d who knew that A. J. Raffles,
the great cricketer, and the so-called 'amateur cracksman' of
equal notoriety, were one and the same person.

"He had told me his secret, thrown himself on my mercy, and
put his liberty if not his life in my hands, but all for your
sake, Harry, to right you in my eyes at his own expense. And
yesterday I could see that you knew nothing whatever about
it, that your friend had died without telling you of his act
of real and yet vain self-sacrifice! Harry, I can only say
that now I understand your friendship, and the dreadful
lengths to which it carried you. How many in your place would
not have gone as far for such a friend? Since that night, at
any rate, I for one have understood. It has grieved me more
than I can tell you, Harry, but I have always understood.

"He spoke to me quite simply and frankly of his life. It was
wonderful to me then that he should speak of it as he did,
and still more wonderful that I should sit and listen to him
as I did. But I have often thought about it since, and have
long ceased to wonder at myself. There was an absolute
magnetism about Mr. Raffles which neither you nor I could
resist. He had the strength of personality which is a
different thing from strength of character; but when you meet
both kinds together, they carry the ordinary mortal off his
or her feet. You must not imagine you are the only one who
would have served and followed him as you did. When he told
me it was all a game to him, and the one game he knew that
was always exciting, always full of danger and of drama, I
could just then have found it in my heart to try the game
myself! Not that he treated me to any ingenious sophistries
or paradoxical perversities. It was just his natural charm
and humor, and a touch of sadness with it all, that appealed
to something deeper than one's reason and one's sense of
right. Glamour, I suppose, is the word. Yet there was far
more in him than that. There were depths, which called to
depths; and you will not misunderstand me when I say I think
it touched him that a woman should listen to him as I did,
and in such circumstances. I know that it touched me to think
of such a life so spent, and that I came to myself and
implored him to give it all up. I don't think I went on my
knees over it. But I am afra