e.

"Yes," said Major Lane, more kindly, "I ought perhaps to tell you,
Carden, that within an hour of my being shown these letters I had Mrs.
Garvice's house once more searched, and nothing was found connecting
you with the woman, excepting, I am sorry to say, this";--and he held
out an envelope on which was written in Theodore Carden's clear
handwriting the young man's name and business address. "Now I should
like you to tell me, if you don't mind doing so, where, when, and how
this name and address came to be written?"

"Yes, I will certainly tell you." Carden spoke collectedly; he was
beginning to realise the practical outcome of the conversation. "I
wrote that address about the middle of last October, in London, at
Mansell's Hotel in Pall Mall East."

"The poor fellow's going to make a clean breast of it at last"; so
thought Major Lane with a strange feeling of relief, for on the flap
of the envelope, which he had kept carefully turned down, was stamped
"Mansell's Hotel."

It was in a considerate, almost kindly tone, that the Head Constable
next spoke. "And now, Carden, I beg you, for your own sake, to tell
me the truth. Perhaps I ought to inform you, before you say anything,
that, according to our theory, Mrs. Garvice was certainly assisted in
procuring the drug with which, I firmly believe, she slowly
poisoned her husband. As yet we have no clue as to the person who
helped her, but we have ascertained that for the last two months, in
fact from about the date of the first letter addressed to you, a man
did purchase minute quantities of this drug at Birmingham, at
Wolverhampton, and at Walsall. Now, mind you, I do not, I never have,
suspected you of having any hand in that, but I fear you'll have to
face the ordeal of being confronted with the various chemists, of
whom two declare most positively that they can identify the man who
brought them the prescription which obtained him the drug in
question."

While Major Lane was speaking, Theodore Carden had to a certain extent
regained his self-possession; here, at least, he stood on firm ground.
"Of course, I am prepared to face anything of the kind that may be
necessary." He added almost inaudibly; "I have brought it on myself."
Then he turned, his whole voice altering and softening: "Father,
perhaps you would not mind my asking Major Lane to go into the library
with me? I should prefer to see him alone."

II

"_And the wild regrets, and the bloody sweats