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diff --git a/57623-0.txt b/57623-0.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1232f99 --- /dev/null +++ b/57623-0.txt @@ -0,0 +1,6037 @@ +*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57623 *** + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +Transcriber's Note: + 1. Page scan source: The Internet Web Archive + https://archive.org/details/loudwatertragedy00speiuoft + + + + + + +THE +LOUDWATER TRAGEDY + + + +BY +T. W. SPEIGHT +AUTHOR OF "THE MYSTERIES OF HERON DYKE," "HOODWINKED," +"BACK TO LIFE," ETC. + + + +London +CHATTO & WINDUS, PICCADILLY +1893 + + + + + + +CONTENTS +CHAP. + PROLOGUE. + I. ON THE EDGE OF A SECRET. + II. WHO IS MRS. WINSLADE? + III. THE SECRET TOLD. + IV. IN WHICH MISS SUDLOW SPEAKS HER MIND. + V. A FAMILY CONFERENCE AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + VI. IN WHICH MISS SUDLOW HAS HER WAY. + VII. PERSONAL TO PHIL. + VIII. PHIL TAKES UP THE TRAIL AFRESH. + IX. A DEADLOCK. + X. UNCHRISTIAN CHARITY. + XI. FANNY AT LOUDWATER HOUSE. + XII. MRS. MELRAY THE YOUNGER IN A NEW LIGHT. + XIII. MRS. MELRAY'S STATEMENT. + XIV. THE STATEMENT CONCLUDED. + XV. A SCRAP OF PAPER. + XVI. A FRESH LINE OF INQUIRY. + XVII. "A MAN I AM, CROSS'D WITH ADVERSITY." + XVIII. AN UNLOOKED-FOR DEVELOPMENT. + XIX. AN UNAVOIDABLE NECESSITY. + XX. "WE MUST SPEAK BY THE CARD." + XXI. THE TRUTH AT LAST. + XXII. ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. + + + + + + +THE +LOUDWATER TRAGEDY. + + + + +PROLOGUE. +THE STORY OF THE CRIME. + + +12 Leighton Place, Worthing. +_Thursday_. + +"My Dear Phil.--By this post I send you a copy of a certain penny +weekly journal entitled _The Family Cornucopia_, which, for lack of +something better to read, I picked up the other day at a bookstall +while on my way to the beach. + +"Naturally, you will at once say to yourself (for you cannot deny, +dear, that you occasionally express yourself with somewhat unnecessary +emphasis over trifles), 'What the dickens does the girl mean by +bothering me with her trumpery penny rubbish?' Well, that is just the +point about which 'the girl' is going to enlighten you. + +"Of course you have not forgotten 'The Loudwater Tragedy,' as most of +the newspapers called it at the time (although some there were who +wrote of it as the 'Merehampton Mystery'). Neither, perhaps, has it +escaped your memory how, with the object of helping to interest and +carry out of herself for a little while, a young woman who, just then, +was staying at a dull Devonshire village with the captious, but +much-to-be-pitied, invalid in whose service she was, you wrote her a +number of letters, dated from the very roof under which the tragedy in +question had been enacted, in which you recapitulated for her +information all the details of the crime as gathered by you on the +spot; nor how you sketched for her the old mansion and its inmates, +with the view from its windows, and all the quaint features of the +sleepy little seaport, so that, after a time, she could almost have +persuaded herself that what you had written formed a part of her +personal experiences. If you have forgotten those letters, I have not. +Yesterday I refreshed my memory by reading them again, and the reason +I did so is this. + +"In the periodical I am sending you there is an article extending over +five pages, entitled, 'How, and Why' which, strange to say, not merely +seems to be based on the Loudwater Tragedy, but, under the guise of +fiction, tells the story of the crime down to its minutest details; +and not only does that, but, with almost photographic fidelity, limns +for its readers the portraits of the various persons who were in any +way mixed up with that mysterious affair. + +"But the writer of 'How, and Why'--he or she, as the case may be--does +more, much more, than merely retell the story of the crime and +describe the people who had to do with it. The article in question +purports to be the confession of the murderer of Mr. Melray, written +on the eve of his suicide, and professes to trace, step by step, how +he was led on to the commission of the crime, and, in point of fact, +sets the whole affair in an entirely fresh and startling light. To +prove to you that this is so, it will only be necessary to say that +the writer of the confession describes himself as having been a lover, +before her marriage, of the old merchant's 'girl-wife,' and that it +was owing to his inadvertently interrupting an assignation between the +young people that 'Mr. Melville' came by his death. High words passed +between the elder man and the younger; there was a scuffle; a blow was +given in the heat of passion, and in a moment the irrevocable deed was +done. I have omitted to say that, according to the story, after the +police have given up the case as hopeless, suspicion unexpectedly +attaches itself to the head-clerk, (who figures as 'Mr. Day'), and +that, in the result, circumstantial evidence is brought to bear +against him sufficiently strong to ensure his conviction on the +capital charge. It is after 'Mr. Day' is left for execution that the +writer of the confession--who, although he acknowledges to the crime +of which he has been guilty, is careful to impress upon his readers +that he is not without his fine qualities--overcome by remorse, +determines to avow the truth and thereby save the life of an innocent +man, albeit at the expense of his own. He pens a farewell message to +the 'Ernestine' of the story--that is to say, to the murdered man's +widow--and then gives his readers to understand that the moment after +the last word of his confession shall have been written he will +swallow the poison which he has procured in readiness for that +purpose. + +"Now, all this seems to me sufficiently remarkable. Of course, the +question is, how much truth and how much fiction underlies the +supposititious confession? That the whole of the latter part of it is +purely fictitious we know already. We know, for instance, that not an +iota of suspicion ever attached itself to Mr. Melray's managing clerk. +Consequently that he has never been arrested, tried, or condemned. +Further than that, we know that the crime remains an unexplained +mystery to this day. + +"In view, then, of the fact that the latter half of the self-styled +confession is proved to be a sheer invention, might it not reasonably +be assumed that the first half pertains to the same class of +narrative? Such would seem to be a common-sense way of looking at the +affair, were it not that there is so much of actual fact as regards +the commission of the crime itself mixed up with the narrative, and so +many real persons under assumed names introduced therein, as to create +a suspicion (in my mind, at least) that there may be some substratum +of truth in that part of it which attributes the death of Mr. Melray +to a quarrel with a former lover of his young and attractive wife. + +"That you will read 'How, and Why,' after what I have here said about +it, I do not doubt; after which I think you will agree with me that +the story refers to 'The Loudwater Tragedy' and to no other crime, and +that the writer of it, whoever he may be, displays a singularly minute +and intimate acquaintance with all the details of that still unsolved +mystery. + +"You will say to yourself that this is a strange letter for a young +woman to write to her lover, and so it is, but then the circumstances +of the case are peculiar. However, I promise you that my next letter +shall be a very different kind of composition. + +"Miss Mawby's bell has just rung, so I will conclude without a word +more, except that, now and always, I am yours and yours only, + +"Fanny Sudlow." + + +Such was the letter which Philip Winslade found one morning on his +breakfast-table. But before introducing either the writer or the +recipient of it to the reader's notice, it may be as well to give a +brief _résumé_ of the main facts in connection with the affair known +as "The Loudwater Tragedy," so far as they had hitherto been brought +to light, as also of certain of the events which led up to it. + +Those who are acquainted with the once thriving port of Merehampton +know what a pleasant, but withal dull, little town it is. No business +firm in it is, or rather was a few years ago, more widely known or +highly respected than that of Melray Brothers, ship-brokers and +general merchants. Of the two brothers who made up the firm, James, +the elder, was, to all intents and purposes, the sole representative. +Robert, the younger brother, had been delicate from boyhood, and found +it to the advantage of his health to winter abroad. Indeed, whenever +he happened to be in England his visits to Merehampton were few and +perfunctory, and while retaining a monetary interest in the business, +he never concerned himself with the details, but willingly left the +entire management to James, who, on his part, being a masterful kind +of man and one who would have felt it irksome to have to put up with a +partner who might chance to hold independent views--was quite content +that matters should remain as they were. At this time James Melray was +fifty years old, Robert being his junior by some ten or eleven years. + +The house in which James dwelt, and under the roof of which both the +brothers had been born, was known as Loudwater House, through having, +once on a time, been the domicile of an old county family of that +name. It was a handsome and substantial red-brick structure of the +early Georgian period, with a good deal of ornamental stonework about +it, and stood fronting the river Laming (for Merehampton is between +three and four miles up stream from the sea) on what in these latter +days was known as the Quay-side, but which at the time the house was +built had doubtless been either green fields or private grounds +pertaining to it. So long ago, however, was it since that part of the +river had been banked in and the Quay-side called into existence, and +since its row of ugly warehouses had been erected, each with its crane +protruding from its second or third storey, and each with its suite of +gloomy offices on the ground floor, that not even the oldest +inhabitant of Merehampton could remember the place as being other than +it was now. It was only a matter of course that, having become the +home of a commercial family, the Georgian mansion should, to some +extent, be put to commercial uses. Thus it had come to pass that the +groundfloor rooms had been turned in part into offices and in part +into a warehouse, with an additional room in which were stored +cordage, blocks, sails, spars, chains and tools of various kinds, +together with a miscellaneous assortment of maritime gear and +appliances. + +There could be but little doubt that Merehampton had passed the zenith +of its prosperity as a seaport. With the opening of the railway a +vital blow had been struck at the shipping interests of the little +town. The coasting trade had dwindled by degrees to less than half of +what it had been a few years before; some of the merchants and +shippers had become bankrupt; others had taken themselves and their +capital elsewhere; others, on the principle of half a loaf being +better than none, had made the best of what could not be helped; half +the warehouses on the Quay-side were untenanted; but through it all +the firm of Melray Brothers had held manfully on its way, although in +the face of a sorely diminished trade. + +James Melray's household was a small one, comprising, as it did, only +himself, his mother--a venerable lady between seventy and eighty years +of age--who had her own suite of rooms and her own maid and companion, +and, lastly, the merchant's girl-wife, who at the time the tragedy +took place had been married to him some two and a half years. + +Mr. Melray was a widower of some years' standing, but without family, +when he first met Denia Lidington, who was the orphan niece and ward +of one of his oldest friends. This friend dying, left Denia and her +small fortune to his charge till the girl should come of age--a charge +which Mr. Melray willingly undertook. How and by what degrees the +kindly semi-paternal feeling with which he at first regarded the +lonely girl changed to a sentiment of a far different texture is not +within the scope of this narrative to describe. It is enough to say +that about a year after his friend's death James Melray proposed to +Denia Lidington, and, somewhat to his own surprise, was accepted +without the slightest demur. + +The marriage took place at Solchester, an inland town about a dozen +miles from Merehampton, where, after her uncle's death, Denia had +found a home in the house of a widowed lady of good family, but +limited means, in whom Mr. Melray had implicit confidence. A month +later the bride entered upon her new duties as the mistress of +Loudwater House. + +That she was an exceedingly pretty and attractive-looking young woman +everybody was agreed; indeed, there were not wanting some who went so +far as to call her beautiful. Her figure was slight, but full of +grace, and was rather under the medium height of her sex. She had eyes +of the clearest April blue, shaded by heavy lashes, finely-arched +eyebrows, and a mass of silky maize-coloured hair. Her complexion was +a pure creamy white, with only the very faintest flush of colour +showing through it. There was nothing striking or pronounced about her +features; indeed, considered in detail, they might have been termed +insignificant, but, regarded as a whole, their effect was undeniably +charming. + +It was a matter of course, in view of the disparity in the ages of +bride and bridegroom, that there should be no lack of croakers and +prophets of the pessimistic school, who, one and all, took upon +themselves to predict that such an union could be productive of +nothing but discord and unhappiness, if not of evils still more dire. +Time went on, however, and these and all, such vaticinations remained +unfulfilled. Nowhere, to all seeming, could there have been found a +more contented or cosily happy wedded pair. Mrs. Melray fell in with +her husband's tastes and mode of life with an easy adaptability which +was as delightful as was surprising in one so many years his junior. +She made his friends her friends, and never seemed to long or care for +any other society than that to which he chose to introduce her. She +dressed soberly, but in excellent taste, and after a fashion which +caused her to look half-a-dozen years older than her age. James +Melray's first marriage had not been a happy one. His wife, a woman of +an intractable temper, had been addicted to secret dram-drinking, and +had thereby hastened her end. All the greater seemed the contrast +between his life as it was now and as it had been then. In all +Merehampton there was no happier man than he. + +We now come to the fatal evening of Friday, September 18. + +Twice every week, on the evenings of Tuesday and Friday, it had for +years been Mr. Melray's custom to leave home as the clock was striking +eight and make his way to the house of his friend Mr. Arbour, for the +purpose of forming one at a sober rubber of whist. It was a custom +which he had seen no reason for pretermitting after his second +marriage, more especially in view of the fact that Mrs. Melray number +two had never expressed the slightest desire that he should do so, and +although she was thereby left alone for two or three hours on the +evenings in question, she never failed to part from him with a kiss +and a smile, nor greet him after the same fashion on his return. + +On the aforesaid 18th of September Mr. Melray set out for his friend's +house as usual. His wife accompanied him downstairs as far as the +entrance hall and helped him to induct himself into his overcoat, and +then, before she let him go, and because the evening was chilly, she +insisted on tying a white silk muffler round his throat as a further +protection against the weather. Then came the customary parting kiss, +after which Mrs. Melray stood in the open doorway for a half a minute, +watching her husband's retreating form. Then she shut the door and +hurried back upstairs to the cosy drawing-room. + +That evening Mr. Arbour and his friends waited in vain for the coming +of James Melray. He never reached No. 5 Presbury Crescent. + +Her husband had been gone a little over an hour when Mrs. Melray rang +the bell for Charlotte, the housemaid, and on the latter's appearance +asked her to take a lighted candle and go down to her master's private +office and bring thence an envelope out of the stationery case, which +she would find on his table. Mrs. Melray had been writing to one of +her friends, and finding that she was out of envelopes of her own, was +under the necessity of using one of her husband's. + +Charlotte went her way, leaving her young mistress seated at the +davenport with the letter in front of her. A few moments later a +piercing shriek rang through Loudwater House. The girl, holding the +lighted candle aloft in one hand, had suddenly come upon the dead body +of her master lying prone along the office floor between the fireplace +and the table. + +As already stated, Mr. Melray's business premises were on the +groundfloor of Loudwater House. Although such was the case, the main +entrance to the old mansion had in no way been interfered with. There, +as for generations past, was the massive oaken door with its heavy +lion's-head knocker and its overhanging porch--also of oak, and +elaborately carved. This door gave admittance to a spacious flagged +hall, whence a wide staircase led to the rooms on the upper floors. +From the entrance hall a door opened directly into Mr. Melray's +private office, in which room there were also two other doors, the +first giving access to the outer office where sat Mr. Cray, the head +clerk, and his three subordinates, while the second door opened on a +narrow side alley leading from the back premises to the Quay-side, so +that the merchant, when so inclined, could go in and out without +having to pass through the general office. + +The girl Charlotte's shrieks at the discovery of her master's body +were heard not merely by the inmates of Loudwater House, but by a +constable who happened at the time to be standing at the entrance to +the side alley, as also by a couple of passing strangers. The three +men in question were on the scene of the crime within a few seconds +after Charlotte had given the alarm; for the outer door, on being +tried, was found to be unfastened. Of what thereupon ensued it is not +needful that we should dwell. + +At the inquest it was shown that Mr. Melray's death had resulted from +a blow from some blunt instrument just above the left ear. The only +hypothesis which could be deduced from the scanty evidence elicited at +the inquiry was to the effect that while on his way to Mr. Arbour's +house, Mr. Melray had unexpectedly encountered some person, or persons +with whom he was in some way connected by transactions of either a +business or a private nature, and that, in company with the same, he +had gone back to his office, admittance to which he would obtain by +means of his pass-key, after which he had lighted the gas and opened +the safe. What had happened after that, beyond the fact that Mr. +Melray had come by his death by foul play, there was not the slightest +evidence to show. The body had not been robbed; neither, as the +head-clerk's after investigation proved, had the contents of the safe +been tampered with. As far as was known, the dead man had not an enemy +in the world. Where, then, was the motive for the crime? By whom had +it been perpetrated? Days and weeks went on without bringing an answer +to either one question or the other. Within a few hours of the +discovery of the murder Mr. Robert Melray, the dead man's brother and +partner, was telegraphed for, and as, just then, he happened to be no +further away than London, he was promptly on the spot. He it was who, +a little later, and after all the efforts of Scotland Yard to unravel +the mystery had proved unavailing, offered a reward of 500_l_. in +connection with the affair, which, however, still remained unclaimed. + +So much having been stated by way of prelusion, it becomes needful, +for a due understanding of the way in which Philip Winslade came to be +mixed up with the Loudwater Tragedy, that our narrative should revert +to a date several months anterior to that of Fanny Sudlow's letter to +her lover. + + + + + +THE NARRATIVE + + + + +CHAPTER I. +ON THE EDGE OF A SECRET. + + +Probably there was no happier man in all England than Philip Winslade +on the particular afternoon on which we make his acquaintance. + +At this time he had just turned his twenty-eighth birthday. He was a +thin, active, keen-faced gentlemanly young fellow, with an aquiline +nose and very bright and piercing steel-gray eyes. In colour his hair +was a light brown, and it was perhaps owing to the fact that he was +clean shaven, except for an inch of whisker on either cheek, that he +looked younger than his years; that he did look so was, however, +undisputable. + +The cause of his felicity was not far to seek. The fact was that, +while on his way down from London that afternoon, the man of all +others whom he was desirous of seeing, and who for the past week or +more had never been out of his thoughts for long at a time, had +recognised him as the train drew up at a roadside station, and having +thereupon joined him in his compartment, had, by so doing, afforded +him the opportunity to seek which had been the main object of his +journey. The person in question was the Rev. Louth Sudlow, vicar of +St. Michael's, Iselford--a portly, handsome man of middle age, and a +dignitary of some importance among that section of provincial society +in which he habitually moved. Just now, however, the Vicar's sole +importance in the eyes of Philip Winslade lay in the fact that he was +the father of a very charming daughter with whom that young man had +seen fit to fall in love. + +The chance which had not only landed the Vicar in the same +compartment, but had left it free from the intrusion of other +passengers, was too opportune a one not to be seized on by Winslade. +For one thing, and with him it went for much, their accidental +encounter would do away with the need for a formal call at the +Vicarage as a preliminary to a request for a private interview--a +species of cold-blooded proceeding which struck him with a chill as +often as he contemplated it. Further, it would obviate the risk of his +being seen and questioned by Mrs. Sudlow, an ordeal to which he was +far from desirous of submitting himself. + +"So you have got back safe and sound from your trip," began the Vicar, +as he shook hands with Phil and proceeded to settle himself in the +opposite corner of the carriage. "I hope you had what our cousins +across the water call a 'good time' while you were away." + +"On that score, sir, I had nothing to complain of; and, if I may be +allowed to mention such a thing, it is gratifying to me to know that I +was enabled to transact the special business which took me to the +States to the satisfaction of those who sent me." + +"The knowledge of duties well and conscientiously performed can +scarcely be other than gratifying to anyone," remarked the Vicar with +a touch of professional unction. + +This being a remark which called for no reply, Phil remained +judiciously silent. He was considering in what terms he could most +diplomatically lead up to the subject which lay so close to his heart. + +"When I tell you, sir," he resumed with a little touch of hesitation, +"that I came back from New York to Liverpool by the _Parthenia_, you +will guess at once whom I had the pleasure of having for a travelling +companion." + +The Vicar rubbed a thoughtful finger against his nose. "Really," he +began dubiously. Then his face brightened. "Stay, though. The +_Parthenia_ did you say? Why, now I call it to mind, that is the boat +Fanny and her aunt were to cross by. So you and she came over +together, eh? It would beguile the tedium of the voyage for both of +you." + +Phil smiled inwardly. The meeting of the two young people had indeed +served to beguile the tedium of the voyage, but in a way the Vicar as +yet had no prevision of. + +"If I recollect rightly," resumed the latter, "my sister was always a +poor sailor, but I hope that in that respect at least Fan does not +take after her aunt." + +"Miss Sudlow proved herself a capital sailor, sir; but, as far as I am +aware, Mrs. Empson was invisible from the time we passed Sandy Hook +till we sighted the mouth of the Mersey." + +"Fan dropped a line to her mother as soon as she landed, but we have +not seen her yet. We hope to have that pleasure a week hence, when, +doubtless, we shall be treated to quite a budget of traveller's +tales." + +So far the conversation had kept on the lines most desired by +Winslade, but having reached this point, there seemed a danger of its +being diverted by the Vicar to some less personal topic, in which case +the coveted opportunity would be gone past recall. He pulled himself +together. One breathless moment on the brink and then the plunge! + +Philip Winslade, although in the ordinary affairs of life there were +few men more self-possessed than he, could never afterwards call to +mind the exact terms in which he contrived to blurt forth his +confession. All he was conscious of was that he stammered and +hesitated like a man afflicted with an impediment in his speech; that +physically he turned first hot and then cold, and that by the time he +had done he had worked himself back into a state of fever. The pith of +the matter was that he sought the Vicar's permission to be received as +Miss Sudlow's accepted suitor. When he had come to an end he gasped +once or twice like a fish out of its proper element, and then sat +staring helplessly at his _vis-à-vis_, who, on his part, returned the +stare with interest through his gold-rimmed spectacles. + +The Rev. Louth Sudlow had listened to Winslade's confession with very +mixed emotions. Once or twice he ran his fingers through his short +silvery hair and murmured an ejaculation under his breath; but he did +not interrupt Phil by so much as a word, preferring to wait till the +latter should cease of his own accord. + +Then he said: "My dear young friend, what you have just told me has, +metaphorically speaking, taken my breath away. I--I am really at a +loss what to say in reply. In any case, you must not look for a +definite answer from me just now. I shall require a little time to +consider the matter in all its bearings. To me, just at present, one +of the strangest features of the affair is having the fact thus +suddenly brought home to me that my little girl, whom I used to +dandle on my knee as it might be only the other day is old enough +to--to--well, as the homely phrase has it--to have a sweetheart of her +own. Do you know, now, I had never thought of her in that light. So +easy is it to shut one's eyes, and that not intentionally, to the +flight of time." He sighed gently, and again ran his fingers through +his hair. + +"One of my first proceedings on reaching home," he presently went on, +"will be to lay your request before the dear partner of my joys and +sorrows, even as you have laid it before me; for in the settlement of +a question so momentous, and one which so nearly concerns a daughter's +happiness, the views of one parent ought to carry an equal weight with +those of the other. It is certainly in your favour that both Mrs. +Sudlow and myself have been acquainted with you for a number of years; +indeed, it may almost be said that we have watched you grow up; to +which I may add that we know nothing of you but what is pleasant and +of good report." + +There was no time for more. As the Vicar ceased speaking the train +drew up at Iselford station. Both men alighted. As the elder held the +hand of the younger for a moment before each went his way, he said, +"You will find me in the vestry at eleven on Monday morning. Come to +me then and there. It may be that I shall have something to say to you +by that time." + +Small wonder was it that Philip Winslade deemed himself one of the +happiest of men as he made his way through the soft April twilight in +the direction of his mother's house. His disposition was of that +hopeful and sanguine cast which refuses to see difficulties in +advance, or, at any rate, to take but scant account of them till they +absolutely block the way. Nothing, as he told himself again and again, +could have been more kind and encouraging than the reception accorded +by the Vicar to his suit; and, although he was vaguely conscious that +he stood by no means so high in the estimation of Mrs. Sudlow as in +that of her husband, he did not for a moment allow himself to be +discouraged thereby. As he walked along the quiet road, humming to +himself, Love's golden shuttle was at work in his brain, weaving +the things of common life through and through with gorgeous and +many-coloured threads, till they became clothed with beauty like a +poet's dream. + +Philip had not seen his mother since his return from the States. +Neither in the note he had written her announcing his arrival, nor in +the later one in which he told her that he looked to see her at +Whiteash Cottage in the course of Saturday, had he made any mention of +Miss Sudlow's name; consequently, he could not help trying to picture +in advance the mode in which his news would be received by her. That +she would be astonished he did not doubt; but that her pleasure would +nearly, if not quite, equal her surprise, he scarcely doubted more. +Dear good mother that she was! Had not his happiness been her constant +study ever since he could remember anything? And it was absurd to +suppose that, in a matter like the present one, where so much was at +stake, she would set up any wish of her own in opposition to his +wishes, or raise a host of futile objections, as some mothers have a +habit of doing, merely that they may afterwards be knocked over like +so many ninepins. + +Although Mrs. Winslade was a woman who was singularly self-centred, +who made a point of going very little into society, and, as a +consequence, of seeing very little company in return, it had not been +possible for her to live so many years in Iselford without making a +certain number of acquaintances; but in all cases she had been careful +to keep them so much at arm's length, that not one of them could with +truth have arrogated to herself the warmer title of friend. Of such +acquaintances Mrs. Sudlow was one; but not even she--pushing, +undaunted, inquisitive little body though she was, with a faculty +educated by long practice for fishing out the private concerns of +those with whom she was brought in contact--not even she had been able +to pierce the fine armour of reserve which Mrs. Winslade habitually +wore, although some there were who never as much as suspected its +existence. Like an alert fencer, the latter was ever on her guard, and +the most innocent question, or innocent-seeming innuendo, never found +her unprepared with a counter thrust. Her tactics, however, were far +more those of defence than offence; and it was only when she felt she +was being pressed unduly that she retorted by pricking back on her own +account. Few were those who had the hardihood to try conclusions with +her a second time. + +But it was during the earlier period of her residence at Iselford, +rather than latterly, that she had found it needful when in society +never to be caught off her guard. During the dozen years which had +elapsed since she settled down at Whiteash Cottage, coming from nobody +knew where, and bringing no introductions with her, people had had +time to get accustomed to her, to accept her as she was, and not to +look for more from her than she was prepared to give. + +Little by little all curiosity about her had died out. Society at +Iselford had stamped her with its _cachet_, and had come to accept her +(without professing to understand her) as one of its elect. Only in +the heart of Mrs. Sudlow did a tiny mustard-seed, so to call it, of +spite and dull resentment continue to rankle, which, occasion being +given it, would not fail to strike downward and upward, and force its +way to the light, as such baleful germs, even after having been buried +out of sight for years, sooner or later contrive to do. + +For be it known that Mrs. Sudlow was not merely the wife of the Vicar +of St. Michael's--which of itself was a matter of no great moment--but +was, besides, second cousin to Lord Beaumaris, and, consequently, an +offshoot of the noble house of Penmarthen. Hence it was that not only +did she claim to have a certain standing in county society, but she +was also in a position to form a little coterie of her own among the +lesser luminaries of the neighbourhood, of which she was the +recognised chief; and it was Mrs. Winslade's suave, but persistent, +refusal to pose as one of the coterie in question which had been the +original head and front of her offending. Still, it is possible that +the "Vicaress"--as many people irreverently termed her--could have +forgiven even that, if, on the other hand, the widow of Whiteash +Cottage would but have made a confidante of her, and have revealed to +her all those particulars