strongest and best quality--on which the writing was traced. It was
of more than twice the substance of the last paper on which he had
operated, when he was engaged in the forgery ease; and it was, on that
account, comparatively easy for him (aided by the mechanical appliances
which he had brought from London) to split the morsels of the torn
paper, within a given space of time which might permit them to begin the
reconstruction of the letter that night.

With these explanations, he quietly devoted himself to his work. While
Benjamin and the lawyer were still poring over the scattered morsels
of the letter which had been first discovered, and trying to piece
them together again, the chemist had divided the greater part of the
fragments specially confided to him into two halves each; and had
correctly put together some five or six sentences of the letter on the
smooth sheet of cardboard prepared for that purpose.

They looked eagerly at the reconstructed writing so far.

It was correctly done: the sense was perfect. The first result gained
by examination was remarkable enough to reward them for all their
exertions. The language used plainly identified the person to whom the
late Mrs. Eustace had addressed her letter.

That person was--my husband.

And the letter thus addressed--if the plainest circumstantial evidence
could be trusted--was identical with the letter which Miserrimus Dexter
had suppressed until the Trial was over, and had then destroyed by
tearing it up.

These were the discoveries that had been made at the time when Benjamin
wrote to me. He had been on the point of posting his letter, when Mr.
Playmore had suggested that he should keep it by him for a few days
longer, on the chance of having more still to tell me.

"We are indebted to her for these results," the lawyer had said. "But
for her resolution; and her influence over Miserrimus Dexter, we should
never have discovered what the dust-heap was hiding from us--we should
never have seen so much as a glimmering of the truth. She has the first
claim to the fullest information. Let her have it."

The letter had been accordingly kept back for three days. That interval
being at an end, it was hurriedly resumed and concluded in terms which
indescribably alarmed me.

"The chemist is advancing rapidly with his part of the work" (Benjamin
wrote); "and I have succeeded in putting together a separate portion
of the torn writing which makes sense. Compar