being
directly, instead of indirectly, answerable for the first Mrs. Eustace's
death. I frankly make my confession, and leave you to tell Mr. Benjamin
whether you think my new Catechism worthy of examination or not."

I thought his "new Catechism" (as he called it) decidedly worthy of
examination. If you don't ag ree with this view, and if you are dying
to be done with me and my narrative, pass on to the next chapter by all
means!

Benjamin produced the Questions and Answers; and read them to me, at my
request, in these terms:

"Questions suggested by the letter discovered at Gleninch. First Group:
Questions relating to the Diary. First Question: obtaining access to Mr.
Macallan's private journal, was Miserrimus Dexter guided by any previous
knowledge of its contents?

"Answer: It is doubtful if he had any such knowledge. The probabilities
are that he noticed how carefully Mr. Macallan secured his Diary from
observation; that he inferred therefrom the existence of dangerous
domestic secrets in the locked-up pages; and that he speculated on using
those secrets for his own purpose when he caused the false keys to be
made.

"Second Question: To what motive are we to attribute Miserrimus Dexter's
interference with the sheriff's officers, on the day when they seized
Mr. Macallan's Diary along with his other papers?

"Answer: In replying to this question, we must first do justice to
Dexter himself. Infamously as we now know him to have acted, the man
was not a downright fiend. That he secretly hated Mr. Macallan, as his
successful rival in the affections of the woman he loved--and that he
did all he could to induce the unhappy lady to desert her husband--are,
in this case, facts not to be denied. On the other hand, it is fairly to
be doubted whether he were additionally capable of permitting the friend
who trusted him to be tried for murder, through his fault, without
making an effort to save the innocent man. It had naturally never
occurred to Mr. Macallan (being guiltless of his wife's death) to
destroy his Diary and his letters, in the fear that they might be used
against him. Until the prompt and secret action of the Fiscal took him
by surprise, the idea of his being charged with the murder of his
wife was an idea which we know, from his own statement, had never even
entered his mind. But Dexter must have looked at the matter from another
point of view. In his last wandering words (spoken when his mind broke
down