abominated his deceitful deed, I could not but admit in my heart
that the result was put of all proportion to the intent: he had
never dreamt of doing me this injury, or indeed any injury at all.
Intrinsically the deceit had been quite venial, the reason for it
obviously the reason that Raffles had given me. It was quite true
that he had spoken of this Lochmaben peerage as a new creation,
and of the heir to it in a fashion only applicable to Alick
Carruthers. He had given me hints, which I had been too dense to
take, and he had certainly made more than one attempt to deter me
from accompanying him on this fatal emprise; had he been more
explicit, I might have made it my business to deter him. I could
not say in my heart that Raffles had failed to satisfy such honor
as I might reasonably expect to subsist between us. Yet it seems
to me to require a superhuman sanity always and unerringly to
separate cause from effect, achievement from intent. And I, for
one, was never quite able to do so in this case.

I could not be accused of neglecting my newspaper during the next
few wretched days. I read every word that I could find about the
attempted jewel-robbery in Palace Gardens, and the reports
afforded me my sole comfort. In the first place, it was only an
attempted robbery; nothing had been taken, after all. And then -
and then - the one member of the household who had come nearest to
a personal encounter with either of us was unable to furnish any
description of the man - had even expressed a doubt as to the
likelihood of identification in the event of an arrest!

I will not say with what mingled feelings I read and dwelt on that
announcement It kept a certain faint glow alive within me until the
morning brought me back the only presents I had ever made her. They