anent her antecedents and family history +which she was secretly dying to be told. But Mrs. Winslade, always +smilingly, declined to do anything of the kind. She kept the Vicaress +as completely at arm's length as she did her parlour-maid, and took +one into her confidence no more than the other. Mrs. Sudlow believed +herself to be a thoroughly good woman, and one by whose walk and +conduct many might take example with profit to themselves; but it was +almost too much to expect that poor human nature could quite forgive +the way in which Mrs. Winslade had thought fit to repel her advances. +This secret grievance, however, if such it could be termed, was of old +date by now, and one might naturally have expected that, whatever +virus had been distilled from it in days gone by, would have been +rendered innocuous by the simple efflux of time; but it sometimes +happens that a pin-prick takes longer to heal than a gaping wound. + +When Philip reached home, in place of his mother he found a note +written by her awaiting him. Mrs. Winslade had gone to attend the +funeral of an old woman, who, when younger, had been for many years in +her service. She expected to be back at Iselford by the train due to +arrive there at ten o'clock P.M. Meanwhile Phil would have to dine +alone, and afterwards, if he had nothing better to do, he might meet +the train in question. It was annoying to him to find that he would be +compelled to keep his news to himself for four or five hours longer, +after having counted confidently on being able to pour it into his +mother's sympathetic ears within five minutes of his arrival at the +cottage. + +When his solitary meal was over he lighted a cigar, and went for a +stroll in the starlit garden; first, however, paying a visit to Leo in +the backyard--who recognised him by his footsteps even before he +spoke, and barked a boisterous welcome--and freeing him from his +chain. All Phil's thoughts this evening were happy ones. More than +once he took a certain letter from his pocket and pressed it fervently +to his lips; more than once in his abstraction his cigar was +unwittingly allowed to go out. It was abundantly evident that he was +in very bad case indeed. + +At half-past nine he set out for the station, taking Leo with him. He +had debated with himself whether he should take the pony-chaise, but +finally decided against doing so. His mother would probably prefer to +engage a fly at the station rather than have Doxie put into harness at +that late hour. He took the road to the railway mechanically, swinging +his cane as he went. He was hundreds of miles away in fancy. Once more +he was pacing the deck of the _Parthenia_ with Fanny by his side. + +Mother and son kissed each other with effusion at the moment of +meeting. Then Mrs. Winslade drew back a step and took a long look at +Phil by the light of the station lamps. + +"You know, dear, it's two months--two whole months--since I saw you +last," she said, as if by way of apology for her scrutiny. "A long +time to me; but I don't see that you are a bit changed." + +Phil laughed. "The only change, _madre mia_, is that I know a good +deal more of the world than I did eight weeks ago." + +"A sort of knowledge, my dear, that is of little or no value unless +you have learnt how to put it to a good use. Of course I know already +from your letters that you were thoroughly successful in the mission +which took you to the States." + +"Most successful. But I will tell you all particulars later on." + +For the mother of a son who numbered eight-and-twenty summers Mrs. +Winslade might be called a young-looking woman. Her figure was tall, +and had not yet lost the fine proportions for which it had been +noticeable in years gone by. Both hair and eyes were dark, the latter +large and shining usually with a soft clear lustre which most people +found singularly attractive. She had a rather long, straight nose, a +mouth indicative of firmness and self-possession, and a well-rounded +chin. All her movements, if touched with a certain stateliness, were +easy and gracious, and if she was not in the habit of smiling very +often, when her face did light up the smile brought out a hidden +sweetness of which one had only been vaguely conscious before. + +Phil engaged a fly, and presently they were being driven leisurely +homeward, Leo trotting contentedly behind. + +"Although it is so many years since Martha Dobson left my service, I +hope, Phil, that you have not forgotten her," said Mrs. Winslade +presently. + +"Why, certainly not, mother! My memory is not quite so treacherous as +that. I was remarkably fond of Martha, as, I am quite sure, she was of +me, and although I could not have been more than six or seven years +old when she left us, I am not likely to forget her." + +"She belonged to that race of faithful, staunch-hearted domestics of +which, I am afraid, there are very few specimens to be found nowadays, +and I don't believe she would ever have left me had not her brother +sent for her to keep house for himself and his six motherless little +ones. I shall always respect and cherish her memory. She stood by me +like the true-hearted woman she was through the great trouble of my +life--and she died as she had lived, without breathing a word to +anyone of the secret she had kept for so many years." Mrs. Winslade +spoke the latter words as if to herself--as if for the moment she had +forgotten that her son was by her side. + +Ever since he could remember Phil had been conscious, although he +could not have told how or when the consciousness first came to him, +that there was a secret in his mother's life, the particulars of which +were kept as carefully from him as they were from the rest of the +world. He had often speculated and wondered in his own mind as to the +possible nature of it; but never had he ventured to hint, even in the +most roundabout way, his wish to penetrate the mystery. To-night, +however, there seemed something in his mother's mood different from +any mood he had ever seen her in before. The death of her old servant +had evidently affected her very deeply; hidden chords had been +touched, and it might well be that scenes and incidents which time had +robbed of their pristine sharpness of outline had for a little while +been quickened into vivid life. In any case, it seemed to Phil that +now, if ever, was the moment when he might look to be taken into his +mother's confidence. He put forth his fingers in the dark, and having +found one of her hands, he stroked it caressingly. + +"I am well aware, mother dear," he began, "and I seem always to have +been, that many years ago your life was darkened by some great +trouble, as to the particulars of which I know nothing. You have just +told me that in Martha Dobson you have lost the one person to whom was +known the secret of your life, and such having been the tie between +you, its severance cannot but touch you keenly. But, mamsie dear, I +want you not to forget that you have a son, and that if one confidant +has been taken from you, there is another ready to your hand. That +your trouble was over and past long ago I am quite aware, but I am +equally as convinced that it entailed effects from which you are +suffering now and probably will continue to suffer as long as you +live. Why, then, not----?" + +"My dear Phil, you don't in the least know what you are asking me to +do," broke in Mrs. Winslade, her fingers returning her son's pressure. +"If I have hitherto kept this thing from you, and if I still continue +to do so, I must ask you to believe that the motives by which I have +been and am still actuated are such as I am fully able to justify to +my own conscience. Trust me, you are happier, far happier, in your +ignorance than you could hope to be if I made you as sadly wise as +myself." + +"But, mother----" + +"Is another word needed, Phil?" asked Mrs. Winslade gently; but that +very gentleness, as the young man was well aware, veiled a firmness +not to be shaken. "Scarcely so, I think--unless it be this: that I +only know of one contingency which would induce me to break the rule +of silence I have hitherto imposed on myself with regard to a certain +matter." + +"May I ask to be enlightened as to the nature of the contingency of +which you speak?" + +"You may ask, my dear boy, but you must pardon me if I decline to +satisfy your curiosity. Be content to rest in ignorance. Believe me, +it is better so." + + + + +CHAPTER II +WHO IS MRS. WINSLADE? + + +Although the Vicar of St. Michael's, in the exuberance of his good +nature, had allowed Philip Winslade to infer that there was no reason +why Mrs. Sudlow might not be expected to look upon the young man's +suit with eyes as favourable as those with which he himself was +inclined to regard it, he felt far from sure in his own mind that such +would really be the case. He knew that his wife was a woman of strong +prejudices and narrow sympathies, who had a habit of nourishing +petty resentments till they swelled out of all proportion to the +original cause of offence, whether it chanced to be real or merely +supposititious. For his own part, he would have gladly welcomed Phil +for a son-in-law. He--the Rev. Louth--was, comparatively speaking, a +poor man. There seemed little prospect of any further preferment for +him; he had eight younger olive-branches to provide for, who were +growing more expensive year by year; and to be able to get his eldest +daughter off his hands, and married to one who he felt sure would +make her a good husband, seemed to him one of those things devoutly +to be wished. He was not a man of strong will, nor even one of those +who contrive to mask their moral cowardice under the bluster of +self-assertion. Dear to his heart were peace and quietness, more +especially on the domestic hearth. As he rang the vicarage bell this +evening his courage sank a little at the prospect before him. His +conscience was too sensitive to allow him to shirk what he deemed to +be a duty, how disagreeable soever it might be to him; but that did +not render its discharge any the easier. + +Dinner came as a brief respite. It was not till later, after the +younger members of the family had retired for the night and husband +and wife were left alone in the drawing-room, that the Vicar braced +himself to the task before him. + +Mrs. Sudlow was a small, slight, fair woman, with chilly blue eyes, +pinched features, and a somewhat worn and acid expression; but whether +the latter was due to the fact that she found the cares of a numerous +family weigh heavily upon her, or whether it had its origin in those +fictitious troubles which some women make a point of creating for +themselves, hugging them all the more fondly in that they have no +substantial existence, was a moot point, and one which, happily, no +one was called upon to decide. + +The Vicar laid down the _Times_, which he had been making a pretence +of reading, hemmed and gave a tug at the bottom of his waistcoat. His +wife was seated opposite him, busy with some fancy embroidery. + +"My dear, I picked up young Winslade this afternoon, or, to speak more +accurately, he picked me up, at Downhills station. He was on his way +from London to spend a few days with his mother." + +Not the slightest notice took Mrs. Sudlow. Her husband might have been +addressing himself to the chimney-piece for any heed vouchsafed by +her. + +Again the Vicar cleared his voice. + +"From what he told me, it appears that he has been over to America on +some special matter for his employer, and, by a rather singular +coincidence, it so happened that he crossed from New York in the same +steamer that brought my sister and Fanny. By the way, I don't think +that Fan, in the letter she wrote us after landing, as much as +mentioned young Winslade's name." + +"Why should she? Doubtless to her such a detail seemed too +insignificant to be worth recording." + +This was not a very promising beginning, but there could be no drawing +back now; whatever might be the result, he must go through with that +which he had made up his mind to say. + +"There may, perhaps, have been another and a totally opposite reason +why Fan made no mention of Philip Winslade in her letter." + +"What _do_ you mean? The older you get, Louth, the fonder you become +of beating about the bush when you have anything to say." + +"That's your opinion, is it, my love?" he demanded, not without a +shade of irritation. "Well, then, in what I am about to tell you there +shall be no beating about the bush--none whatever. Here, in a few +words, is the long and the short of it. Fan and young Winslade +met on board the _Parthenia_, doubtless as old acquaintances, they +having known each other for years. My sister being prostrated by +sea-sickness, they were naturally thrown much together, and by the +time Liverpool was reached had contrived to fall in love with each +other, and come to some sort of a mutual understanding in the affair. +Had Winslade and I not met in the train, it was his intention to have +sought an interview with me in the course of Monday next." + +Mrs. Sudlow's needle came to a halt midway in a stitch, and the line +of her lips hardened till the division between them was scarcely +perceptible. + +There was a brief space of silence when the Vicar had brought his +statement to an end. Then Mrs. Sudlow said in her chilliest accents: +"And what, pray, might be Mr. Philip Winslade's purpose in seeking an +interview with you on Monday next?" + +"What purpose but one can a young man in such circumstances have? What +he is anxious to obtain is my consent--or rather, I ought to say, +_our_ consent--to his engagement with Fanny. Indeed, he went so far as +to put the question to me this afternoon; but of course I told him +that it was impossible for me to give him an answer on the spur of the +moment, or, in point of fact, till I had consulted with you in the +matter." + +"I fail to see why you could not have given him an answer on the spur +of the moment, as you term it." + +"Surely, surely, my dear, in a matter which so nearly concerns the +welfare of our child, some little time for consideration is +imperatively demanded." + +"None whatever, as it seems to me, where a person like Philip Winslade +is in question. You might have given him his answer there and then, +and thereby have saved him the necessity of seeking a further +interview with you." + +"Um! That would certainly have been rather an arbitrary mode of +procedure. But there is another view of the affair which does not seem +to have struck you. As I understand it, Winslade and Fanny have +already come to some sort of an agreement, in which case----" + +"There is no need whatever why you should trouble yourself on that +score. Fanny will be home in a week from now. I shall know how to deal +with her." + +"And yet Fan is a girl of spirit," remarked the Vicar drily, "and when +once she has made up her mind, sticks to her point like a limpet to +its rock. I rather doubt, my dear, whether you will find her as easy +to manage in this affair as you seem to anticipate." + +"I have not the least doubt in the world that, to serve his own ends, +Philip Winslade has exaggerated a mere passing flirtation, such as is +so often indulged in on board ship, into something far more formidable +than it really is. In any case, as I said before, you may leave me to +deal with Fanny, and, if needful, to--to bring her to her senses." + +"With all my heart. But why this display of animosity as regards young +Winslade? More than once I have heard you hint that it would be a good +thing if Fan were to make an early marriage." + +"I am not aware that I have imported any animosity into the +conversation. I have merely brought to bear a modicum of that wordly +prudence and common sense which it behoves all parents to exercise +where the future of their children is in question, but in which, I am +sorry to say, you are lamentably deficient." + +She paused to re-thread her needle. + +"After all," she resumed, "if one may ask, who and what is this Mr. +Philip Winslade with whom you seem to be so taken up?" + +"Come, come, Kitty, you can't pretend that you are altogether ignorant +of his antecedents. He is a clear-headed, energetic, clever young man, +and, as it seems to me, sure to make his way in the world. He is a +good son----" + +"_Cela va sans dire_. It would be more to the purpose if you +were to ascertain the amount of his income and the nature of his +prospects--provided he has any." + +"Those were points, my dear, which there was no opportunity of +entering upon in the train. But had he not conceived himself to be in +a position to marry, if not just yet, in the not distant future, I do +not suppose he would have spoken to me as he did." + +"Would you not be nearer the mark if you were to say that such +'mercenary considerations,' as I have no doubt you term them to +yourself, never entered your mind?" + +The Vicar coughed and proceeded to polish his spectacles with his +handkerchief. + +"You seem to forget," resumed Mrs. Sudlow, a little inconsequentially +it might have been thought, "or, rather, you never care to remember, +that Fanny is second cousin once removed to the Earl of Beaumaris. But +there! I have known for years, to my sorrow, that you have not a +morsel of proper pride in your composition." + +The Vicar's shoulders went up deprecatingly. "My dear," he said, "if +the noble Earl, your second cousin, had ever done anything for us, or +had interested himself in our fortunes in any way, it might have been +politic to bear the family connection in mind. But, seeing that +neither he nor his daughters, the Lady Mary and the Lady Anne, care a +stiver about us, it may be as well to leave the 'claims of long +descent' out of the discussion." + +Again Mrs. Sudlow's lips compressed themselves into a thin straight +line. She felt that it had become necessary for her to shift her basis +of attack. She had reserved one barbed arrow till the last. "After +all, you have contrived to shuffle out of the question I put to you, +which was, Who is Philip Winslade?" + +"My dear, you know as well as I do that he is the only son of Mrs. +Winslade, who has been a neighbour of ours for the last dozen years, +and who, in addition, is a lady for whom I have the highest possible +regard." + +"Oh, I am quite aware that you always had a sneaking _penchant_ for +Mrs. W. She is what is vulgarly called a 'fine woman,' and I have not +forgotten that your tastes always did run in that direction." + +The Vicar held up his hands. "My love, you are forgetting yourself!" + +"Not at all. If I may push my question further--Who is Mrs. Winslade?" + +"You know precisely as much about her as I do." + +"Which is equivalent to saying I know nothing about her." + +"Her life for the past twelve years is before you to bear witness for +her." + +"As much of it as she has allowed to be seen, and that, as you must +admit, is very little. In the first place, Who was she before she made +her appearance at Iselford? She planted herself among us without a +single introduction. To this day nobody knows where she sprang from. +She passes herself off as a widow--who can say with certainty whether +she ever had a husband?" + +This was too much for the Vicar. He got up abruptly, his face very +red, and an unwonted sparkle in his eyes. "For shame, Kitty; for +shame!" he exclaimed. "I never thought to hear such words from the +lips of my wife. I will leave you to your uncharitable thoughts and +retire to my study." + +It was not often in their little skirmishes that the worthy Vicar +ventured to offer such a bold front of opposition to his wife as he +had this evening, and through all the irritation and annoyance into +which she had stung him he could not help pluming himself somewhat on +his unwonted display of pugnacity. Still, nothing had been settled, no +course decided upon as between husband and wife, and it was quite +evident that the question would have to be reopened by one or the +other of them. And reopened it was next morning as soon as breakfast +was over, with the result that the following note, addressed to +Philip, was delivered by Quince, the sexton, at Whiteash Cottage early +on Sunday afternoon: + + +"My dear young Friend,--With reference to what passed between us +yesterday afternoon, Mrs. Sudlow and I have come to the decision that, +pending my daughter's arrival at home about a week hence, when an +opportunity will be afforded us of ascertaining her views and wishes, +the question at issue had better remain precisely where it is at +present. Such being the case, it seems to me advisable that our +interview, as arranged for to-morrow, should be postponed till a +future date. You may, however, rely upon it that as soon as I have any +communication to make you shall hear further from me. + +"Pray present my remembrances to Mrs. Winslade, and believe me, + +"Sincerely yours, + +"Louth Sudlow." + + + + +CHAPTER III. +THE SECRET TOLD. + + +On their arrival at the cottage on Saturday evening it was manifest to +Phil that his mother was very tired, and he debated with himself as to +whether it would not be better to delay breaking his news to her till +the morrow. But he felt that it would be hard to have to do so; so, +after waiting till she had rested awhile, and had partaken of some +refreshment, he drew his chair a little closer to hers and began. + +"Mother," he said abruptly, feeling at the same time a hot flush of +colour mount to his face, "I have not only brought you myself to-day, +but some very special news into the bargain." + +"Indeed, my dear boy. By very special news I presume you mean news +which I shall be glad to hear. Don't keep me on tenterhooks longer +than you can help." + +"The fact is, mamsie, that I've fallen in love with Fanny Sudlow (you +know Fanny--have known her for years), and--and although it may seem +egotistical to say so, I've every reason to believe she doesn't +dislike me--indeed, far from it. My intention was to call on the Vicar +while down here, and ask his consent to our engagement; but, by great +good fortune, I encountered him in the train this afternoon so I took +advantage of the opportunity to tell him what I am now telling you, +and I must say that the dear old boy listened to me most kindly, and, +in short, I'm to meet him at the vestry at eleven on Monday, +when---- But, good gracious, mother, you are ill! What can I get you? +What can I do for you?" + +Mrs. Winslade had been lying back in her easy-chair; but the moment +the confession that he was in love escaped Phil's lips her frame +seemed to become suddenly rigid, while her face blanched to the +hue of one at the point of death. Slowly her figure rose from its +half-recumbent position till it sat stiffly upright, her long slender +hands grasping each an arm of the chair. It was at that moment Phil +lifted his eyes and caught sight of her face. He sprang to his feet in +alarm, but his mother put up her hand with a restraining gesture, and +he sank back in his chair, unable to take his eyes off her face. + +"It has come at last--that which I have so long dreaded!" said Mrs. +Winslade, speaking in a hard dry voice, wholly different from her +customary low and mellow tones. "Of course it was folly to hope that +the blow could be much longer delayed, and if it had not come now it +must have come a little later." She paused, as if to crush down the +emotion which she found it so hard to keep back. "To-day, when you +asked me to reveal to you my life's secret, I told you that you knew +not what you asked, and for your own sake I refused to tell it you. +Now, however, you _must_ be told. There is no help for it--would to +heaven there were! My poor boy, you are about to pass from the land of +sunshine into that of shadow, and it is my hand that perforce must +thrust you there." + +"Mother," said Phil, a little proudly, "it seems to me that you +underrate both my strength and my courage. If you, a woman, have been +able uncomplainingly to carry this dark secret (whatever its nature +may be) all these years, why should you fear that I, a man, may sink +under the burden of it?" Next moment he was on his knees in front of +her and her arms were round his neck. "Forgive me," he added, "I know +that in this, as in everything, you have acted for the best." + +"Mine is a terrible confession for a mother to have to make to her +son," began Mrs. Winslade a few minutes later, when she and Phil had +in some measure recovered their composure. "As you are aware," she +went on, "I have never talked to you much about your father. He died +when you were about three years old, and to you he is nothing more +than a name." + +"That is all, mother--a name. Whenever I have ventured to speak of +him, which has not been often, you have seemed so distressed, so +unaccountably put about, that I have refrained from questioning you +about him, and have been glad to turn our talk to other things." + +"That I had ample cause for my reticence you will presently learn." +She paused, and sat gazing into the glowing embers in the grate for +what, to Phil, seemed a long time. Then she roused herself with a +sigh, and, turning her eyes full upon him, said slowly: "Do you happen +ever to have heard of a certain criminal, who was notorious enough in +his day, but who by this time is happily well-nigh forgotten--Philip +Cordery by name?" + +"Why, it was only the other day, so to speak, that I met with a +magazine article giving an account of his career, which had a strange +fascination for me. He was known as 'The Prince of Forgers.' But what +of him?" + +"Merely this--that Philip Cordery, the so-called Prince of Forgers, +was your father." + +"Mother!" was the only word that broke from the young man's lips. It +was the half-stifled cry of one struck suddenly in some vital part. +Horror, incredulity, and shame the most bitter, all seemed to appeal +to her out of his dilated eyes to take back her words. Then with an +abrupt gesture he rose. As he crossed the room a groan forced its way +from his lips. Although the lamp had been lighted long before, the +curtains were still undrawn; on these pleasant spring evenings it was +the custom to leave them so till bedtime. Phil opened the long window +and stepped out into the veranda. A fine rain had begun to fall; sweet +fresh odours seemed to be wandering aimlessly to and fro; there was a +sense of silent gratitude in the air, for all nature had been athirst. +Phil stood there minute after minute, resting his head against the +cool pillar of the veranda. His soul was sick within him, his mind was +in a tumult in which nothing formulated itself clearly save the one +hideous, overwhelming fact that Philip Cordery was his father, and +that he was the son of a felon. As yet he only suffered vaguely, like +one who, having been suddenly struck down, comes back to consciousness +by degrees. He was stunned, he was dazed, the real anguish had yet to +come. A dash of cold rain in his face recalled him in some measure to +himself. He stepped back into the room and shut the window, and, +crossing to his mother, he stooped and pressed his damp cheek for a +moment against hers. + +In Mrs. Winslade's eyes, as she sat fronting the fire, pale, erect, +with that absolute quietude which comes from the intensity of +restrained emotion, there was nothing to be read but infinite +compassion--compassion for the son whom hard circumstance had forced +her to smite thus sorely. + +"So that is the secret you have kept from me for so long a time," said +Phil quietly, as he resumed his seat. + +"That is the secret." + +"Well, mother, being what it was, I can't wonder at your locking it up +in your own breast, at your safeguarding it from the world; still, it +might, perhaps--I only say perhaps--have been better if you had told +me years ago." + +"Ah, my son, do not say that! Should I not have been a wretch to cast +a blight over your young life one hour before I was absolutely +compelled to do so? But you know, or, at least, you can guess, why I +have at length broken the seal of silence which I imposed on myself so +many years ago, and have told you this to-night." + +"Yes, I think I know," he said with a sort of slow sadness. "After what +I told you just now--that I had won the love of one of the dearest +girls on earth--you felt that the time had come when I must walk +blindfold no longer, when, at every risk, the bandage must be plucked +from my eyes." + +"The necessity was a hard one, but there seemed to me no help for it." + +"None whatever. It will be a hard thing and a bitter to have to tell +the Vicar on Monday morning." + +"After all these years, is there no other way than that?" + +"None that I can see. The understanding between Fanny and myself has +gone so far that I could not withdraw from it honourably, even were I +wishful of doing so. No, mother, there is nothing left me save to tell +everything to the Vicar and leave him to decide the matter in whatever +way may seem best to himself." + +For a little while neither of them spoke. + +Then Phil said: "Mr. Sudlow is an honourable man, no one more so, and +I feel sure, and so must you, mother, that your secret--or ours, as I +must now call it--will be as safe with him as though it were still +unspoken." + +Mrs. Winslade did not reply; only to herself she said: "My poor Phil, +you forget that there is such a person as Mrs. Sudlow to be reckoned +with." + +Phil was bending forward, staring into the fire with gloomy eyes, his +elbows resting on his knees, and his chin supported by his hands. "Of +course it is too much, altogether too much to expect," he went on +disconsolately, "however good and kind-hearted a man Mr. Sudlow may be +and is, that he will ever consent to accept me in the light of a +prospective son-in-law. No; he will insist on the engagement being at +once broken off; and, under the circumstances, how can anyone blame +him?" + +Mrs. Winslade still sat without speaking. Not a word of what her son +had said could she controvert. His life was wrecked so far as his love +for Fanny Sudlow was concerned, and she had not even a solitary spar +to fling to him. Far more clearly than he she realised what must +inevitably come to pass when once her life's secret had passed beyond +her keeping and his. + +After a little space Phil's sombre thoughts found a vent for +themselves in another channel. + +"Mother," he said abruptly, "it seems to me something incredible that I +should really be the son of such a man as Philip Cordery." + +"It is none the less a fact which cannot be gainsaid." + +"He--he died in prison, did he not?" + +"He did, years before we came to live at Iselford." + +Again for a little while the silence remained unbroken. Then Mrs. +Winslade drew herself together like a woman who has nerved herself for +the performance of a duty which, however painful it may be, must yet +be gone through with. + +"Now that you have been told so much it is only right that you should +be told more," she presently said. "You shall hear my story once for +all. After to-night I trust there will be no need for either you or I +ever to refer to it again." She closed her lids for a few moments like +one conjuring up in memory the scenes of bygone years. + +Then with her still beautiful eyes--large, dark, and just now charged +with a pathos too deep for words--fixed on her son, she began: "My +mother was dead and I was living at home with my father, who was +rector of Long Dritton, in Midlandshire, when I first set eyes on +Philip Cordery. At that time he was a man of two or three and +thirty--handsome, plausible, well-read, or so to all seeming; master +of more than one showy accomplishment, and, in addition, a man who had +been, or professed to have been, nearly everywhere. No wonder that I, +a simple country-bred girl, who knew nothing whatever of the world, +felt mightily flattered when this grand gentleman, for such he +appeared in my eyes, began by complimenting me on my looks, and, a +little later, went on to pay me attentions of a kind which could +scarcely be misunderstood. Such being the case, it is almost needless +to add that I presently ended by falling in love with him. + +"Ours was a famous hunting county, and Mr. Cordery, who kept a couple +of horses, had taken rooms for the season in the neighbouring town of +Baxwade Regis. He was hand and glove with the master, Lord Packbridge, +and was made welcome at several of the best houses round about. He won +my father's heart, in the first instance, by putting down his name for +a very handsome subscription to the Church Restoration Fund. I hardly +know how it came about, but before long he began to be a frequent +guest at the rectory. I suppose my father was taken by him, as most +people seemed to be, and certainly I have never met anyone more gifted +with the faculty of attracting others than he was. Well, there came a +day when Philip Cordery asked my father to bestow on him the hand of +his only child. Before doing so, however, he had drawn from my lips +the avowal that I loved him. In what way he contrived to satisfy my +father as to his means and position in life, I never heard; but that +he did satisfy him is certain, seeing that my father gave his +unqualified sanction to our engagement. I deemed myself the happiest +of girls. We were married in the early summer and went for a month's +tour on the Continent. + +"On one point I must do