"My dear Gerald, why do you say that you hate it? You are not going to do anything to which anybody could take exception!" "No, but I am going to trick her with a put-up job. If she ever found that out she would dislike it. I have seen so much of her lately, and her sincerity and simplicity are almost terrible." Virgie's mother smiled rather superciliously. "Yet she can keep her own counsel," she remarked incisively. "I have done all that I knew to secure her confidence, and never one word has she let slip. But for the fact that she never mentions him and will not let me see letters from him, I should hardly suspect----" "You are sure?" He turned from the window with intent expression. "Remember, I am going almost entirely upon what you tell me----" "Gerald, it seemed to me that I must have some certainty, and I did a thing which you will probably condemn. I looked at a letter from him to her, which was accidentally left accessible. I made a copy of it to show you. This is it, word for word. There was no more." He grew scarlet. The pretty woman was approaching him with the bit of paper. Was it taking an unfair advantage of Virgie to steal a march upon her loyalty thus? He told himself that the end justified the means. He was too deep in love now. He could not draw back. He took the paper and read: Omberleigh. Tuesday. _Yours of 5th duly recd. Glad journey satisfactorily accomplished. Rooms seem reasonable. Suppose Mrs. M. will go back to Wayhurst in a few days, leaving child in charge of nurse. Trust you have done as I ordered you with regard to m.c. This is important.--O. G._" "That is all--absolutely all--that was written on the sheet of paper," murmured Mrs. Mynors, watching him read. "What is m.c., do you know?" "Have no idea. A nice letter for a man to write to his few weeks' bride, is it not?" "It shows them to be on very peculiar terms," he admitted, with knit brows. "Yes, you must be right. The man is a bit cracked. Was there no beginning to the letter?" "Nothing." "Yet you think there is no chance of our being able to get him certified as of unsound mind?" "Not the least; because he is very sane, except on this point. Have you asked Mr. Ferris what he thinks of him?" "Ferris thinks him most able. Says he is the best magistrate in the district. They all down there seem to suppose that he is quite devoted to his wife. They laugh at him as an old bachelor hopelessly in love." "That letter is the letter of a man in love, is it not?"