"Now that you are here, I scarcely know why I wanted you, or--or how to tell you what it is," she said, speaking slowly. "I was full of the idea that nothing could be done without your advice and help--and yet, now you have come, it seems that there is nothing left for you to say or do." She paused for a moment, then added: "You know we are going back to Cairncross." I stared at her, aghast. The best thing I could say was, "Nonsense!" She smiled wearily. "So I might have known you would say. But it is the truth, none the less." "You must be crazy!" "No, Douw, only very, very wretched!" The poor girl's voice faltered as she spoke, and I thought I saw the glisten of tears in her eyes. She had borne so brave and calm a front through all her trouble, that this suggestion of a sob wrung my heart with the cruelty of a novel sorrow. I drew my chair nearer to her. "Tell me about it all, Daisy--if you can." Her answer was to impulsively take a letter from her pocket and hand it to me. She would have recalled it an instant later. "No--give it me back," she cried. "I forgot! There are things in it you should not see." But even as I held it out to her, she changed her mind once again. "No--read it," she said, sinking back in her chair; "it can make no difference--between _us_. You might as well know all!" The "all" could not well have been more hateful. I smoothed out the folded sheet over my knee, and read these words, written in a loose, bold character, with no date or designation of place, and with the signature scrawled grandly like the sign-manual of a duke, at least: "Madam:--It is my purpose to return to Cairncross forthwith, though you are not to publish it. "If I fail to find you there residing, as is your duty, upon my arrival, I shall be able to construe the reasons for your absence, and shall act accordingly. "I am fully informed of your behavior in quitting my house the instant my back was turned, and in consorting publicly with my enemies, and with ruffian foes to law and order generally. "All these rebels and knaves will shortly be shot or hanged, including without fail your Dutch gallant, who, I am told, now calls himself a major. His daily visits to you have all been faithfully reported to me. After his neck has been properly twisted, I may be in a better humor to listen to such excuses as you can offer in his regard, albeit I make no promise. "I despatch by this same express my commands to Rab, which will serve as your further instructions. "Philip." One clearly had a right to time for reflection, after having read such a letter as this. I turned the sheet over and over in my hands, re-reading lines here and there under pretence of study, and preserving silence, until finally she asked me what I thought of it all. Then I had perforce to speak my mind. "I think, if you wish to know," I said, deliberately, "that this husband of yours is the most odious brute God ever allowed to live!"