Philip Cordery justice. He did not marry me +for the sake of my fortune, which, indeed, was only a matter of a few +hundreds of pounds left me by my mother's sister. Neither could he +expect anything at my father's death, for the living of Long Dritton +was a very poor one, and my father's purse was never shut against the +claims of charity. It was a great blow to me when, within a couple of +months of my marriage, my father died after a few days' illness; but +when, eighteen months later, my other great trouble fell upon me, I no +longer grieved that he had been taken. + +"My husband had hired a small furnished house at St. John's Wood, +London, which stood in its own grounds and was surrounded by a high +wall. Its position was a very secluded one, so much so that it could +not be overlooked from any other house. Your father had never +enlightened me in definite terms as to the nature of the business in +which he was engaged, but I had a vague notion that he was connected, +although in what capacity I was wholly ignorant, with some important +firm in the City. Sometimes his duties took him from home for a week +or ten days at a time. At other times there would be days when he +never went beyond the precincts of his own garden. He had given me to +understand that his great hobby was experimental chemistry, and he had +fitted up a room on the top floor of the house as a laboratory where +he often worked till far into the night, and the door of which, +whether he was engaged there or not, was always kept locked. +Considering the number of people whose acquaintance he had made in the +shires, it seemed strange that he should know so few people in London, +but so it was. He belonged to no club, we saw very little company, and +he rarely took me anywhere except now and then to the theatre. Such +callers as we had were all men, many of them being foreigners of +different nationalities. I usually got away from them to my own room +as soon as possible, and Philip seemed pleased that I should do so. + +"All this time, although many of my illusions had taken to themselves +wings, I was by no means unhappy. Philip, while never demonstrative, +was kind in his careless, easy-going fashion; in fact, I may say that +I believe he was as fond of me as it was in his nature to be of +anyone. And then, by-and-by, you were born, and life seemed to me a +sweeter thing than it had ever been before. + +"It was when you were about four months old that the crash came. There +is no need for me to dwell on that time, nor to recapitulate in detail +all I had to go through. It is enough to say--and it may now be said +once for all--that Philip Cordery was proved to have been the leader +and guiding spirit of one of the most notorious gangs of bank-note +forgers with which the present century has had to do. I saw him but +twice after his conviction. A month or two after my second interview +with him he died. A little later, through the death of an uncle, I +came in for a legacy (taking his name at the same time), the income +derivable from which has enabled me to keep up a home such as you have +known as long as you can remember. At my death the capitalised amount +will become yours to deal with as you may deem best." + +Philip had refrained from interrupting his mother's narrative by a +word; indeed, his interest in the tragic story she had to tell was too +intense to allow of his willingly breaking in upon it even for a +moment. When she had come to an end the silence that ensued was broken +by a deep-drawn sigh from him. "Poor mother! poor mother!" he murmured +half aloud. It was on her and on all she had undergone that his +thoughts were dwelling just then, rather than on that mysterious +entity--to him he would remain for ever a mystery and a wonder--Philip +Cordery, the author of his being; or even on the effect which his +mother's revelation might have on his own future. + +Presently Mrs. Winslade spoke again. "You will now be able to +comprehend one thing which has doubtless puzzled you more than enough +in days gone by, and that is why I have led so persistently secluded a +life, seeing so little company under my own roof and scarcely ever +visiting anywhere. Never feeling sure from day to day that the secret +of my past might not by some mischance become public property, I was +determined that the good folk of Iselford should not have it in their +power to say that I forced my way into their society under false +pretences--that I had sought them out and sat by their firesides, +being conscious all the time there was that in my history which I +would be ashamed to have them know. It is they who have sought me out; +it is they who have thrust themselves on me. In so far my conscience +holds me free from blame." + + + + +CHAPTER IV. +IN WHICH MISS SUDLOW SPEAKS HER MIND. + + +Philip Winslade did not accompany his mother to church on Sunday +morning. His heart was still so sore, he was still so mentally shaken +by his mother's revelation that, like the stricken deer, he craved for +solitude the most absolute. It was a craving Mrs. Winslade was too +wise to combat. She herself had suffered in like manner in years gone +by, and her heart bled for her boy. + +Phil still held firmly by his overnight determination to make a clean +breast of it to the Vicar at their interview on the morrow, and it was +so evidently the right thing to do that on no account would his mother +have breathed a syllable in any effort to dissuade him therefrom. In +the course of the afternoon the Vicar's note was delivered at the +Cottage, and after a first reading it seemed both to Phil and Mrs. +Winslade as if a brief providential breathing-space had been accorded +them. The evil day was only put off for a time; but it was a respite, +and they were grateful for it. + +Further consideration of the note, however, made it evident that, +although the Vicar expressed a wish to defer the Monday's interview +till he should have had an opportunity of consulting his daughter, +that was no sufficient reason why Phil should take on himself to delay +his confession. Was it not, rather, his duty to tell everything to the +Vicar before the meeting in question took place? With the latter in +possession beforehand of all the facts of the case, it could not +afterwards be alleged that any unfair advantage had been taken of +either his or his daughter's ignorance of them. Clearly here also was +the right thing to do. + +Next morning after breakfast--such a breakfast as either mother or son +had the appetite to partake of--Phil set out for the vestry. His +mother kissed him and bade him be of good cheer; her eyes were dry, +but there was a wistfulness in the smile with which she followed him +as he left the house which seemed to have its origin in emotions too +profound for tears. As it fell out, however, the Vicar and Phil were +not destined to meet that day. The latter, on reaching the vestry, was +told by Jabez Drew, the parish clerk, that "his reverence" had been +summoned from home by telegram and was not expected back till next +day. Now, Philip Winslade was due back in London at nine o'clock on +Tuesday morning. Evidently there was no help for it. He must defer +what he had to say till the Vicar should appoint a meeting at his own +time and place. + +At this stage another difficulty confronted him. He had promised that +he would write to Miss Sudlow and let her know the result of his +interview with her father, by which means she would be forewarned as +to the attitude her parents would be likely to adopt towards her when +she should see them a few days later. But, as Philip asked himself, +how was it possible, under the circumstances, that he should write to +her at all? Nothing would have been easier than for him to tell her in +so many words that the Vicar had postponed all decision in the affair +till he should have seen Fanny herself; but how could he tell her so +much without telling her more? He had written to her twice already +such letters as it is a lover's happiness to indite, but how dare he +mention such a word as love now with that hideous secret crushing him +down like a veritable Old Man of the Sea? Neither could he tell his +tale to her before telling it to her father. To have done so would +have been to take advantage of the Vicar in a way his pride would not +allow--him to stoop to, and would, in addition, have the appearance of +trying to secure, through Fanny's compassion and womanly pity, a +promise to continue true to him which she might see cause to regret +after the influence of her parents should have been brought to bear on +her. Even at the risk of having hard things thought of him by her he +loved so fondly, he would keep an unbroken silence till he had made +his confession to the person who was entitled to hear it first of all. + + +Miss Sudlow went down to Iselford on Saturday by the same train that +her lover had travelled by a week before. She had been puzzled and +somewhat put about when day passed after day without bringing her the +expected letter, or a word of any kind from Phil. That she put a score +of questions to herself goes without saying, to none of which, +however, was any answer forthcoming; and it was not without a certain +vague uneasiness and dread of what the next day or two might have in +store for her that she travelled down home. Nothing of this, however, +did she betray to her mother, who, with one of her sisters, she found +awaiting her arrival at the station. + +Fanny Sudlow, unlike her mother, was a brunette. She had brown eyes, +frank and vivacious, a great quantity of dark wavy hair, and a face +that depended more on character for its attractiveness than on any +special charm of feature. As we shall presently discover, she was a +young woman of spirit, with a strong sense of independence and +considerable fixity of will, which latter characteristic her mother +called by another name. + +"My dear," said Mrs. Sudlow, after she had embraced her daughter, +eyeing Fanny's Saratoga trunk with evident dismay, "pleased as I am, +of course, to see you again, my hope was that you had only come to pay +us a flying visit, and that, in point of fact, you had contrived to +make yourself so indispensable to your aunt that she would ask you to +stay with her altogether." + +"I am sorry to disappoint you, mamma, but I have left Aunt Charlotte +for good and all. When I went to her you know it was only as a +makeshift till her companion, Miss Pudsey, whose health had broken +down (and I don't wonder at it) was able to resume her duties. Then +poor Pudsey is terribly afraid of the sea, and Aunt Charlotte having +made up her mind to go in person to America and look after some +property she was afraid she was being swindled out of, probably +thought that I should be of more use to her during the voyage out and +home. Now, however, Pudsey is back in harness, so aunt and I have said +good-bye, mutually glad to have seen the last of each other for at +least a considerable time to come." + +"It is a pity, a very great pity, that you were not at more pains to +conciliate your aunt; and she with so many thousands to leave behind +her." + +By this time they had packed themselves into one of the station flies +and were being jolted homeward. + +"It is just possible that if Aunt Charlotte had been a poor woman +instead of a rich one, I might have been at more pains to please her +than I was. But, for my part, I've no inclination to fill the _rôle_ +of toady to a cross-grained and abominably selfish old woman, however +well-to-do she may be." Then, a moment later, she added: "Not for a +thousand a year would I willingly degenerate into a Pudsey." + +"Still, I cannot help repeating that it is a great pity you could not +bring yourself to put up with your aunt's whims and little infirmities +of temper, especially knowing, as you do, what a number of mouths +there are at home to be fed, and what a little money there is to do it +on. But of course it was too much to expect that you would sacrifice +any of your ridiculous prejudices, whatever might be the gain to +others from your doing so." + +Fanny did not reply; she was already debating a certain scheme in her +mind which would reduce the number of mouths to be fed at home by one. + +It was not till rather a late hour, and after the younger members of +the family circle had retired for the night, that Mrs. Sudlow found an +opportunity of being alone with her daughter. The Vicar, with a +prevision of what was coming, had shut himself in his study on the +plea of having to put the finishing touches to his morrow's sermon. + +Mrs. Sudlow was not without her misgivings as to the success of the +task she proposed to herself. Her preliminary skirmish with Fanny in +the afternoon had proved to her of what stuff the girl was made. But +the little woman was not deficient in pugnacity, and rather relished a +battle-royal now and again, as tending to diversify the monotony of +everyday existence. Only she would much rather that her antagonist +should have been someone other than her daughter. In the present +instance, however, there was no help for it. + +"Your father accidentally encountered young Winslade the other day, +when he was down here over the week-end," began the Vicaress. "From +what I gathered, it would seem that you and he met on the steamer +which brought yourself and your aunt over from New York." + +The clear olive of Fanny's cheek flushed to the tint of a damask rose +at the sudden mention of her lover's name. There was something in her +mother's tone, an added flavour of acidity, as it were, which warned +her that she was about to be attacked. A moment later her coolness +came back to her in full measure. + +"What you gathered was no more than the truth, mamma," she said. +"Philip Winslade and I met on board the _Parthenia_, and seeing that +Aunt Charlotte was confined to her state-room the whole way across, I +was glad to have someone to talk to other than strangers." + +"I can quite understand that, my dear; and if the matter had only +ended there no harm would have been done. Mr. Winslade, however, +would seem to be gifted with an amazing amount of effrontery and +self-conceit." + +"You surprise me, mamma. That he is occasionally a little audacious, I +am willing to admit; but of the other qualities which you attribute to +him I know nothing." + +"In any case, it would seem that you have studied him to some +purpose." + +"There is so little to do on board ship except study one's +fellow-passengers." + +Mrs. Sudlow was becoming slightly nettled. + +"There is all the difference between a general study and an individual +one. I have good reason for speaking of young Winslade as I did. +May I ask, Fanny--and I trust you will give me a straightforward +answer--whether you were aware of the particular object which brought +him to Iselford a week ago?" + +Again that telltale colour dyed Fanny's cheeks, but she answered her +mother as calmly as before. + +"I was quite aware, mamma, of the nature of the business which brought +him here. He came to see papa and to ask him for his sanction to our +engagement." + +"Your engagement! Can it be possible that the wretched affair has gone +as far as that?" + +"That is just as far as the 'wretched affair' has gone." + +"You--you astonish me. I can't find words to express a tithe of what I +feel. Do you mean to tell me that you have been cozened into an +engagement with this young man?--that you have allowed him to extort +from you a promise which----" + +"Pardon me, mamma, but there has been no cozening, as you term it, +either on one side or the other. Quite the contrary, I assure you. My +engagement with Philip Winslade is the outcome of my own free action. +It was entered into deliberately and with my eyes wide open." + +"Oh, this is too much!" cried Mrs. Sudlow, her hands quivering with +the excitement which she had some ado to keep under. At that moment +she would dearly have liked to box her daughter's ears, as she had +been used to do in days gone by. "But, thank goodness, it is not too +late," she went on. "Your father must interfere. The affair must be +broken off at the earliest possible moment." + +"Did papa give Mr. Winslade to understand as much at their interview +last week?" + +Mrs. Sudlow paused before answering. She had taken it for granted that +Fanny was acquainted with what had passed between the two men, but in +so thinking she had evidently assumed what was not the fact. She would +have given much to be able to assure the girl that the Vicar had +already sent Phil to the right-about; but, with all her faults, she +was a truthful woman where a question of fact was involved, and +Fanny's question demanded a truthful answer. + +"No, Fanny," she replied; "your father, instead of giving Mr. Winslade +his _congé_ there and then, as he ought to have done, was weak enough +to defer his final decision till after your arrival at home." + +"Dear, dear papa!" murmured Fanny under her breath. Mrs. Sudlow saw +the added sparkle that flashed suddenly out of her eyes, but did not +hear the words. + +"Not that the result will be in any way different," resumed the latter +lady dogmatically. "Your father must write the young man a note on +Monday, informing him that the affair is finally broken off." + +"Indeed, and indeed, mamma, he must do nothing of the kind." + +"Why not, pray?" + +"Because the affair, as you call it, is not broken off--in point of +fact, it is quite a long way from being broken off." + +"Disobedient girl! And would you, then, persist in this--this +entanglement in direct opposition to the wishes of your parents?" + +"Pardon me, mamma, but I have not yet heard from papa's lips that he +is so wholly opposed to my engagement as you seem desirous of making +him out to be." + +"For all that, I tell you that he will write to the purport just now +stated by me." + +"I should be very sorry for him to do so. The writing of such a note +would simply have the effect of putting things in more of a tangle +than they are already; and that is hardly necessary, I think." + +"Perhaps you won't mind telling me what you really mean." + +"Simply this, mamma. Even if papa were to write such a note as you +speak of, it would not have the effect of breaking off my engagement. +I have given my word to Philip, and only he himself could induce me to +take it back, and I am quite sure he is not likely to attempt anything +of the kind. So long as I remain under age my obedience, up to a +certain point, is due to my parents, and I will do nothing in direct +opposition to their wishes. But my engagement will continue to stand +good just the same, and in two years and two months from now I shall +be twenty-one." + +It was gall and wormwood to Mrs. Sudlow to be compelled to listen to +this outspoken statement without seeing any means by which it might be +gainsaid. "You are a wilful, headstrong, disobedient girl," was all +she could find for the moment to say. It was a statement which Fanny +made no attempt to refute. + +"Neither you nor your father have an atom of proper pride about you," +resumed Mrs. Sudlow in a tone of cold acidity. "Little did I think +that any daughter of mine--the daughter of a woman who can trace back +her ancestry for upwards of three hundred years--would ever condescend +to marry anyone so low down in the social scale as Philip Winslade. I +know quite well what his Lordship will say when he hears of it--for +hear of it he must. He will say that you have disgraced the family +from which (on your mother's side) you spring, and he will beg that +your name may never be mentioned in his hearing again." For once the +little woman seemed on the verge of tears. For her the picture her +imagination had conjured up was full of pathos. + +Fanny bit her lip and waited for a few moments before trusting herself +to reply. Then she said: "With all deference to you, mamma, I don't +care the snap of a finger what his Lordship may choose either to think +or say--indeed, if it comes to that, I very much doubt whether he +remembers that there is such a person as poor me in existence, and +certainly I am not going to make a fetich of him. I have not forgotten +that day when the Earl and his daughters drove over from Raven Towers, +where they were staying on a visit, and condescended to partake of +luncheon at the Vicarage. As for his Lordship, I remember that both in +manners and appearance he struck me as being more like a small +shopkeeper than a nobleman with a long line of ancestry, and the way +he once or twice snubbed papa, who is much the finer gentleman of the +two, made my blood boil, young as I was at the time. And then, when I +was asked to show the Lady Anna and the Lady Mary round the garden, +I have not forgotten with what frosty condescension they listened +to my remarks, nor how they stared at my sunburnt cheeks, and my +country-made shoes and my poor print frock--as if, taken altogether, I +were a creature who had strayed by chance from another sphere. Do you +think, mamma, that to themselves, or to each other, they would +acknowledge that the same blood runs in my veins as in their own? No, +I am quite sure they would not." + +Mrs. Sudlow cast up her eyes and shook her head. She could not but +acknowledge to herself that she had come off second best in the +encounter. All she could find to say was: "You are incorrigible--yes, +perfectly incorrigible; and I am at a loss to know why Providence has +seen fit to afflict me with such a child." + + + + +CHAPTER V +A FAMILY CONFERENCE AND WHAT CAME OF IT. + + +It was quite by chance that Philip Winslade did not travel down to +Iselford on the second Saturday by the same train that Fanny went by. +As it fell out, however, he was detained at the last moment and had to +wait for a later train. On Sunday morning his mother went to church +without him. If Fanny had reached home she would be sure to be there, +and it seemed better not to run the risk of a chance meeting with her +on the way to or from church, in view of his impending interview with +her father. + +When morning service was over and the Rev. Louth Sudlow retired to the +vestry to disrobe himself, he found his wife and eldest daughter there +before him. Mrs. Sudlow had just taken up a note addressed to her +husband which she had found on the table. "Now, who can this be from?" +she was saying as the Vicar entered. Fanny, who had recognised the +writing, blushed and turned away, but did not answer her mother. The +Vicar took the note, opened it, read it in silence, and then handed it +to his wife. It was from Philip Winslade, asking the Vicar to name an +hour when it would be convenient for him to see the writer on the +morrow about "a matter of urgent moment." + +"A matter of urgent moment!" repeated Mrs. Sudlow. "What can that be, +I wonder?" + +The Vicar did not reply, but there and then he sat down and wrote an +answer to the note, naming, as before, the vestry for the place of +meeting, and the hour of eleven. + +It was only natural that, as Fanny walked home with her parents, she +should feel somewhat disquieted. Why had her lover not written to her +in the course of the week, as he had promised to do? That he was at +Whiteash Cottage was proved by his note; why, then, had he omitted to +accompany his mother to church? Above all, what could be the matter of +urgent moment he was so anxious to see her father about? + +As yet the Vicar had not mentioned her lover's name, nor as much as +hinted at any knowledge of her engagement. But that did not surprise +her. Probably he did not care to enter upon the subject on the +Sabbath. Doubtless he would say what he had to say on the morrow. His +manner towards her had been, or so she fancied, more than commonly +kind and affectionate, and how could she accept that as anything but a +happy augury? Had the news of her engagement displeased him, or proved +a source of annoyance to him, he would scarcely have failed to make +the fact patent to her in one way or another. She longed for the +morrow to come, as young people have a way of doing. Never had the +even-paced hours seemed to drag themselves to so wearisome a length. +She was glad when bedtime had come, and gladder still when, after a +restless night, she saw the April dawn begin to brighten in the +eastern sky. + +It wanted a quarter to eleven when the Vicar left home, and the +clock had just struck twelve when Fanny, from the window of the +morning-room, saw him coming back across the lawn. Her heart sank, so +grave and preoccupied did he look. She would fain have opened the long +window and have run to meet him, but her mother's cold eyes were upon +her, and she refrained. When the Vicar entered the room two minutes +later his first act was to cross to where his daughter was sitting, +and taking her head gently between his hands, to kiss her on the +forehead. + +"Papa!" exclaimed Fanny, looking up into his face with frightened eyes, +and laying her hand for a moment on his sleeve. That he was the +messenger of ill news her heart portended but too surely. + +Mrs. Sudlow was too accustomed to reading her husband's looks not to +know that something was amiss; but although her curiosity was keen to +hear whatever news he might be the bearer of, she set her thin lips +tight and seemed to be intent on her sewing and on nothing beyond it. +The Vicar sat down in his easy-chair and proceeded to rub his +spectacles with his handkerchief. + +"Little did I dream when I left home this morning," he began, sighing +as he did so, "that I should have such a strange and distressing story +to tell on my return. Dear me--dear me! Who could have believed in the +possibility of such a thing?" + +"My dear, if you would but endeavour to be a little less prolix!" said +Mrs. Sudlow. "If you cannot see that Fanny is dying of impatience, I +can." + +The Vicar hemmed and fidgeted in his chair. + +"Really, my love," he murmured deprecatingly. Then turning to Fanny +and addressing himself directly to her, he said: "I am afraid, my +child, that what I am about to tell you will distress you greatly, but +unfortunately the blow is one which there are no means of averting. +The reason Philip Winslade wished to see me this morning was that he +might impart to me, in strict confidence, a certain circumstance +connected with his personal history which only came to his own +knowledge a few days ago. It appears that when Mrs. Winslade became +aware of the existence of some sort of an engagement between her son +and you, and was told he was about to seek your parents' sanction +thereto, she revealed to him the circumstance in question, which had +hitherto been kept carefully from him. What she had to tell him was +that her husband and his father was a certain notorious bank-note +forger, Philip Cordery by name, who was tried and convicted upwards of +twenty years ago, and who died in prison a little while afterwards." + +"Ah!" was the sole comment vouchsafed by Mrs. Sudlow; but although a +word of two letters only, it can be made to convey a variety of +meanings, and on the present occasion what it conveyed to the Vicar +was, "I always felt sure that there was something discreditable in +that woman's past, and now you see how right I was." + +Fanny's cheek had turned a shade paler, but as yet she scarcely +realised the full significance of her father's news. After the silence +had lasted a few moments she said, "But why, after keeping the fact a +secret for so many years, should Mrs. Winslade have thought it needful +to speak of it now?" + +"Whatever may have been her trials and misfortunes, Mrs. Winslade is a +high-principled woman," replied the Vicar. "When informed that her son +was seeking to become engaged to a certain young lady, she revealed to +him the story of his parentage as a measure of simple right both to +the person in question and her parents. It would rest with them to +accept or dismiss him as they might deem best, when the truth about +him had been told; but in any case Mrs. Winslade was determined that +there should be no risk of accepting him blindfold and under a cloak +of false pretence." + +"It seems to me," said Fanny, with a little glow of colour, "that it +was a very magnanimous thing of Mrs. Winslade to do." + +"You talk like a school-girl," broke in Mrs. Sudlow. "For very shame +the woman could not do otherwise than as she did." + +"On that point, my dear, I must venture to differ from you," remarked +her husband in his blandest accents. "I fully believe there are many +women who would have continued to keep silence in the future as they +had in the past rather than run the risk of spoiling their son's +chance of marrying into a reputable family. Such persons might not +unreasonably allege that the fact of their having been able to keep +their secret for so long a time might be taken as a strong argument +that they would be able to keep it for ever." Then, a moment later, he +added: "Poor young fellow! I felt truly sorry for him. There was a +touch of manly pathos in the way he told his tale, which affected me +more than anything it has been my lot to listen to for a very long +time." + +"It is an extremely disagreeable episode well ended," remarked Mrs. +Sudlow with an air of satisfaction, as her sharp teeth bit in two the +thread she was sewing. "Of course, you gave the young man his _congé_ +there and then?" + +Fanny stared at her mother as if doubting whether she had heard +aright. + +"I told him that I would write to him in the course of a day or +two--nothing more." + +"I think it a great pity you did not send him packing at once. I have +no patience with such temporising ways." + +"But, mamma----" began Fanny, and then stopped at sight of her +father's uplifted hand. + +"My dear, it was not for me to dismiss the young man after so summary +a fashion. It seemed to me due to Fanny that before arriving at any +decision in the matter, the whole of the circumstances should be made +known to her." + +"There I differ from you _in toto_," said Mrs. Sudlow with accentuated +acidity. "You are Fanny's father, and as such it was your bounden duty +to give young Winslade clearly to understand that all is at an end +between him and her, now and for ever." + +"But, mamma, all is not at an end between us. Far from it," said +Fanny, with that little air of determination which her mother was +learning to know so well. + +Mrs. Sudlow turned quickly on her. + +"Girl, are you mad?" she demanded with a stamp of her foot. "What way +but one can there be of dealing with a man whose father was a forger +and a felon, and whose mother for years has been passing under a name +not her own? Why, even to shake hands with such a person would make me +feel as if there was a gaol taint about me for days to come." + +The Vicar coughed uneasily. "Pardon me, my dear, but your sentiments +are scarcely such as become the wife of a minister of the Gospel." + +Mrs. Sudlow sniffed, but did not condescend to any reply. + +"That Philip Winslade's father was what he was," said Fanny, "is +Philip's misfortune, but in no wise his fault; and why such a fact +should be allowed to affect anyone's estimate of him is what, so far, +I fail to understand." + +Mrs. Sudlow's dull eyes flamed out as they did on rare occasions only. +"Do you mean to tell me, Fanny Sudlow," she said with a cold, slow +emphasis, which was the more effective in that her anger was so +evidently at white-heat--"do you wish me for one moment to credit +that, after what you have been told, it is not your intention at once +to break off whatever engagement (oh, how rashly entered into!) may +heretofore have existed between yourself and this unhappy young man?" + +"You are right, mamma, when you term him an unhappy young man. But is +not that the very reason why our engagement, instead of being broken +off, should, if possible, be riveted more firmly than before? Who +should stand by him now this great trouble has come upon him if not I, +to whom he has given the greatest treasure a man has to give?" Her +cheeks glowed, her eyes shone with an inner radiance--never, to her +father's thinking, had she looked so beautiful as at that moment. + +Mrs. Sudlow turned upon her husband. "Louth, speak to her!" she +commanded. "If she has so far forgotten herself and the lessons of her +upbringing as no longer to heed her mother's wishes and commands, it +is to be hoped that this new evil influence has not yet obtained such +complete control over her as to induce her to treat her father's +admonitions as contemptuously as she has seen fit to treat mine." + +The Rev. Louth Sudlow felt that his position was anything but an +enviable one. His sympathies were altogether with his daughter; but to +a man who loved peace and quietness as he loved them, to sanction the +unfurling of the flag of rebellion on the domestic hearth might well +represent itself as a very serious thing indeed. Such being the case, +he did what weak men nearly always do when they find themselves in a +corner--he resolved to play the timid game of expediency, and to +attempt the impossible feat of steering a straight course between two +strongly opposite currents. + +Addressing himself to Fanny, he said: "My dear girl, while fully +agreeing with you that in the case of a person who has been overtaken +by a misfortune which he has had no hand in bringing on himself, and +yet from the consequences of which it is impossible for him to escape, +it