It was addressed in Beatrice's handwriting and bore the Chester
postmark. A chill fear seized him. What did it contain? He hurried with
it into a private room and opened it. It was dated from Bryngelly on the
previous Sunday and had several inclosures.
"My dearest Geoffrey," it began, "I have never before addressed you thus
on paper, nor should I do so now, knowing to what risks such written
words might put you, were it not that occasions may arise (as in this
case) which seem to justify the risk. For when all things are ended
between a man and a woman who are to each other what we have been, then
it is well that the one who goes should speak plainly before speech
becomes impossible, if only that the one who is left should not
misunderstand that which has been done.
"Geoffrey, it is probable--it is almost certain--that before your eyes
read these words I shall be where in the body they can never see me
more. I write to you from the brink of the grave; when you read it, it
will have closed over me.
"Geoffrey, I shall be dead.
"I received your dear letter (it is destroyed now) in which you
expressed a wish that I should come away with you to some other country,
and I answered it in eight brief words.
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