_Mrs. Wyatt_, glancing at the superscription.--"Oh, too well! This is to you, James." _General Wyatt._--"It's for you now. Read it." _Mrs. Wyatt_, wonderingly unfolding the paper and then reading.--"'_I confess myself guilty of forging Major Cummings's signature, and in consideration of his and your own forbearance, I promise never to see Miss Wyatt again. I shall always be grateful for your mercy; and_'--James, James! It isn't possible!" _Constance_, who has crept nearer and nearer while her mother has been reading, as if drawn by a resistless fascination.--"No, it isn't possible! It's false; it's a fraud! I _will_ see it." She swiftly possesses herself of the paper and scans the handwriting for a moment with a fierce intentness. Then she flings it wildly away. "Yes, yes, it's true! It's his hand. It's true, it's the only true thing in this world of lies!" She totters away toward the sofa. Bartlett makes a movement to support her, but she repulses him, and throws herself upon the cushions. _General Wyatt._--"Sir, I am sorry to make you the victim of a scene. It has been your fate, and no part of my intention. Will you look at this paper? You don't know all that is in it yet." He touches it with his foot. _Bartlett_, in dull dejection.--"No, I won't look at it. If it were a radiant message from heaven, I don't see how it could help me now." _Mrs. Wyatt._--"I'm afraid you've made a terrible mistake, James." _General Wyatt._--"Margaret! Don't say that!" _Mrs. Wyatt._--"Yes, it would have been better to show us this paper at once,--better than to keep us all these days in this terrible suffering." _General Wyatt._--"I was afraid of greater suffering for you both. I chose sorrow for Constance rather than the ignominy of knowing that she had set her heart on so base a scoundrel. When he crawled in the dust there before me, and whined for pity, I revolted from telling you or her how vile he was; the thought of it seemed to dishonour you; and I had hoped something, everything, from my girl's self-respect, her obedience, her faith in me. I never dreamed that it must come to this." _Mrs. Wyatt_, sadly shaking her head.--"I know how well you meant; but oh, it was a fatal mistake!"