He took up the key, and placed it remorselessly in the lock, and opened the desk, and brought all the papers forth on to the table which stood in the middle of the room.
"Are all my letters to be read ?" she asked.
"Nothing is to be read," he said.
"Not that I should mind it; or at least I should have cared but little ten minutes since.

There are words there may make you think I have been a fool, but a fool only too faithful to you." He made no answer to this, but moved the papers one by one carefully till he came to a folded document larger than the others.

Why dwell upon it?
Of course it was the deed for which he was searching.

Nina, when from her station by the wall she saw that there was something in her lover's hands of which she had no knowledge--something which had been in her own desk without her privity--came forward a step or two, looking with all her eyes.

But she did not speak till he had spoken; nor did he speak at once.