It was the first time she had ever seen her name in his handwriting, and she gazed at it with a strange, stifled feeling in her breast.... A letter to her from Evan Pell, left in this place where she must find it! She lifted it and held it in her fingers.... Why had he written? Why left his message in this place? She drew a sudden breath of fright. Could it be he had deserted her? Could it be he had found his position unbearable and, ashamed to face her, had taken this means of telling her?... She was overmastered by foreboding, feared to open the letter. “I must open it,” she said to herself. “I must.” She compelled her fingers to tear the flap and to withdraw the letter--even to unfold it so that its contents were visible. Her eyes saw Evan’s neat, flawless handwriting, but her mind seemed suddenly numb, unable to make sense of the symbols set down upon the paper. She shook her head as if to clear it of something damp and heavy and obscuring, and forced herself to read. “MY DEAR:” (The letter began, and she read over and over those two intimate words)--“My dear: If you find this letter--if I have not returned to take it from the place in which I have hidden it for you, I am quite sure I shall not see you again. In view of this possibility I am presuming to say good-by.” Even now, she saw, something of his pedantic precision must creep in. It would not have crept in, she felt sure, had he not been under some strong emotion, had he not felt the necessity for concealing his emotion. “I have told you before,” the letter continued, “that I love you. I have not told you how I have come willingly, eagerly to love you. You, and you alone--the fact of your existence, your loveliness--have made what I fancy are notable changes in me. I even go so far as to imagine I might, with time and persistence, become the sort of man who would be entitled to your friendship, if nothing more. But, if this letter reaches your eyes, that is, I fear, no longer possible. I think I have done as I should, although I have practiced deception. When you remember I did this because I loved you, I trust you will find it in your heart to forgive me. “To-day there came a note to you which I intercepted. It purported to come from some disgruntled man, telling you how you could obtain evidence against these liquor smugglers by going to the Lakeside Hotel. I rather fancied it was not genuine, and was meant rather to induce your presence than to betray confederates. On the other hand, it might be authentic. I therefore urged you to make the journey upon which you have just been engaged, and, because it seemed right to do so, I am going to-night to test the authenticity of the letter.” She saw, she understood!