Unless her death was an accident, unless, using her drug, she fell asleep and so drifted unintentionally out of life! He still caught at that hope.
"Are you sure that the handwriting was Stella's ?" he asked.
"Quite.

I saw the letter." "Did the editor give it to you ?" "No, he had to keep it for his own protection." "That's a pity," said Harry.

A pity--or a relief, since, without that evidence before his eyes, he could still insist upon his pretence.
"Not such a great pity," answered Martin, and taking a letter from his pocket he threw it down upon the table, with the ghost of a smile upon his face.

"What do you think I have been doing during the last two years ?" he asked drily.
Harry pounced upon the letter and his first glance dispelled his illusion--nay, proved to him that he had never had faith in it.

For he saw, without surprise, the broad strokes and the straight up-and-down letters familiar to him of old.