He took it up and sighed heavily again as the faint odor of Anna's favorite perfume was wafted to his nostrils.
"How changed is everything since she wrote this!—what a complete revolution in one's life a few hours can make!" he mused.
He broke the seal with some curiosity, but with something of awe as well, for it seemed to him almost like a message from the other world, and drew forth two sheets of closely-written paper.
The missive was not addressed to any one; the writer had simply begun what she had to say and told her story through to the end, and then signed her name in full in a clear, bold hand.
The man had not read half the first page before his manner betrayed that its contents were of the most vital importance.
On and on he read, his face expressing various emotions until by the time he reached the end there was an eagerness in his manner, a gleam of animation in his eyes which told that the communication had been of a nature to entirely change the current of his thoughts and distract them from everything of an unpleasant character regarding himself.
He folded and returned the letter to its envelope with trembling hands.
"Oh, Anna! Anna!" he murmured, "why could you not have been always governed by your better impulses, instead of yielding so weakly to the evil in your nature? This makes my way plain at least—now I am ready to bid farewell to this home and all that is behind me, and try to fathom what the future holds for me."
He carefully put the letter away into an inner pocket, then sat down to his desk and began to look over his private papers.
When that task was completed he ordered the butler to have some boxes and packing cases, that were stored in the cellar, brought up to the library, when he carefully packed away such books, pictures and other things as he wished to take away with him.