"I have. I would do anything in my power to break off your engagement with Ackworth."
"So that I could marry you?"
"Precisely."
"I believe you wrote the letter, after all," said Clarice, between her clenched teeth. "I defy you to look me in the face and deny it."
"I do look you in the face, and I do deny it," said Jerce, coldly; "but the writer of that letter has done me a good turn, and I thank him."
"How do you know it is a man?"
Sir Daniel shrugged his shoulders. "I don't know; I only surmise."
"Surmise what?"
"That a man wrote it."
"Why not a woman?" sneered Clarice.