Towards teaching her that doctrine at which I have hinted, he would not have dared to make an attempt; but he felt that he should have no repugnance to telling her that he wanted to spend all her money in the first year or two of their married life!
He was still in his arm-chair, thinking of all this, with that small untasted modicum of brandy and water beside him, when he heard some distant Lambeth clock strike three from over the river. Then he rose from his seat, and taking the candles in his hand, sat himself down at a writing-desk on the other side of the room. "I needn't send it when it's written," he said to himself, "and the chances are that I won't." Then he took his paper, and wrote as follows:--
DEAR ALICE,

; but could he tell her that he wanted to spend all her fortune in the first year or two of their married life!
He was still in his arm-chair, thinking of all this, when he heard a distant clock strike three. Then he rose from his seat, and sat down at a writing-desk.
"I needn't send it when it's written," he said to himself, "and the chances are that I won't." He wrote as follows:
Dear Alice,
