an when I had known him,
and that he was at times very greatly depressed in mind at his position.
One morning in the middle of December last I heard a shot from his
dwelling. His wife rushed frantically past me as I hastened to the spot,
and when I entered I found that he had put an end to himself with his
revolver. His princess was broken-hearted all that day. When we had
buried him I discovered in his house a little box directed to his
solicitors at Warborne, in England, and a note for myself, saying that I
had better get the first chance of returning that offered, and requesting
me to take the box with me. It is supposed to contain papers and
articles for friends in England who have deemed him dead for some time."'

The clerk stopped his reading, and there was a silence. 'The middle of
last December,' she at length said, in a whisper. 'Has the box arrived
yet?'

'Not yet, my lady. We have no further proof of anything. As soon as the
package comes to hand you shall know of it immediately.'

Such was the clerk's mission; and, leaving the paper with her, he
withdrew. The intelligence amounted to thus much: that, Sir Blount
having been alive till at least six weeks after her marriage with Swithin
St. Cleeve, Swithin St. Cleeve was not her husband in the eye of the law;
that she would have to consider how her marriage with the latter might be
instantly repeated, to establish herself legally as that young man's
wife.

XXXIII

Next morning Viviette received a visit from Mr. Cecil himself. He
informed her that the box spoken of by the servant had arrived quite
unexpectedly just after the departure of his clerk on the previous
evening. There had not been sufficient time for him to thoroughly
examine it as yet, but he had seen enough to enable him to state that it
contained letters, dated memoranda in Sir Blount's handwriting, notes
referring to events which had happened later than his supposed death, and
other irrefragable proofs that the account in the newspapers was correct
as to the main fact--the comparatively recent date of Sir Blount's
decease.

She looked up, and spoke with the irresponsible helplessness of a child.

'On reviewing the circumstances, I cannot think how I could have allowed
myself to believe the first tidings!' she said.

'Everybody else believed them, and why should you not have done so?' said
the lawyer.

'How came the will to be permitted to be proved, as there could, after