I have followed you from Heathfield to tell you
the good news. Mr. Hamilton, it is all found out; Miss Darrell stole that
cheque.'

I had blurted it out, fearing that he might start away from me even then:
he must know that his name was cleared, and then I could persuade him to
listen to me. I was right in my surmise, for as I said his name he put
his hand on the door, but my next words made him drop the handle.

'What?' he exclaimed, turning deadly pale, and I could see how his lips
quivered under his moustache. 'Say that again: I do not understand.'

'Mr. Hamilton,' I repeated slowly, 'you need not have rushed past your
poor brother in that way at Victoria, for he is breaking his heart, and
so is Gladys, with the longing to find you. Your name is cleared: they
only want to ask your forgiveness for all you have suffered. It was a
foul conspiracy of two women to save themselves by ruining you. Leah has
made full confession. Your cousin Etta took the cheque out of your
brother's desk.'

'Oh, my God!' he gasped, and, sitting down, he hid his face in his hands.
The little fox-terrier jumped on his knee and began licking his hands.
'Don't, Jenny: let me be,' he said, in a fretful, boyish voice that made
me smile. 'I must think, for my brain seems dizzy.'

I left him quiet for a few minutes, and Jenny, after this rebuke, curled
herself up at his feet and went to sleep. Then I took the chair beside
him, and asked him, very quietly, if he could listen to me. He was
frightfully pale, and his features were working, but he nodded assent and
held his head between his hands again, but I know he heard every word.

I told him as briefly as I could how Gladys had languished and pined all
these years, how she had clung to the notion of his innocence and would
not believe that he was dead. He started at that, and asked what I meant.
Had Giles really believed he was dead?

'He had reason to fear so,' I returned gravely; and I told him how his
watch and scarf had been found on the beach at Brighton, and how the
hotel-keeper had brought them to Mr. Hamilton.

He seemed shocked at this. 'I had been bathing,' he said, in rather an
ashamed voice: 'some boy must have stolen them, and then dropped his
booty for fear of the police. I missed them when I came out of the water,
and I hunted about for them a long time. As I was leaving the beach I saw
one of Giles's friends coming down towards me, and I got it into my head
that I was recogn