is the duty of those who know him and respect him--and--and like +him--to rally round him, and prove to him that though the world at +large may look askance on him, he will find no change in them, it is +still possible, I think, to push even so admirable a sentiment to a +point at which it not only becomes Quixotic, but--but, so to speak, +indefensible. And this, my dear, as it appears to me, is just what you +seem inclined to do in the case under discussion. Young Winslade by +his action in coming to me first of all has proved his entire +willingness to release you from any promise you may have made +him--such promise having been given in ignorance of what has since +become known, and accepted by him in equal ignorance. The question +therefore now is, whether you ought not at once to reclaim your +promise, and release him from any he may have given you. Although at +present, as far as we are aware, the knowledge of this painful episode +is confined to us three, there is no knowing how soon, nor by what +mischance, it may become common property. Think, then--consider, I beg +of you most seriously--what in such a case would be your position as a +member of a family which society (always terribly unrelenting in such +cases) would shun and contemn almost as if it were plague-smitten. Are +you willing for the sake of a passing girlish fancy--(you shake your +head; but, knowing the world far better than you know it, I hold by +the phrase)--to run the risk of overshadowing and embittering your +whole future life? Strive to realise all that you would sacrifice by +such a step, and then ask yourself what compensation you can +reasonably expect in return. The wrench of parting might be a sharp +one, and just at first the pain might seem almost intolerable, but +time would heal the wound, as it does the wounds of all of us, and +before long life would again look as bright to you, and as full of +promise, as ever it had done." + +When the Vicar ceased he rubbed his white hands softly one within the +other like a man well satisfied with himself. He had not been +oblivious of certain contemptuous sniffs on the part of his wife +during the progress of his little oration; but he was too familiar +with such tokens of disparagement to allow himself to be affected +thereby. Fanny felt that one of the most important moments of her life +had come. Drawing a deep breath she said: + +"Papa, when I gave my promise to Philip Winslade that I would one day +become his wife, it was with no intention of ever taking it back, and +far less than ever should I think of doing so now that a shadow has +crept over his life of which neither he nor I knew anything when my +promise was given. As for the world, or that small section of it +which, as you say, would look askance at him and his if his story were +to become known, it seems to me not worth a moment's consideration +when weighed in the balance against other things. Disgrace comes but +as we bring it on ourselves. Papa--and you too, mamma--permit me, +therefore, with all due deference and respect, to say, once for all, +that I have given my heart into the keeping of Philip Winslade, and in +his keeping I mean it to remain." + +"If such be the case, my dear child, there is nothing more to be +said," remarked the Vicar. + +"Nothing more to be said? Oh!" said Mrs. Sudlow, as she started to her +feet, a vivid spot of colour flaming in either cheek. Then staring her +husband full in the face, she said, in quiet, venomous accents, "Louth +Sudlow, you are a fool!" After which emphatic asseveration she swept +slowly from the room with all the dignity of which so little a woman +was capable, leaving father and daughter gazing blankly at each other. + +A couple of hours after the somewhat stormy scene detailed above, the +following note was delivered at Whiteash Cottage: + + +"Dear Phil,--Papa has told me _everything_. The only effect has been +to make me love you the more, if, indeed, that be possible. This +afternoon I am going to Frimpton to see my old nurse, who is ill, and +I shall return by the footpath through the meadows between six and +seven o'clock. You may come part of the way and meet me if you like. + + "Always and always yours, + + "F. S." + + +They met at the stile where the footpath through the fields loses +itself in the high road, about a quarter of a mile on the hither side +of Frimpton--Phil being determined that the walk back to Iselford +should be as long a one as possible. They had only seen each other +once since their parting on the landing-stage at Liverpool, and they +now stood for a moment or two, hand clasped in hand and eyes gazing +into eyes, trying to read whatever secrets of the heart might +perchance be revealed therein, and feeling their inmost being flooded +with a gladness which, for the little while they stood thus, made +speech seem an impertinence. + +Fanny was the first to find her tongue. She withdrew her hand from +Phil's grasp, and, instead, slipped it under his arm. Then they set +their faces towards Iselford. + +"Do you know, Phil," began Miss Fan, "it was very noble of you to come +to my father and tell him what you did." + +"It was simply my duty. No other course was open to me." + +"But we don't, some of us, always care to do our duty, even when we +see it clearly before us. And, in your case, I am by no means sure +that it was a duty, or, indeed, anything more than a piece of +modern-day chivalry, beyond the reach of folk of ordinary stature." + +"I am afraid you rate what I have done far more highly than it +deserves." + +"I can, at least, think my own thoughts about it," replied Fan softly. +"But poor Mrs. Winslade--what she must have suffered at finding +herself driven to make such a confession! My heart bleeds for her." As +she spoke she could feel a shiver run through the arm on which her +hand was resting. + +For a minute or two they walked on in silence. Phil felt that it was +now his turn to speak. "My dear," he began, "in the note I received +from you this afternoon you tell me that you only love me the more +after what I said to your father." + +"I told you no more than the truth." + +He lifted her hand and pressed it passionately to his lips. + +"But there are your parents to think of," he went on. "It is your +place, your duty to consider them first of all. It is too much to +expect that they should welcome to their fireside, or be willing to +allow their daughter to ally herself to, the son of a felon. They +would deem both her and themselves disgraced by so doing." Here an +involuntary sigh broke from him. "Listen, then, dearest. Let the cost +to myself be what it may, I here and now cancel the promise you gave +me three weeks ago on board ship. Take it back and try to forget that +it ever had an existence. We did not know then all that we have learnt +since. To you a far different fate is due than to wed the son of +Philip Cordery the forger." + +Fanny laughed a little laugh that had in it more of tears than mirth. +"You foolish, foolish Phil!" she exclaimed. "And is that the sort +of young woman you take me for? What a low opinion you must have +formed of me! How strangely you must have misread me! No, sir, +you not only have my promise, but I have yours, and I mean to keep +it fast--fast---fast! So 'no more of that, Hal, an' thou lovest me.' +As for papa, I feel sure that in his heart he admires and likes you +to-day far more than he ever did before. He will never as much as lift +his little finger in opposition to our engagement. With mamma I admit +that it is different. She is not without her opinions, and there is +always that fetich of our noble relations to block the way. But this +she knows from me and clearly understands, that neither on account +of our relatives (who care nothing for us), nor for any other +cause--certainly not by reason of anything you told papa--will I take +back my plighted word. I am yours, and you are mine." Then, a moment +later, she added: "Beyond my father and mother, there is no one else +to consider, for that your and Mrs. Winslade's secret is safe in their +keeping cannot for one moment be doubted. The world will never be any +wiser than it is now." + +In the face of such a declaration of unwavering love, so unfalteringly +given, so instinct with loyalty and determination, what could Philip, +what could any lover, have done save that which he did? The place was +solitary, not a creature was in sight; his arms encircled her, he drew +her to him, and then his lips pressed hers in a lingering kiss which +was repeated again and again. "O my love--my love!" he murmured. "I am +not worthy, indeed I am not, of all that you are sacrificing for my +sake." + +With her head resting against his shoulder, she looked up into his +face with a heavenly smile. "Where true love exists there can be no +such thing as a sacrifice." + + + + +CHAPTER VI. +IN WHICH MISS SUDLOW HAS HER WAY. + + +Although Mrs. Empson, the Rev. Louth Sudlow's widowed sister, was a +cross-grained, selfish old woman, to whom existence, unseasoned by the +fulsome flatteries of Miss Pudsey, or one of her genus, would have +seemed barely tolerable, she was not quite oblivious of the claims of +relationship. She knew that, for his position in life, her brother was +a poor man, encumbered with a numerous and increasingly expensive +family, and it was probably her knowledge of those facts that was her +inducement for writing the following letter: + + +"My dear Louth,--That you rarely trouble yourself so far as to inquire +whether I am alive or dead is a fact which, with that regard for truth +which is supposed to pertain to your cloth, but does not invariably do +so, you would find it difficult to deny; still, it does not on that +account follow that I should treat you and your interests with an +equal amount of indifference. + +"Although your eldest daughter, who, as far as I can judge, must, when +young, have been allowed to have far too much her own way, and cannot +now help betraying the results of her defective bringing-up, chose to +quit my roof in a very abrupt and off-hand fashion, after flouting +certain suggestions which, entirely for her own good, I was at pains +to lay before her, I bear no ill-feeling towards her on that account. +Indeed, were you here, Miss Pudsey, my _dame-de compagnie_, would tell +you that one of the most marked traits of my character is that I +invariably strive to return good for evil. + +"As a proof that such is the case, I write these few lines to inform +you that Lady Charlotte Mawby is looking out for a companion (who must +be a young gentlewoman) for her daughter, who is somewhat of an +invalid; and should you think it worth your while to allow Fanny to +leave home in the capacity in question, I have little doubt about +being able to secure the position for her. The salary would be +thirty-five guineas a year. + +"Don't shilly-shally over this offer, as you have a way of doing over +most things, but let me have a positive 'yes' or 'no' by return of +post. + + "Your affectionate sister, + + "Charlotte Empson." + +"P.S.--Pray remember me to Mrs. Sudlow." + + +This characteristic effusion was like another apple of discord dropped +among the inmates of the Vicarage. Needless to say, Mrs. Sudlow's +indignation took immediate flame. What business, she should like to +know, had Mrs. Empson to assume that _her_ daughter, who was second +cousin once removed (on her mother's side) to the Earl of Beaumaris, +was desirous on her own account, or would be permitted by her parents, +to accept the position of companion to anyone?--much less to the +daughter of a woman whose husband was nothing more than a rich +tallow-chandler who had been created a baronet, for what reason nobody +seemed to know, at the close of his year of office as Lord Mayor. It +was like Mrs. Empson's low-bred impertinence to dare to propose such a +thing. + +But fully one-half of Mrs. Sudlow's indignation was due to the tone in +which the letter was written. It was gall and wormwood to her to have +to submit to reflections on the manner in which her daughter had been +brought up. And then, too, the way in which all reference to herself +was relegated to a postscript! Yet she dared not, by way of retort +courteous, wing even the tiniest of envenomed shafts in return. For +her children's sake she could not afford to quarrel with their rich, +but odious, old aunt. It was very hard. + +But what was Mrs. Sudlow's amazement and bitter indignation when Fanny +remarked in her calmly aggravating way that she felt greatly obliged +to her aunt, whose offer had come at a most opportune moment, seeing +that she had been on the point of asking her parents to allow her to +look out for some such situation as the one in question. She was quite +aware, she went on to say, that her father's means were cramped, and +it seemed to her that she was now of an age when she ought no longer +to be a burden to him, but in a position to earn her own living. +Her next sister, Winifred, was quite old enough to help her mother +with the younger children and to take that position in the household +which had heretofore been filled by her--Fanny. In short, this +self-opinionated young person made it clearly manifest that she was +possessed by a strong desire to work out an independent position for +herself, pending a certain event which just now was only dimly +discernible as something which pertained to a far-distant future. + +As regards this little episode it is enough to add that, in the +result, Fanny had her way, and a fortnight later was duly installed as +companion to Miss Mawby. + +In her encounter with her daughter Mrs. Sudlow had been beaten +"all along the line," but even in her defeat she contrived to +extract a grain of comfort from the fact that, as Miss Mawby rarely +visited London, but spent nearly all her time at one or another +watering-place, either in England or on the Continent, it would not be +possible for Fanny and her lover to see much, if anything, of each +other. That they would correspond was a foregone conclusion, but Mrs. +Sudlow had seen something of the world, and had very limited faith in +the axiom that "absence makes the heart grow fonder." Within her +experience she had not infrequently found that absence has a precisely +opposite effect, and that young men--and young maidens too, for that +matter--lacking the presence of the object on whom their affections +are supposed to be fixed, have a habit of gradually cooling down and +of being drawn, as by a magnetic influence which they are unable to +resist, to worship at some other shrine, and to conveniently forget, +or ignore, the vows they have already whispered in the ear of another. +Fanny had told her parents that, as regarded her engagement, no +further steps should be taken by her till she was of age; therefore +did Mrs. Sudlow derive some barren comfort from the thought that in +two years many things might happen. + +She found it far easier to forgive Philip Winslade than to forgive his +mother; indeed, the latter was a piece of magnanimity which +transcended the scope of her limited nature. After all, the young man +had not been so much to blame. Fanny was an attractive girl, and it +was small wonder that he had fallen in love with her. The head and +front of his offending lay in the fact that he had been presumptuous +enough to aspire to the hand of one in whose veins ran the blood of +the ennobled Penmarthens. + + + + +CHAPTER VII. +PERSONAL TO PHIL. + + +Philip Winslade had been educated at the Iselford Grammar School, +whence he had gone, with a scholarship, to Cambridge. As he did not +conceive himself adapted for either the Church or the Bar, after +taking his degree he had cast about for an opening in a tutorial +capacity by way of making a start in life. This he had not been long +in finding in the family of a certain Mr. Layland, a wealthy London +merchant, who engaged him to take charge of the education of his two +sons--backward boys who had been spoiled by their mother, lately dead. +Under Phil's supervision the lads soon began to make marked progress, +and Mr. Layland had every reason to congratulate himself on his +choice. + +It was when his engagement with the merchant was about two years old +that, as a matter of curiosity and more in order to kill a few idle +hours than with any ulterior purpose, he took up and began to study +the details of a recent mysterious robbery of bonds and securities of +which his employer had been the victim, and which had baffled all the +efforts of policedom to bring the criminals to justice. As it was, +Winslade presently found that the task he had taken in hand had an +absorbing interest for him, as also that it brought into play a +certain faculty of analysis of the possession of which he had been +only half conscious before, as well as a gift for the sifting of +contradictory evidence and the marshalling in orderly sequence of a +complicated array of apparently disconnected details, thereby enabling +him to build up a theory which indicated how and where the missing +clue should be looked for. The result was that Winslade succeeded in +doing that which Scotland Yard had failed to effect. As a consequence, +his success got talked about in certain City circles, and, a little +later, he was asked to take another case in hand which so far had +proved to be as great a puzzle as the previous one. Here again Phil +was successful in evolving a clue which in the result proved to be the +right one. + +Such was Mr. Layland's belief in his tutor's abilities that when +Phil's engagement came to an end, in consequence of the departure of +his pupils for a public school, the merchant requested him to go to +the States and there carry out a certain diplomatic business +commission which, for reasons of his own, he did not care to entrust +to any recognised member of his staff. It was while on his voyage back +to England that he encountered Miss Sudlow and her aunt, and thereby +brought about a crisis in the affairs of Fanny and himself such as had +entered into the dreams of neither. + +So unwilling was Mr. Layland to dispense with Phil's services that on +his return from America he offered him an influential position in his +counting-house at a liberal salary to start with, and with a promise +of promotion before he should be much older. But tempting as the offer +was in some ways, Phil, feeling that he had neither liking nor +aptitude for a commercial career, found himself compelled to decline +it. As the next best thing the merchant could do for his _protégé_, he +recommended him to his friend Mr. Robert Melray, who just then +happened to be in need of the services of a secretary and amanuensis. + +Mr. Melray had lately returned from an expedition into the interior of +Borneo, and Winslade's duties consisted chiefly in transcribing his +diary, together with a miscellaneous collection of notes written in +all sorts of places and under all sorts of circumstances, and in +working up the whole into a connected narrative of travel with a view +to its proximate publication in volume form. + +Winslade, working at his employer's rooms in London, had only been +engaged a few weeks at his new duties when news came to hand of the +tragic and mysterious death of Mr. James Melray. Robert Melray at once +hurried down to Merehampton, and Phil was left to go on with his task +alone. + +One day, about a month later, Robert Melray being up in town for the +first time since his brother's death, seized the opportunity to call +on his friend Mr. Layland. Naturally their talk gravitated to the +strange circumstances connected with the death of the elder Mr. +Melray, the younger brother deploring in forcible terms the fact that, +despite his offer of a reward of five hundred pounds, so far not the +slightest clue to the perpetrator of the crime was forthcoming. Then +it was that Mr. Layland brought Winslade's name on the carpet, +instancing the able way in which he had succeeded in tracking down the +criminals in the case of the bond robbery, as also in the second case +he had taken in hand, and strongly advising his friend to induce Phil +to take up the affair _sub rosâ_ and see what _he_ could make of it. +Robert Melray, who was ready to catch at the slightest straw in his +burning desire to bring his brother's murderer to justice, did not +fail to act on the merchant's advice. He went direct to Winslade, told +him what he had heard with reference to his abilities in a certain +line, and begged of him, as a great favour, to take the Loudwater Case +in hand and bring all his efforts to bear on its unravelment. + +It was not without reluctance that Phil acceded to his employer's +request. He had a strong objection to being regarded in the light of a +private detective, but the circumstances of the affair being such as +they were, it would have seemed a very ungracious act on his part to +refuse his aid, whether it might prove worth much or little, in the +elucidation of the mystery of James Melray's death. + +Accordingly, a few hours later found him at Merehampton duly installed +in Loudwater House in the position of Mr. Robert Melray's amanuensis. +Not a syllable was breathed to anyone that any ulterior motive was at +the bottom of his sojourn under the roof of the old mansion. + +But, as we have already seen, all Winslade's efforts proved, as those +of the police had already done, wholly unavailing to trace the +assassin of James Melray. The mystery baffled him as it had baffled +them, and at the end of a month he went back to London no wiser in one +respect than he had left it. A month or two later his services with +Mr. Melray came to an end. + +While he was taking a brief holiday and considering in what way he +could best put to account such talents and experience as he possessed, +a communication reached him from Mr. Layland. That gentleman was the +chief promoter, financially, of a new weekly newspaper which was on +the eve of making its appearance, and he was good enough to offer Phil +an appointment on the staff. It was an offer which was gratefully +accepted. The new venture proved to be a success from every point of +view. Phil was still engaged on it, and was likely to be so for an +indefinite time to come. He had at length found the _métier_ which +seemed best suited to his tastes and abilities, and that of itself +ought to afford a large measure of content to any reasonable being. + +A close correspondence had been kept up all this time between himself +and Miss Sudlow. Only twice had they met, and that for an hour only on +each occasion. Miss Mawby, the semi-invalid to whom Fanny filled the +office of companion, as a rule detested London, but there were times +when she was seized by an irresistible longing to do a day's shopping +at the West-end, on which occasions she would rush up to town from +wherever she might be, dragging Fanny with her, only to go back, +exhausted and worn out, a couple of days later. On two such occasions +it was that Fanny and her lover had contrived to meet. + +Philip Winslade had never felt quite the same man from the date of his +mother's confession. It seemed to him as if he had grown half-a-dozen +years older in the course of the first few hours after he was told. +Circumstances had forced him to confront the skeleton which for long +years had been his mother's companion, and it seemed to him that its +grisly presence would haunt him till the last day of his life. With it +ever in the background, only felt to be there while he was mixing +among the crowd of his fellowmen, but intruding itself as a ghastly +reality on his hours of solitude, a measure of that sunshine which his +life's morning had heretofore held had vanished, never to return. It +was only his supreme love for Fanny which strengthened him and nerved +him to oppose with all the power of his will the insidious +encroachment of that baleful shadow which, but for that, would have +gradually enfolded him in its chill embrace, and have darkened the +issues of his life through all the years to come. + +We now come to the date of the letter written by Fanny to her lover, +the contents of which are already known to the reader. That letter was +answered to the following effect a week later. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII. +PHIL TAKES UP THE TRAIL AFRESH. + + +"My darling Fanny,--That your letter, with its accompanying number of +_The Family Cornucopia_, was a great surprise to me I at once admit. +After reading it, I turned to the story, which I went through very +carefully, some parts of it more than once, and I quite agree with you +that the writer of it seems to have been mixed up in some, to me, +inexplicable way with the Loudwater Tragedy. + +"So much, indeed, was I impressed with several points in the +narrative, so startling was the new theory of possibilities which it +had the effect of opening up, so minute did the writer's acquaintance +seem to be with the details of the crime, that a strong desire to find +out some particulars about him, and, if it were possible, to make his +acquaintance, took possession of me. All the more strongly did I feel +myself urged thereto in that it was impossible for me to forget how +thoroughly the case had baffled all my attempts at its elucidation. + +"Accordingly, the following forenoon found me at the office of _The +Family Cornucopia_, where, after having sent in my card, I was +presently asked into the presence of the editor--a pleasant, +middle-aged gentleman, Mr. Philpot by name. When I told him that my +object in calling on him was to obtain the name and address of the +writer of an article in such and such a number of his magazine, he +shook his head and said with a smile that I was asking for a kind of +information which he was not prepared to give save in very exceptional +cases. To this I replied that my case was a very exceptional one +indeed, and thereupon I went on to tell him of my connection with the +Loudwater affair (leaving him to infer that I was still in the service +of Mr. Melray), how struck I had been by the perusal of the story +entitled 'How, and Why,' and proceeded to detail some of my reasons +for wishing to make the author's acquaintance. After that there was no +further difficulty. 'Here is what you ask for,' he said a couple of +minutes later, as he handed me a slip of paper. + +"'May I ask, Mr. Philpot, whether you have had any previous +contributions from Mr. Frank Timmins?' I queried, after a glance at +the name on the paper. + +"'None that we have seen our way to accept. From time to time he has +sent us several little things, none of which, however, have proved to +be quite up to our mark; but the story entitled "How, and Why," was so +far superior to anything Mr. Timmins had sent us before that we were +glad to retain it.' + +"There being nothing further to learn from Mr. Philpot, I presently +went my way. A hansom took me to the address in Pentonville which the +editor had given me. Mr. Timmins, however, proved to be not at home. +He was a single man, his landlady told me, and I further elicited from +her that he was a reporter for certain newspapers, as also that the +most likely time for finding him at home was after seven o'clock in +the evening. + +"Seven-thirty sharp saw me again at Pentonville. This time, +fortunately, Mr. Timmins was at home, and I was at once shown to his +sitting-room, which, I may add, was also his bedroom. He had just +finished his tea and was in the act of charging his pipe as I was +shown in. When his landlady disappeared she took the tea-tray with +her. + +"Mr. Timmins is a man of four or five and twenty, with a fair but +somewhat freckled face, straw-coloured hair, and weak eyes. By the +time I had been ten minutes in his company I had discovered him to be +one of that numerous class of young men who have a very excellent +opinion of themselves and their abilities, without having anything to +offer the world in justification thereof. + +"The first thing I did was to hand him my card. + +"'To what may I attribute the honour of this visit, Mr. Winslade?' he +asked, as, after glancing at the card, he laid it on the table. + +"'I am given to understand by the editor of _The Family Cornucopia_ +that you are the author of a story entitled "How, and Why" which +appeared in a recent number of that magazine. May I assume, Mr. +Timmins, that such is the fact?' + +"He changed colour and hesitated for a second or two before answering. +Then he said: 'Really, Mr. Winslade, I am at a loss to imagine how it +can possibly matter to you whether I am, or am not, the author of the +story in question. Still, if, as you state, Mr. Philpot has seen fit +to acknowledge the fact, I am not going to run counter to his +statement.' + +"'Thank you for your frankness, Mr. Timmins,' I replied, as I drew my +chair a little closer to the table which divided us. 'You may take it +for granted that the information I am here to seek at your hands has +not for its object the satisfaction of an idle curiosity; very far +indeed is that from being the case. What I should like you to tell me +first of all is, whence and how you obtained the information, in other +words, the basis of fact, on which your story is built up.' + +"As before, there was the same hesitation prior to answering. Then he +said: 'I fail to understand why you should assume that my story has +any, even the slightest substratum of fact, or that it is anything +more than a specimen of purely imaginative writing.' + +"'That is a point as to which I can speedily enlighten you,' was my +reply. + +"Thereupon I entered into the reasons, one by one, which had sufficed +to convince me that, whoever the writer of the story might be, he was +someone who had not merely a suspiciously intimate knowledge of all +the details of the Loudwater Tragedy, but one who professed to account +for the crime after a fashion so startling and original that I, as a +person connected to some extent with the case, felt bound to ascertain +what amount of truth, if any, underlaid his statements. + +"Mr. Timmins listened with growing wonder, and when I had come to an +end he lay back in his chair, and for several seconds could do nothing +but stare blankly at me. At length he said: 'It is, perhaps, a +fortunate thing for me, Mr. Winslade, that my share in the story, or +whatever it may be called, is one that can very readily be explained. +To begin with, I am only part author of it. But perhaps I had better, +first of all, explain by what a singular conjunction of circumstances +the original MS. came into my hands. Possibly you may remember that, +some months ago, several people were killed owing to a railway +accident about a couple of miles beyond Eastwich?' I nodded. 'I, sir, +happened to be in the train when the accident took place, but was +fortunate enough to escape with nothing worse than a few bruises and a +severe shaking, while the only other passenger in the same compartment +with me was killed on the spot. I had been to report the speeches at a +great political meeting in the country, and was on my way back to +London by the night mail, travelling first-class in order that I might +be the better enabled to transcribe my notes _en route_. For a part of +the time I was alone, but at some station, I forget which, I was +joined by another passenger. I was too immersed in my work to take +more than the most casual notice of him, and all I can remember is +that he was young and dark-complexioned and had a black moustache. I +did notice, however, and I had occasion to remember the fact later on, +that after he had been some time in the carriage he took out of his +pocket a number of loose sheets of paper covered with writing, and +began to read them with what seemed to me the closest attention, +making an occasional pencil memorandum in the margin of one or another +of them as he went on. We were both at work, each in his own fashion, +when, without any other warning than a prolonged shriek of the engine, +of which neither of us took any notice, the crash came. All I knew, or +felt, of it was a momentary shock, as if all my limbs had been +suddenly dislocated, after which came an utter blank. + +"'When consciousness returned, and I was able to realise what had +happened, I found myself lying on the sloping embankment of the line, +where I had been laid by the men who had extricated me from the +wrecked carriage. A yard or two away lay stretched the body of my +travelling companion, stone dead. A little brandy, administered by I +know not whom, revived me wonderfully, and thereupon I woke to the +necessity of recovering my missing shorthand notes, which doubtless +were somewhere among the _débris_ of the carriage. Feeling still too +shaken and bruised to go in search of them myself, I gave a platelayer +half-a-crown to find them for me by the aid of his hand-lamp. After a +quarter of an hour he returned with a jumble of loose papers, which he +said were all that he could find. Without looking at them, I thrust +them into my pocket, and it was not I after I reached home, some five +or six hours later, and came to examine them, that I found among them +the sheets which my dead travelling companion had been reading at the +moment of the accident, which the platelayer, in ignorance of their +not being my property, had rescued from the wreck together with my +own. + +"'For the time being I laid them aside, but later in the day, when my +own work had been despatched, I sat down to read them; and next day, +when I went down by train to attend the inquest to which I had been +summoned as a witness, I took the papers with me. And now comes a very +singular feature of the affair. The body of my travelling companion +was never identified; nor, so far as I am aware, is it known to this +day who he was; nor, beyond such information on the point as the +railway-ticket found in one of his pockets afforded, whence he had +come or for what place other than London--which is a big address--he +was bound. He seemed to have been travelling without luggage of any +kind; his linen was unmarked, and there was nothing whatever found on +him by the aid of which his identity could be established. Under those +circumstances, I kept the dead man's papers by me, saying no word +about them to anybody. As a matter of course, I took the precaution of +looking carefully through them with a view of ascertaining whether +they furnished any clue to the personality of the writer, but none +such could I find. When I tell you this, Mr. Winslade, you will at +once understand in what light I regarded the MS. To me it seemed +neither more nor less than a rather clever little magazine story--a +piece of pure fiction, in point of fact. As such I read it, and such I +should have still believed it to be but for what you have told me this +evening. + +"'Well, sir, some three or four months after the unknown writer of the +MS. had been buried, I said to myself one day, "Why not write it out +in my own hand, invent an ending to it, give it a name, and send it to +one of the magazines? If it comes back it will only be one failure the +more." And failures in that line were things to which I was becoming +pretty well used.' + +"Here I interrupted Mr. Timmins for the first time. + +"'You say "invent an ending to it,"' I remarked. 