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diff --git a/22808.txt b/22808.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..3e595bd --- /dev/null +++ b/22808.txt @@ -0,0 +1,1089 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gray Madam, by +Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Gray Madam + 1899 + +Author: Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +Release Date: September 29, 2007 [EBook #22808] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAY MADAM *** + + + + +Produced by David Widger + + + + + +THE GRAY MADAM. + +By Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +Copyright, 1899, by Earle H. Eaton + + +WAS it a specter? + +For days I could not answer this question. I am no believer in spiritual +manifestations, yet--But let me tell my story. + +I was lodging with my wife on the first floor of a house in +Twenty-seventh street. I had taken the apartments for three months, +and we had already lived in them two and found them sufficiently +comfortable. The back room we used as a bedroom, and while it +communicated with the hall, we invariably made use of the front +parlor-door to go in and out of. Two great leaves of old mahogany +connected the two rooms, and as we received but few friends, these doors +usually stood half open. + +One morning, my wife being ill, I left her lying in bed and stepped into +the parlor preparatory to going out for breakfast. It was late--nine +o'clock, probably--and I was hastening to leave, when I heard a sound +behind me--or did I merely feel a presence?--and, turning, saw a strange +and totally unknown woman coming toward me from my wife's room. + +As I had just left that room, and as there was no way of getting into it +except through a door we always kept locked, I was so overpowered by my +astonishment that I never thought of speaking or moving until she had +passed me. Then I found voice, and calling out "Madam!" endeavored to +stop her. + +But the madam, if madam she was, passed on as quietly, as mechanically +even, as if I had not raised my voice, and, before I could grasp the +fact that she was melting from before me, flitted through the hall to +the front door and so out, leaving behind on the palm of my hand the +"feel" of her wool dress, which I had just managed to touch. + +Not understanding her or myself or the strange thrill awakened by +this contact, I tore open the front door and looked out, expecting, of +course, to see her on the steps or on the sidewalk in front. But there +was no one of her appearance visible, and I came back questioning +whether I was the victim of a hallucination or just an everyday fool. +To satisfy myself on this important question I looked about for the +hall-boy, with the intention of asking him if he had seen any such +person go out, but that young and inconsequent scamp was missing from +his post as usual, and there was no one within sight to appeal to. + +There was nothing to do but to re-enter my rooms, where my attention +was immediately arrested by the sight of my wife sitting up in bed and +surveying me with a look of unmistakable astonishment. + +"Who was that woman?" she asked. "And how came she in here?" + +So she had seen her too. + +"What woman, Lydia? I have not let in any woman. Did you think there was +a woman in this room?" + +"Not in that room," she answered hoarsely, "but in this one. I saw her +just now passing through the folding doors. Wilbur, I am frightened. See +how my hands shake. Do you think I am sick enough to imagine things?" + +I knew she was not, but I did not say so. I thought it would be better +for her to think herself under some such delusion. + +"You were dozing," said I. "If you had seen a woman here, you could tell +me how she looked." + +"And I can," my wife broke in excitedly. "She was like the ghosts we +read of, only that her dress and the veil or drapery she wore were all +gray. Didn't you see her? You must have seen her. She went right by +you--a gray woman, all gray; a lady, Wilbur, and slightly lame. Could I +have dreamed all that?" + +"You must have!" I cried, shaking the one door communicating with the +hall, so she might see it was locked, and even showing her the key of +it, lying in its accustomed place behind the bureau cushion. Yet I +was in no satisfied condition myself, for she had described with the +greatest accuracy the very person I had myself seen. Had we been alike +the victims of a spiritual manifestation? + +This was Tuesday. On Friday my question seemed to receive an answer. I +had been down town, as usual, and on returning found a crowd assembled +in front of my lodging-house. A woman had been run over and was being +carried into our rooms. In the glimpse I caught of her I saw that she +was