“The one which Thud detained told you why. My mother had been suddenly taken with a fit; in my great anxiety for her dear life I had forgotten the day for writing to Malta. But surely the missing of one post need not have caused you much distress.”
“I was only somewhat troubled,” continued Oscar; “I thought that my betrothed might be ill, I never thought that she could be false. When the pilot met us in the Channel I made sure of a letter, and was foremost in the throng that crowded to the vessel’s side to seize on the contents of his bag. To my great disappointment there was no letter for me in your familiar hand, only one in your cousin’s. I tore that open with feverish haste: Walter would tell me whether you were ill, perhaps――as my fears suggested――dying. There were only two lines written in that fatal letter; they were branded on my brain as with burning iron――‘_Io is mine; I have won the prize._’”
“Oh, the poor foolish boy!” exclaimed Io. “He did not tell you that he had given my name to his hunter, and that in a steeple-chase she was first. I remember Walter’s saying to me that he had played on you a practical joke.”
“A joke which cost the poor fellow his life, and has blasted mine,” groaned Oscar. “The jealousy which I had deemed stifled for ever suddenly blazed up within me, till my soul was as a furnace sevenfold heated. When the _Argus_ neared Dover pier I sprang out, narrowly missing falling into the sea――spectators must have thought me mad. Would that I had been drowned, and so had never lived to look on him whom I hated! I determined to see you at once, and learn the whole truth from your lips. I hurried along the shortest path, that at the top of the cliffs, so often trodden with you. As I passed on I heard a voice gasp out my name; I saw two hands grasping the ground not two yards from the path, and I saw the head of the climber who had just reached the top of the cliff. The face had the flush caused by violent physical effort, but I deemed it the flush of triumph. It was Walter’s face; he had just breath enough left to cry, ‘_I’ve won!_’ Those were his last words. For a moment I appeared to be possessed by a demon――I was possessed, for I did the deed of which I repented even before I heard the sound of the crash below.”