t agree with him. His mistakes, if we may call them such, were not
those of failing faculties, but of a man made oversecure in his own
conclusions by a series of old successes. Had he listened to _me_--But I
will not pursue this suggestion. You will accuse me of egotism, an
imputation I cannot bear with equanimity and will not risk; modest
depreciation of myself being one of the chief attributes of my
character.[D]

Howard Van Burnam bore his release, as he had his arrest, with great
outward composure. Mr. Gryce's explanation of his motives in perjuring
himself before the Coroner was correct, and while the mass of people
wondered at that instinct of pride which led him to risk the imputation
of murder sooner than have the world accuse his wife of an unwomanly
action, there were others who understood his peculiarities, and thought
his conduct quite in keeping with what they knew of his warped and
over-sensitive nature.

That he has been greatly moved by the unmerited fate of his weak but
unfortunate wife, is evident from the sincerity with which he still
mourns her.

I had always understood that Franklin had never been told of the peril
in which his good name had stood for a few short hours. But since a
certain confidential conversation which took place between us one
evening, I have come to the conclusion that the police were not so
reticent as they made themselves out to be. In that conversation he
professed to thank me for certain good offices I had done him and his,
and waxing warm in his gratitude, confessed that without my interference
he would have found himself in a strait of no ordinary seriousness;
"For," said he, "there has been no over-statement of the feelings I
cherished toward my sister-in-law, nor was there any mistake made in
thinking that she uttered some very desperate threats against me during
the visit she paid me at my office on Monday. But I never thought of
ridding myself of her in any way. I only thought of keeping her and my
brother apart till I could escape the country. When therefore he came
into the office on Tuesday morning for the keys of our father's house, I
felt such a dread of the two meeting there, that I left immediately
after my brother for the place where she had told me she would await a
final message from me. I hoped to move her by one final plea, for I love
my brother sincerely, notwithstanding the wrong I once did him. I was
therefore with her in another place at the very tim