middle-aged and was wrapped in a long black cloak. Later, this cloak +fell off, as her hat had done long before, and I perceived that her +dress was black and decent. + +She was laid on our bed and every attention paid her. But she had been +grievously injured about the head and gradually but surely sank before +our eyes. Suddenly she roused and gave a look about her. It was a +remarkable one--a look of recognition and almost of delight. Then she +raised one hand and, pointing with a significant gesture into the empty +space before her, sank back and died. + +It was a sudden ending, and, anxious to see its effect upon my wife, who +was standing on the other side of the bed, I glanced her way with some +misgiving. She showed more feeling than I had anticipated. Indeed her +countenance was a study, and when, under, the influence of my scrutiny +she glanced my way, I saw that something of deeper import than this +unexpected death in our rooms lay at the bottom of her uneasy look. + +What that was, I was soon to know, for catching up from amid the folds +of the woman's gray-lined cloak a long gray veil which had fallen at +the bedside, she disposed it softly about the woman's face, darting me a +look full of significance. + +"You remember the vision I had the morning when I was sick?" she +whispered softly in my ear. + +I nodded, secretly thrilled to my very heart's core. + +"Well, it was a vision of this woman. If she were living and on her +feet and wrapped, as I have shown you, in this veil, you would behold +a living picture of the person I saw passing out of this room that +morning." + +"I shall not dispute you," I answered. Alas, I had myself perceived the +likeness the minute the veil had fallen about the pinched but handsome +features! + +"A forewarning," whispered my wife, "a forewarning of what has this day +happened under our roof. It was a wraith we saw. Wilbur, I shall not +spend another night in these rooms." + +And we did not. I was as anxious to leave as she was. Yet I am not +a superstitious man. As proof of it, after the first effect of these +events had left me, I began to question my first impressions and feel +tolerably ashamed of my past credulity. Though the phenomenon we +had observed could not to all appearance be explained by any natural +hypothesis; though I had seen, and my wife had seen, a strange woman +suddenly become visible in a room which a moment before had held no one +but ourselves, and into which no live woman could have entered without +our knowledge, something--was it my natural good sense?--recoiled before +a supernatural explanation of this, and I found myself forced to believe +that our first visitor had been as real as the last; in other words, the +same woman. + +But could I prove it? Could the seemingly impossible be made possible +and the unexplainable receive a solution satisfying to a rational mind? +I determined to make an effort to accomplish this, if only to relieve +the mind of my wife, who had not recovered her equanimity as readily as +myself. + +Starting with the assumption above mentioned--that the woman who +had died in our presence was the same who had previously found an +unexplainable entrance into these same rooms--I first inquired if the +black cloak lined with gray did not offer a solution to some of my +previous difficulties. It was a long cloak, enveloping her completely. +When worn with the black side out, she would present an inconspicuous +appearance, but with the gray side out and the effect of this heightened +by a long gray veil flung over her hat, she would look like the gray +lady I had first seen. Now, a cloak can be turned in an instant, and if +she had chosen to do this in flitting through my door I would naturally +find only a sedate, black-clothed woman passing up the street, when, +rousing from the apathy into which her appearance had thrown me, I +rushed to the front door and looked out. Had I seen such a woman? I +seemed to remember that I had. Thus much, then, was satisfactory, but to +account for her entrance into our rooms was not so easy. Had she slipped +by me in coming in as she had on going out? The parlor door was open, +for I had been out to get the paper. Could she have glided in by me +unperceived and thus have found her way into the bedroom from which I +afterward saw her issue? No, for I had stood facing the front hall door +all the time. Through the bedroom door then? But that was, as I have +said, locked. Here was a mystery, then; but it was one worth solving. + +My first step was to recall all that I had heard of the actual woman who +had been buried from our rooms. Her name, as ascertained in the cheap +boarding-house to which she was traced, was Helmuth, and she was, so far +as any one