Geoffrey observed her from the dining-room, on her way down the stairs.  He waited to see what she did, before he showed himself, and spoke to her.  Instead of going on into the kitchen, she stopped short, and entered the parlor.  Another suspicious circumstance!  What did she want in the parlor, without a candle, at that time of night?

She went to the book-case—­her dark figure plainly visible in the moonlight that flooded the little room.  She staggered and put her hand to her head; giddy, to all appearance, from extreme fatigue.  She recovered herself, and took a book from the shelf.  She leaned against the wall after she had possessed herself of the book.  Too weary, as it seemed, to get up stairs again without a little rest.  Her arm-chair was near her.  Better rest, for a moment or two, to be had in that than could be got by leaning against the wall.  She sat down heavily in the chair, with the book on her lap.  One of her arms hung over the arm of the chair, with the hand closed, apparently holding something.

Her head nodded on her breast—­recovered itself—­and sank gently on the cushion at the back of the chair.  Asleep?  Fast asleep.

In less than a minute the muscles of the closed hand that hung over the arm of the chair slowly relaxed.  Something white slipped out of her hand, and lay in the moonlight on the floor.

Geoffrey took off his heavy shoes, and entered the room noiselessly in his stockings.  He picked up the white thing on the floor.  It proved to be a collection of several sheets of thin paper, neatly folded together, and closely covered with writing.

Writing?  As long as she was awake she had kept it hidden in her hand.  Why hide it?

Had he let out any thing to compromise himself when he was light-headed with the fever the night before? and had she taken it down in writing to produce against him?  Possessed by guilty distrust, even that monstrous doubt assumed a look of probability to Geoffrey’s mind.  He left the parlor as noiselessly as he had entered it, and made for the candle-light in the drawing-room, determined to examine the manuscript in his hand.

After carefully smoothing out the folded leaves on the table, he turned to the first page, and read these lines.

CHAPTER THE FIFTY-FOURTH.

THE MANUSCRIPT.

1.

“MY Confession:  To be put into my coffin; and to be buried with me when I die.

“This is the history of what I did in the time of my married life.  Here—­known to no other mortal creature, confessed to my Creator alone—­is the truth.

“At the great day of the Resurrection, we shall all rise again in our bodies as we have lived.  When I am called before the Judgment Seat I shall have this in my hand.

“Oh, just and merciful Judge, Thou knowest what I have suffered.  My trust is in Thee.”

2.