alf of the sum so kindly advanced in anticipation of the
commission I should receive; the other half, with which I had cleared
off my immediate embarrassments before perceiving the necessity for this
course, shall be returned to you as soon as some payments from other
clients drop in.--I beg to remain, Madam, your obedient servant, JAMES
HAVILL.'

Havill would not trust himself till the morning to post this letter. He
sealed it up, went out with it into the street, and walked through the
sleeping town to the post-office. At the mouth of the box he held the
letter long. By dropping it, he was dropping at least two thousand five
hundred pounds which, however obtained, were now securely his. It was a
great deal to let go; and there he stood till another wave of conscience
bore in upon his soul the absolute nature of the theft, and made him
shudder. The footsteps of a solitary policeman could be heard nearing
him along the deserted street; hesitation ended, and he let the letter
go.

When he awoke in the morning he thought over the circumstances by the
cheerful light of a low eastern sun. The horrors of the situation seemed
much less formidable; yet it cannot be said that he actually regretted
his act. Later on he walked out, with the strange sense of being a man
who, from one having a large professional undertaking in hand, had, by
his own act, suddenly reduced himself to an unoccupied nondescript. From
the upper end of the town he saw in the distance the grand grey towers
of Stancy Castle looming over the leafless trees; he felt stupefied at
what he had done, and said to himself with bitter discontent: 'Well,
well, what is more contemptible than a half-hearted rogue!'

That morning the post-bag had been brought to Paula and Mrs. Goodman
in the usual way, and Miss Power read the letter. His resignation was a
surprise; the question whether he would or would not repay the money
was passed over; the necessity of installing Somerset after all as sole
architect was an agitation, or emotion, the precise nature of which it
is impossible to accurately define.

However, she went about the house after breakfast with very much the
manner of one who had had a weight removed either from her heart or from
her conscience; moreover, her face was a little flushed when, in passing
by Somerset's late studio, she saw the plans bearing his motto, and knew
that his and not Havill's would be the presiding presence in the coming
architectural