ison of what he has
accomplished with what I have accomplished has led to startling
conclusions. Unless Mr. Playmore and I are entirely wrong (and God
grant we may be so!), there is a serious necessity for your keeping the
reconstruction of the letter strictly secret from everybody about you.
The disclosures suggested by what has come to light are so heartrending
and so dreadful that I cannot bring myself to write about them until
I am absolutely obliged to do so. Please forgive me for disturbing you
with this news. We are bound, sooner or later, to consult with you in
the matter; and we think it right to prepare your mind for what may be
to come."

To this there was added a postscript in Mr. Playmore's handwriting:

"Pray observe strictly the caution which Mr. Benjamin impresses on
you. And bear this in mind, as a warning from _me:_ If we succeed in
reconstructing the entire letter, the last person living who ought (in
my opinion) to be allowed to see it is--your husband."

CHAPTER XLVI. THE CRISIS DEFERRED.

"TAKE care, Valeria!" said Mrs. Macallan. "I ask you no questions; I
only caution you for your own sake. Eustace has noticed what I have
noticed--Eustace has seen a change in you. Take care!"

So my mother-in-law spoke to me later in the day, when we happened to be
alone. I had done my best to conceal all traces of the effect produced
on me by the strange and terrible news from Gleninch. But who could read
what I had read, who could feel what I now felt, and still maintain
an undisturbed serenity of look and manner? If I had been the vilest
hypocrite living, I doubt even then if my face could have kept my secret
while my mind was full of Benjamin's letter.

Having spoken her word of caution, Mrs. Macallan made no further advance
to me. I dare say she was right. Still, it seemed hard to be left,
without a word of advice or of sympathy, to decide for myself what it
was my duty to my husband to do next.

To show him Benjamin's narrative, in his state of health, and in the
face of the warning addressed to me, was simply out of the question. At
the same time, it was equally impossible, after I had already betrayed
myself, to keep him entirely in the dark. I thought over it anxiously
in the night. When the morning came, I decided to appeal to my husband's
confidence in me.

I went straight to the point in these terms:

"Eustace, your mother said yesterday that you noticed a change in me
when I came back f