ves me with her whole heart and soul, and never more
than now. I know it--I feel it. I don't want to argue about that. A man
can tell easily enough when a woman loves him. But there's this secret
between us, and we can never be the same until it is cleared."

"Kindly let me have the facts, Mr. Munro," said Holmes, with some
impatience.

"I'll tell you what I know about Effie's history. She was a widow when I
met her first, though quite young--only twenty-five. Her name then was
Mrs. Hebron. She went out to America when she was young and lived in the
town of Atlanta, where she married this Hebron, who was a lawyer with a
good practice. They had one child, but the yellow fever broke out badly
in the place, and both husband and child died of it. I have seen his
death certificate. This sickened her of America, and she came back to
live with a maiden aunt at Pinner, in Middlesex. I may mention that her
husband had left her comfortably off, and that she had a capital of
about four thousand five hundred pounds, which had been so well invested
by him that it returned an average of 7 per cent. She had only been six
months at Pinner when I met her; we fell in love with each other, and we
married a few weeks afterwards.

"I am a hop merchant myself, and as I have an income of seven or eight
hundred, we found ourselves comfortably off, and took a nice
eighty-pound-a-year villa at Norbury. Our little place was very
countrified, considering that it is so close to town. We had an inn and
two houses a little above us, and a single cottage at the other side of
the field which faces us, and except those there were no houses until
you got half-way to the station. My business took me into town at
certain seasons, but in summer I had less to do, and then in our country
home my wife and I were just as happy as could be wished. I tell you
that there never was a shadow between us until this accursed affair
began.

"There's one thing I ought to tell you before I go further. When we
married, my wife made over all her property to me--rather against my
will, for I saw how awkward it would be if my business affairs went
wrong. However, she would have it so, and it was done. Well, about six
weeks ago she came to me.

"'Jack,' said she, 'when, you took my money you said that if ever I
wanted any I was to ask you for it.'

"'Certainly,' said I, 'it's all your own.'

"'Well,' said she, 'I want a hundred pounds.'

"I was a bit staggered at thi