knew, without friends or relatives in the city. To those who +saw her daily she was a harmless, slightly demented woman with money +enough to live above want, but not enough to warrant her boasting talk +about the rich things she was going to buy some day and the beautiful +presents she would soon be in a position to give away. The money found +on her person was sufficient to bury her, but no papers were in her +possession, nor any letters calculated to throw light upon her past +life. + +Her lameness had been caused by paralysis, but the date of her attack +was not known. + +Finding no clue in this to what I wished to learn, I went back to our +old rooms, which had not been let since our departure, and sought +for one there, and, strangely enough, I found it. I thought I knew +everything there was to be known about the apartment we had lived in +two months, but one little fact had escaped me which, under the scrutiny +that I now gave it, became apparent. This was simply that the key which +opened the hall door of the bedroom and which we had seldom if ever used +was not as old a key as that of the corresponding door in the parlor, +and this fact, small as it was, led me to make inquiries. + +The result was that I learned something about the couple who had +preceded us in the use of these rooms. They were of middle age and of +great personal elegance, but uncertain pay, the husband being nothing +more nor less than a professional gambler. Their name was L'Hommedieu. + +When I first heard of them, I thought that Mrs. L'Hommedieu might be the +Mrs. Helmuth in whose history I was so interested, but from all I could +learn she was a very different sort of person. Mrs. L'Hommedieu was gay, +dashing and capable of making a show out of a flimsy silk a shop-girl +would hesitate to wear. Yet she looked distinguished and wore her +cheap jewelry with more grace than many a woman her diamonds. I would, +consequently, have dropped this inquiry if some one had not remarked +upon her having had a paralytic stroke after leaving the house. This, +together with the fact that the key to the rear door, which I had found +replaced by a new one, had been taken away by her and never returned, +connected her so indubitably with my mysterious visitor that I resolved +to pursue my investigations into Mrs. L'Hommedieu's past. + +For this purpose I sought out a quaint little maiden-lady living on the +top floor, who, I was told, knew more about the L'Hommedieus than any +one in the building. Miss Winterburn, whose acquaintance I had failed +to make while residing in the house, was a fluttering, eager, affable +person, whose one delight was, as I soon found, to talk about the +L'Homme-dieus. Of the story she related I give as much as I can of it in +her own words. + +"I was never their equal," said she, "but Mrs. L'Hommedieu was lonely, +and, having no friends in town, was good enough to admit me to her +parlor now and then and even to allow me to accompany her to the theater +when her husband was away on one of his mysterious visits. I never liked +Mr. L'Homme-dieu, but I did like her. She was so different from me, and, +when I first knew her, so gay and so full of conversation. But after +awhile she changed and was either feverishly cheerful or morbidly sad, +so that my visits caused me more pain than pleasure. The reason for +these changes in her was patent to everybody. Though her husband was a +handsome man, he was as unprincipled as he was unfortunate. He gambled. +This she once admitted to me, and while at long intervals he met with +some luck he more often returned dispirited and with that hungry, +ravening look you expect to see in a wolf cheated of its prey. + +"I used to be afraid he would strike her after some one of these +disappointments, but I do not think he ever did. She had a determined +character of her own, and there have been times when I have thought he +was as much afraid of her as she was of him. I became sure of this +after one night. Mrs. L'Hommedieu and myself were having a little supper +together in the front parlor you have so lately occupied. It was a +very ordinary supper, for the L'Hommedieus' purse had run low, and Mrs. +L'Hommedieu was not the woman to spend much at any time on her eating. +It was palatable, however, and had been cooked by us both together, and +I was enjoying it and would have enjoyed it more if Mrs. L'Hommedieu had +had more appetite. But she ate scarcely anything and seemed very anxious +and unhappy, though she laughed now and then with sudden gusts of mirth +too hysterical to be real. It was not late, and yet we were both very +much surprised when there came a knock at the door, followed by the +entrance of a visitor. + +"Mrs. L'Hommedieu, who is always _la grande dame_, rose without apparent +embarrassment to meet the gentleman who entered, though I knew she could +not help but feel keenly the niggardly appearance of the board she left +with such grace. The stranger--he was certainly a stranger; this I could +see by the formality of her manner--was a gentleman of urbane bearing +and a general air of prosperity. + +"I remember every word that passed. + +"'My name is Lafarge,' said he. 