Shall I tell you what I am going
to do, Reginald? You, who were once so fond and passionate a lover--
you, whom I have seen kneeling at my feet, humbly born and penniless
though I was--it is only right that you should know the fate of your
abandoned mistress. When I have finished this letter it will be dark--
the shadows are closing in already, and I can scarcely see to write. I
shall creep quietly from the house, and shall make my way over to that
river which I have crossed so often, seated by your side in a carriage.
Once on the bridge, under cover of the blessed darkness, all my
troubles will be ended; you will be burdened with me no longer, and I
shall not cost you even the ten-pound note which you so generously left
for me, and which I shall enclose in this letter. Forgive me if there
is some bitterness in my heart. I try to forgive you--I do forgive you!
May a merciful heaven pardon my sins, as I pardon your desertion of
me_! M.G.'"
There was a pause after the reading of the letter--a silence which Mr.
Eversleigh did not attempt to break. "The second letter I need
scarcely read to you," said the baronet; "it is from a young man whom
you were pleased to patronize some twelve months back--a young man in a
banking office, aspiring and ambitious, whose chief weakness was the
desire to penetrate the mystic circle of fashionable society.
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