"Yes, it is even so. Things that I have been able to cover up during his absence can be hidden no longer when he returns. I cannot, I dare not face that which would inevitably follow. What a terribly bitter confession is this to make to you, my eldest son! "What then, is to be done? How escape a disgrace which seems inevitable? There is only one mode of escaping from it--by suicide--and that is the mode I have determined to adopt. It is my last and only resource. "You are aware that, many years ago, I insured my life for twelve thousand pounds. This sum, together with a thousand pounds standing to my credit at the Bank (for I have always contrived to maintain a balance there in order to avoid suspicion), will be nearly all that your mother and sister will have to depend upon after I am gone; should it, however, be discovered that I have committed suicide, the policy will be forfeited and they will be left little better off than paupers. For this reason, therefore, if for no other, my death must not seem to be the act of my own hand. "But there is another reason, almost as imperative, why the world must not be allowed to believe that I have put an end to my existence. It must never become known that I dare not face Mr. Avison, and my employer himself must never learn how his most trusted servant has betrayed the confidence reposed in him. The shame, disgrace, and misery in which such knowledge would involve those I leave behind me must be avoided at every risk. There is only one way by which such consequences can be averted, and that is by making my death seem to have resulted, not from my own act, but from the act of another. In brief, the world must be led to believe, not that I have committed suicide, but that I have been murdered! "You will naturally ask how is such an end to be accomplished? for in such a case nothing must be left to chance--every step in the affair, every contingency that might arise out of it, must be thought of and arranged for beforehand. I will tell you what I purpose doing--what, in fact, will actually have been done, to secure the object I have in view, before to-morrow's sunrise. "In the first place, I have paid off to the uttermost farthing all my losses on the Stock Exchange; and as I have always speculated under an assumed name, there is no risk of its ever becoming known that the respected manager of the Ashdown Bank was the desperate gambler he has been in reality.