then concluded, on my instigation, that, after all, you had not
enclosed any note.

"At the first opportunity I transferred it to my pocket, made an excuse
to leave the room, and read it.

"Helen, believe me, had I known beforehand the news that note contained,
I don't think I could have been such a fiend.

"But once having done it, I carried it through. I allowed your husband
to go home in total ignorance of the birth of his son. It was I who put
the word 'astonishing' into his telegram; and, in my letter to you, I
led you to suppose I had heard the news from him.

"I don't know exactly what I expected to gain from all this. But, in a
condition of mad despair, I seemed playing my very last card; and I
played it for all it was worth--which apparently was not much!

"I did plenty of other devilish work that night--chiefly mental
suggestion. This is the only really confessable thing.

"The letter your husband never saw, is in the enclosed envelope. He will
like to have it now.

"Thus, as you see, the Word has not returned unto you void. It brings
you the only reparation I can make.

"AUBREY TREHERNE."

Helen tore open the sealed envelope, and found her little pencil note,
the tender outpouring to Ronnie, written three days after her baby's
birth.

So Ronnie never saw it--he never knew! He came home without having the
remotest idea that she had been through anything unusual in his absence.
He had heard no word or hint of the birth of his little son. Yet she had
called him utterly, preposterously, altogether, selfish, because he had
quite naturally expected her to be as interested as ever in his pursuits
and pleasures.

Oh, Ronnie, Ronnie!

* * * * *

She flew to his room, hoping he had not yet gone out.

On the table she found a note addressed to herself.

She tore it open, read it--- then went back into the sitting-room, and
pealed the bell.

"Send my maid to me at once, and the hall-porter."

They arrived together.

Helen had just written a long telegram to her housekeeper.

She spoke to the hall-porter first.

"Send off this telegram, please. Then procure the fastest motor-car you
can find, to run me over to Hollymead this afternoon. We can be ready to
start in half-an-hour's time."

Then she turned to her maid.

"Jeffreys, we go home for Christmas after all. Mr. West has gone on by
train. We must pack as promptly as possible,