"Then you think that it is all a hallucination on his part? That he has brooded over the affair till at length he has come to believe that he himself is the criminal?" "There can be no doubt that such is the case." "What a weight you have lifted off my heart!" "I have noticed that he has been somewhat strange in his manner of late. More than once he has said things to me which I utterly failed to comprehend. Now, however, everything is explained." "Poor Rodd! Poor fellow! But I am forgetting. There is a letter from him for you which was brought here by a special messenger two or three hours ago." "So!" Mrs. Drelincourt rose from her chair, and crossing to the table, found the letter and handed it to her husband. "Most likely this will throw some further light on Roden's incomprehensible proceeding," she said. "I presume you will at once drive into Sunbridge and take whatever steps may be necessary in order to effect his release." "That is what I purpose doing--almost immediately. I shall lose no time in carrying out my intention in that regard. It must be done! In my hands rests the question of his freedom or execution, and there is but one course for me to pursue, that the gates of his prison may be opened, and Rodd again enjoy the liberty which is his by right--human and divine." "Then, for the present, I will leave you. But I shall see you again before you go?" "Undoubtedly." "Poor Roden! Most sincerely do I hope that you will be able to bring him back with you." "I hope so too. In any case, you need not fear but we shall soon have him released from durance vile." He opened the door for her, and as she was passing out, he stooped and touched her hair with his lips. She smiled up at him, and her lips softly breathed the word "Dearest!" Could she have seen the change which came over his face the moment the door was shut behind her, she would have been startled, indeed. The transformation was marvelous. The real man was alone with himself. "Poor Roden, indeed!" he murmured. "But what about poor Felix? And alas!--and alas! What about poor Madeline?" He was standing in the middle of the floor, turning over the letter absently between his fingers. "How little she dreams of the awful knowledge which a few short hours must inevitably bring her? For there must be no more delay. This mad act of Rodd's has served to bring matters to a climax a little sooner than I intended. Today is Thursday, and Saturday was the day I had fixed on in my mind as the one on which my long hidden secret should be laid bare to the world. But now that the end is so near, it matters not whether the revelation be made today or a few hours hence. Yes, after twenty years--the end!--just as the past with its dread secret was beginning to assume the vagueness of a half forgotten dream, and life was becoming sweeter to me than ever it had been before. If, perchance, I see tomorrow's sunrise, it will scarcely be from the windows of Fairlawn!"