Page:The Mystery of a Hansom Cab.djvu/206

202 He suddenly recollected the letter which he held in his hand, and which he now looked at for the first time. It proved to be from Madge, and tearing it hastily open, he read it.

"I cannot understand what is the matter with papa," she wrote. "Ever since that man Moreland left last night he shut himself up in his study, and is writing there hour after hour. I went up this morning but he would not let me in. He did not come down to breakfast, and I am getting seriously alarmed. Come down to-morrow and see me, for I am anxious about his state of health, and I am sure that Moreland told him something which has upset him."

"Writing," said Brian, as he put the letter in his pocket, "what about, I wonder? Perhaps he is thinking of committing suicide! If so, I for one will not stop him. It is a horrible thing to do, but it would be acting for the best under the circumstances."

In spite of his determination to see Calton and tell all, Fitzgerald did not go near him that day. He felt ill and weary, the want of sleep and mental worry telling on him fearfully, and he looked ten years older than he did before the murder of Whyte. It is trouble which draws lines on the smooth forehead and furrows round the mouth. If a man has any mental worry, his life becomes a positive agony to him. Mental tortures are quite as bad as physical ones, if not worse. The last thing before dropping off to sleep is the thought of trouble, and with the first faint light of dawn it returns, and hammers all day at the weary brain. But while a man can sleep, life is rendered at least endurable, and of all the blessings which Providence has bestowed, there is none so precious as that same sleep, which, as wise Sancho Panza says, "wraps every man like a cloak." Brian felt the need of rest; so sending a telegram to Calton to call on him in the morning, and another to Madge that he would be down to luncheon next day, he stayed inside all day, and amused himself with smoking and reading. He went to bed early, and succeeded in having a sound sleep; so when he awoke next morning he felt considerably refreshed and reinvigorated.

He was having his breakfast at half-past eight, when he heard the sound of wheels, and immediately afterwards a