Would it not be better
for you to give them up of your own free will?" Muller took a
step nearer the girl and whispered: "And would it not be a noble
revenge on your part? You would be indeed returning good for evil."
Eleonora clasped her hands and her lips moved as if in silent
prayer. Then she rose slowly and held out the letters to Muller.
"Do what you will with them," she said. "My strength is at an end."
The next day, in the presence of Commissioner Lange and of the
accused Albert Graumann, Muller opened the letter which he had
received from Miss Roemer and read it aloud. The girl herself,
by her own request, was not present. Both Muller and Graumann
understood that the strain of this message from the dead would
be too much for her to bear. This was the letter:
G.-- September 21st.
My beloved:
When you put this letter in the hands of the Judge, I will have
found in death the peace that I could never find on earth. There
was no chance of happiness for me since I have realised that I love
you, that you love me, and that I must give you up if I am to remain
what I have always been--in spite of everything--a man of honour.
Albert Graumann would keep his word, this I know. Wherever you
might follow me as my wife, there his will would have been before
us, blasting my reputation, blackening the flame which you were to
bear.
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