Midnight
It did not need the `` F '' upon the seal to tell Winifred Anstice from whom it came . She opened it , as she opened all sealed documents , with a hairpin , though two paper-cutters of silver and ivory lay at her hand on the tray . The note was brief . It was dated `` University Club , Midnight , '' and had no beginning , as if the writer could think of none befitting his feeling . `` I am distracted , '' it began abruptly , `` with the contest of fears and hopes , regret and satisfaction . If I seem to have unloaded upon you a burden of responsibility which was justly mine , I beg you to believe that I did it only because I could see no other way , and even then I meant only to ask you to share it . In place of this , with characteristic generosity you insisted upon assuming the whole .