'Had the MS., then, a +different ending from that which it has in the printed story?' + +"'I ought, perhaps, to have remarked before that it had no ending of +any kind,' replied Timmins, 'but broke off abruptly at the bottom of a +page. Whether the writer had never finished it, or whether, if a more +thorough search had been made in the carriage, the continuation of it +would have been found, I am, of course, unable to say. In any case, as +far as I am concerned, unfinished it was; consequently all the latter +part of the story, as printed, is from my pen.' + +"I at once saw, how important a knowledge of this fact might prove to +be, should the Loudwater Case ever come to be reopened. Laying the +open periodical before him on the table, I said, 'Will you be good +enough, Mr. Timmins, to point out the place where the original MS. +left off, and your pen took up the running?' + +"After drawing the magazine to him and casting his eye over the +columns, he said presently, marking a certain place with his +thumb-nail as he did so, 'Here is where the original writer ends and I +begin.' + +"'May I take it, then, as a fact that up to the point indicated by you +the printed story follows exactly on the lines of the MS.?' + +"'As nearly so as makes no matter. Here and there a word may have been +changed or transposed, or the turn of a sentence altered, but it may +be accepted as being to all intents and purposes a faithful copy of +the MS.' + +"You, my dear Fan, have read the story; so, when I tell you that the +point at which the break occurs is where 'Ernestine' and her former +lover find themselves together in the old merchant's office, you will +not fail to call to mind what a very important share of the narrative +proves to be wholly due to the inventive genius of Mr. Timmins. And +yet, perhaps, on further consideration, it is not really so important +as at first sight it seems. You and I knew, the moment we read it, +that the latter half of the narrative was nothing more than a farrago +of fiction; but who, in view of the little that is really known of the +causes which led to Mr. Melray's death, dare venture to assert that +the incidents, as detailed in the early part of it, may not be based +on fact? That is just what one would like to be in a position to +determine. + +"But to return. + +"'By the way, Mr. Timmins,' I said, 'I should like very particularly +to inspect the original MS.; indeed, I may add that I should like to +take possession of it for a little while.' + +"'I am sorry to say that it is no longer in existence. I kept it till +I heard that my story was accepted; then I burnt it.' + +"'Oh, you idiot!' was my mental exclamation; but aloud I only said it +was a great pity he had done so. + +"'Judging from what you have told me,' I went on presently, 'I suppose +I may take it for a fact that there was no hint whatever in the MS. +about suspicion fixing itself on "Mr. Day," the head clerk, nor +anything about his arrest and subsequent trial and conviction? +Neither, I presume, was there any mention made of the writer's +intention to commit suicide?' + +"'All those portions of the narrative were of my own invention. The +thing needed an ending of some kind in order to render it acceptable +to a magazine editor, and, to tell you the truth, I rather prided +myself on the way in which I got over the difficulty.' + +"Evidently there was nothing more to be got out of Mr. Timmins. The +truthfulness of what he had told me I did not for a moment doubt. He +made no difficulty, before I left him, about pledging me his word not +to speak of our interview to anyone. + +"The first thing I did next day was to hunt through a file of old +newspapers for the particulars of the Eastwich railway accident. What +I there read confirmed Timmins's statement in every respect. One of +the four victims of the accident was buried without having been +identified. Still, it was just possible that someone might have since +come forward and, by means of his clothes and the minute personal +description of him which would doubtless be taken prior to his +interment, have been able to claim him as the missing relative, or +friend, of whom they were in search, in which case his name and +address when living, with, possibly, other particulars concerning him, +would doubtless be now in the possession of the railway authorities. + +"But my hope that such might prove to be the case was doomed to +disappointment. The next post took a note from me to the railway +company, to which they promptly replied. No one, they informed me, had +ever come forward to claim, or identify, the unknown victim of the +Eastwich accident. My next step was to write to Mr. Robert Melray and +ask him to inform me when and where I could have half an hour's talk +with him. His reply was to the effect that he should be in town a +couple of days later and would call upon me. + +"My justification for so doing lay in the fact that in the +MS.--supposing that any value was to be attached to its +statements--there were certain allegations so seriously affecting the +reputation of the widow of the murdered man that it seemed to me +absolutely essential that the present head of the family should be +made acquainted with them. It would then rest with him to decide +whether any further action, and if so, of what kind, should be taken +in the affair, or whether it should be allowed to rest where it does +and remain an unsolved mystery till the end of time. + +"Well, my interview with Mr. Melray came off in due course. As I think +I have told you before, he is a man of strong feelings, although he +shows little of them on the surface, and his burning desire to bring +to justice the unknown person, or persons, who were concerned in his +brother's tragic fate remains just as strong as ever it was. I found +him more inclined than I confess I am to look upon the MS. (so to term +that portion of the narrative found in the railway carriage) as a +genuine recital of facts. To him it seems by no means unlikely that +the assassin of his brother may, in very truth, have been a former +lover of Mrs. Melray. Of course the question did not fail to put +itself to him, as it had already put itself to me: Were the murderer +and the unknown man who was killed in the railway accident one and the +same person? And if so, was he also the writer of the MS.? But those +were questions which he was no more able to answer than I had been. + +"I had already cause for believing that the feeling with which Mr. +Robert Melray regards his brother's widow is not of the most friendly +kind. That to a certain extent she is inimical to him I cannot doubt. +Consequently I was not much surprised when he avowed his intention of +having the case reopened--to the extent, at least, if such a thing +should prove possible, of testing the accuracy of the MS. so far as it +concerned itself with the relations between 'Ernestine,' otherwise the +wife, and her lover. But such a course was far easier to determine on +than to carry into effect, and how to set about it was a point which +puzzled both of us. Finally Mr. Melray and I parted without having +come to an agreement as to any definite course of action. He has +promised to call on me again three days hence. Meanwhile, at his +request, I am going down to Solchester with the view of making a few +cautious inquiries having reference to the existence there of any +possible lover of Mrs. Melray prior to her marriage. + +"And now to change the subject to something more personal to +ourselves. + + * * * * * * + +"Yours unalterably, + +"Philip Winslade. + +"P.S.--If any further evidence were needed to prove that the story +'How, and Why' is based on the Loudwater Tragedy, one might find it in +several of the thinly-veiled names which the anonymous writer has +thought fit to make use of. Thus, in the story Mr. Melray becomes 'Mr. +Melville'; the head clerk, Mr. Cray, is changed into 'Mr. Day'; +Silston, the chief constable, becomes 'Dilston'; while, in place of +Merehampton as the _locale_ of the narrative, we are introduced to the +town of 'Hampton Magna.'" + + + + +CHAPTER IX. +A DEADLOCK. + + +A few days later the train deposited Winslade at Solchester, one of +those third-rate provincial towns where it is next to impossible to +hide anything from one's neighbours, and where it seems to be the rule +for everybody to know everything, or to assume that they do, about +everybody else's business. + +From this it followed that Phil experienced little difficulty in +finding plenty of people ready and willing tell him all there was to +tell about the early life and antecedents of the Denia Lidington who +later on became the wife of Mr. James Melray. The fact of her +husband's tragical fate and the mystery which still enshrouded his +death, had served to bring everything connected with her freshly to +people's minds; indeed, the good folk of Solchester had come to look +upon the Loudwater Tragedy as being a matter which concerned them +nearly, if not quite, as much as their Merehampton neighbours. + +The one fresh fact pertinent to his inquiry elicited by Winslade was +that, while still little more than a school-girl, Miss Lidington had +had a very pronounced flirtation with a handsome, but impecunious, +ne'er-do-well, Evan Wildash by name, which had so alarmed the girl's +uncle that he had sought out the young fellow and had there and then +made him an offer of two hundred pounds on condition that he took +himself off for good and all to one or other of the colonies. This +Wildash had made no difficulty in doing, and, a couple of years later, +tidings, the authenticity of which nobody had seen reason to doubt, +had come to hand of his death by fever at the Cape. In any case, Evan +Wildash had never been seen in Solchester again. + +The information thus obtained seemed to Robert Melray to supply strong +and convincing reason for accepting as an authentic record the MS. +which such a strange chance had put into the hands of Mr. Timmins. To +him it now appeared clearly manifest that Wildash had _not_ died +abroad as was reported, but had come back, had surreptitiously sought +out the Denia Lidington of former days, had had more than one meeting +with her, the last of which had been interrupted by the justly +indignant husband, and that in the quarrel which ensued the latter had +been foully murdered. Of all this Robert Melray was fully convinced in +his mind. Scarcely more difficult did he find it to believe that +Wildash himself was the writer of the MS. (although what his object +had been in penning such a document was by no means clear), as also +that he was the unknown man who was killed in the railway accident. + +Winslade, while fully admitting the plausibility of the theory thus +advanced, was by no means inclined to allow his judgment to be +overridden by opinions so positive as those cherished by Mr. Melray. +That the latter's theory might prove to be in consonance with the +facts of the case, should those facts ever be brought to light, he was +quite open to allow; but, on the other hand, there was a possibility +that it might be at total variance with the truth. What he was willing +to grant was that, had such a thing been feasible, it might have been +advisable to reopen the case on the assumption that the statements +embodied in the manuscript might be based on certain circumstances +which all previous inquiries had failed to elicit. + +But to have gone to the widow and challenged her with being cognisant +of the existence and return of Wildash, as also with being an +accessory after the event, if not a passive agent at the scene of her +husband's death, would have been a brutal thing to do in any case, and +infinitely more so in the event of the theory of her having had a +former lover who was implicated in the affair turning out to be +nothing more than a wild invention on the part of the writer of the +manuscript. Be the truth what it might, such an accusation would only +be met by an indignant denial, and one which there would be no means +whatever of refuting. Finally, the two men parted without having +arrived at a decision of any kind, to meet again by appointment a +couple of days later. + +Then Mr. Melray said to Winslade, "It seems clear to me that I can do +nothing, that I am bound hand and foot. Unless some further evidence +bearing on my brother's fate, of which at present we have no +cognisance, should turn up from some unexpected quarter, the mystery +must rest where it does. It is a terribly unsatisfactory state of +affairs, but one which I am powerless to alter." + +It was at Mr. Layland's house that the meeting took place; and now, +when Phil rose to take his leave, the merchant, who had been present +at the interview, pressed him so cordially to stay and dine that he +could not well have refused, even had he been wishful of doing so. + +As they sat after dinner over their wine, Robert Melray said to his +friend: "You have helped me from time to time in more ways than I +could reckon up, and now I want you to help me once more. My mother +has given me orders to look out for a governess for my little boy. He +is just turned six, and I am told that his education is being +shamefully neglected. Now, if you and Miss Layland will put your heads +together and pick me out a likely person for the post in question, you +will oblige me more than I can say." + +Phil pricked up his ears. Miss Mawby had died quite suddenly about +three weeks before, and Fanny Sudlow was already looking out for +another situation. After spending a few days at home she had gone to +stay for a time at the house of one of her old school friends who was +lately married. Her mother had not yet forgiven her for her refusal to +break off her engagement to Phil, and Fanny felt that, for the sake of +domestic peace and harmony, it was better that they should still +remain apart; besides which she had no inclination to again become a +burden on her father's resources, which were taxed to the utmost by +the necessity of having to provide for those younger than herself. All +these were matters within Phil's cognisance. + +"There ought to be no difficulty in finding you the article you +require," said Mr. Layland. "I will get my sister to pick out a few +likely advertisements and see what can be done." + +"I hope you won't think it presumptuous on my part," remarked Phil, +addressing himself to Mr. Melray, "but I may just mention that my +mother is acquainted with a young lady, the eldest daughter of the +Vicar of Iselford, who, from what I know and have heard of her, would, +I imagine, exactly suit your requirements." + +"Nothing could be better. Let the young lady call upon Miss Layland, +and if _she_ is satisfied as to her qualifications, I am quite sure +that I shall be." + +Thus it came to pass that within a fortnight from that date Miss +Sudlow entered upon her new duties at Loudwater House as governess to +Master Freddy Melray. + + + + +CHAPTER X. +UNCHRISTIAN CHARITY. + + +With all the emphasis of which he was capable, and, indeed, with far +more than he had ever ventured to bring to bear before, the Rev. Louth +Sudlow had impressed upon his wife the obligation they were under, as +a matter of principle and honour, to keep inviolate the secret which +had been entrusted to them by Philip Winslade. It was one of those +things as to which it was not permissible to open their lips to a +soul. It must remain with them as though it had never been spoken. To +all which Mrs. Sudlow agreed; and although her agreement might be of +that negative kind which is implied by the phrase that "silence gives +consent," in her own mind she honestly meant to carry out the +condition laid upon her by her husband. All that, however, could not, +or, in any case did not, keep her from letting Mrs. Winslade see, +whenever they chanced to encounter each other, that she knew the +latter's secret, and in that fact found her justification for looking +down upon her in a way she had never ventured to do before. Heretofore +there had always been a certain show of cordiality between the two +ladies. Whenever they met they stopped to shake hands and smile, and +take stock of each other's bonnet, and make a few mutual inquiries +about nothing in particular; but now Mrs. Sudlow passed Mrs. Winslade +with the most frigid of bows, and a sort of drawing round her of her +skirts, more metaphorical, perhaps, than actual; but none the less a +palpable fact to the other. All of which said as plainly as words +could have done: "I know you for what you are--a woman passing under a +name not your own; the widow of a forger and a felon; and, as such, +not fit to move in that circle in which you have hitherto been +received in ignorance of your antecedents." These were moments of +triumph to Mrs. Sudlow, and at such times she felt half inclined to +condone the act which had been the means of putting such a power into +her hands. Sweet to her was it to be able to stab this woman again, +and yet again, who for twelve long years had so persistently kept her +at arm's length, and whose airs of quiet superiority (on this point +the Vicaress allowed her fancy too wide a margin) and general +_noli-me-tangere_ manner had been to her as a perpetual hidden sting, +the existence of which was known to herself alone. + +As time went on Mrs. Sudlow found her secret becoming more and more of +a burden. If only she could have shared it with someone--if only she +could have had one confidant with whom to dissect and discuss it in +all its bearings. There were times when the longing to whisper it +became almost irresistible; but she knew that her husband would never +forgive her if she were to breathe the slightest hint of it to anyone. +Weakly good-natured, and somewhat of a time-server, as the Rev. Louth +Sudlow might be in some things, no man could be more rigid than he on +a point of honour, or have a more genuine contempt for the mean and +ungenerous motives which prompt the actions of so many people. No; +however painful its continued presence might be, Mrs. Sudlow--so +indifferent, as a rule, to her husband's wishes, so contemptuous of +his opinions, and so habituated to having her own way--was yet in this +matter afraid to take the embargo off her tongue which the Vicar (so +foolishly and weakly, as it seemed to her) had seen fit to lay upon +it. + +One of Mrs. Sudlow's most intimate friends was a certain well-to-do +maiden lady, of middle age, Miss Tuttilow by name, who, being very +hospitable and fond of society, and without a grain of malice in her +composition, was deservedly popular. + +Miss Tuttilow had one brother, who, like herself, was unmarried, and +who was a partner in a firm of London lawyers. In the spring of each +year Gregory Tuttilow made a point of stealing away from business for +a few days, and of spending a brief holiday with his sister, in order +that he might be able to indulge in the fishing for which the +neighbourhood of Iselford is so justly famed. + +It was on an afternoon in the pleasant month of May that Miss +Tuttilow, who never let a week go by without calling at least once at +the Vicarage, said to her "dear friend," Mrs. Sudlow: "Gregory has gone +back home after a week of the best fishing he has had for years. By +the way, the mention of his name reminds me of a rather curious +circumstance which happened the other day. He and I had walked into +the town together--he to buy some tobacco and I some feminine +fal-lals--when whom should we meet face to face but Mrs. Winslade. She +favoured me with one of her indefinite smiles, bowed slightly, and +passed on. 'You seem to know that lady. Who is she?' queried my +brother, as he turned for a moment to look after her. Whereupon I told +him as much as anybody in Iselford knows about Mrs. Winslade, which, +as you and I are aware, is very little; and then, of course, asked him +what _he_ knew about her? 'Nothing at all,' was his reply. 'it was +merely that she put me very strongly in mind of a person, one of your +sex, whom I had occasion to meet professionally two or three and +twenty years ago. The person in question was the wife of a notorious +forger, Philip Cordery by name, who engaged our firm to defend him at +his trial. I found Mrs. Cordery to be a very charming woman, and I +pitied her from the bottom of my heart for being wedded to such a +scoundrel. As it happens, I have a very excellent memory for faces, +and really, allowing for the lapse of time, your friend Mrs. Winslade +bears a quite startling likeness to the Mrs. Cordery of so long ago. +But, of course, it can be nothing more than a coincidence.' Singular, +was it not, my dear friend? And it would be still more singular, would +it not? should Mrs. Winslade and Mrs. Cordery turn out to be one and +the same person. But even if such were the case nobody in Iselford +would be able to prove it." + +"You are mistaken," said Mrs. Sudlow, "_I_ could prove it. I have known +of it for the last two months." + +Miss Tuttilow jumped up as if a cracker had exploded under her chair. +"Goodness gracious me!" was all she was able to gasp out in the first +access of her amazement. + +Next moment Mrs. Sudlow could have bitten her tongue off with +vexation. She had had no intention whatever of enlightening her +visitor as to the extent of her knowledge, and it was not until the +latter ventured the assertion that nobody in Iselford would be able to +identify Mrs. Winslade with Mrs. Cordery, that she, all unwittingly, +let slip that fatal sentence, which it was impossible to recall, and +equally impossible to soften down, or twist to any other meaning than +its few simple words conveyed. She felt excessively annoyed with +herself; but that in nowise altered what was done. All she could now +do was to minimise the effects of her indiscretion as far as it might +be in her power to do so. + +What passed further between the two ladies need not detain us. It is +enough to say that when Miss Tuttilow left the Vicarage she was under +a solemn bond of secrecy; but, whether purposely or by accident, she +quite omitted to inform Mrs. Sudlow that she had already informed two +other "dear friends" of her brother's meeting with Mrs. Winslade, and +of the remarkable likeness which he averred she bore to the wife of a +notorious criminal. + +As time went on it seemed to Mrs. Winslade that people, even some of +those she had known longest, were beginning to look upon her with +changed eyes. At first she told herself that it was nothing more than +fancy; but, before long, what had been a doubt deepened into a +certainty. She could not be mistaken. Many with whom she had been on +speaking terms for years now passed her with a curt nod, or a frigid +bow, or even in some cases averted their eyes of set purpose, and made +believe not to see her. Whenever an errand took her into the town she +was aware that not infrequently people turned and stared at her, and +sometimes whispered to one another, as if there was something about +her which differentiated her from others of her sex. It was impossible +for her any longer to doubt that her life's secret had become public +property. + +She would not blame Mrs. Sudlow even in her thoughts; she would not +believe that the Vicaress, notwithstanding the veiled hostility which +had existed between them for years, would, knowingly and of her own +free will, do her so ill a turn. But, indeed, it would have been a +matter of small moment to her to be able to ascertain by what +mischance the truth had become known. The situation was an intolerable +one, for beneath that calm and equable exterior lay hidden a proud and +sensitive spirit, which, now that its secret armour had been pierced, +lay at the world's mercy. Iselford as a home was no longer possible to +her; she must seek another elsewhere. + +"Where should she go but to London and keep house for her son?" +demanded Phil, not without a show of reason, when the case was laid +before him. She had given in her adhesion to the plan, but had not +quite settled the date of her departure, when Phil came down to spend +the week-end with her. Together they went to church on the Sunday +morning, but, as they left after service was over, so unmistakable was +the way in which they were avoided--it may be said shunned--by one +group of whilom acquaintances after another, that, as they quitted the +churchyard, Mrs. Winslade let her veil drop over her face, and Phil +could feel that the arm resting within his was trembling. "My dear +boy," she said presently with a pathetic quaver in her voice, "if you +can arrange to stay over to-morrow I will go back with you. The +furniture and other things can follow later on." + +Thus did it come to pass that Mrs. Winslade was driven from the home +which had sheltered her for so long a time by the "look askance, the +cut direct" of a number of so-called "good" people, whose views, both +mental and ethical, were as restricted and as incapable of expansion +as the horizon of the petty provincial town in which their lot +happened to be cast. + + + + +CHAPTER XI. +FANNY AT LOUDWATER HOUSE. + + +Miss Sudlow and Phil made a point of writing to each other twice a +week. With the ordinary run of their correspondence we have nothing to +do; it concerned themselves only and was sacred to their own eyes. But +there came a day, after Fanny had been about three weeks at Loudwater +House, when she addressed to her lover a long epistle, which, as +having an important bearing on the events of which this narrative is a +record, is here transcribed in so far as it is needful to do so. + + +"In accordance with a promise which I made you some time ago, I now +proceed to jot down a few impressions and opinions anent the new--and +strange--little world and its inmates into the midst of which I was so +suddenly transplanted three weeks ago. + +"First of all, let me gratefully record the fact that everybody is very +kind to me, that my comfort is studied in a score of different ways, +and that I am treated more like one of the family than a dependent. My +pupil is a dear little fellow, quick at learning and of an +affectionate disposition, and I am really becoming quite attached to +him. + +"I confess that for the first few days I stood somewhat in awe of Mrs. +Melray the elder. You know what a stately, almost imperious, old dame +she is, with a manner which at first strikes one as being reserved +almost to the point of frigidity; but by degrees one discovers that it +is nothing more than manner, and that under it beats a warm woman's +heart, in which there is no lack of generous sympathies. + +"That, at least, is how I construe her character, and I don't think +that I am far out in my diagnosis. But it may be that I have been +exceptionally fortunate, in view of the fact that two or three days +ago Mr. Melray said to me, with one of his dry smiles: 'I find that my +mother has conceived quite a liking for you, Miss Sudlow. It is not +often that she takes to anyone as she has taken to you.' Of course it +was very gratifying to me to be told this, especially as I had in no +way laid myself out to conciliate the old lady. + +"Of Mrs. Melray the younger what shall I say? I confess that in many +respects she is an enigma to me. I was scarcely prepared to find her +so attractive as she really is. Beautiful she is not, and it would be +a misnomer to apply the term to her, but her face is one which I +should think that seven out of every ten men would find singularly +fascinating, in addition to which there is a strange but indefinable +charm about her personality, which even I, one of her own sex, find it +impossible wholly to resist. She is still curiously girlish, not +merely in appearance, but in many of her ways, and when I first set +eyes on her in her widow's weeds, it caused me the oddest sensation +imaginable; indeed, I would not like to assert that a moisture, rare +with me, did not dim my eyes as her tiny hand lingered for a moment or +two in mine. + +"To connect, even in thought, those guileless blue eyes, that +milk-white brow, and that expression at once so candid and innocent, +with crime of any kind, much more with a crime so mysterious and +terrible as the murder of Mr. Melray, seems to me as if one were to +draw up an indictment in opposition to Nature's own instincts. And yet +there have been occasions when, taking her unawares, I have caught her +scrutinising me with a certain indescribable something in her gaze +which has not merely puzzled me, but rendered me vaguely uneasy. At +such times it has seemed to me that, instead of its being I who was +studying and trying to read her, it was she who was submitting me to a +like process. + +"I remember your giving it as your opinion that Mr. Robert Melray +entertained no very friendly feeling towards his brother's widow, and +the longer I stay here the more inclined I am to think you were right. +But then, Mr. Melray is one of those dry, reserved, undemonstrative +men, as to whose likes or dislikes it is somewhat rash to formulate +too positive an opinion. Being the gentleman he is, it goes without +saying that he treats her with uniform courtesy and consideration; but +underlying it all there is a certain hardness and frigidity which, no +doubt, are partly natural to him, but in part only as it seems to me. + +"But, if one may be allowed to entertain some doubt as to the quality +of the feeling with which Mr. Melray regards the youthful widow, there +can be no room for doubt as far as his mother is concerned. That Mrs. +Melray the younger is distinctly antipathetic to Mrs. Melray the elder +unfortunately admits of no dispute. Not that they see much of each +other, save at luncheon and dinner, and perhaps for an hour afterwards +in the drawing-room. The dowager always breakfasts in her own +apartments and spends the major part of her time there with her +companion, a middle-aged spinster, Miss Armishaw by name, and an +amiable nonentity. More than once young Mrs. Melray has spoken to me, +in her prettily pathetic, girlish way, of the evident dislike in which +the elder woman holds her: 'I have done all I can in the effort to +conciliate her, but in vain,' she says; 'so now I have given up the +attempt as useless. I have been told that there are some women so +constituted that they always dislike their daughters-in-law unless +they themselves have had a hand in choosing them; and yet that seems a +hard thing to believe.' + +"From this you will gather that the widow and I are on very good terms +with each other; and such, indeed, is the case. On first coming here I +arranged with the elder Mrs. Melray that the hour from twelve till one +each day, weather permitting, should be devoted to taking Freddy out +for a run in the fresh air. There is a big old-fashioned garden at the +back of Loudwater House to which we sometimes limit our +constitutional; but more frequently we make our way into the meadows +which skirt one shore of the river and extend for miles, where the air +is the purest imaginable. Well, on the third morning, as I was getting +ready to go out, young Mrs. Melray came to me. 'I should so much like +to go out now and then with you and Freddy, Miss Sudlow, if you will +kindly allow me to accompany you,' she said. 