"I put my foot on it. I gathered, from extracts he read me from the letter, that this note was of importance.
"When he found in a postscript that you mentioned an enclosure, he hunted everywhere for it; not thinking, of course, to look under my foot.
"He then concluded, on my instigation, that, after all, you had not enclosed any note.
"At the first opportunity I transferred it to my pocket, made an excuse to leave the room, and read it.
"Helen, believe me, had I known beforehand the news that note contained, I don't think I could have been such a fiend.
"But once having done it, I carried it through. I allowed your husband to go home in total ignorance of the birth of his son. It was I who put the word 'astonishing' into his telegram; and, in my letter to you, I led you to suppose I had heard the news from him.
"I don't know exactly what I expected to gain from all this. But, in a condition of mad despair, I seemed playing my very last card; and I played it for all it was worth—which apparently was not much!
"I did plenty of other devilish work that night—chiefly mental suggestion. This is the only really confessable thing.
"The letter your husband never saw, is in the enclosed envelope. He will like to have it now.
"Thus, as you see, the Word has not returned unto you void. It brings you the only reparation I can make.