Henry Maitland’s killing of Diana Maitland’s student lover is a buried crime from his past, disclosed years later when the grave in the woods is raised during an interrogation. Henry describes a confrontation that began with an offer of money and ended in the student’s death; his account exposes both the violence behind the apparent disappearance and the resentment that shaped his view of Diana Maitland’s relationships.

Background and Confrontation

Henry presents the killing against the deterioration of his marriage. He blamed himself for Diana Maitland’s miscarriage and her inability to have more children, but also resented her affairs and the humiliation he felt as her husband. The student stood out from the men Henry dismissed as Diana Maitland’s usual lovers: he considered him intelligent, good-looking, and very young, with an entire career ahead of him. Henry’s comparison between the student’s future and his own reveals how the encounter sharpened his sense of loss and grievance.

Henry went to the place where the student was camping and offered him money to leave. The student refused, apparently believing his relationship with Diana Maitland was genuine. Henry then tried to disabuse him of that belief by insulting Diana Maitland. The exchange became an argument, and Henry described what followed as a chain of events rather than a deliberate killing. His account does not clarify precisely how the student died, so the circumstances beyond the confrontation remain uncertain.

Concealment and Discovery

The student’s death was hidden in a grave in the woods. People assumed that he had simply left, and Diana Maitland shared that assumption. The disappearance therefore passed without revealing what Henry had done, while the grave preserved the truth until it was discovered years later. The contrast between the community’s ordinary explanation and the concealed death gives the revelation its force: what had seemed like an unexplained departure was a crime Henry had kept out of sight.

Revelation and Significance

The grave is brought up during a later exchange with Henry, prompting him to acknowledge that the dead student had been one of Diana Maitland’s lovers. Henry’s response confirms his involvement, but his description of the killing also shows his attempt to distance himself from intentional responsibility. He recounts offering money, the refusal, and the argument, then characterizes the fatal outcome as unintended without giving a fuller account of the act itself.

The disclosure links the student’s long-hidden death to Henry’s accumulated anger and humiliation, while distinguishing his own explanation from the facts the grave establishes. It also changes the meaning of the student’s disappearance: the young man did not choose to abandon his life and future, as others believed. Henry’s confession turns the grave from a remnant of an old mystery into evidence of a concealed crime and exposes how effectively the false assumption endured.