Mr. Gillingham.

"But what am I saying? Did I deceive you at all? You have found out the
secret--that Robert was Mark--and that is all that matters. How have
you found out? I shall never know now. Where did I go wrong? Perhaps you
have been deceiving me all the time. Perhaps you knew about the keys,
about the window, even about the secret passage. You are a clever man,
Mr. Gillingham.

"I had Mark's clothes on my hands. I might have left them in the
passage, but the secret of the passage was now out. Miss Norris knew
it. That was the weak point of my plan, perhaps, that Miss Norris had
to know it. So I hid them in the pond, the Inspector having obligingly
dragged it for me first. A couple of keys joined them, but I kept the
revolver. Fortunate, wasn't it, Mr. Gillingham?

"I don't think that there is any more to tell you. This is a long
letter, but then it is the last which I shall write. There was a time
when I hoped that there might be a happy future for me, not at the Red
House, not alone. Perhaps it was never more than an idle day-dream,
for I am no more worthy of her than Mark was. But I could have made her
happy, Mr. Gillingham. God, how I would have worked to make her happy!
But now that is impossible. To offer her the hand of a murderer would be
as bad as to offer her the hand of a drunkard. And Mark died for that.
I saw her this morning. She was very sweet. It is a difficult world to
understand.

"Well, well, we are all gone now--the Abletts and the Cayleys. I wonder
what old Grandfather Cayley thinks of it all. Perhaps it is as well that
we have died out. Not that there was anything wrong with Sarah--except
her temper. And she had the Ablett nose--you can't do much with that.
I'm glad she left no children.

"Good-bye, Mr. Gillingham. I'm sorry that your stay with us was not of
a pleasanter nature, but you understand the difficulties in which I was
placed. Don't let Bill think too badly of me. He is a good fellow; look
after him. He will be surprised. The young are always surprised. And
thank you for letting me end my own way. I expect you did sympathize a
little, you know. We might have been friends in another world--you and
I, and I and she. Tell her what you like. Everything or nothing. You
will know what is best. Good-bye, Mr. Gillingham.

"MATTHEW CAYLEY.

"I am lonely to-night without Mark. That's funny, isn't it?"

CHAPTER XXII. Mr. Beverley Moves On

"Good Lord!" said Bill, as he put