'Since my husband's death +my life has necessarily been a very quiet one. I have hardly anyone to +talk to and I go nowhere. It would be a charity to let me join you.' + +"What could I say except that I should be very glad of her company, +and since then she has made a point of joining me in my walk every +other day, or thereabouts. Usually she has not much to say on these +occasions, and, as you know, I do not shine as a conversationalist, so +that it sometimes happens that we pace along for a quarter of an hour, +side by side, without a word passing between us; but she seems quite +content that it should be so. Now and again, however, she expands a +little and begins to talk of her own accord. In this way I have heard +a good deal about her early home life at Solchester, together with +sundry particulars concerning her school-days; but no syllable +bearing, directly or indirectly, on the existence of any possible +lover in the days before her late husband asked her to be his wife. +Her mention of Mr. Melray is of the rarest; but when she does speak of +him, it is more as if she were referring to some near and dear elderly +relative than to a husband whom she has lost. I see no reason for +doubting that she cherishes a very warm regard for his memory. To the +tragic circumstances of his death she never alludes even in the +remotest degree. One can well imagine that for her the subject is too +dreadful a one to bear talking about. It is impossible to help feeling +sorry for her when one calls to mind the nature of the calamity which +has overshadowed her young life. + +"Loudwater House has few visitors. Occasionally someone calls upon the +dowager Mrs. Melray, and since my arrival, two of young Mrs. Melray's +former associates at Solchester have been to visit her. The people we +see most of are staid, practical-minded Mr. Cray, who has been +head-clerk to the firm for the last quarter of a century, and Mr. +Richard Dyson, a kinsman of the Messrs. Melray, who has been in the +employ of the firm since he was quite a youth. These two Mr. Melray +frequently brings upstairs with him to dinner. Knowing so little of +the business as he does, and liking it still less, he is almost wholly +dependent on them for its conduct and efficient working. You will +remember Mr. Dyson as a particularly good-looking young man, with a +cool _dégagé_ manner, stylishly dressed, and with the air of one who +knows how to appraise his personal advantages at their full value. He +is a great favourite with the elder Mrs. Melray--a result probably due +in part to his own pleasant qualities, and in part to the fact that he +is the only son of a niece whom in bygone years the dowager regarded +almost in the light of a daughter. As his kinsman's assistant in +business, he has proved to be everything that could be wished--so Mrs. +Melray herself gives me to understand--and there is little doubt that, +had Mr. James Melray lived, he would, in the course of a few years, +have been made a partner in the firm. + +"But if Richard Dyson is a favourite with his own relatives, the same +cannot be said of him with regard to his kinsman's widow. That there +is a marked coolness between the two cannot escape the notice of +anyone who has eyes to see. They address each other no oftener than is +absolutely necessary, and on those evenings when Mr. Dyson dines with +us Mrs. Melray retires to her room an hour or more before her usual +time. But whatever this state of things may be the outcome of in no +wise concerns me. In our frequent walks together Mr. Dyson's name is +never mentioned between the widow and myself. + +"And now, my dear Phil, I think I have told you all there is to tell +that would be likely in any way to interest you. After having been +used for a long time to Miss Mawby's restless peregrinations, life at +Loudwater House is, in comparison, pleasant and home-like. Dull I have +not yet found it; indeed, on that point I have no fear whatever. It +seems hard to believe that so short a time ago a tragedy so dire was +enacted under the roof of this old mansion, where already the wheels +of life move as noiselessly and methodically as if actuated by +clockwork, and where one might easily imagine, but for the black +dresses of the ladies, that nothing out of the common ever had +happened or ever could happen. Has the drama, then, come to an end? Is +there nothing more to follow? or has the curtain yet to rise on +another act? _Chi vivra verra_. Not a word more; but, instead, a +kiss--nay, a score. (Oh, fie! fie!) + + "Fan." + + + + +CHAPTER XII. +MRS. MELRAY THE YOUNGER IN A NEW LIGHT. + + +One morning, about a fortnight subsequently to the date of the letter +embodied in our last chapter, Winslade was surprised to receive by +post a somewhat bulky package addressed to him in Fanny's familiar +hand. He opened it wonderingly, and his wonder was in nowise lessened +by what he found therein. First of all there was a long letter from +Fanny, and, secondly, a manuscript in a different writing, tied round +with narrow white ribbon. + +After requesting that Phil would not open the manuscript till he +should have read what she had to say, Fanny went on as follows: + +"From what I have already told you at different times, you will +readily comprehend that Mrs. Melray the younger has a great deal of +spare time on her hands which, I have no doubt, she sometimes finds it +rather difficult to get through with satisfaction to herself. +Previously to her husband's death (this is what she tells me), she +subscribed to the local library; but, as a consequence of that event, +her subscription has been allowed to lapse, and she is unwilling to +take it up again just yet, feeling sure in her own mind that such a +step would be disapproved of by her mother-in-law as savouring of +disrespect for the dead. Now, the stock of books at Loudwater House is +limited in number, and comprises but few volumes which would be likely +to interest a young woman like Mrs. Melray, who has no special +pursuits and no tastes in particular, unless it be a love of fiction +(in its narrative form), which seems to be a part of the natural +endowment of our sex. Under these circumstances, Mrs. Melray has +several times asked me for the loan of whatever books or magazines I +may happen to have by me (and, thanks to you, dear, I am kept pretty +well supplied with both), a request with which I have very willingly +complied. + +"Well, in the course of the afternoon of Tuesday last, she came to me +in the school-room to ask me whether I had anything by me which she +had not yet read. As it happened, she had already pretty well +exhausted my current supply. Then suddenly, while I stood with my +finger on my lip, wondering whether I had anything left which would be +likely to suit her, a great temptation assailed me. Low down in my +heart a voice whispered: 'Why not give her "How, and Why" to read? +That it will startle and surprise her can hardly be doubted, for +whether she is as innocent as I believe her to be, or whether, if she +chose to do so, she could clear up the mystery of her husband's death, +the story can scarcely fail to recall vividly to her mind every +circumstance connected with that event, while it is next to impossible +to credit that she can be so blind as not to comprehend that, +intermixed with a lot of fictitious matter, it is the story of Mr. +Melray's tragical end which is being thus retold by some unknown pen. +Scarcely less can she fail to see that the "old man's darling," who +plays such an important part in the narrative, is intended for none +other than herself. In any case, the reading of it by her can do no +possible harm, and there is just a chance--a very faint one, I +admit--that something unforeseen may result therefrom.' + +"(That something unforeseen _has_ resulted therefrom you will +presently have ample proof.) + +"Such were the thoughts that flashed through my mind during the three +or four seconds that I stood with my finger on my lip. Then, turning +to Mrs. Melray, I said: 'I am afraid that you have all but exhausted +my supply till a fresh one comes to hand. However, I will see what I +can find.' + +"I confess that my heart beat a little faster than common as I brought +from my bedroom the number of _The Family Cornucopia_, and placed it +in her hands. So lonely is her life that she spends an hour or two +most forenoons in the school-room with Freddy and me; accordingly I +was not at all surprised when she drew her chair up to the fire and +settled herself for what she calls a 'comfortable read.' + +"I watched her furtively, feeling pretty sure that, as a child picks +the biggest currants out of its cake first of all, so would she pick +out the story 'How, and Why' from the rest of the somewhat dry and +jejune contents of the magazine. First her face flushed, and then, a +few seconds later, paled as suddenly; then she flashed a look at me +and caught my eyes fixed on her, with, it may be, a directness in +their gaze which she found somewhat disconcerting. Anyhow, hers were +the first to drop. For a minute or more she sat staring into the fire, +her little pearly teeth biting into the crimson of her under-lip. +Then, as if she had come to some resolve, she got up suddenly, and, +looking me steadily in the face, said in tones as steady as her gaze: +'It is not often that I am troubled with a headache, but one has laid +hold of me this afternoon. If you don't mind, dear Miss Sudlow, I will +take this magazine to my own room and read it there.' Of course I told +her that I did not mind in the least, and that I hoped her headache +would soon pass off. Whereupon, with the palm of one hand pressed to +her brow, and smiling a little strangely, she went, taking the story +with her. + +"For the rest of the day nothing more was seen of Mrs. Melray. At +dinner-time she sent down word that she had a bad headache, and +apparently she had not got rid of it by next morning, seeing that she +failed to appear at the breakfast-table, neither was she visible at +luncheon. But a surprise was in store for me. In the course of the +afternoon a note was brought me by Charlotte the housemaid. Here it +is: + +"'Dear Miss Sudlow,--Will you oblige me by coming to my room as soon +as Freddy's lessons for the day are over? + + "'Yours sincerely, + "'Denia Melray.' + + +I am afraid that for the rest of the afternoon Master Freddy and his +lessons received but a very perfunctory attention at my hands. Much to +the boy's delight, I dismissed him a quarter-of-an-hour before the +usual time, and five minutes later found me at the door of the widow's +private sitting-room, which, during her husband's lifetime, had been +known as the small drawing-room. After a preliminary tap I turned the +handle and went in. + +"Mrs. Melray was half sitting, half reclining on a couch. The blinds +were part way down, so that the room was in semi-darkness, and as she +reclined there in the glow of the firelight, with her aureole of pale +gold hair, with the delicate ivory contours of her face thrown into +relief against the embroidered cushion which supported her head, and +with the graceful folds of her sombre draperies wrapping her round, +she made indeed a charming picture. + +"'I have asked you to come here,' she began, 'because we shall be more +free from interruption than we should be anywhere else.' Then, with a +touch of bitterness, she added: 'From morning till night no one ever +intrudes upon me here. In all England there can be few more lonely +mortals than I. But I am getting used to it by this time. Don't sit +there, Miss Sudlow, half a mile away from me. Here is a chair that +will suit itself deliciously to the curves of your back. Come and try +it.' + +"As soon as I was settled in the chair indicated by her, she said: +'That was rather a curious stor--y you gave me to read yesterday. But +before saying more about it, I want to ask you a certain question. Of +course you can please yourself about answering it; but, in any case, I +trust you will not be offended by my asking it.' + +"She paused as if expecting me to say something. + +"'I don't think there's much likelihood, Mrs. Melray, of my being +offended by any question you may choose to put to me.' + +"'It is very nice of you to say so, and yet---- But here is my +question without further preface. (Now, dear, remember, no offence!) +Are you, or are you not, the _fiancée_ of Mr. Philip Winslade, who was +here on a visit of several weeks' duration a little while ago?' + +"Her question took me so by surprise that not to save my life could I +have kept back the rush of telltale colour that dyed my cheeks. + +"Next moment, to my surprise, Mrs. Melray clapped her hands, as a +child might have done, and broke into a low rippling laugh. + +"'I can see that I guessed rightly," she exclaimed, "for, after all, +my question was only a guess.' + +"'Yes,' I said, 'you have guessed rightly. Mr. Winslade and I are, and +have been for some time, engaged.' Although I spoke gravely, I felt in +no degree offended by her question, and she saw it. 'But, if I may put +a question in my turn, Mrs. Melray,' I went on after a momentary +pause, 'what were the grounds which led you to the assumption that a +tie of any kind existed between Mr. Winslade and myself, or even that +we were as much as known to each other?' + +"'The explanation is a very simple one, as you shall hear. One day +last week I had just come in from my walk and was passing through the +hall, when my eye was caught by some letters on the table, which had +arrived by the afternoon post. Thinking that perhaps one of them might +be for me (although such an event would indeed be a rarity) I took +them up to examine the addresses. There was none for me, but there was +one for Miss Sudlow," which was sealed with wax as though it might +contain something of value. I suppose it was a touch of natural +curiosity that caused me to turn the letter over and examine the seal, +which proved to be a representation of an Assyrian winged bull, and +the same instant my memory recalled the fact that attached to Mr. +Winslade's watch-guard was an intaglio which represented a winged +bull. The inference to be drawn was an obvious one, at least it seemed +so to me, and, as the event has proved, it was a correct one.' + +"It began to dawn upon me that there might be more, much more, behind +those guileless blue orbs and that candid brow than either you or I +had dreamed of. + +"'Your powers, both of observation and deduction, seem to have been +cultivated to some purpose,' I remarked drily. + +"'I am not quite sure that I follow you,' she answered, with a puzzled +look, which might be genuine, but might just as easily be assumed. +'You must bear in mind that I am not clever in the way you are. But +now that you have been so frank with me on one point, perhaps you will +be equally so on another. What special object, may I ask, had you in +view in giving me a certain story to read?' + +"This was a question the answer to which demanded some consideration. +For once in a way, my dear Phil, your generally ready and quick-witted +Fan was undoubtedly nonplussed. + +"'Suppose I answer the question for you,' said Mrs. Melray presently, +with a smile which brought both rows of her pearly teeth into view; +but, for all that, it was not a pleasant smile by any means. + +"'The story in question having come under the notice of my estimable +brother-in-law, and he being satisfied that, as far as some of the +incidents it treated of were concerned, it could refer to one case and +no other, brought you, my dear Miss Sudlow, to Loudwater House, +hoping, by your help (that is to say, by matching one woman against +another) to be able to sift to the bottom sundry statements embodied +in the opening pages of the narrative, as to the truth or falsehood of +which neither he nor anyone else had any knowledge whatever. Finding, +after a time, that your design was no nearer its fulfilment than at +first, you took the only step left open to you--you gave me the story +itself to read, hoping to gain goodness only knows what advantage +thereby. Tell me, now, are my surmises, or guesses, or whatever you +like to call them, very wide of the mark?' + +"This, as you must admit, was very plain speaking indeed, and if I had +been taken aback before, I was doubly so now. Her blue eyes were bent +on me as she finished speaking with a sort of hard keenness in their +concentrated gaze, such as heretofore I should not have deemed them +capable of expressing. One thing was clear to me, that she was +labouring under an altogether erroneous belief, of which it became my +duty at once to disabuse her. + +"'If you are under the impression, Mrs. Melray,' I said, 'as your +words seem to imply, that I was invited here by your brother-in-law to +act as a sort of private detective, or, in other words, to play the +part of a spy on you and your actions, I can only say that you are +wholly mistaken. I am here to fill the post of Freddy's governess, and +with no ulterior motive of any kind. It was entirely of my own accord, +and unprompted by anyone, that I yesterday gave you the story, "How, +and Why" to read. At the same time, I admit that when I put it into +your hands it was with the object of enabling you, should you feel so +disposed, to disprove certain allegations, which, as I take it, can +refer to no other person than yourself.' + +"'Allegations which concern me most seriously, for I quite agree with +you that, in the eyes of anyone acquainted with the case, they point +unmistakably to Denia Melray. But tell me this: Should I be very wide +of the mark in assuming that the story has already been read both by +Mr. Winslade and Mr. Robert Melray?' + +"'It has been read by both of them.' + +"'So much I surmised. And now, will you be good enough to enlighten me +as to anything you may happen to know about the authorship of this +very remarkable composition? I am also curious to learn by what chance +it fell into your hands.' + +"Frankness being apparently the order of the day, I at once proceeded +to recount to her everything as it had happened, from my purchase of +_The Family Cornucopia_ onward through all the details of your +interview with Mr. Timmins, ending with a mention of the letter from +the railway company, in which it was stated that one out of the four +people killed in the accident had never been identified. She seemed to +drink in every word with an almost breathless avidity. I fancied that +her face paled perceptibly when I told her how, on Mr. Timmins coming +to his senses, the first thing he saw was the dead body of his unknown +travelling companion stretched out beside him. Neither of us broke the +silence for a little while after I had come to an end. Mrs. Melray was +the first to speak. + +"'Did'--here her hand went up to her throat for a moment--'did Mr. +Timmins describe to Mr. Winslade--what I mean is, did he give him any +description of the stranger who was killed?' + +"'The notice Mr. Timmins took of his fellow-traveller was of the most +casual kind. All he could call to mind was that he was young and +dark-complexioned, with a black moustache.' + +"'Yes--yes--young and dark-complexioned, with a black moustache,' she +repeated like an echo. 'It must have been he--it could have been no +other than he! Poor Evan! What an end--what a terrible end!" + +"She turned and buried her face in the sofa-cushions, and presently +her slight frame was shaken by those dry-eyed, almost silent sobs +which bear witness to a grief that, for the time being, is beyond the +consolation of tears. + +"I knew not what to do--of no way in which I could comfort her. The +conditions of the case were so exceptional that I felt myself utterly +helpless. I could only sit and look dumbly on. + +"'Poor Evan!' she had said. I did not forget that Evan Wildash was the +name of her one-time lover, who was said to have gone to the Cape +years before, and to have died there. + +"After a time, without lifting her face from the cushions, she said, +'Leave me now, dear Miss Sudlow. Come to me at the same time +to-morrow, when I shall have more to say to you.' + +"I need not tell you, my dear Phil, with what impatience I awaited the +afternoon of the morrow. In the interim Mrs. Melray kept closely to +her rooms, being waited upon by her own maid and being present at none +of the family meals. + +"I found her on the second afternoon just as I had found her on the +first; it might have been five minutes instead of twenty-four hours +since I had left her last. She was very pale, but perfectly composed. +'I want you to sit, please, where you sat yesterday,' she said. + +"For a little while she lay back on her cushions with drooping +eye-lids and close-drawn brows. + +"'When I came to think over what passed at our interview yesterday,' +at length she began, 'I saw that two courses were open to me. I might +have professed my entire ignorance of the writer of the manuscript +found in the railway carriage; have averred that all that part of the +narrative prior to the murder which concerns itself with the "young +wife" and her lover was sheer romance, that I had never had a lover +since I was sixteen, and that he had died in Africa years ago; and, +finally, I might have defied anyone to prove that I knew one iota more +in connection with my husband's death than was given by me in evidence +at the inquest. That was one of the two courses open to me, and to +most women in my position it is the one which would have recommended +itself to them. + +"'The other course was to tell the truth as far as it is known to me, +to reveal that which I have hitherto hidden in my own breast--and that +is what I have made up my mind to do. Ah! you don't know how often I +have been tempted to do this before to-day; but, like the coward I am +at heart, I have hitherto shrunk from the ordeal. I am quite aware of +the feeling with which both Mr. Melray and his mother regard me, and +that the knowledge is very painful to me I need scarcely say. I think +it very likely that if their attitude towards me had been one of +greater sympathy (affection I hardly looked for), they would long ago +have been made aware of all that I have to tell. But be that as it +may, the truth shall now be told, whatever its effect may be on the +relations between them and me in time to come. For more reasons than +one, however, I have thought it advisable not to recount, to you by +word of mouth what there is to make known, but rather to set it down +in black and white, so that you and others may be able to read it at +your leisure. It took me till far into the night to accomplish my +self-imposed task. Here is the result." + +"As she finished speaking she thrust her hand under the sofa cushion +and brought forth a thin roll of manuscript, which she handed to me. + +"'Read this first yourself,' she said, 'and then oblige me by handing +it to my brother-in-law. I should like it to be understood that I +shall expect not to be cross-questioned about this, that, or the +other statement comprised in it. That would simply be to torture me. +The paper tells all there is to tell. I have nothing to add to it.' + +"The enclosed is a copy, written out by myself, of Mrs. Melray's +narrative. The original was this morning placed by me in the hands of +Mr. Robert Melray." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII. +MRS. MELRAY'S STATEMENT. + + +"My mother died when I was little more than a child, and a year later +I lost my father. After the latter event I went to live at Solchester +with my uncle, Mr. Samuel Champneys, who was also my guardian. When I +first met Evan Wildash I was sixteen years old and had just left +school. He was my senior by four years and had come to Solchester to +fill a vacancy in a land surveyor's office, his home, meanwhile, being +with a maiden aunt whose house was only a few doors away from that of +my uncle. Evan was an especially handsome young man, with large, +black, lustrous eyes, a dark Italian-looking face, and a most +persuasive voice; in short, just the kind of provincial Romeo to take +captive the heart of a romantic school-girl. Small wonder, therefore, +was it that, when he one day whispered in my ear that he loved me, he +took mine captive on the spot. After that we used to met in secret two +or three times a week, and, as if that were not enough, we got into +the way of writing silly little love notes to each other between +times, our post-office being a hollow in an old apple-tree at the +bottom of my uncle's orchard. + +"This went on for half a year or more, wholly without my uncle's +knowledge, and never was girl more happy than I. Not for a moment did +I doubt Evan's assurances that in all the world he loved but me; and, +in return, he had all the girlish love I had to bestow. By-and-by +rumours began to reach me of the wild and reckless kind of life he was +leading--of his racing and betting propensities, of his card-playing, +billiard-playing, and I know not what besides; but he was my Bayard in +so far that, in my eyes, he was _sans reproche_, and I would not +listen to aught that was said in his disparagement. At length, +however, the crash came. He was dismissed from his situation, and, +worse than all, dismissed without a character. Even then I would hear +no ill spoken of him. + +"It was just about this time that someone, I never discovered who, +opened my uncle's eyes (good simple man!) to the state of affairs +between Evan and myself. Under these circumstances five uncles out of +six would have sent for their niece and have upbraided her and made +things generally unpleasant for her; but he went to work after a +different fashion. Instead of scolding me, he sent for my lover. + +"According to Evan, as told to me later, Uncle Samuel spoke to him +something to the following effect: 'You have lost your situation and +you have lost your character--such a one as you had to lose. +Solchester and you must now part company. I am given to understand +that you profess to be in love with my niece. If you are seeking her +for the sake of her small fortune--and it is only a very small +one--I must impress two facts upon you. The first is, that she will +not be of age for three and a half years; the second, that her money +is so tied up that her husband, whoever he may be, will not be able to +touch a penny of it. Now, although I am my niece's guardian, and +although she is legally bound to do my bidding while under age, I have +no wish to quarrel with her on your account. Rather than do that I am +prepared to make you an offer, which, for your own sake, I strongly +advise you to accept. What I have to propose is this: That, on +condition of your breaking off all future relations with my niece, and +of your at once going out to one of the Colonies--I care not which--I +will present you with the sum of two hundred and fifty pounds, the odd +fifty to be given you at once for your passage and outfit, and the two +hundred to be paid you the day after you land at Melbourne, or +Halifax, or at whatever port you may decide upon consigning your +worthless self to.' Evan took a day to consider. On the morrow he told +my uncle that he would accept the proffered sum and go. + +"'So that is the price at which you and my uncle appraise me!' I +whimpered, when, with his arm round my waist and my head resting +against his shoulder, he told me what he had agreed upon doing. 'Two +hundred and fifty pounds! Oh, if I had but known before!' + +"'Believe me, dearest, it is for the best,' he replied as he softly +fondled my cheek. Then he went on to say that his plan was to go out +to the South African diamond fields, where, according to his account, +fortunes, just then, were being picked up 'every day of the week.' Why +should he be less lucky than others? What was there to hinder _him_, +from picking up a fortune? He had not the slightest doubt that at the +end of two, or, at the most, three years, he should be back in +England, worth who could say how many thousands of pounds. When that +desirable state of affairs should have come to pass, he would marry me +despite the opposition of all the uncles in the universe. Meanwhile, +would I be true to him? Of course I would be true to him, I told him +as I wept quietly on his shoulder. + +"Well, he went. One letter he wrote me after landing at Cape Town, +which reached me through the good offices of his aunt, Miss Pinchin, +who was privy to our engagement and willing to further it to the best +of her ability. After that there was a long, long silence, and +finally, about a couple of years after his departure from England came +the news of his death from fever. + +"I cried, but not a great deal, when the news was told me. The fact +was that by the time Evan had been gone three or four months I began +to find, much to my surprise and hardly less to my mortification, that +his image was slowly, but surely, fading and losing its vividness of +outline in my memory--that I no longer thought of him by day and +dreamt of him by night, as I had been wont to do, and that his +unaccountable silence troubled me less and less as time went on. Love, +or that which I had dignified with the name of love, had taken no real +root in my heart. A few natural tears I shed when the news was told +me; and a sense of what might have been, but never could be now, came +over me and smote me as with a lash. But I quickly dried my eyes. +Three days before I had promised to become the wife of James Melray. + +"My uncle had died some time before, after having appointed Mr. Melray +my guardian for the remaining term of my minority. He placed me under +the care of a certain Mrs. Simpson, and there, from time to time, he +used to come and see me. Before a year was out he one day took my +breath away by making me an offer of marriage. I asked for a couple of +days to consider my answer, at the end of which time I accepted his +offer. Before doing so, however, I gave him clearly to understand that +I entertained no warmer feeling for him than one of simple liking and +esteem. He was quite content, he told me, to take me on those terms. +Affection, he did not doubt, would follow in due course. There seemed +to me no need for mentioning the name of Evan Wildash. The episode in +connection with him was a thing of the past. He was dead, and +therewith the promise I had given him had no longer any binding force. + +"Mr. Melray and I were married. I did my best to make my husband +happy, and, through all the dark days which have followed, the +consciousness that I succeeded in doing so has been the greatest +consolation left me. He prophesied rightly when he said that, being +rooted in esteem, affection would not fail to grow. It did grow, as he +knew, and he was happy in the knowledge. + +"One afternoon, about a week prior to that fatal September day, having +finished my shopping in the town, instead of going direct home, I was +tempted by the fineness of the weather to go round by the Ladies' +Walk, that fine old avenue of elms which stretches for nearly a mile +along the left bank of the river, and is the only park, so to call it, +of which Merehampton can boast. + +"I had been strolling slowly along for some minutes, immersed in +thought, when I was startled by a man who came suddenly out from +behind the trunk of one of the big old trees, and stepping in front of +me blocked the way. A second look was needed before I knew him again. +It was Evan Wildash; but oh, how changed! With his sallow, sunken +cheeks, his restless, furtive eyes, his long, unkempt hair, and his +shabby, ill-fitting clothes, he looked like a vile copy of his former +self. I fell back with a cry as my eyes met his. 'So, traitress, you +have not forgotten me!' he exclaimed through his set teeth, as he +followed me up with clenched hands and raised shoulders. + +"What answer I made I don't recollect, nor does it matter; but +apparently it had the effect of soothing him in some measure. 'Let us +sit,' he said,' I have much to tell you, many questions to ask.' +Accordingly we seated ourselves on one of the public benches. At that +hour of the afternoon the walk was nearly deserted; its whole length +did not hold more than half-a-dozen people. + +"What passed between us may be briefly summarised. + +"After that one letter written from the Cape, he had gone 'up country' +to the diamond fields. There he was presently smitten by sunstroke, +and months passed before he was able to crawl outside the +hospital-tent. So reduced was he in strength that manual labour of any +kind was out of the question, and in order to keep himself from +starving he was glad to accept a berth in a store; and there he had +stayed till he had saved enough money to pay his passage home. + +"'But when you got better, why did you not write,' I asked. 'I did +write, again and yet again,' he replied. 'After that first letter not +a line from you ever reached me,' I said. 'What conclusion could I +come to save that you had forgotten me?' 'If that is so, then has +there been treachery at work,' he replied, with a contraction of his +ebon brows. 