The amazing letter which I held in my nerveless fingers had been hurriedly scribbled on a piece of my wife’s own notepaper, and read ­

“DEAR OWEN ­I feel that our marriage was an entire mistake.  I have grossly deceived you, and I dare not hope ever for your forgiveness, nor dare I face you to answer your questions.  I know that you love me dearly, as I, too, have loved you; yet, for your own sake ­and perhaps for mine also ­it is far best that we should keep apart.

“I deeply regret that I have been the means of bringing misfortune and unhappiness and sorrow upon you, but I have been the tool of another.  In shame and deepest humiliation I leave you, and if you will grant one favour to an unhappy and penitent woman, you will never seek to discover my whereabouts.  It would be quite useless.  To-night I leave you in secret, never to meet you again.  Accept my deepest regret, and do not let my action trouble you.  I am not worthy of your love.  Good-bye.  Your unhappy ­SYLVIA.”

I stood staring at the uneven scribbled lines, blurred as they were by the tears of the writer.

What had happened?  Why had she so purposely left me?  Why had she made that signal from the theatre-box to her accomplice?

She admitted having grossly deceived me, and that she was unworthy.  What did she mean?  In what manner had she deceived me?

Had she a secret lover?

That idea struck me suddenly, and staggered me.  In some of her recent actions I read secrecy and suspicion.  On several occasions lately she had been out shopping alone, and one afternoon, about a week before, she had not returned to dress for dinner until nearly eight o’clock.  Her excuse had been a thin one, but, unsuspicious, I had passed it by.

Had I really been a fool to marry her, after all?  I knew Marlowe’s opinion of our marriage, though he had never expressed it.  That she had been associated with a shady lot had all along been apparent.  The terrors of that silent house in Porchester Terrace remained only too fresh within my memory.

That night I spent in a wild fever of excitement.  No sleep came to my eyes, and I think Browning ­to whom I said nothing ­believed that I had taken leave of my senses.  The faithful old servant did not retire, for at five in the morning I found him seated dozing in a chair outside in the hall, tired out by the watchful vigil he had kept over me.

I tried in vain to decide what to do.  I wanted to find Sylvia, to induce her to reveal the truth to me, and to allay her fear of my reproaches.

I loved her; aye, no man in all the world ever loved a woman better.  Yet she had, of her own accord, because of her own shame at her deception, bade farewell, and slipped away into the great ocean of London life.

Morning dawned at last, cold, grey and foggy, one of those dispiriting mornings of late autumn which the Londoner knows so well.  Still I knew not how to act.  I wanted to discover her, to bring her back, and to demand of her finally the actual truth.  All the mystery of those past months had sent my brain awhirl.

I had an impulse to go to the police and reveal the secret of that closed house in Porchester Terrace.  Yet had she not implored me not to do so?  Why?  There was only one reason.  She feared exposure herself.

No.  Ten thousand times no.  I would not believe ill of her.  Can any man who really loves a woman believe ill of her?  Love is blind, it is true, and the scales never fall from the eyes while true affection lasts.  And so I put suspicion from my mind, and swallowed the cup of coffee Browning put before me.

The old man, the friend of my youth, knew that his mistress had not returned, and saw how greatly I was distressed.  Yet he was far too discreet a servant to refer to it.

I entered the drawing-room, and there, in the grey light, facing me, stood the fine portrait of my well-beloved in a silver frame, the one she had had taken at Scarborough a week after our marriage.

I drew it from its frame and gazed for a long time upon it.  Then I put it into an envelope, and placed it in my pocket.

Soon after ten o’clock I returned to the Coliseum, and showed the portrait to a number of the attendants as that of a lady who was missing.  All of them, both male and female, gazed upon the picture, but nobody recognized her as having been seen before.

The manager, whom I had seen on the previous night, sympathized with me, and lent me every assistance.  One after another of the staff he called into his big office on the first floor, but the reply was always the same.

At length a smart page-boy entered, and, on being shown the portrait, at once said to the manager ­

“Why, sir, that’s the lady who went away with the gentleman who spoke to me!”

“Who was he?” I demanded eagerly.  “What did he say?  What was he like?”

“Well, sir, it was like this,” replied the boy.  “About a quarter of an hour before the curtain fell last night I was out in the vestibule, when a tall dark gentleman, with his hair slightly grey and no moustache, came up to me with a lady’s cloak in his hand ­a dark blue one.  He told me that when the audience came out a fair young lady would come up to me for the cloak, as she wanted to get away very quickly, and did not want to wait her turn at the cloak-room.  There was a car ­a big grey car ­waiting for her outside.”

“Then her flight was all prepared!” I exclaimed.  “What was the man like?”

“He struck me as being a gentleman, yet his clothes seemed shabby and ill-fitting.  Indeed, he had a shabby-genteel look, as though he were a bit down on his luck.”

“He was in evening clothes?”

“No, sir.  In a suit of brown tweeds.”

“Well, what happened then?”

“I waited till the curtain fell, and then I stood close to the box-office with the cloak over my arm.  There was a big crush, as it was then raining hard.  Suddenly a young lady wearing a cream theatre-wrap came up to me hastily, and asked me to help her on with the cloak.  This I did, and next moment the man in tweeds joined her.  I heard him say, ‘Come along, dear, we haven’t a moment to lose,’ and then they went out to the car.  That’s all I know, sir.”

I was silent for a few moments.  Who was this secret lover, I wondered?  The lad’s statement had come as an amazing revelation to me.

“What kind of car was it?” I asked.

