The more Edmund reflected on the matter the more difficult he found it to decide what steps to take in order to approach Molly.  In the first impulse he had thought only that here was the chance of serving her, of proving her friend in difficulty, which he had particularly wished for.  It would make reparation for the past—­a past he keenly defended in his own mind as he had defended it to Molly herself, but yet a past that he would wish to make fully satisfactory by reparation for what he would not confess to have been blameworthy.  But when he tried to realise exactly what he should have to tell Molly it seemed impossible.  For how could he meet her questions; her indignant protests?  She would become more and more indignant at the plot that had been carried on against her, a plot which Edmund had started and had carried on until quite lately, and which had also until quite lately been entirely financed by him.  Even if he baffled her questions, his consciousness of the facts would make it too desperately difficult a task for him to assume the role of Molly’s disinterested friend now, although in truth he felt as such, and would have done and suffered much to help her.

Edmund had by nature a considerable sympathy with success, with pluck, with men or women who did things well.  There are so many bunglers in life, so few efficient characters, and he felt Molly to be entirely efficient.  Even the over-emphasis of wealth in the setting of her life had been effective; it fitted too well into what the modern world wanted to be out of proportion.  A thing that succeeded so very well could hardly be bad form.  Hesitation, weakness, would have made it vulgar; hesitation and weakness in past days had often made vulgar emphasis on rank and power, but in the hands of the strong such emphasis had always been effective and fitting.  There was a kind of artistic regret in Edmund’s mind at the thought that this excellent comedy of life as played by Molly should be destroyed.  And he had come to think it certainly would be destroyed.

One last piece of evidence had convinced him more than any other.

Nurse Edith had a taste for the dramatic, and enjoyed gradual developments.  Therefore she had kept back as a bonne bouche, to be served up as an apparent after-thought, a certain half sheet of paper which she had preserved carefully in her pocket-book since the night on which she had made the copy of Sir David Bright’s will.  It was the actual postscript to Sir David’s long letter to Rose; the long letter Nurse Edith had put back in the box and which had remained there untouched until Molly had taken it out.  The postscript would not be missed, and might be useful.  It was only a few lines to this effect: 

“P.S.—­I think it better that you should know that I am sending a few words to Madame Danterre to tell her briefly that justice must be done.  Also, in case anyone, in spite of my precautions to conceal it, is aware that I possessed the very remarkable diamond ring I mention in this letter, and asks you about it, I wish you to know that I am sending it direct to Madam Danterre in my letter to her.  May God forgive me, and, by His Grace, may you do likewise.”