The shackles had fallen away. He was a
free man. Messrs. Waddington & Forbes had finished with him.
CHAPTER V
BURTON'S NEW LIFE
Burton spent the rest of the day in most delightful fashion. He took
the Tube to South Kensington Museum, where he devoted himself for
several hours to the ecstatic appreciation of a small section of its
treasures. He lunched off some fruit and tea and bread and butter out
in the gardens, wandering about afterwards among the flower-beds and
paying especial and delighted attention to the lilac trees beyond the
Memorial. Towards evening he grew depressed. The memory of Ellen, of
little Alfred, and his gingerbread villa, became almost like a nightmare
to him. And then the light came! His great resolution was formed.
With beating heart he turned to a stationer's shop, bought a sheet of
paper and an envelope, borrowed a pen and wrote:
My DEAR ELLEN,
I am not coming home for a short time. As you remarked, there is
something the matter with me. I don't know what it is. Perhaps in a
few days I shall find out. I shall send your money as usual on
Saturday, and hope that you and the boy will continue well.
From your husband,
ALFRED BURTON.
Burton sighed a long sigh of intense relief as he folded up and
addressed this epistle.
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