'That is a thing to be ferreted out, and I charge myself +with the task. Meet me, three days from now, at the same time and +place.' + +"On that understanding we parted. There had been little or no +tenderness in his manner towards me, but only, as it were, the gloomy +humour of a man who found himself despoiled by another of something +which he had believed to be his own, but on which, in his heart, he +had set no particular store. On my part, I felt towards him nothing +but a sort of repulsion mixed with pity--pity for the so evidently +forlorn condition of one whom ill-fortune had so remorselessly dogged. +As for his good looks they were gone as completely as if they had +never existed. I wondered at and half despised myself when I called to +mind that there had been a time when I looked up to this man as the +hero of my dreams. + +"I met him three days later as I had promised. He had averred that +there had been treachery at work, and I was curious to learn the +result of his inquiry. What he had to tell was something of a shock to +me. The letters he had written after his recovery from his illness had +all, like the one written after landing, which duly reached me, been +sent under cover to his aunt, Miss Pinchin. But by the time the second +letter came to hand I was engaged to be married. Miss Pinchin, in the +exercise of her discretion, instead of forwarding that and the +subsequent ones direct to me, had put them into fresh envelopes and +addressed them to Mr. Melray. Whether he had opened and read them, or +whether, having had some hint from the spinster as to the probable +nature of their contents, he had burnt them unread, is a point as to +which I am as ignorant to-day as I was then. At any rate, not one of +them ever reached the person for whom they were intended, and, for the +time being, a dull fire of resentment was kindled in my heart. + +"For all that, I was by no means prepared to look at the affair from +the point of view of Evan Wildash. In brief he pressed me to elope +with him. 'You loved me--that you cannot deny,' ran his plea. 'When I +was compelled to leave you, you gave me your promise to remain true to +me; and that you would have kept it I fully believe, had not the +report of my death been spread about, and had you not found yourself, +after your uncle's decease, alone in the world. Even then, but for my +aunt's treachery, it would not have been too late for you to have +saved yourself from marrying a man whom you can henceforth regard with +nothing but loathing and contempt. Although you have failed me, I have +been true to you. To-day you are infinitely dearer to me than you were +four years ago. You belong to me. You are mine and mine only. We will +fly together to some land beyond the seas. I have means at command and +you shall not want. Come, then--now--at once! In twelve hours we shall +be far beyond pursuit.' + +"Such and such like were the persuasions and arguments made use of by +him. But I had no longer any love for him (if, indeed, I had ever had +any)--no, not the least bit! Rather was I frightened of him. His +restless manner, his strange jerky movements, a peculiar twitching of +one corner of his mouth, and an indescribable something which flashed +out at me every now and again from the sombre depths of his eyes, made +me timorous of him and involuntarily caused me to shrink from too +close a proximity to him. It seemed to me then--as, with still more +reason, it seems clear to me now--that he had never thoroughly +recovered from the effects of his sunstroke, and that, to a certain +extent, he could hardly be held accountable for what he might either +say or do. + +"I will not weary you with the details of all that passed between us. +I was afraid to take too indignant a tone with him, lest my doing so +should provoke an explosion of passion on his part, which might end in +a way disastrous to one or both of us. There was, however, no lack of +firmness in the way in which I gave him to understand that between +himself and me all was at an end for ever, and that that must be our +last interview. He pleaded and urged me to reconsider my +determination, but to no purpose. Finally, finding that I had only +half-an-hour left in which to get home and change my dress before +dinner, I was compelled to leave him somewhat abruptly. 'Shake hands +before I go, and let us part as friends,' I said. + +"He stared at my extended hand for a moment or two with bent brows. +Then, with a strange harsh laugh which seemed to me to have an echo of +insanity in it, he said: 'Part as friends--you and I? Never! We are +lovers, not friends. You are mine and I am yours. Not even death shall +have power to divide us.' Then, pulling his hat over his brows and +turning quickly on his heel, he flung me a parting look over his +shoulder. 'It is _au revoir_, and not farewell,' he exclaimed with a +wave of his hand, and so strode swiftly away through the gloaming." + + + + +CHAPTER XIV. +THE STATEMENT CONCLUDED. + + +"For the next few days there was an uneasy feeling at my heart, a +sense of impending misfortune, of which I could not rid myself. 'It is +_au revoir_,' he had said, and that despite my telling him that on no +account would I consent to meet him again. What motive was at the +bottom of his persistence? When and how would he attempt to force his +presence on me? For three days I never left the precincts of the house +and garden. + +"I now come to the fatal 18th of September. About ten o'clock on the +morning of that day, after breakfast was over and my husband had shut +himself up in his office, a note was brought me with word that the +messenger had been instructed to wait for an answer. Even before I +opened it I guessed but too surely who it was from. As nearly as I can +recollect, it ran almost word for word as under: + +"'You _must_ see me once more and to-day. I have made up my mind to +leave England in less than a week from now, probably never to return; +but I cannot go without bidding you farewell. Besides, I have some +letters of yours, written years ago, which I will give you when I see +you. Should you refuse me this last request, you must abide by the +consequences. To-morrow at daybreak my body will be found in front of +Loudwater House. There will be a bullet in my brain and on my lifeless +heart will be found your letters.--E. W.' + +"Such a message, coming from a man whom I believed to be half +demented, was enough to frighten any woman, and it frightened me. I +scribbled a line in answer, saying when and where I would meet him. + +"All that day I was a prey to the most dismal forebodings. It was +Friday. My husband, who was as regular in his habits as a piece of +clockwork, made an invariable point of leaving home punctually at +eight o'clock every Tuesday and Friday evening, in order to make one +at a rubber of whist at the house of his friend, Mr. Arbour. Being +thus aware that from eight till half-past ten my time would be at my +own disposal, and being unwilling to meet Evan again by daylight in +the Ladies' Walk, from fear lest the fact of my doing so should +somehow reach my husband's ears, in my reply to him I had named nine +o'clock as the time, and the corner of the graveyard of St. Mary's +Church (a lonely spot at that hour and not more than three hundred +yards from Loudwater House) as our place of meeting. + +"I had fully made up my mind that this our last interview should be as +brief a one as possible. I was morbidly anxious to regain possession +of my letters. Unless I did so there was no knowing into whose hands +they might fall nor what use might be made of them. And then for Evan +Wildash to have committed suicide at the door of my husband's house +would have been a dreadful thing indeed! + +"The clock struck eight as my husband was putting on his overcoat in +the hall. I tied a muffler round his throat, and at the door he kissed +me, as he always did, even if he were not going to be more than an +hour away. Alas and alas! how little did I dream that it was the last +time he would ever press his lips to mine! + +"After he was gone I scarcely blow how the time passed till nine +o'clock. As I look back in memory, everything that happened that night +after my husband's departure seems as far removed from reality as is +the recollection of some hideous nightmare. It is enough to say that I +was at the corner of the churchyard within five minutes of the +appointed hour, where I found Evan already waiting for me. + +"Of what passed between us I have only the vaguest +recollection--after-events seem almost to have blotted the record from +my mind. I remember with what a feeling of relief my fingers closed +over my letters, which, however, he did not yield up without evident +reluctance. Half a minute later his clenched hand went up to his +heart, and, with a low cry, he staggered backward, and would have +fallen had not his other hand instinctively gripped one of the +churchyard railings. 'That accursed pain again!' he exclaimed with a +groan. 'Brandy!--I must have brandy! or I shall die.' + +"I gazed around in despair. As I have said, the place was a lonely +one. There was no tavern in sight, nor, indeed, was I sure in which +direction the nearest one lay. By this time he was resting his back +against the railings, and even by that dim light I could discern that +his features were warped by agony. Then a thought struck me. I had +planned so as to leave Loudwater House unknown to anyone, having made +my exit not by way of the front door, but through my husband's private +office, one door of which opens into a side lane. My intention +was to go back the same way, which the latch-key I had brought with +me--applicable to both the front and side doors--would allow of my +doing. It now struck me that if only Evan could walk as far as the +office I might be able to get him some brandy from the liqueur-case +upstairs unseen by anybody. I told him my idea, and he assented to it +eagerly. How in the agony he was in he contrived to get as far as +Loudwater House I cannot tell; but there we were at last. I opened the +door with my key and went in first, he following. The place was in +darkness; but I knew where matches were always to be found. 'Wait by +the door till I get a light,' I said, being afraid lest he might +stumble over something in the dark. Whether he did not heed me, or did +not hear me, I have no means of knowing. In any case, he groped his +way forward into the room, and a moment later an exclamation broke +from his lips. He had half fallen over some obstruction on the floor. +As I struck a match, and the gas-jet leapt up, I turned my head to see +what had happened. By that he had recovered his footing, and, the +instant the room became flooded with light, I saw that he was staring +intently at his outstretched hands. Without my being aware of it, my +eyes followed the direction of his. Then I saw that his hands were +wet--nay, more; that they were bedabbled with blood. A moment I gazed, +horror-stricken, then my eyes travelled downward, and the dread +knowledge burst upon me that the object over which Evan had stumbled +was none other than the murdered body of my husband! + +"Frozen, I stood there gazing at the ghastly object--all the currents +of life seeming, for the time being, to stand still. As for Evan, his +gaze wandered from his hands to the body, and thence back to his +hands. Then, all at once, he burst into a harsh, discordant, maniacal +laugh, almost more dreadful to hear than was that which lay so white +and still on the floor to look upon. + +"'Blood!--blood on my hands--and his blood!' he cried with a half +shriek. 'They will say that I did it--I--I!' Again his madman's laugh +rang through the room. Then, with a last stare at his crimsoned hands, +he turned, and, as I verily believe, without as much as another look +at me, he flung wide the door and, passing with staggering strides out +into the night, vanished from my sight for ever. + +"But before that I was down on my knees by the side of my dead +husband. How did I know he was dead? you may possibly ask. My first +glance at his face had been enough to assure me that no faintest spark +of life animated the marble-like image at my feet. On it was stamped +the indescribable seal of death. For all that, as I now knelt by him +my hand felt for his heart, but not the slightest fluttering responded +to the pressure of my palm. He must have been dead some time. Already +the hand I took in mine, and the brow to which I pressed my lips, were +of an icy coldness. + +"Presently I stood up and asked myself what I ought to do next. An +unnatural calm possessed me. My eyes were dry and burning, but it +seemed to me as if my limbs were as cold as those of the corpse at my +feet. Tears would come later on, tears in abundance, but just then the +fountains were fast sealed. I knew, no one better, that what I ought +to have done was there and then to raise an alarm and summon the +police with all possible speed. 'But if I do that,' I said, 'how can I +explain away my presence at this untimely hour? And what if Evan, in +his half-demented condition, and with his blood-imbrued hands, should +be arrested and confronted with me? Would it not, in such a case, go +hard with the pair of us, innocent though we are?' My poor dear +husband was dead, of that there could be no doubt. It could do him no +good, but might do me infinite harm, were the slightest shadow of +suspicion to fall upon me in connection with the mystery of his +murder, as would almost inevitably be the case were I found in that +room at that hour with my outdoor things on, without anyone in the +house dreaming that I was otherwhere than in my own chamber. + +"Such were some of the thoughts that surged through my brain while one +might have counted a dozen slowly. My mind was made up. After one last +shuddering glance at my poor dear one, I put out the gas, opened the +inner door without noise, satisfied myself that no one was about, sped +upstairs and reached my own room unseen. A quarter of an hour later I +rang the bell, to which Charlotte, the housemaid, responded. Under the +pretence of being without an envelope in which to enclose a letter I +had just written, I asked her to take a lighted candle, go down to Mr. +Melray's office, and bring me one from there. The rest is known. + +"As already stated, I never saw Evan Wildash after that night, nor did +the slightest tidings of him ever reach me. After having read the +story 'How, and Why,' and after having heard from Miss Sudlow by what +strange chance the MS., of which the first half of the story professes +to be a faithful copy, came into the hands of a certain Mr. Timmins, I +can only conclude that the unknown stranger who met his death in the +railway accident could have been none other than Evan. As to whether +his partial derangement (for that his brain was affected I cannot +doubt) was temporary or permanent, and by what motive he was possessed +in describing under fictitious names, but not without sundry +exaggerations and erroneous deductions, some portion of that which +passed between himself and me, I am no more able to divine than the +veriest stranger who may read these lines. + +"Of the murder of my dear husband (surely such a crime cannot go for +ever unpunished!) I know nothing more than is here set down. + +"And that I aver to be the solemn truth. + + "Denia Melray." + + + + +CHAPTER XV. +A SCRAP OF PAPER. + + +Within twenty-four hours of the receipt by Philip Winslade of Miss +Sudlow's letter enclosing the copy of Mrs. Melray's statement, he and +Mr. Robert Melray were closeted together in a private room of the +hotel where the latter generally stayed during his visits to town. + +"What a pity, what a very great pity it is that Denia was not +straightforward enough to tell me all this at first," said Mr. Melray +as he replaced the statement, which he had been glancing over afresh, +in his pocket. "As you will readily conceive, it is an immense relief +to me to find that she is in no way implicated in my poor brother's +tragical fate. It would indeed have been terrible had anything tending +to the contrary come to light, and I am truly thankful my mother and I +have been spared any such revelation. Unfortunately we seem no nearer +the elucidation of the mystery of James's death than we were before." +He sighed heavily, his chin drooped forward on his breast, and he +seemed lost in thought. There was a long pause. Suddenly he raised his +head and, with his eyes bent searchingly on Winslade, said: "I suppose +_you_ see no reason to doubt the accuracy of any of the details +embodied in my sister-in-law's narrative?" + +It was a question which Phil had expected to have put to him, and +there was no hesitation in his reply. + +"I see no valid reason for questioning the _bona fides_ of Mrs. +Melray's narrative. There are certain points in connection with the +events of September 18, as told by her, which would undoubtedly be +open to grave suspicion did she not account for them in such a +seemingly straightforward and natural way. For instance, on the face +of it, it seems nothing less than a most remarkable coincidence that +she and Wildash should have found themselves in her husband's private +office within so short a time of Mr. Melray's unaccountable return and +all that must have happened immediately after; and yet the explanation +of how they came to be there is so simple and direct that, when one +comes to consider, it seems by no means improbable that things should +have fallen out as she asserts them to have done." + +"Does there not seem to you a possibility that my brother may have +accidentally discovered the assignation of the young people--that, in +point of fact, he may have come suddenly upon them while they were +talking together by the corner of the churchyard, that a quarrel may +thereupon have ensued, with a result that was fatal to James?" + +"That is a point which I have not failed to consider; but it is one +which, the more I look at it, the more I find it to bristle with +difficulties. That Mr. Melray left home as usual at eight o'clock is +not questioned. Supposing him to have gone there direct, he was due at +the house of Mr. Arbour from ten to twelve minutes later. Mrs. Melray +states that, knowing her husband would not be back before half-past +ten at the soonest, she named nine o'clock for her meeting with +Wildash. This seems quite feasible, seeing that by that hour most of +the shops would be shut, that there would be fewer people in the +streets, and, consequently, less likelihood of their meeting being +observed. But, supposing Mrs. Melray to have been unwise enough to fix +a quarter or half-past eight for the meeting, what then? The +churchyard where the meeting is said to have taken place is in an +exactly opposite direction to the road Mr. Melray would have to +traverse on his way to Mr. Arbour's; what possible reason, therefore, +could take him so far out of his way? Even supposing for a moment +that, by some means of which we know nothing, he had got wind of the +assignation and had made up his mind to be present, that he carried +out his intention, that high words passed between the two men, +resulting in a quarrel fatal to one of them; supposing all this, we at +once find ourselves beset with a fresh difficulty--none other, in +fact, than to account for Mr. Melray's body being found in his own +office, and not in the street by the churchyard, where the quarrel, +had there been one, must presumably have taken place. But there is no +evidence of a quarrel, nor as much as a single witness to prove that +the two men ever met, while it could not for a moment be contended +that Wildash, after killing Mr. Melray, could unobserved have dragged +the body as far as Loudwater House. No; I confess it would be much +harder for me to swallow these difficulties than it is to accept Mrs. +Melray's narrative as a truthful statement of the facts of the case as +far as she was concerned in them; and, looked at from her point of +view, one can quite understand her anxiety to keep the whole affair a +secret from everybody." + +"Your views in the main seem to tally with my own," said Mr. Melray, +"and I am glad to have them confirmed by you." + +"It certainly seems somewhat singular," resumed Winslade presently, +"that no one in Solchester should have known of the return of Wildash, +and that by all his old associates the tidings of his death should +still be implicitly believed. His aunt's evidence on the point would +have been most valuable, because she, more than anyone, would have +been likely to know of his return; but, unfortunately, she died some +months ago. As to whether he and the stranger who was killed on the +railway were one and the same person, there seems very little +likelihood now of our ever being able to prove; the probability, +however, would seem to be in favour of their being the same man." + +"It is a point which, I confess, has very little interest for me," +replied the other. "But now comes the question," he presently resumed, +"of what I ought to say to my sister-in-law, of what notice, in point +of fact, it is advisable that I should take of her extraordinary +statement." + +"If I may be allowed," said Winslade, "I would suggest that the less +notice you take of it the better." + +"My own opinion exactly. Indeed, if she and I were brought face to +face, I scarcely know what I should find to say to her about it. For +me, at least, it opens up a very different view of her character from +the one I held before. But that," he added with one of his dry smiles, +"is scarcely a point as to which it behoves me to enlighten her." He +paused for a few seconds, sitting with half-shut eyes and drumming +softly on the table with one hand. Then he said: "Perhaps, after all, +my best plan will be to write her a brief note, telling her I have +read her statement, and that although I am sorry she did not see her +way to take me into her confidence long ago, yet, bearing in mind the +uncommon circumstances surrounding the affair, that I do not feel at +liberty to blame her for her reticence. Further, that I accept her +statement without the shadow of a doubt as to the truth of anything +there set down, and that for the future it may be as well that the +subject should not be further alluded to between us. Yes," he +continued with an air of relief, "I think that will decidedly be the +best thing to do." + +At Loudwater House everything went on as before. Fanny and the younger +Mrs. Melray remained on the best of terms, and the latter continued to +join her and Freddy two or three times a week in their walks. Once, +and once only, did the young widow refer to a certain matter which was +as carefully shunned by Fanny as by herself. One day when Freddy was +out of hearing, Denia said: "I suppose I am only telling you what you +know already when I inform you that my brother-in-law's perusal of the +statement which I gave into your hands resulted in his writing me a +short, but extremely nice letter." + +"I was given to understand that it was Mr. Melray's intention to write +to you." + +"I cannot tell you how happy his letter has made me. Ever since +receiving it I have felt sorry and ashamed of myself for not having +taken him into my confidence at first and told him all I had to tell. +All my life long I shall think very differently of him from what I +used to do." + +There was a little break in her voice as she finished speaking, and +Fanny, glancing at her, saw that her blue eyes were brimmed with +tears. + +If, since her receipt of his letter, Mrs. Melray regarded her +brother-in-law from a changed standpoint, Fanny did not fail to notice +that he, on his part, now treated her with a certain show of +cordiality of which there had been no sign before. Heretofore he had +always addressed her ceremoniously as "Mrs. Melray," whereas he now as +often as not spoke to her and of her by her baptismal appellation. A +cloud seemed to have lifted itself off the house. The pretty widow's +eyes began to sparkle again as they had not sparkled since her +husband's death. + +Only, Mrs. Melray the elder, when in her daughter-in-law's company, +continued to be as grim and taciturn as she had always been. Nothing +had happened which served to change or modify the silent, but +uncompromising hostility with which she regarded the younger woman. +That she could be very different when she chose was shown by her +treatment of Miss Sudlow, which was not merely considerate, but had in +it a certain element of cordiality, of a somewhat chill and stately +kind it may be, but which, coming from the person it did, meant more +than it would have meant from another. + +One of the chief duties of the dowager's companion was to read aloud +to her mistress. Unfortunately, about this time Miss Armishaw +contracted a severe cold, which resulted, for the time being, in a +partial loss of voice. In this strait Fanny offered her services as +reader, an offer which Mrs. Melray was pleased to accept. This brought +the two women into more confidential relations than before, for the +readings always took place in the elder lady's private sitting-room, +and were usually followed by half-an-hour's chat on sundry topics of +the day before Fanny went back to her more immediate duties. + +It was in the course of one of these after-reading talks that the +dowager said: "Not till a week ago, my dear, did Robert give me a +certain document to read, which, as I understand, was placed by my +daughter-in-law in your hands first of all. It is a document which +serves, in my opinion, to place her conduct in a very curious light +indeed, and one which she may well have shrunk from having thrown on +it. On that point, however, I will say no more. She is my son's widow, +and although it would be hypocrisy on my part to say that I like her, +I have no desire whatever to prejudice her in the eyes of others. Nay, +I will go so far as to admit that there was never the slightest fault +to be found with the way she did her duty by her husband, and that +since his death her conduct has been most exemplary. That her life +under this roof is a very lonely and isolated one cannot be disputed, +consequently that she should seek your society a good deal is not to +be wondered at. I am quite willing to grant her considerable powers of +attraction, and if anyone were to question me closely on the point, I +should probably be at a loss to say what there is about her which +repels me so. There the feeling is, however, and it is one which I +have been unable to overcome. If I were to describe it as a vague +instinctive distrust I should perhaps not be very wide of the mark." + +Fanny knew not what reply to make to this unwonted burst of +confidence. But seeing that the dowager did not look as if any reply +were expected of her she wisely held her tongue. + +After a pause, during which the elder lady sat staring into the fire +with a far-away look in her eyes, she spoke again. + +"I suppose we may now finally give up all expectation of ever seeing +my poor son's murderer brought to the bar of justice." + +"For my part, madam, I cannot go so far as to admit that," replied +Fanny. "One never can tell from day to day what clue may turn up, or +what important fact be brought to light, perhaps from a quarter the +least expected, or in a way the most surprising and unthought of. I +have read of cases as apparently unfathomable as that of Mr. Melray, +which time has unravelled after its own fashion, and after those most +experienced in such matters had given them up as hopeless." + +"Let us trust, my dear, that it may prove so in my son's case; but +every day that passes tends to make it more unlikely." + +"If one could only discover by what motive Mr. Melray was influenced, +or what particular object he had in view, in coming back to his office +after having set out for the house of Mr. Arbour, we should, I think, +lay our hands on a very important clue. I suppose there was nothing +found among Mr. Melray's papers bearing on that feature of the +affair?" + +"So far as I am aware, nothing. Mr. Cray had the going through of my +son's papers, and had there been anything of the kind among them he +would surely not have overlooked it. Not only was he closely +questioned at the inquest, which was twice adjourned, but, later on, +he had more than one private interview with the officer from Scotland +Yard who had the case specially in hand. No man, however, could have +been more entirely bewildered and nonplussed than he was. Again and +again he declared that, as far as his knowledge went, his master had +not an enemy in the world--no, not a single enemy, but a thousand +friends!" + +"I presume," said Fanny, "there was nothing found on Mr. Melray's +person after death--no letter, or memorandum of any kind--which would +serve to throw even a glimmer of light on the events of the 18th of +September?" + +"Mine were the hands that emptied my son's pockets of their contents +after death," said the mother with a thin quaver in her voice. "Of +course she--his wife, I mean--was supposed to be too much overcome to +think of anything. I knew that James was in the habit of carrying a +pocket-book, and it seemed to me that there might perhaps be entries +in it which it would be as well that no strange eyes should read. +Accordingly I took possession of it, and it has never been out of my +keeping since that time." + +"Pardon my inquisitiveness, but may I ask whether you have made +yourself acquainted with the contents of the pocket-book?" + +"I went carefully through it within a few hours of my son's death." + +"And there was nothing in it that would serve----?" + +"Nothing whatever. Nearly the whole of the entries in it have +reference to his personal or domestic expenditure, for James was +methodical in all his ways, and as careful to balance his private +expenses as he was his business accounts. Since that day I have never +opened the book, but have kept it locked up in my writing-table. Of +course I was very much upset and put about just then, and it may be as +well that you, with your younger and more trained eyes, should look +over it, for, now that the point has been raised, it will certainly be +more satisfactory to me to be assured that it contains nothing of +moment which I may inadvertently have overlooked." + +She rose, crossed to her writing-table, unlocked a drawer and produced +therefrom her dead son's pocket-book, which she at once placed in +Fanny's hands. + +"Look carefully through it, my dear," she said. "There is nothing in +it that you may not read." + +Fanny cast her eyes over a number of the entries, all of which bore +out Mrs. Melray's description of them. Then, because a pocket-book +without a pocket would in some sort be a misnomer, she turned to the +Russia-leather cover and, on lifting a flap, found the receptacle she +was in search of. It held nothing save a small folded paper, which, +from its texture, she took at first for a bank-note. When, however, +she had extracted it she saw that it was merely an ordinary piece of +tissue-paper with some written characters showing through it. Without +opening it she handed it to Mrs. Melray. + +"What is this, my dear?" demanded the elder lady. "I saw nothing of +this when I looked through the book. But I suppose I did not look +carefully enough. There seems to be writing on it, but my eyes are so +weak that I must ask you to read it for me." + +Accordingly Fanny took back the paper, which proved to be an ordinary +press copy of a letter, its uneven edge on one side tending to show +that it had been torn out of the tissue-book after having been passed +through the machine. Having unfolded it she proceeded to read aloud as +follows: + + +"Loudwater House, + + "_September_ 4, 18--. + +"Mr. John Noyes, + + "Solchester. + +"Sir,--I beg to enclose you Bank of England notes value three hundred +and fifty pounds (viz., three of 100_l_. each and one of 50_l_.) in +full discharge of the claim standing in your books against my name. +This I do in preference to forwarding you a cheque for the amount. You +will understand what I mean when I tell you that a few hours ago I had +a long interview with our mutual friend, Mr. ----. I have retained the +documents brought by him for my examination, as to the authenticity of +which it is not needful that I should enter into any particulars. +Kindly acknowledge the receipt of my enclosure by return, and at the +same time forward, through registered post, the important document +belonging to me which you have still in your possession. + +"To a person of your business tact and experience I need scarcely +remark that in a delicate matter like the present discretion is a most +laudable virtue. + +"Yours most truly, + + "James Melray." + + +"Well, my dear, and what do you make of it?" asked Mrs. Melray, after +staring silently at Fanny for several seconds. + +"On the face of it, it seems a very mysterious production, and I +confess that I don't in the least know what to make of it. The date of +it is just a fortnight before Mr. Melray's death." + +"So it is. That is a point which failed to strike me at the moment. +But what is meant by 'our mutual friend, Mr. ----'? Is the name +omitted?" + +"Not omitted, but owing to a fault in copying, it is so smudged as to +be illegible." + +"That is a pity, but of course it can't be helped." Then, after a few +moments of silent consideration, she added: "I think this is a case as +to which it may be advisable to consult my son. What say you?" + +"I quite agree with you, madam." + +"Then you are inclined to attach some importance to the paper?" + +"I am inclined to attach very great importance to it." + +"In that case, will you be good enough to ring the bell?" + +But Robert Melray was no more able to make head or tail of the paper +found by Fanny than his mother had been. "The name of the person to +whom the letter is addressed is altogether strange to me," he said; +"but that is hardly to be wondered