He had said very few words of love to her at any time,--very few, at least, that were themselves of any moment; but among those few there had undoubtedly been one or two in which he had told her that he loved her.

And he had written to her that fatal note! Upon the whole, would it not be as well for him to go out to the great reservoir behind Guestwick, by which the Hamersham Canal was fed with its waters, and put an end to his miserable existence?
On that same day he did write a letter to Fisher, and he wrote also to Cradell.

As to those letters he felt no difficulty.

To Fisher he declared his belief that Cradell was innocent as he was himself as regarded Mrs Lupex.

"I don't think he is the sort of man to make up to a married woman," he said, somewhat to Cradell's displeasure, when the letter reached the Income-tax Office; for that gentleman was not averse to the reputation for success in love which the little adventure was, as he thought, calculated to give him among his brother clerks.