'I am, or rather have been, under great +obligations to your husband, and I have come to discharge my debt. Is he +at home?' + +"Mrs. L'Hommedieu's eye, which had sparkled at his name, dropped +suddenly as he put the final question. + +"'I am sorry,' she returned after a moment of embarrassment, 'but my +husband is very seldom home evenings. If you could come about noon some +day'-- + +"'Thank you,' said he, with a bright smile, 'but I will finish my +business now and with you, seeing that Mr. L'Hommedieu is not at home. +Years ago--I am sure you have heard your husband mention my name--I +borrowed quite a sum of money from him, which I have never paid. You +recall the amount, no doubt?' + +"'I have heard Mr. L'Hommedieu say it was a thousand dollars,' she +replied, with a sudden fluttering of her hands indicative of great +excitement. + +"'That is the sum,' he allowed, either not noticing me or thinking me +too insignificant to be considered. 'I regret to have kept him so long +out of it, but I have not forgotten to add the interest in making out +this statement of my indebtedness, and if you will look over this paper +and acknowledge its correctness I will leave the equivalent of my debt +here and now, for I sail for Europe to-morrow morning and wish to have +all my affairs in order before leaving.' + +"Mrs. L'Hommedieu, who looked ready to faint from excess of feeling, +summoned up her whole strength, looking so beautiful as she did so, that +one forgot the ribbons on her sleeves were no longer fresh and that the +silk dress she wore hung in the very limpest of folds. + +"'I am obliged to you,' she said in a tone from which she strove in vain +to suppress all eagerness. 'And if I may speak for Mr. L'Hommedieu he +will be as grateful for your remembrance of us as for the money you so +kindly offer to return to him.' + +"The stranger bowed low and took out a folded paper, which he handed +her. He was not deceived, I am sure, by her grand airs, and knew as well +as I did that no woman ever stood in greater need of money. But nothing +in his manner betrayed this knowledge. + +"'It is a bond I give you,' he now explained. 'As you will see, it has +coupons attached to it, which you can cash at any time. It will prove as +valuable to you as so much ready money and possibly more convenient.' + +"And with just this hint, which I took as significant of his complete +understanding of her position, he took her receipt and politely left the +house. + +"Once alone with me who am nobody, her joy had full vent. I have never +seen any one so lost in delight as she was for a few minutes. To have +this money thrust upon her just at a moment when actual want seemed +staring her in the face was too much of a relief for her to conceal +either the misery she had been under or the satisfaction she now +enjoyed. Under the gush of her emotions her whole history came out, but +as you have often heard the like I will not repeat it, especially as it +was all contained in the cry with which a little later she thrust the +bond toward me. + +"'He must not see it! He must not! It would go like all the rest, and I +would again be left without a cent. Take it and keep it, for I have no +means of concealing it here. He is too suspicious.' + +"But this was asking more than I was willing to grant. Seeing how I +felt, she thrust the paper into her bosom with a look before which +I secretly recoiled. 'You will not charge yourself with such a +responsibility?' said she. 'But I can trust you not to tell him?' + +"'Yes,' I nodded, feeling sick of the whole business. + +"'Then'--But here the door was violently flung open and without any +warning Mr. L'Hommedieu burst into the room in a state of as much +excitement as his wife, only his was the excitement of desperation. + +"'Gone! Gone!' he cried, ignoring me as completely as had Mr. Lafarge. +'Not a dollar left; not even my studs! See!' And he pointed to his +shirt front hanging apart in a way I would never have looked for in this +reckless but fastidious gentleman. 'Yet if I had had a dollar more or +even a ring worth a dollar or so I might have---- Theresa, have you any +money at all? A coin now might save us.' + +"Mrs. L'Hommedieu, who had turned alarmingly pale, drew up her fine +figure and resolutely confronted him. 