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The next thing Anne Seaway perceived was that the fragmentary story she had coaxed out of Manston, to the effect that his wife had left England for A to two of these letters, corroborated by the evidence of the railway-porter And yet, at first, he had sworn in a passion that his as most certainly consumed in the fire

If she had been burnt, this letter, written in her bedroom, and probably thrust into her pocket when she relinquished it, would have been burnt with her Nothing was surer than that Why, then, did he say she was burnt, and never show Anne herself this letter?

The question suddenly raised a new anda burst of amazement in her How did Manston become possessed of this letter?

That fact of possession was certainly the most remarkable revelation of all in connection with this epistle, and perhaps had so it to her

She knew by several proofs, that before his e with Cytherea, and up to the time of the porter's confession, Manston believed --honestly believed--that Cytherea would be his laife, and hence, of course, that his wife Eunice was dead So that no communication could possibly have passed between his wife and himself froht of the fire, to the day of his wedding And yet he had that letter

How soon afterwards could they have communicated with each other?

The existence of the letter--asthat Mrs Manston was not burnt, his belief in that calamity must have terminated at the moment he obtained possession of the letter, if no earlier Was, then, the only solution to the riddle that Anne could discern, the true one?--that he had communicated with his wife somewhere about the commencement of Anne's residence with hi on earth that a woman who had forsaken her husband should countenance his scheme to personify her --whether she were in Ahbourhood of Knapwater

Then ca question, as Manston's realas regarded Anne It could not be, as he had always pretended, hts had reverted to Mr Raunhainal Mrs Manston She could see no loophole of escape for the man who supported her

True, in her own estimation, his worst alternative was not so very bad after all--the getting the name of libertine, a possible appearance in the divorce or soes Such an exposure ress for some time Yet to him this alternative was, apparently, terrible as death itself