Page:Anna Katharine Green - Leavenworth Case.djvu/217

Rh any other man ca so  beautiful, so charming  is she in face form and   conversation. But every rose has its thorn and (this) rose is no exception  lovely as she is, char  ming (as she is,) tender as she is, she   is  capable of trampling on  one who trusted her heart a

him to whom she owes a debt of honor a ance

"If you don’t believe me ask her to her  cruel beautiful face  what is (her) humble servant yours: "Henry Ritchie Clavering."

"I think that will do," said Mr. Gryce. "Its general tenor is evident, and that is all we want at this time."

"The whole tone of it is anything but complimentary to the lady it mentions," I remarked. "He must have had, or imagined he had, some desperate grievance, to provoke him to the use of such plain language in regard to one he can still characterize as tender, charming, beautiful."

"Grievances are apt to lie back of mysterious crimes."

"I think I know what this one was," I said; "but"—seeing him look up—"must decline to communicate my suspicion to you for the present. My theory stands unshaken, and in some degree confirmed; and that is all I can say."

"Then this letter does not supply the link you wanted?"

"No: it is a valuable bit of evidence; but it is not the link I am in search of just now."

"Yet it must be an important clue, or Eleanore Leavenworth would not have been to such pains, first to take it in the way she did from her uncle’s table, and secondly"