Page:Stevenson and Quiller-Couch - St Ives .djvu/446

 really felt quite sorry for him (though it was no use, and I told him so) he turned round in a way I could not but admire and said he wished me well, and would prove it. He said the charge against you was really one for the military authorities alone, that he had reasons for feeling sure that you had been drawn into this affair on a point of honour, which was quite a different thing from what they said; and that he could not only make an affidavit or something of the kind on his own account, but knew enough of that man Clausel to make him confess the truth. Which he did the very next day, and made Clausel sign it and Mr. Robbie has a copy of the man's statement which he is sending with this to Mr. Romaine in London; and that is the reason why Rowley (who is a dear) has come over, and is waiting in the kitchen while I write these hurried lines. He says, too, that Major Chevenix was only just in time, since Clausel's friends are managing an exchange for him, and he is going back to France. And so in haste I write myself, Your sincere friend, . P.S.—My aunt is well; Ronald is expecting his commission.

P.P.S.—You told me to write it, and so I must: "I love you, Anne."

The enclosure was a note in a large and unformed hand, and ran:

Having read these letters through, I placed them in my breast-pocket, stepped to the table and handed Alain's document gravely back to him; then turned to Mr. Romaine, who shut his snuff-box with a snap.

"It only remains, I think," said the lawyer, "to discuss the terms which (merely as a matter of generosity, or, say,