While Laura peered outside the door, he opened a cash-box and took therefrom a letter. This he laid open on the desk beside the letter given to him by Laura. When she returned, having ascertained that the coast was clear, he pointed to this last. "I never wrote that," he said firmly; "it is a forgery." "And the letter you received is one also," said Laura, staring at the document; "and oh, what a clumsy one! See--I do not separate my words like that. I often forget to dot my 'i's' and cross my 't's.' The signature is excellent--exactly like mine, but the rest of the letter is very bad--not at all a good imitation." "But you will observe," said Arnold, pointing again, "that you end 'yours in haste.' I thought the hurried writing was thereby accounted for. Although I never suspected but that the letter was yours, I certainly thought that the calligraphy was different to your usual neat handwriting." "I always write neatly," she replied, "and this letter is one I should have been ashamed to send out. But I use this colour and texture of paper," she sniffed it, "and the same kind of scent. I wonder how the person who forged this came to get my stationery. But, Arnold, your letter is written from the theatre--here is the printed name both on the envelope and inside sheet. How could I doubt but that the letter, was yours. It came to me by post at Mrs. Baldwin's." "And yours containing the latch-key came on the afternoon of the 24th July. It was delivered by messenger to Mrs. Varney, who brought it to me." "What do you mean by containing the latch-key?" "Let us examine the letter first. Then you will see!" The letter to Arnold at his lodgings, written on perfumed, lavender-tinted paper, contained a few hurried lines asking him to meet Laura at Ajax Villa on the night of the 24th July at half-past nine. "I may be a little late," the letter continued, "so I send you the latch-key, which I got from Walter who is at the seaside. You can let yourself in." The letter ended with an admonition not to fail to keep the appointment, and was signed with what appeared unmistakably to be Laura Mason's signature. "I never wrote a line of it," said Laura, very pale; "and I never sent the latch-key. Walter was at the seaside certainly, but he would not have given me the key out of fear of Julia. I stopped with the Baldwins and never went to the villa while Julia was away." "The letter to Laura at Mrs. Baldwin's, written on paper belonging to the Frivolity Theatre, likewise contained a few hurried lines saying that the writer would be with her as asked, at half-past nine on the night of the 24th of July, that he would obey instructions if he was early and admit her into the house if she rang the bell. It also stated that his understudy would play his part in _The Third Man_ so that the appointment could be kept. "I never wrote a line of that," said Arnold when Laura had finished reading the letter. "When did you get it?"