Mercy's ran as follows:-- "MY DARLING STEPHEN,--Your letters have shocked me so deeply that I find myself at a loss for words in which to reply.

I cannot understand your present position at all.

I have waited all these days, hoping that some new light would come to me, that I could see the whole thing differently; but I cannot.

On the contrary, each hour that I think of it (and I have thought of nothing else since your second letter came) only makes my conviction stronger.

Darling, that money is Mrs.Jacobs's money, by every moral right.