was at all events incapable of expressing himself it was only after i had got him into an arm chair and had made him swallow a couple of glasses of wine that he recovered the use of his tongue and even then he remained so painfully agitated that i had difficulty in understanding what he said i gathered however that he had on the previous evening written such a letter to the romance of madame de as he had intimated his intention of writing i received her answer he said an hour � or perhaps it was two hours ago here it is read it and you will you will see his voice broke and it was some seconds before he could resume of course i rushed at once to her house there was a great there i didn t understand what it was about but they tried to keep me back and i forced my way in all the doors were open the servants were in her bedroom sobbing and chattering i think there was a policeman there too i saw her lying on the bed dead and cold she had been ill and had taken an over dose of they said i think i had better kill myself too for you will see by her letter that she was innocent and that i murdered her i him as best i could but naturally he were open ihe d i these a madame de i myself was somewhat overcome and even if i had had all my wits about me i don t know that i could have said very much to comfort him presently he sank back in his chair and to me to read the letter which he had placed in my hand i need not quote the whole of it indeed i am not sure that had he been calmer he would have cared to let me see the opening sentences which conveyed an assurance of such passionate love as i should scarcely have supposed madame de capable of and which even at that sad moment i could not help wondering at his having had the power to arouse but notwithstanding this � or possibly on account of it � the writer without a murmur in the sentence which had been pronounced against her acknowledging that it was inevitable and only that she had ever imagined that it might be averted the romance of still she added now that all is over between us and since you cannot i think suspect me of any wish to bring you back to ine i should like you to know that the truth is not quite so bad as you have been led to believe the prince paid me great attentions and my vanity was flattered by them i liked him very much though i did not love him i was scarcely more than a child i knew nothing of the world and when he used to talk about a marriage i saw no ft impossibility in such an arrangement indeed so far as i had any voice in the matter i had consented to this when all of a sudden i was told that he had gone away that i should never see him again that he had even been placed under a sort of arrest and � that i was to marry m de of course i was very unhappy but i had always been completely under the control of my mother who told me this was not a case for argument that madame de she had done the very best she could for me and that i must bow to necessity it was not until after my marriage that i learnt from my husband by what infamous means the transaction which handed me over to him had been brought about i don t speak of my s share in it she was ambitious in her eagerness to make what she considered a magnificent alliance for me she probably committed herself to false statements which may afterwards have been used against her and from which she could find no honourable way of escape at any rate my husband s revelation came far too late to save or serve me if i had proclaimed my true story from the house tops not one person in a thousand would have believed it but t i hope will believe it and forgive the wrong i was so nearly doing you as i have forgiven those who have ruined my life there was a good deal more but i could the romance of only glance at the remainder of the letter for young had started up from his attitude and his cold trembling fingers were laid upon my wrist well said he impatiently speak out � don t be afraid of me do you think she did it i was astonished at the question why i exclaimed you yourself told me just now that you were persuaded of her innocence and i must confess no no he interrupted you don t understand me as if i would let you dare to cast a doubt upon her innocence what i mean is do you � do you think she killed herself 