ose within me. This infallibility, this legal arrogance,
aroused my blood. "That man should have a lesson!" I said to myself.

But I had forgotten it all--all my anger, all my hatred and bitterness,
when I met you. I dare not trust myself to think of you too much, now
that everything is arranged for the one last step. It takes all my
control to keep my decision unwavering while I sit here and tell you how
much your love, your great tenderness, your sweet trust in me, meant to
me.

Let me talk rather of Albert Graumann. I will forgive him for believing
in my guilt, but I cannot forgive him that he, the man of cultivation
and mental grasp, could not believe it possible for a convicted thief
to have repented and to have lived an honest life after the atonement of
his crime. I still cannot believe that this was Graumann's opinion. I
am forced to think that it was an excuse only on his part, an excuse to
keep us apart, an excuse to keep you for himself.

You are lost to me now. There is nothing more in life for me. If the
injustice of mankind has stained my honour beyond repair, has robbed me
of every chance of happiness at any time and in any place, then I die
easily, beloved, for there is little charm in such a life as would be
mine after this.

But I do not wish to die quite in vain. There are two men who have
touched my life, who need the lesson my death can teach them. These men
are Albert Graumann and the prosecuting attorney Gustav Schmidt, the man
who once condemned me so cruelly. His present position would make
him the representative of the state in a murder trial, and I know his
opinions too well not to foresee that he would declare Graumann guilty
because of the circumstantial evidence which will be against him. My
letter, given to the Presiding Judge after the Attorney has made his
speech, will cause him humiliation, will ruin his brilliant arguments
and cast ridicule upon him.

Do not think me hard or revengeful. I do not hate anyone now that death
is so near. But is it inhuman that I should want to teach these two men
a lesson? a lesson which they need, believe me, and it is such a slight
compensation for the torture these last eight years have been to me!

And now I will explain in detail all the circumstances. I have arranged
that Albert Graumann shall come to me on the evening of September 23rd
between 7 and 8 o'clock. I asked him to do so by letter, asking him
also to keep the fact of his visit to me