'No!' said she, and shifting her +gaze she turned it meaningly upon me. + +"He misunderstood this movement. Thinking it simply a reminder of my +presence, he turned and, with his false but impressive show of courtesy, +made me a low bow. Then he forgot me utterly again, and facing his wife, +growled out: + +"'Where are you going to get breakfast then? You don't look like a woman +who expects to starve!' + +"It was a fatal remark, for, do what she would, she could not prevent a +slight smile of disdain, and, seeing it, he kept his eyes riveted on her +face till her uneasiness became manifest. Instantly his suspicion took +form, and, surveying her still more fixedly, he espied a corner of the +precious paper protruding slightly above her corsage. To snatch it +out, open it and realize its value was the work of a moment. Her cry of +dismay and his shout of mad triumph rang out simultaneously, and never +have I seen such an ebullition of opposing passions as I was made +witness to as his hand closed over this small fortune and their staring +eyes met in the mortal struggle they had now entered upon for its +ultimate possession. + +"She was the first to speak. 'It was given to me; it was meant for me. +If I keep it, both of us will profit by it, but if you----' + +"He did not wait for her to finish. 'Where did you get it?' he cried. +'I can break the bank with what I can raise on this bond at the club. +Darraugh's in town. You know what that means. Luck's in the air, and +with an hundred dollars--But I've no time to talk. I came for a dollar, +a fifty-cent piece, a dime even, and I go back with a bond worth----' + +"But she was already between him and the door. 'You will never carry +that bond out of this house,' she whispered in the tone which goes +further than any cry. 'I have not held it in my hand to see it follow +every other good thing I have had in life. I will not, Henry. Take that +bond and sink it as you have all the rest and I fall at your feet a dead +woman. I will never survive the destruction of my last hope.' + +"He was cowed--for a moment, that is; she looked so superb and so +determined. Then all that was mean and despicable in his thinly veneered +nature came to the surface, and, springing forward with an oath, he was +about to push her aside, when, without the moving of a finger on her +part, he reeled back, recovered himself, caught at a chair, missed it +and fell heavily to the floor. + +"'My God, I thank thee!' was the exclamation with which she broke +from the trance of terror into which she had been thrown by his sudden +attempt to pass her; and without a glance at his face, which to me +looked like the face of a dead man, she tore the paper from his hand and +stood looking about her with a wild and searching gaze, in the desperate +hope that somehow the walls would open and offer her a safe place of +concealment for the precious sheet of paper. Meanwhile I had crept near +the prostrate man. He was breathing, but was perfectly unconscious. + +"'Don't you mean to do something for him?' I asked. 'He may die.' + +"She met my question with the dazed air of one suddenly awakened. 'No, +he'll not die, but he'll not come to for some minutes, and this must be +hidden first. But where? where? I cannot trust it on my person or in any +place a man like him would search. I must devise some means--ah!' + +"With this final exclamation she had dashed into the other room. I did +not see where she went--I did not want to--but I soon realized she was +working somewhere in a desperate hurry. I could hear her breath coming +in quick, short pants as I bent over her husband, waiting for him to +rouse and hating my inaction even while I succumbed to it. + +"Suddenly she was back in the parlor again, and to my surprise passed +immediately to the little table in the corner where we had sat at +supper. We had had for our simple refreshment that homeliest of all +dishes, boiled milk thickened with flour. There was still some left in a +bowl, and taking this away with her, she called back hoarsely: + +"'Pray that he does not come to till I have finished. It will be the +best prayer you ever made.' + +"She told me afterward that he was subject to these attacks and that she +had long ceased to be alarmed by them. But to me the sight of this man +lying there so helpless, was horrible and, though I hated him and pitied +her, I scarcely knew what to wish. While battling with my desire to run +and the feeling of loyalty which held me kneeling at that man's side, I +heard her speak again, this time in an even and slightly hard tone: 'Now +you may dash a glass of cold water in his face. I am prepared to meet +him. Happily his memory fails him after these attacks. I may succeed in +making him believe that the bond he saw was one of