ng?--rather
the reverse, indeed.

'"You yourself state my own mind--that the only grounds upon which we
can meet and live together, with a reasonable hope of happiness, must
be a mutual consent to bury in oblivion all past differences. I heartily
and willingly forget everything--and forgive everything. You will do the
same, as your actions show.

'"There will be plenty of opportunity for me to explain the few facts
relating to my escape on the night of the fire. I will only give the
heads in this hurried note. I was grieved at your not coming to fetch
me, more grieved at your absence from the station, most of all by your
absence from home. On my journey to the inn I writhed under a passionate
sense of wrong done me. When I had been shown to my room I waited and
hoped for you till the landlord had gone upstairs to bed. I still found
that you did not come, and then I finally made up my mind to leave. I
had half undressed, but I put on my things again, forgetting my watch
(and I suppose dropping my keys, though I am not sure where) in my
hurry, and slipped out of the house. The--"'

'Well, that's a rum story,' said Mr. Dickson, interrupting.

'What's a rum story?' said Manston hastily, and flushing in the face.

'Forgetting her watch and dropping her keys in her hurry.'

'I don't see anything particularly wonderful in it. Any woman might do
such a thing.'

'Any woman might if escaping from fire or shipwreck, or any such
immediate danger. But it seems incomprehensible to me that any woman
in her senses, who quietly decides to leave a house, should be so
forgetful.'

'All that is required to reconcile your seeming with her facts is to
assume that she was not in her senses, for that's what she did plainly,
or how could the things have been found there? Besides, she's truthful
enough.' He spoke eagerly and peremptorily.

'Yes, yes, I know that. I merely meant that it seemed rather odd.'

'O yes.' Manston read on:--

'"--and slipped out of the house. The rubbish-heap was burning up
brightly, but the thought that the house was in danger did not strike
me; I did not consider that it might be thatched.

'"I idled in the lane behind the wood till the last down-train had come
in, not being in a mood to face strangers. Whilst I was there the
fire broke out, and this perplexed me still more. However, I was still
determined not to stay in the place. I went to the railway-station,
which was now quiet, and inquired of