o everything--to myself--I must give them
all up--I must give myself up."

"Oh, it isn't as bad as that, surely?"

Alicia shook her head sadly.

"Yes," she said; "I've reckoned it all up. It's a total loss. Nothing
will be saved--husband, home, position, good name--all will go. You'll
see. I shall be torn into little bits of shreds. They won't leave
anything unsaid. But it's not that I care for so much. It's the
injustice of it all. The injustice of the power of evil. This man
Underwood never did a good action in all his life. And now even after he
is dead he has the power to go on destroying--destroying--destroying!"

"That's true," said Annie; "he was no good."

The banker's wife drew from her bosom the letter Underwood wrote her
before he killed himself.

"When he sent me this letter," she went on, "I tried to think myself
into his condition of mind, so that I could decide whether he intended
to keep his word and kill himself or not. I tried to reason out just how
he felt and how he thought. Now I know. It's hopeless, dull, sodden
desperation. I haven't even the ambition to defend myself from Mr.
Jeffries."

Annie shrugged her shoulders.

"I wouldn't lose any sleep on his account," she said with a laugh. More
seriously she added: "Surely he won't believe----"

"He may not believe anything himself," said Alicia. "It's what other
people are thinking that will make him suffer. If the circumstances were
only a little less disgraceful--a suicide's last letter to the woman he
loved. They'll say I drove him to it. They won't think of his miserable,
dishonest career. They'll only think of my share in his death----"

Annie shook her head sympathetically.

"Yes," she said; "it's tough! The worst of it is they are going to
arrest you."

Alicia turned ashen pale.

"Arrest me!" she cried.

"That's what Captain Clinton says," replied the other gravely. "He was
here--he is here now--with two men, waiting for you." Apologetically she
went on: "It wasn't my fault, Mrs. Jeffries--I didn't mean to. What
could I do? When I told Judge Brewster, he sent for Captain Clinton. The
police are afraid you'll run away or something----"

"And my husband!" gasped Alicia; "he doesn't know, does he?"

"No, I didn't tell them. I said you'd tell them yourself, but they won't
trust you when they know who you are. Let's tell the judge--he may think
of a plan. Suppose you go away until----" Puzzled herself to find a way
out of the di