"The man is mad." Those words told me all.

I knew the worst; and, knowing it, I could read the letter.

It ran thus: "MY BELOVED VALERIA--When you read these lines you read my farewell words.

I return to my solitary unfriended life--my life before I knew you.
"My darling, you have been cruelly treated.

You have been entrapped into marrying a man who has been publicly accused of poisoning his first wife--and who has not been honorably and completely acquitted of the charge.