An idea had struck him, one of those ideas which come to unscrupulous men in desperate straits.
“I’ll do it! By God, I’ll do it!” he exclaimed. And, going to the writing-table, he wrote:
Dearest Olivia—I leave England to-night. I have been ill. I am still ill, with a terrible anxiety. I have seen F—— this afternoon, and he agrees with me that it will be better that I should leave England at once. I cannot tell you how my heart yearns for one word from you whom I have not seen since the day you became my wife. Think of me, my dearest, dearest Olivia.
Your loving husband,
Bartley Bradstone.
P.S.—Inclosed is my address.
But, in addition to the Hotel Meurice, which he wrote on the inclosed slip, were these lines:
Faradeane does not know what has been driving me almost mad, what I have kept, but cannot keep from you longer, dearest. I was in the wood, and saw that poor woman meet her death by his hand. A word from me, one word, would be fatal to him! I cannot—cannot risk the chance of being called at the trial! Poor, poor fellow! I fear there is no hope for him! Burn this at once.
It was a piece of diabolical cunning. He knew that Olivia would rather die than repeat what he had written, that it would account to her for his absence, and that it must—for he knew her, all unworthy of her as he was—estrange her heart from Faradeane.
“Now I think we’re quits, my friend!” he said, gloating over the two letters—Faradeane’s and the one he had himself written. “I’ve burned my boats behind me now. If she should tell them that I was there, and saw him do it—well”—he drew a long breath and shuddered—“I’ll go into the box and swear to it! Yes, Mr. Faradeane, you’ve put your head into the noose too far to draw back, I’m thinking! Too far, by a long way. Steady, Bartley, my boy; go steady, and play your game carefully, and you’ll pull through this.”
A drink of brandy increased his confidence still further, and he rang the bell for a servant, that he might send the note; then, with a sudden return of caution, called for his overcoat and hat, and went out.