his fancies.' + +"'Had you not better throw the water yourself?' I suggested, getting up +and meeting her eye very quietly. + +"She looked at me in wonder, then moved calmly to the table, took the +glass and dashed a few drops of water into her husband's face. Instantly +he began to stir, seeing which I arose without haste, but without any +unnecessary delay, and quietly took my leave. I could bear no more that +night. + +"Next morning I awoke in a fright. I had dreamed that he had come to my +room in search of the bond. But it was only her knock at the door and +her voice, asking if she might enter at this early hour. It was such a +relief I gladly let her in, and she entered with her best air and flung +herself on my little lounge with the hysterical cry: + +"'He has sent me up. I told him I ought not to intrude at such an +inconvenient hour: that you would not have had your breakfast.' (How +carelessly she spoke! How hard she tried to keep the hungry note out of +her voice!) 'But he insisted upon my coming up. I know why. He searched +me before I left the room, and now he wants to search the room itself.' + +"'Then he did remember?' I began. + +"'Yes, he remembers now. I saw it in his eyes as soon as he awoke. But +he will not find the bond. That is safe, and some day when I shall have +escaped his vigilance long enough to get it back again I will use it so +as to make him as well as myself comfortable. I am not a selfish woman.' + +"I did not think she was, and I felt pity for her, and so after dressing +and making her a cup of tea--I can myself do very well without one on +a pinch--I sat down with her, and we chatted for an hour or so quite +comfortably. Then she grew so restless and consulted the clock so often +that I tried to soothe her by remarking that it was not an easy task he +had set himself, at which she laughed in a mysterious way, but failed to +grow less anxious till our suspense was cut short by the appearance of +the janitor with a message from Mr. L'Hommedieu. + +"'Mr. L'Hommedieu's compliments,' said he, 'and he hopes Mrs. +L'Hommedieu will make herself comfortable and not think of coming down. +He is doing everything that is necessary and will soon be through. You +can rest quite easy, ma'am.' + +"'What does he mean?' marveled the poor woman as the janitor +disappeared. 'Is he spending all this time ransacking the rooms? I wish +I dared disobey him. I wish I dared go down.' + +"But her courage was not equal to an open disregard of his wishes, and +she had to subdue her impatience and wait for a summons that did not +come till near two o'clock. Then Mr. L'Hommedieu himself appeared with +her hat and mantle on his arm. + +"'My dear,' said he as she rose, haggard with excitement, to meet him, +'I have brought your wraps with me that you may go directly from here to +our new home. Shall I assist you to put them on? You do not look as well +as usual, and that is why I have undertaken this thing all myself--to +save you, my dear; to save you each and every exertion.' + +"I had flung out my arms to catch her, for I thought she was going to +faint, but she did not, though I think it would have been better for her +if she had. + +"'We are going to leave this house?' she asked, speaking very slowly and +with a studied lack of emotion that imposed upon nobody. + +"'I have said so,' he smiled. 'The dray has already taken away the half +of our effects, and the rest will follow at Mrs. Latimer's convenience.' + +"'Ah, I understand!' she replied, with a gasp of relief significant +of her fear that by some superhuman cunning he had found the bond she +thought so safely concealed. 'I was wondering how Mrs. Latimer came +to allow us to leave.' (I tell you they always talked as if I were not +present.) 'Our goods are left as a surety, it seems.' + +"'Half of our goods,' he blandly corrected. 'Would it interest you to +know which half?' + +"'The cunning of this insinuation was matched by the imperturbable shrug +with which she replied. 'So a bed has been allowed us and some clothes +I am satisfied,' at which he bit his lips, vexed at her self-control and +his own failure to break it. + +"'You have not asked where we are going,' he observed as with apparent +solicitude he threw her mantle over her shoulders. + +"The air of lassitude with which she replied bespoke her feeling on that +point. 'I have little curiosity,' she said. 'You know I can be happy +anywhere. And, turning toward me, she moved her lips in a way I +interpreted to mean: 'Go below with me. See me out.' + +"'Say what you have to say to Miss Winter-burn aloud,' he dryly +suggested. + +"'I have nothing to say to Miss Winterburn but thanks,' was her cold +reply, belied, however, by the trembling of her fingers as she essayed +to fit on her gloves. + +"'And those I will receive below!' I cried, with affected gaiety. 