convinced as to the utter ignorance of
them both in regard to the whole affair. In consequence, Mrs. Walworth
was guilty in his estimation, and being held guilty could be no wife for
him, much as he had loved her and urgent as may have been the causes for
her act.

"But," said I, in some horror of the consequences of an interference for
which I was almost ready to blame myself now, "Mrs. Couldock and Miss
Dawes could have done no more than deny all knowledge of this letter.
Now Mrs. Walworth does that, and----"

"You have seen her? You have asked her----"

"Yes, I have seen her and I have asked her, and not an eyelash drooped
as she affirmed a complete ignorance of the whole affair."

Taylor's head fell.

"I told you how that would be," he murmured at last. "I cannot feel that
it is any proof of her innocence. Or rather," he added, "I should always
have my doubts."

"And Mrs. Couldock and Miss Dawes?"

"Ah!" he cried, rising and turning away. "There is no question of
marriage between either of them and myself."

I was therefore not astonished when the week went by and no announcement
of his wedding appeared. But I was troubled and I am troubled still, for
if mistakes are made in criminal courts and the innocent sometimes
through the sheer force of circumstantial evidence are made to suffer
for the guilty, might it not be that in this letter question of morals,
Mrs. Walworth has been wronged, and that when I played the part of
arbitrator in her fate, I only succeeded in separating two hearts whose
right it was to be made happy? It is impossible to tell. Nor is time
likely to solve the riddle. Must I then forever blame myself, or did I
only do in this matter what any honest man would have done in my place?
Answer me, some one, for I do not find my lonely bachelor life in any
wise brightened by the doubt, and would be grateful to any one who would
relieve me of it.

THE END.

_Uniform with this Work._

Noughts and Crosses. By Q, Author of "Dead Man's Rock," &c.

Fourteen to One, and other Stories. By ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS.

Otto the Knight, and other Stories. By OCTAVE THANET.

Eleven Possible Cases. By FRANK STOCKTON, JOAQUIN MILLER, Q, and others.

A Singer's Wife. By FANNY N. D. MURFREE.

The Poet's Audience, and Delilah. By CLARE SAVILE CLARKE.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Eleven Possible Cases, by
Frank R. Stockton and Franklin Fyles and Joaquin Miller and Maurice Thom