-and then I should be all the more
contemptible in your eyes.

"It won't be long now before morning. Then I will saddle my horse, ride
back to town, pack my trunks, and take good care that this letter does
not come into your hands until there is no longer any danger that your
magnanimity or your pity will attempt to restrain a man who can only
recover his self-respect in exile.

"Farewell!--I do not dare to call you by the old familiar name. But
since, from what I know of you, you will not cease, in spite of all
that has happened, to cherish a warm feeling toward me, let me say, in
conclusion, that you must not think of me as a despairing man who is
ready to throw away his ruined life too cheaply. The sweets of life
are, indeed, behind me; but much that is useful still lies open for me
to do, so that I may atone to all mankind for the old crime I committed
against an individual. Perhaps I may some time find out why it is that
fate should have chosen me, from all the rest, to be punished with
double measure for my sins. Felix."

CHAPTER XV.

Julie had long ago finished reading the letter, and still she stood
motionless at the window, while Jansen, his head sunk on his breast,
sat on the sofa in a state between waking and sleeping.

It was not until the sheets slipped from her hand and fell at his feet
that he started from his stupor. But he did not pick them up.

"What does he write?" He asked in a hollow voice.

"Just what you thought he would," she answered. "You will hardly find
anything new in the letter, or at all events, anything that can alter
things. So you had better read it at some calmer hour, after you have
had a good sleep. In spite of all, I feel sure the letter will do you
good. It would have been impossible to write of an unworthy subject in
a more dignified way, and I, at least, have no worse opinion of our
friend since I have heard his sad story. I believe everything will yet
go well, and we needn't even lose our friend. He speaks, to be sure, of
his self-imposed exile, and has also written a farewell letter to
Irene, because he is of too chivalrous a nature to allow himself a
happiness of which he thinks he has deprived us."

He raised his head and looked at her with a dazed, inquiring look in
his eyes.

"I don't understand a word!" he said.

She bent over him, clasped her arms round his neck, and kissed him on
the forehead.

"It i