"You joke. You can joke about such a thing!"
"I have never been so serious as I am now."
Stainton emphasised his words with a gesture of his left hand, in which he held the now crumpled letter.
"That letter!" said von Klausen with sudden inspiration. "It is from her!"
"It is."
"Ah, you have intercepted a letter from her to me!"
"I am not in the habit of reading my wife's personal letters to other people—when she writes any. This note is addressed to me, and it is this note that tells me of her departure."
"It tells you where she is going?"
"It tells me that and more. It tells me that she is sorry for a wound she thinks she has inflicted on my feelings, and she proposed to look for rest in a certain secluded place."
The Austrian's blue eyes brightened.