'I am +going down with you to the door.' And resolutely ignoring his frown I +tripped down before them. On the last stair I felt her steps lagging. +Instantly I seemed to comprehend what was required of me, and, rushing +forward, I entered the front parlor. He followed close behind me, for +how could he know I was not in collusion with her to regain the bond? +This gave her one minute by herself in the rear, and in that minute she +secured the key which would give her future access to the spot where her +treasure lay hidden. + +"The rest of the story I must give you mainly from hearsay. You must +understand by this time what Mr. L'Hommedieu's scheme was in moving +thus suddenly. He knew that it would be impossible for him, by the most +minute and continuous watchfulness, to prevent his wife from +recovering the bond while they continued to inhabit the rooms in which, +notwithstanding his failure to find it, he had reason to believe +it still lay concealed. But once in other quarters it would be +comparatively easy for him to subject her to a surveillance which +not only would prevent her from returning to this house without his +knowledge, but would lead her to give away her secret by the very +natural necessity she would be under of going to the exact spot where +her treasure lay hid. + +"It was a cunning plot and showed him to be as able as he was +unscrupulous. How it worked I will now proceed to tell you. It must +have been the next afternoon that the janitor came running up to me--I +suppose he had learned by this time that I had more than ordinary +interest in these people--to say that Mrs. L'Hommedieu had been in the +house and had been so frightened by a man who had followed her that she +had fainted dead away on the floor. Would I go down to her? + +"I had rather have gone anywhere else, unless it was to prison, but duty +cannot be shirked, and I followed the man down. But we were too late. +Mrs. L'Hommedieu had recovered and gone away, and the person who had +frightened her was also gone, and only the hall-boy remained to give any +explanations. + +"This was what he had to say: + +"'The man it was who went first. As soon as the lady fell he skipped +out. I don't think he meant no good here--' + +"'Did she drop here in the hall?' I asked, unable to restrain my intense +anxiety. + +"'Oh, no, ma'am! They was in the back room yonder, which she got in +somehow. The man followed her in, sneaking and sneaking like an eel or a +cop, and she fell right against---' + +"'Don't tell me where!' I cried. 'I don't want to know where!' And I was +about to return up-stairs when I heard a quick, sharp voice behind +me and realized that Mr. L'Hommedieu had come in and was having some +dispute with the janitor. + +"Common prudence led me to listen. He wanted, as was very natural, to +enter the room where his wife had just been surprised, but the janitor, +alarmed by the foregoing very irregular proceedings, was disposed to +deny his right to do so. + +"'The furniture is held as a surety,' said he, 'and I have orders---' + +"But Mr. L'Hommedieu had a spare dollar, and before many minutes had +elapsed I heard him go into that room and close the door. Of the next +ten minutes and the suspense I felt I need not speak. When he came out +again, he looked as if the ground would not hold him. + +"'I have done some mischief, I fear,' he airily said as he passed by +the janitor. 'But I'll pay for it. Don't worry. I'll pay for it and the +rent, too, to-morrow. You may tell Mrs. Latimer so.' And he was gone, +leaving us all agape in the hallway. + +"A minute later we all crept to that room and looked in. Now that he +had got the money I for one was determined to know where she had hid it. +There was no mistaking the spot. A single glance was enough to show us +the paper ripped off from a portion of the wall, revealing a narrow gap +behind the baseboard large enough to hold the bond. It was near--" + +"Wait!" I put in as I remembered where the so called Mrs. Helmuth +had pointed just before she died. "Wasn't it at the left of the large +folding doors and midway to the wall?" + +"How came you to know?" she asked. "Did Mrs. Latimer tell you?" But as I +did not answer she soon took up the thread of her narrative again, and, +sighing softly, said: + +"The next day came and went, but no Mr. L'Hommedieu appeared; another, +and I began to grow seriously uneasy; a third, and a dreadful thing +happened. Late in the afternoon Mrs. L'Hommedieu, dressed very oddly for +her, came sliding in at the front door, and with an appealing smile at +the hall-boy, who wished but dared not ask her for the key which made +these visits