But that she knew where to go for strength, she
might have doubted it; for the love of right, the principles of justice
were strong within her. "Oh, what could possess him?" she uttered,
wringing her hands; "what could possess him? Arthur, is there no
loophole, not the faintest loophole for hope of his innocence?"
"None that I see. No one whatever had access to the letter but Hamish
and I. He must have yielded to the temptation in a moment of delirium,
knowing the money would clear him from some of his pressing debts--as
it has done."
"How could he brave the risk of detection?"
"I don't know. My head aches, pondering over it. I suppose he concluded
that suspicion would fall upon the post-office. It would have done so,
but for that seal placed on the letter afterwards. What an unfortunate
thing it was, that Roland Yorke mentioned there was money inside the
letter in the hearing of Hamish!"
"Did he mention it?" exclaimed Constance.
He said there was a twenty-pound note in the letter, going to the
cousin Galloway, and Hamish remarked that he wished it was going into
his pocket instead. "I _wish_" Arthur uttered, in a sort of frenzy, "I
had locked the letter up there and then."
Constance clasped her hands in pain. "I fear he may have been going
wrong for some time," she breathed. "It has come to my knowledge,
through Judith, that he sits up for hours night after night, doing
something to the books.
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