"Letter or message?"
"Oh, Rupert, it was a letter; had I not better destroy it?"
"Give it to me."
A hasty scrawl, it seemed, folded anyhow. Only two or three lines, yet Rupert conned them for a curiously long time.
"My darling," it ran, "meet me to-day in the ruins at noon. A misfortune has happened to me, but if you trust me, all will still be well.—Your Jack." Mr. Landale at length handed it back to Sophia.
"You will give it to Madeleine with the other," he said briefly. "Mention the fact of the messenger having brought it." And then in a terrible bass he added, "And remember your oath!"
She trembled; but as he walked onwards through the wood, his lips were smiling, and his eyes were alight with triumph.