“A hired car, sir,” replied the intelligent boy.  “I’ve seen it here before.  It comes, I think, from a garage in Wardour Street.”

“You would know the driver?”

“I think so, sir.”

It was therefore instantly arranged that the lad should go with me round to the garage, and there try to find the man who drove the grey car on the previous night.

In this we were quickly successful.  On entering the garage there stood, muddy and dirty, a big grey landaulette, which the boy at once identified as the one in which Sylvia had escaped.  The driver was soon found, and he explained that it was true he had been engaged on the previous night by a tall, clean-shaven gentleman to pick up at the Coliseum.  He did so, and the gentleman entered with a lady.

“Where did you drive them?” I asked quickly.

“Up the Great North Road ­to the George Hotel at Stamford, about a hundred miles from London.  I’ve only been back about a couple of hours, sir.”

“The George at Stamford!” I echoed, for I knew the hotel, a quiet, old-fashioned, comfortable place much patronized by motorists to and fro on the north road.

“You didn’t stay there?”

“Only just to get a drink and fill up with petrol.  I wanted to get back.  The lady and gentleman were evidently expected, and seemed in a great hurry.”

“Why?”

“Well, near Alconbury the engine was misfiring a little, and I stopped to open the bonnet.  When I did so, the lady put her head out of the window, highly excited, and asked how long we were likely to be delayed.  I told her; then I heard her say to the gentleman, ’If they are away before we reach there, what shall we do?’”

“Then they were on their way to meet somebody or other ­eh?”

“Ah! that I don’t know, sir.  I drew up in the yard of the hotel, and they both got out.  The lady hurried in, while the gentleman paid me, and gave me something for myself.  It was then nearly four o’clock in the morning.  I should have been back earlier, only I had a puncture the other side of Hatfield, and had to put on the ‘Stepney.’”

“I must go to Stamford,” I said decisively.  Then I put something into his palm, as well as into that of the page-boy, and, entering a taxi, drove back home.

An hour later I sat beside my own chauffeur, as we drove through the steadily falling rain across Hampstead Heath, on our hundred-mile journey into Lincolnshire.

We both knew every inch of the road, having been over it many times.  As it was wet, police-traps were unlikely, so, having negotiated the narrow road as far as Hatfield, we began to “let her out” past Hitchin, and we buzzed on over the broad open road through Stilton village.  We were hung up at the level-crossing at Wansford, but about half-past three in the afternoon we swept over the brow of the hill beneath the high wall of Burghley Park, and saw beneath us the roofs and many spires of quiet old Stamford.

Ten minutes later we swung into the yard of the ancient George, and, alighting, entered the broad hall, with its splendid old oak staircase, in search of the manageress.

She related a rather curious story.

On the previous night, about eleven o’clock, there arrived by car two well-dressed gentlemen who, though English, conversed together in French.  They took rooms, but did not retire to bed, saying that they expected two friends who were motoring, and who would arrive in the night.  They sat over the fire in the lounge, while the staff of the hotel all retired, save the night-boots, an old retainer.  The latter stated that during the night, as he passed the door of the lounge, he saw through the crack of the door the younger of the two men examining something which shone and sparkled in the light, and he thought to be diamonds.  This struck him as somewhat curious; therefore he kept a watchful eye upon the pair.

One he described as rather stout, dark, and bald-headed ­the exact description of Pennington ­and the other description the man afterwards gave to me caused me to feel confident that the second man was none other than the scoundrel Reckitt.  What further piece of chicanery had they been guilty of, I wondered?

“About four in the morning a grey car drove up, sir,” went on the boots, “and a lady with a dark cloak over her evening dress dashed in, and they both rose quickly and welcomed her.  Then, in order that I should not understand, they again started talking in some foreign language ­French I expect it was.  A few moments later the gentleman came in.  They welcomed him warmly, addressing him by the name of Lewis.  I saw the bald-headed man wring his hand heartily, and heard him exclaim:  ’By Jove! old man, you can’t think how glad we are to see you back again!  You must have had a narrow squeak!  Not another single living man would have acted with the determination and bravery with which you’ve acted.  Only you must be careful, Lewis, old man ­deuced careful.  There are enemies about, you know.’  Then the gentleman said:  ’I know!  I’m quite aware of my peril, Arnold.  You, too, had a narrow shave in Paris a short time ago ­I hear from Sonia.’  ‘Yes,’ laughed the other, ’she acted splendidly.  But, as you say, it was a very close thing.  Have you seen Shuttleworth yet?’ he asked.  The other said:  ’He met me, in the Ditches at Southampton, two nights ago, and told me all that’s happened.’  ‘Ah!  And Sonia has told you the rest, I suppose?’ he asked; to which the other man replied in the affirmative, adding:  ’It’s a bad job, I fear, for Owen Biddulph ­a very bad job for the fellow!’ That was all the conversation that I overheard at that time, for they then rang the bell and ordered whisky and sodas.”

“And what else did you see or hear?” I asked eagerly, much puzzled by his statement.

“They struck me as rather a suspicious lot, sir,” the man said.  “After I had taken them in their drinks they closed the door, and seemed to hold some sort of a consultation.  While this was going on, two men drove up in another car, and asked if a Mr. Winton was here.  I told him he was ­for the bald-headed gentleman had given the name of Douglas Winton.  They were at once welcomed, and admitted to the conference.”

“Rather curious ­to hold a conference in such a manner and at such an hour!” I remarked.

“Yes, sir.  It was a secret meeting, evidently.  They all spoke in another language.  The two men who last arrived were no doubt foreigners.”

“Was one of them stout and wore gold-rimmed glasses?” I inquired quickly.