But I stood stubbornly before her, my heart hardened by her hardness,
and perversely indifferent to all else. And as I stood I saw the
letter she had written, in the hand with which she pointed, crushed
into a ball.

"Quickly!" She stamped her foot. "Quickly - if you ever cared!"

This in a whisper, without bitterness, without contempt, but with
a sudden wild entreaty that breathed upon the dying embers of my
poor manhood. I drew myself together for the last time in her
sight. I turned, and left her as she wished - for her sake, not
for mine. And as I went I heard her tearing her letter into little
pieces, and the little pieces falling on the floor.

Then I remembered Raffles, and could have killed him for what he
had done. Doubtless by this time he was safe and snug in the Albany:
what did my fate matter to him? Never mind; this should be the end
between him and me as well; it was the end of everything, this dark
night's work! I would go and tell him so. I would jump into a cab
and drive there and then to his accursed rooms. But first I must
escape from the trap in which he had been so ready to leave me. And
on the very steps I drew back in despair. They were searching the
shrubberies between the drive and the road; a policeman's lantern
kept flashing in and out among the laurels, while a young man in
evening-clothes directed him from the gravel sweep. It was this
young man whom I must dodge, but at my first step in the gravel he
wheeled round, and it was Raffles himself.

"Hulloa!" he cried. "So you've come up to join the dance as well!
Had a look inside, have you? You'll be better employed in helping