The Englishman opened a cupboard, rummaged awhile in a drawer, and came back to the table with something which looked like a folded letter in his hand.
"Everything may be of use in time—that is the reason I did not burn it. Here is a letter from Evelina, written the same day she hanged herself. It will be more than sufficient for you. But it's understood that no difficulty will be placed in my way to leave, if I give up the letter?"
"You have our word of honour that no information will be given to the police, and that nothing shall hinder your departure if you furnish us with sufficient proofs of my wife's innocence."
The Englishman threw the letter across the table. Monk opened it and read it aloud:—
DEAR MR. HOWELL,—You are the only one who has shown any kindness to me in my misfortune, but all your kindness is wasted on a creature who is doomed to destruction. You warned me, long ago, against the wretch whom I believed in so blindly, but more than that was necessary to open my eyes.
He first persuaded me to steal in order to find the means for our marriage, and then he deserted me with the fruits of my crime. All the same, I was glad of your offer to get me acquitted, and thus enable me to marry the man I loved, not so much for my own sake, as for—
Then he deceived me again. I know that yesterday he left the country, and at the same time I learnt that my benefactress, Miss Frick, is accused of the crime which I have committed.
I know of course you will not let her suffer—you, who are her friend, and that of her family. But how can you prove her innocence without revealing that you deceived the court in order to help me, a poor girl whom you pitied?
I do not understand much of this kind of thing; but I see that my life is useless, and that there is one way in which I can prove Miss Frick's innocence without being imprisoned myself.
When you get to hear I am no longer alive, then cut off the lowest slip of this letter and send it to the authorities. I cannot rely on my mother. She has a suspicion it was I who took the diamond, and worries me every day to tell her what has become of the money.