“Her ladyship followed you out, master,” he said, a sense of impending evil suddenly coming over him.
“Followed me! Nonsense, man! You must be dreaming!” cried the baronet.
“No, Sir Harold! I gave her ladyship your message, and she just had one cup of tea in her private sitting-room; then she came out, fully dressed, and told me that she was going out.”
Sir Harold was bewildered. Still, why should not Theresa go for a walk if she felt inclined?
He stared blankly at his valet for a few moments; then he turned suddenly, and walked into his wife’s apartments, thinking:
“She may have left some written message for me.”
In this conjecture he was right; a sealed envelope, addressed to him in Theresa’s handwriting, lay on the table before him.
Snatching it up, he tore open the envelope, took out the letter it contained, and read as follows:
My darling—my beloved—I am going away from you forever—away into the unknown shadow land, where I shall be no bar to your happiness in this world. I have loved you—and shall ever love you, as no other woman can love—so much that it is infinite misery to me to know that I am not all in all to you. I am the bar between you and Lady Elaine; I am even the unhappy fate that causes my king to be menaced by a cruel death! At last, Harold, my darling, my beloved, it is ended, but my spirit will be with you. Good-by. Your unhappy
Theresa.