possible, glided by to her old rooms, and, finding the door +unlocked, went softly in. Her appearance is worth description, for it +shows the pitiful efforts she made at disguise, in the hope, I suppose, +of escaping the surveillance she was evidently conscious of being under. +She was in the habit of wearing on cool days a black circular with +a gray lining. This she had turned inside out so that the gray was +uppermost, while over her neat black bonnet she had flung a long veil, +also gray, which not only hid her face, but gave to her appearance +an eccentric look as different as possible from her usual aspect. The +hall-boy, who had never seen her save in showy black or bright colors, +said she looked like a ghost in the daytime, but it was all done for +a purpose, I am sure, and to escape the attention of the man who had +before followed her. Alas, he might have followed her this time without +addition to her suffering! Scarcely had she entered the room where her +treasure had been left than she saw the torn paper and gaping baseboard, +and, uttering a cry so piercing it found its way even to the stolid +heart of the hall-boy, she tottered back into the hall, where she fell +into the arms of her husband, who had followed her in from the street in +a state of frenzy almost equal to her own. + +"The janitor, who that minute appeared on the stairway, says that he +never saw two such faces. They looked at each other and were speechless. +He was the first to hang his head. + +"'It is gone, Henry,' she whispered. 'It is gone. You have taken it.' + +"He did not answer. + +"'And it is lost! You have risked it, and it is lost!' + +"He uttered a groan. 'You should have given it to me that night. There +was luck in the air then. Now the devil is in the cards and--' + +"Her arms went up with a shriek. 'My curse be upon you, Henry +L'Hommedieu!' And whether it was the look with which she said this that +moved him, or whether there was some latent love in his heart for this +once beautiful and long-suffering woman, he shrank at her words, and, +stumbling like a man in the darkness, uttered a heart-rending groan and +rushed from the house. We never saw him again. + +"As for her, she fell this time under a paralytic attack which robbed +her of her faculties. She was taken to a hospital, where I frequently +visited her, but either from grief or the effect of her attack she did +not know me, nor did she ever recognize any of us again. Mrs. Latimer, +who is a just woman, sold her furniture and after paying herself out of +the proceeds, gave the remainder to the hospital nurses in charge for +Mrs. L'Hommedieu, so that when she left there she had something with +which to start life anew. But where she went or how she managed to get +along in her enfeebled condition I do not know. I never heard of her +again." + +"Then you did not see the woman who died in those rooms?" I asked. + +The effect of these words was magical and led to mutual explanations. +She had not seen that woman, having encountered all the sorrow she +wished to in that room. Nor was there any one else in the house who +would be likely to recognize Mrs. L'Hommedieu; both the janitor and +hall-boy being new and Mrs. Latimer one of those proprietors who are +only seen on rent day. For the rest, Mrs. L'Hommedieu's defective +memory, which had led her to haunt the house and room where her money +had once been hidden, accounted not only for her first visit, but the +last, which had ended so fatally. The cunning she showed in turning her +cloak and flinging a veil over her hat was the cunning of a partially +clouded mind. It was a reminiscence of the morning when her terrible +misfortune occurred. My habit of taking the key out of the lock of that +unused door made the use of her own key possible, and her fear of being +followed, caused her to lock the door behind her. My wife, who must +have fallen into a doze on my leaving her, did not see her enter, but +detected her just as she was trying to escape through the folding doors. +My presence in the parlor probably added to her embarrassment, and she +fled, turning her cloak as she did so. + +How simple it seemed now that we knew the facts; but how obscure, and to +all appearance, unexplainable, before the clew was given to the mystery! + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Gray Madam, by +Anna Katharine Green (Mrs. Charles Rohlfs) + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE GRAY MADAM *** + +***** This file should be named 22808.txt or 22808.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + http://www.gutenberg.org/2/2/8/0/22808/ + +Produced by David Widger + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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