lieve his
eyes, he slowly read:

DEAREST:

A wild hope has come to me. Perhaps we don't know the truth of
this terrible story as it really is. Suppose we should be
condemning poor Uncle Duke without having the real facts? Sassoon
was a wretch, Henry, if ever one lived--a curse to every one. What
purpose he could serve by repeating this story, which he must have
kept very secret till now, I don't know; but there was some
reason. I _must_ know the whole truth--I feel that I, alone, can
get hold of it, and that you would approve what I am doing if you
were here with me in this little room, where I am writing at
daybreak, to show you my heart.

Long before you get this I shall be speeding toward the Gap. I am
going to Uncle Duke to get from him the exact truth. Uncle Duke is
breaking--has broken--and now that the very worst has come, and we
must face it, he will tell me what I ask. Whether I can get him to
repeat this to you, to come to you, to throw himself on your pity,
my dearest one, I don't know. But it is for this I am going to
try, and for this I beg of your love--the love of which I have
been so proud!--that you will let me stay with him until I at
least learn everything and can bring the whole story to you. If I
can bring him, I will.

And I shall be safe with him--perfectly safe. Gale has been driven
away. Pardaloe, I know I can trust, and he will be under the roof
with me. _Please, do not try to come to me._ It might ruin
everything. Only forgive me, and I shall be back with what I hope
for, or what I fear, very, very soon. Not till then can I bear to
look into your eyes. You have a better right than anyone in the
world to know the whole truth, cost what it may. Be patient for
only a little while with

NAN.

It was Jeffries who said, afterward, he hoped never again to be the
bearer of a letter such as that. Never until he had read and grasped
the contents of Nan's note had Jeffries seen the bundle of resource
and nerve and sinew, that men called Henry de Spain, go to pieces. For
once, trouble overbore him.

When he was able to speak he told Jeffries everything. "It is my
fault," he said hopelessly. "I was so crippled, so stunned, she must
have thought--I see it now--that I was making ready to ride out by
daybreak and shoot Duke down on sight. It's the price a man must pay,
Jeffries,