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purpose. > > Do you know where I am, and what I suffer? I am one of the patients of this hospital, hideously mutilated for life by your hand. If I could have known certainly the day of my dismissal, I should have waited to tell you with my own lips what I now write⁠—but I am ignorant of this. At the very point of recovery I have suffered a relapse. > > You will silence any uneasy upbraidings of conscience, should you feel them, by saying that I have deserved death at your hands. I will tell you, in answer, what you deserve and shall receive at mine. > > But I will first assume that it was knowledge of your wife’s guilt which prompted your attack on me. I am well aware that she has declared herself innocent, and that her father supports her declaration. By the time you receive this letter (my injuries oblige me to allow myself a whole fortnight to write it in), I shall have taken measures which render further concealment unnecessary. Therefore, if my confession avail you aught, you have it here:⁠—She is guilty: willingly guilty, remember, whatever she may say to the contrary. You may believe this, and believe all I write hereafter. Deception between us two is at an end. > > I have told you Margaret Sherwin is guilty. Why was she guilty? What was the secret of my influence over her? > > To make you comprehend what I have now to communicate, it is necessary for me to speak of myself; and of my early life. Tomorrow, I will undertake this disclosure⁠—today, I can neither hold the pen, nor see the paper any longer. If you could look at