V

THE LETTER OF ADVICE



"Do you know, Austin," said Villiers, as the two
friends were pacing sedately along Piccadilly one pleasant
morning in May, "do you know I am convinced that what you told
me about Paul Street and the Herberts is a mere episode in an
extraordinary history? I may as well confess to you that when I
asked you about Herbert a few months ago I had just seen him."

"You had seen him? Where?"

"He begged of me in the street one night. He was in
the most pitiable plight, but I recognized the man, and I got
him to tell me his history, or at least the outline of it. In
brief, it amounted to this--he had been ruined by his wife."

"In what manner?"

"He would not tell me; he would only say that she had
destroyed him, body and soul. The man is dead now."

"And what has become of his wife?"