at, seeing that I don't know more +than half-a-dozen people in all Solchester. I think we had better ask +Cray to come upstairs, and ascertain whether he can throw any light on +the affair." + +But the managing clerk, when summoned, only shook his head. "The name +of Mr. Noyes is quite unknown to me," he said. "From the tenor of this +letter, I take it to refer to some private transaction of Mr. Melray. +There is certainly no entry in the books of the firm bearing on any +affair of the kind." + +"I will have a copy of this copy made and forwarded to Winslade by +to-night's post," was Robert Melray's final decision. "If he can do +nothing else, he can at least establish for us the identity of Mr. +John Noyes." + + + + +CHAPTER XVI. +A FRESH LINE OF INQUIRY. + + +Once more Philip Winslade found himself under the necessity of +journeying down to Solchester. It took him no long time after his +arrival to discover that Mr. Noyes was the secretary and manager of a +certain Loan and Discount Corporation well known to not a few of the +good people of the town. + +No sooner had he ascertained this than he made it his business to call +upon Mr. Noyes. Having explained who he was and that he was +prosecuting the inquiry on behalf of Mr. Robert Melray, he produced +his copy of the letter of the 4th of September, and asked the manager +to inform him whether he remembered the receipt of the original, to +which Mr. Noyes, having glanced his eye over the copy, replied that he +remembered it very well indeed. + +"In that case," resumed Winslade, "will you be good enough to +enlighten me, and Mr. Robert Melray through me, as to the precise +nature of the transaction to which it refers, in view of the fact that +no note or memorandum of any kind has been found among the late Mr. +Melray's papers which helps in the slightest degree to explain it?" + +Mr. Noyes toyed for some seconds with his watch-chain before +answering. Then he said: "I need scarcely tell you, Mr. Winslade, that +it is a matter of principle with me never to open my lips about any +confidential matters of which I may become the depositary in the +ordinary course of business. Seeing, however, that the case to which +this letter refers is of a very exceptional kind, that Mr. Melray is +dead, and that the information is asked for by his brother as his +partner and successor, I think that, for once, I shall be justified in +taking an exceptional course. Here is the 'Times.' If you will kindly +engage yourself with it for a matter of five or six minutes, I shall +then be at liberty to tell you all I know of the affair." + +"It was about the middle of last August," began the manager a few +minutes later, as he wheeled his chair half round so as more directly +to confront his auditor, "that a young man called upon me whom I had +never to my knowledge seen before. (I can verify the exact date for +you, should it be necessary to do so.) His name, he told me, was +Richard Dyson, and that he was a relative of Mr. Melray, the +well-known shipowner of Merehampton. His object in calling on me was +to negotiate, on the part of that gentleman, a loan of three hundred +pounds, of which sum, he gave me to understand, Mr. Melray was in +immediate need; the security offered for the same being a fully +paid-up life policy for two thousand pounds. That Mr. Melray, although +in a large way of business, should be in pressing want of the sum in +question did not surprise me in the least. Many prosperous merchants +and tradesmen whose capital is locked up, or otherwise not available +at a moment's notice, are occasionally pressed for a comparatively +small amount of ready money. Consequently what I did was to take down +the particulars of the required loan and tell Mr. Dyson that I would +lay the application before my directors and communicate with him at +the earliest possible moment. + +"Well, sir, the terms of the loan having been acceded to, a +communication to that effect was sent under cover to Mr. Dyson. Next +day saw him at my office again, his object in coming being to settle +with me the details for the completion of the affair. Mr. Melray +having an objection to being seen entering or leaving an office the +chief business of which was the lending of money, it was arranged +between Dyson and myself that I should wait upon his relative at +half-past seven on the evening of the next day but one, at the George +and Dragon Hotel, where a private room would be engaged by him. + +"I was at the hotel punctually at the time agreed upon, and on asking +for Mr. Melray was at once ushered into his room. I found the +shipowner, whom I had never seen before, to be a thin, grey-haired +man, somewhat prim and old-fashioned in his attire, and wearing +smoke-tinted spectacles. After a brief greeting we at once entered on +the business which had taken me there. The evening was closing in and +the room was in semi-darkness. I thought Mr. Melray would have rung +for lights, but he did not. There were pen and ink on the table. At +his request I stationed myself by him, and pointed out the particular +spot on the assignment and other documents where his signature was +required. That done, I folded up the papers and handed him a cheque +for three hundred pounds; he, in return, presented me with the policy, +which, till the sum lent should be repaid, together with interest as +agreed on, would remain in my custody. The whole affair was over in +five or six minutes at the most. At this distance of time there can be +no harm in my confessing that I thought it rather stingy treatment on +the part of Mr. Melray not to offer me as much as a glass of wine. + +"Now, one of the two people who, twice every year, audit the +Corporation's accounts and verify their securities, is Mr. Dunning, a +lawyer well known both at Solchester and Merehampton, At the +half-yearly audit, which took place about three weeks after my +interview with Mr. Melray, the policy of assurance, together with +other documents bearing on the transaction, came, in due course, under +Mr. Dunning's inspection. You will readily imagine, then, that I was +not a little surprised when he came to me with the papers in his hand +and asked me to tell him all I knew of the transaction to which they +referred. Taking into account his official connection with the +Corporation, there was no breach of confidence in my complying with +his request. It was then my turn to put certain questions to him, and +the surprise I had felt before was in nowise lessened when he told me +that he had been Mr. Melray's lawyer, and, in certain matters, his +confidential adviser, for something like a quarter of a century; that, +from his knowledge of that gentleman's affairs, he could aver that it +was next to impossible that he should have been in need of such a sum +as three hundred pounds; that, so far as he was aware, Mr. Melray, +whose eyes were remarkably good for his age, had never worn spectacles +in his life; and, finally, that he, Mr. Dunning, believed the +signatures which I had witnessed to be neither more nor less than +unblushing forgeries of his client's name. Thereupon it was agreed +that he should take the suspected documents away with him and see Mr. +Melray on the morrow. + +"Of what passed between the two I have no knowledge, but when I tell +you that, as far as I am concerned, the sequel of the affair was the +letter of which you have this morning shown me a copy, you are at +liberty, just as I was, to think what you like. Having got my 'pound +of flesh,' as I suppose you would term it, I returned the policy as +requested, and from that day to this have never sought to pry further +into the affair." + +The first thing Winslade did after leaving Mr. Noyes was to despatch a +telegram to Mr. Melray, which served to bring that gentleman to +Solchester by the next train. It is not needful to dilate on the +grieved astonishment with which he listened to the other's recital of +what had passed between himself and the money-lender. Dyson had been a +favourite with both the brothers, not merely because he was the only +son of an orphan cousin--of whom, as a girl, they had been both proud +and fond--but also by reason of certain pleasant qualities of his own, +which, if they did not spring from any genuine depth or sincerity of +feeling, had all the appearance of doing so and answered their purpose +equally as well. + +"We must go at once and find Dunning," were Mr. Melray's first words +when he had in some measure regained his composure. "So far we have +only heard half the story. It rests with him to tell us the +remainder." + +They were fortunate enough to find Mr. Dunning at home and disengaged. +A very few minutes sufficed to acquaint the lawyer with the nature of +their errand. + +"We know all that Mr. Noyes has to tell," said Mr. Melray in +conclusion. "We want you to supplement his narrative from the point +where his information comes to an end." + +"That I can very readily do," said the lawyer. "When I showed Mr. +James Melray the loan-office documents, with what purported to be +three separate signatures of his attached thereto, he at once, in the +most emphatic and indignant terms, denounced the whole affair as an +audacious mixture of forgery and fraud. He had never seen Noyes in his +life, much less applied to him for a loan, or pledged his policy of +assurance. But when he had reached that point of his disclaimer I said +to him, 'Would it not be as well to satisfy yourself that the policy +is still in your possession?' 'Why, I had it in my hand no longer ago +than yesterday,' was his reply. 'It lies where it has always lain, on +the top shelf in the large safe, one of a bundle of documents tied +round with red tape.' Thereupon, as if to make assurance doubly sure, +he rose, crossed the room, unlocked the safe, and produced from the +interior the bundle of papers of which he had spoken and extracted +from the rest a large oblong envelope, which he brought to the table. +It was labelled in his own writing, 'Paid-up Policy of Assurance on +Own Life for 2,000_l_.; 'There,' he said, with a little triumph in his +tone, 'whatever else the rogue may have been guilty of he has not +succeeded in making away with this.' 'I hope you won't think me +unreasonable,' I replied, 'if I ask you to open the envelope and +examine its contents.' Scarcely had the words left my lips before, +with his office knife, he had slit open one end of the envelope and +drawn forth the enclosure. An instant later he sank back in his chair +with a groan. All that the envelope contained was some blank sheets of +engrossing paper. + +"For a few moments I was afraid that Mr. Melray was about to have a +seizure of some kind, so colourless was his face and so glassy were +his eyes. He would not, however, let me ring for help, and gradually +he came round. A careful examination of the envelope revealed the +_modus operandi_ by which the fictitious contents had been substituted +for the genuine. The large black seal, with its impression of Mr. +Melray's monogram, had not been meddled with beyond the point of +detaching it bodily, probably with the help of a sharp penknife, from +the thick paper of the envelope. Then, after the substitution had been +effected, the seal had been reaffixed in its place with the help of a +little gum; and, finally, a thin rim of melted wax had been run round +it so as completely to hide any evidence of the envelope having been +tampered with. In the confidential position held by Dyson under his +kinsman, he had free access to the safe and its contents. When once he +had got the policy into his possession and had put everything in train +with Mr. Noyes, it was a comparatively simple matter, with the aid +of a wig and a few other accessories, to pass himself off in the +half-light of the August evening for a man double his own age. What +puzzled me then, and not only me, but Mr. Melray, and what puzzles me +still, is, why he contented himself with the comparatively small sum +of three hundred pounds, when he might have borrowed double that +amount on the security of the policy had he been so minded. But it may +have been that he saw, or thought he saw, the means of repaying a +small sum, and so of redeeming the policy, while it might have been +impossible for him to do so in the case of a more considerable loan. + +"I have already told you, gentlemen," continued the lawyer, "how +terribly Mr. Melray was put about by the discovery of his young +relative's treachery and ingratitude, not to call his conduct by a +stronger name. In the first excess of his resentment he vowed that the +moment Dyson returned (just then he happened to be away on his annual +holiday) he would cause him to be arrested, and would prosecute him +with the most extreme rigour of the law. But, after a while, the flame +of his anger began to burn less fiercely. He called to mind that the +culprit was the only son of his favourite cousin, to whom he had +passed his word when she lay on her death-bed that he would act a +parent's part by the lad. He remembered, too, his unfortunate +bringing-up, and that his father had been a dissolute spendthrift, +bankrupt of all moral principle. Nor did he forget that young men +often flounder into difficulties almost unwittingly and through no +very grave dereliction on their part, and that, in order to get rid of +one difficulty, they sometimes succumb to the first temptation that +comes in their way, and thereby saddle themselves with an incubus of a +far more onerous kind. Finally, he decided that on Dyson's return he +would confront him with the evidences of his crime, but that, instead +of handing him over to the arm of the law, he would insist on his +quitting England for a certain term of years, and would forgive him to +the extent of finding him the means wherewith to make a fresh start in +life on the other side of the world. Me he bound to secrecy, while, +either on the same or the following day, he forwarded the three +hundred and fifty pounds to Noyes and thereby redeemed his policy. + +"As we all know," said Robert Melray, "the interview between my +brother and Richard never took place. The latter did not get back from +his holidays till the third day after James's death; but it seems +somewhat remarkable, in view of my brother's intention, as avowed to +you, of confronting Richard with the evidence of his guilt, that the +criminatory documents should not have been found by Mr. Cray among his +papers." + +"The absence of the papers in question, as it seems to me, can only be +explained by one of two suppositions. Either your brother afterwards +changed his mind and himself destroyed them, or else Dyson, either +suspecting or knowing that his crime had been brought to light during +his absence, contrived to find and appropriate them in advance of Mr. +Cray." + +"Your last supposition seems to me the more likely of the two," said +Mr. Melray. "I recollect now that it was not till after the funeral +that Mr. Cray set about a systematic examination of my brother's +papers, so that, in the interim, Richard would have plenty of +opportunity to search for and find what he wanted. I declare that, +next to my poor brother's death, to-day's revelation is the most +distressing thing I have had to contend with in the whole course of my +life!" + +"You say, Mr. Dunning, that my brother bound you to secrecy," resumed +Robert Melray after a pause. "Would it not have been better if you had +looked upon his death as virtually absolving you from your promise, +thereby enabling you to bring under my notice certain facts which I +have learnt to-day for the first time?" + +"The point is one which I have debated with myself not once, but many +times. The conclusion I finally came to was that, having regard to +certain special features of the case, your brother's death did not +absolve me from my promise. That a grievous crime had been committed +could not be gainsaid; but if Mr. Melray chose to condone it that was +no business of mine. In all probability, as he said, it was the one +great sin of the young man's life, and who should say that it had not +been bitterly repented of? Further, how was I to be sure in what light +you would look at the affair? You might have chosen to prosecute the +culprit, which would have made it a very difficult matter for me ever +to forgive myself. In any case his character would have been blasted, +and his career, almost of necessity, ruined. Still, I am not prepared +to state positively what I might or might not have done, had it been +your intention to carry on the business of Melray Brothers, which, +almost as a matter of course, would have involved the retention of +your kinsman in your service. Knowing, however, as I have from the +first, that it is your resolve to get rid of the business as speedily +as possible and retire into private life, in which case you and he +would part, probably for ever, I deemed it best to keep the secret of +his delinquencies locked up in my own breast, where, I can assure you, +it had no lack of other secrets to keep it company." + +"I will not say but that you have perhaps acted for the best," +remarked Mr. Melray. "Still---- But at this stage of the affair it +would be futile to dwell on suppositions. What I have now to decide +upon is the nature of the steps which it behoves me to take after what +has been told me to-day. That, however," he added with a sigh, "is a +problem which requires consideration." + +"May I ask whether Mr. Dyson is entitled to any bequest under his late +cousin's will?" It was Winslade who put the question. + +"His name is down in the late Mr. Melray's will for a legacy of three +thousand pounds," replied the lawyer. "The reason he has not been paid +it before now is because the estate has not yet been finally wound +up." + +Presently Mr. Melray and Winslade went their way, the former to the +railway station, the latter to prosecute certain inquiries on his own +account. + +The first thing he did was to retrace his steps to the office of Mr. +Noyes. + +"I must ask you to excuse me for troubling you again," he said to the +money-lender; "but what I am desirous of knowing is whether any +communication passed between Dyson and yourself after his return from +his holidays?" + +"I wrote to him the day after the funeral, asking him to come and see +me. He came. Thereupon I proceeded to tell him of Mr. Melray's +discovery of the payment by the latter of the three hundred and fifty +pounds (principal and interest of the loan), and of my return to him +of the policy of assurance. What, however, I positively declined to +tell him, although he pressed me hard to do so, was how and by whose +agency the discovery had been brought about. From that day to this I +have seen nothing of Mr. Dyson, neither do I care if I never set eyes +on him again." + +Philip Winslade thanked Mr. Noyes and took his leave. "There can be +little doubt," he said to himself as he walked along, "that, as +Dunning suggested, Dyson obtained access to the dead man's papers +before Mr. Cray had an opportunity of going through them, and +abstracted the promissory note and other documents which bore Mr. +Melray's signature as forged by himself." + +In the course of the interview with Mr. Dunning the question had +suggested itself to him whether it was really a fact that Dyson did +not get back from his holidays till the third day after Mr. Melray's +death. In order to answer it, it would be needful for him to go to +Merehampton; but, as he had still another inquiry to make in +Solchester, he resolved to take that in hand first. + +It was not till late in the evening that he got back to his hotel, +after having brought his inquiry to a successful issue. The nature of +it and its result cannot be told more succinctly than in the following +note: + +"My dearest Fanny,--In Mrs. Melray's statement there occurs the +following passage: 'Evan was an especially handsome young man, with +large, black, lustrous eyes, and a dark Italian-looking face.' +Elsewhere she makes mention of his 'ebon brows.' Now, in face of this, +I have ascertained to-day beyond the possibility of doubt, and not +from one, but from three different sources, that Evan Wildash, instead +of being a dark-complexioned man with black eyes and 'ebon brows,' had +a particularly fair complexion, also that his eyes were blue-grey, and +the colour both of his hair and eyebrows a light reddish brown. + +"Solve me the problem which is involved in this contradiction if you +can. For myself, I confess that it baffles me. + +"For the present I have decided to say nothing of this to Mr. Melray. +It would only unsettle him and cause him to imagine all sorts of +things, and just now he has enough to occupy his thoughts, poor man! + +"I will write you fully in the matter of R. D. in the course of a few +days. I shall be in Merehampton for an hour or two to-morrow, but it +is not advisable that we should meet. + +"Ever and always yours, + +"Phil." + + +In the dusk of the following evening Philip Winslade alighted at +Merehampton station. Thence he made his way to the head constable's +office, where he was already known, and where he found awaiting him +certain information which, the day before, he had asked by letter +might be obtained for him. + +The information thus supplied him was to the effect that Richard +Dyson, at the time of Mr. Melray's death, was lodging with a widow of +the name of Parkinson, at No. 5 Lydd Place, but that he had removed to +fresh rooms about a month later. It was to No. 5 Lydd Place that +Winslade now betook himself. + +Widow Parkinson proved to be quite willing to tell all she knew, which +was not much, about her late lodger, and even to adorn her somewhat +bald narrative with a little fanciful embroidery of her own invention. +She considered that she had a grievance against Mr. Dyson. According +to her account, he had left her, without any just cause or reason, in +what she was pleased to term a very shabby way, and had taken himself +and his belongings elsewhere; therefore did she feel herself at +liberty to throw reticence to the winds. + +That from the widow's flood of talk, which at times threatened, +metaphorically, to wash him off his feet, Phil contrived to eliminate +the particular bit of information he was in search of goes without +saying. Mr. Melray came by his death on the evening of Friday, +September 18. According to his landlady, Dyson, at that time on his +holidays, did not put in an appearance at his lodgings till Monday, +the 21st, early on the morning of which day--that is to say, somewhere +between five and six o'clock--he knocked the widow up. The account of +himself which he volunteered was to the effect that he had just +arrived by an early train, having lengthened out his holiday to the +last possible moment, and that he was due back at the office at nine +o'clock that same morning. It was the widow herself who broke to him +the news of his cousin's tragical fate. "And awfully cut up about it +he was surely," she went on to remark. "He had always been a laughing, +careless, easy-going sort of gent, and I did not think he had so much +feeling in him." + +Philip Winslade left No. 5 Lydd Place no wiser than he had entered it. +While his inquiries of the last few days had served to bring to light +many strange and hitherto unsuspected facts, they left the Loudwater +Tragedy as much a mystery as before, and to Phil, in the mood in which +he then was, it seemed likely to remain such for all time to come. But +it sometimes happens that when everything seems at a standstill, when +the way we would go is, as it were, blocked by a solid wall against +which it would be folly to dash ourselves, silent forces of which we +know nothing are at work, and in their own way and their own good time +bring round the appointed end, which, as often as not, proves to be an +end such as has not been dreamed of by us in any of our schemes of +what the future might possibly bring to pass. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII. +"A MAN I AM, CROSS'D WITH ADVERSITY." + + +There are certain persons connected with our narrative whom, although +for some time we may seem to have lost sight of them, it is +permissible to hope the reader has not quite forgotten. To them and +their concerns we now turn for a little while. + +Mrs. Winslade, since her departure from Iselford, had been living a +very quiet life with her son in one of the north-western suburbs of +London. It was an infinite relief to her to be able to breathe the +freer and more generous air of the metropolis (where people scarcely +know the names of their next-door neighbours, much less their +business, and find enough to do in attending to their own concerns) +after having lived for so long a time under the prying eyes of the +gossipmongers of Iselford. + +On a certain chilly afternoon in early summer, as Philip Winslade was +being driven in a hansom along the Thames Embankment on an errand +connected with his employers, his eyes were attracted to a solitary +figure seated on a bench fronting the river. After staring for a +moment or two as though doubtful whether he saw aright, he ordered the +driver to pull up, and alighted. Even then he paused before advancing. +Could it be possible, he asked himself, that yonder lonely figure, +sitting with bowed shoulders, his clasped hands resting on the nob of +his umbrella, and gazing into vacancy with the unmistakable air of a +man weighed down by some secret trouble which he was unable to shake +off, could be the Rev. Louth Sudlow? As he drew nearer he saw that it +was indeed none other than the Vicar of St. Michael's who was sitting +there. + +That something was amiss, that the whilom genial, kind-hearted Vicar +was suffering from the effects of a blow of some kind, Phil could no +longer doubt. + +Seeing that the other took no notice of his presence, he laid a hand +lightly on his shoulder. "Mr. Sudlow," he said, "this is indeed a +surprise to meet you here." + +The Vicar started violently, straightened his back and stared up into +Phil's face, as he might into that of a stranger; but presently a slow +light of recognition dawned in his eyes. "Surely--surely it must be +young Mr. Winslade," he said, as he extended his hand with something +of his old urbanity. + +"Yes, sir, it is I," answered Phil as he grasped the proffered hand, +which trembled like that of a very old man. "I trust that you are +quite well, sir, and that all are well at home." Then, after a +moment's hesitation. "May I ask whether you have been sitting here +long?" + +The Vicar stared around for a moment as if not quite certain how he +came to be there, and stroked his cheeks with the fingers and thumb of +his left hand before answering. "Not very long, I think," he said +hesitatingly; "but, really, I am not quite sure at what hour I left my +hotel." + +If Phil, while at a distance, had been struck by the change in his +appearance, he was nothing less than dismayed now that he saw him +close at hand. The gold-rimmed spectacles were there as of yore, but +the eyes that looked through them were dim and sunken, with a sort of +vacant despair in them and that sad, heavy-lidded weariness which +betokens insomnia. Then, too, it was evident that he had not been +shaved for some days, which, of itself, was enough to prove that all +was not well with him. His white cravat was limp and loosely tied, his +hat and clothes were unbrushed, while his shoes were thick with dust +and one shoe-string had come untied. The fresh healthy tints of his +face were utterly gone; his cheeks had become flabby and pendulous, +and, in short, the Rev. Louth Sudlow looked to the full a dozen years +older than when Phil had seen him last. + +The young man was at a loss what to say or do next. Presently he +ventured to ask, "Are you making much of a stay in London, Mr. +Sudlow?" + +Again the elder man had to pull his thoughts together before replying. +"I--I scarcely know. That is to say, I had intended going back home +to-night, but--but certain things have happened, and I have not quite +made up my mind what to do." + +Phil saw that his thoughts would be far away again in a moment or two, +and that he must say what he had to say while he could still claim his +attention. + +"You are perhaps not aware, sir," he went on, "that my mother is +keeping house for me in London; but such is the case. I need scarcely +tell you how pleased she would be to see you. That is my cab waiting +there. Let me persuade you to keep me company as far as where I live. +We shall just be in time for a cup of my mother's tea, which I +remember you used to say was the best you tasted anywhere." + +Somewhat to his surprise, the Vicar rose at once, although a little +stiffly. "I shall be very gratified indeed," he said, "to see Mrs. +Winslade again after so long a time. I know no one for whom I have a +greater respect and esteem." + +Half-an-hour later the hansom deposited the two men at Pembury Villa. + +As Phil had prophesied, they were just in time for a cup of his +mother's tea. After the Vicar had partaken of one, together with a few +mouthfuls of thin bread-and-butter, he suddenly fell fast asleep in +the easy-chair in which he was sitting on one side of the fire. It was +past ten o'clock when he awoke. Scarcely had he opened his eyes and +had time to call to mind where he was, before his hostess was at his +side with a cup of broth in which a glass of sherry had been infused. +A few minutes later he averred that he felt better and stronger than +he had felt for the past week. It was too late now to think of going +down to Iselford till the morrow, and he must perforce stay where he +was over night. + +As the Vicar sat there an irresistible longing came over him to +unburden his mind of the trouble that was crushing him down--so +utterly down that, as he sat on the Embankment, he had more than once +been tempted to make an end of everything in the cold grey river +running so swiftly within a few yards of his feet. + +Well, he yielded to the longing and did unburden himself. The story he +had to tell, although sad enough, was by no means an uncommon one. He +had been induced--he did not say by whom or what--to invest the whole +of his savings, painfully accumulated, a few pounds at a time, during +a long course of years, in some American mining shares of which only +half the nominal capital had been subscribed. The concern had been +paying an intermittent dividend for three or four years, and there +seemed no likelihood that the shareholders would ever be called upon +to disburse the remainder of the capital. The sudden flooding of the +mine had, however, entirely altered the complexion of affairs. A large +sum was needed to enable it to be got into working order again, and a +heavy call was at once made, something like six hundred pounds being +demanded from the Rev. Louth Sudlow as his portion thereof. Now, the +whole of the Vicar's available resources did not amount to more than +one-sixth of the sum in question. The predicament was a serious +one--so serious, in point of fact, that Mrs. Sudlow, in a moment of +desperation, had been induced to appeal for help to her kinsman, the +Earl of Beaumaris. The answer to that appeal had been a curt refusal. +After that, as a last resource, the Vicar had come up to London in the +hope of being able to borrow the required sum from an old college chum +with whom he still kept up a desultory correspondence. Here again +disappointment awaited him. His friend had gone on a voyage to the +antipodes for the benefit of his health, and was not expected back for +some months. Ruin stared the unhappy man in the face, and he had been +wandering about the streets for some hours, lacking courage to carry +back home the story of his failure, when Phil chanced to encounter +him. + +Such was the story poured forth by the Vicar, brokenly and with many +pauses and hesitations, to his sympathising listeners. But when, an +hour later, he went down on his knees in his bedroom he had been made +happy by the assurance that the morrow should see his troubles at an +end. + +Next forenoon Mrs. Winslade went into the City and sought an interview +with her broker. When, later in the day, Phil saw the Vicar off at the +terminus on his way to Iselford, the heart of the latter was too full +to find expression in words. There was a last handshake, a fervent +"God bless you!" and then, as the wheels of the train began to +revolve, he was fain to turn away his face and hide the emotion which +would no longer be controlled. + + + + +CHAPTER XVIII. +AN UNLOOKED-FOR DEVELOPMENT. + + +That Robert Melray was infinitely distressed by the revelations of his +kinsman's delinquencies we have had his own word for. He had been so +much away from England that for a number of years he had seen scarcely +anything of Dyson, but he knew that his brother had always had a high +opinion of the young man's industry and business capacity, and that +from the time of the elder Dyson's death he had stood in a sort of +paternal relation to him. To James Melray, as Robert admitted, far +more than to himself, must the discovery, thrust upon him by Dunning, +have come as a shock--one, indeed, in his case from which he would +never have wholly recovered had his life been prolonged for years. + +Richard Dyson's wrongdoing was of a character so extreme that not to +have taken some kind of notice of it would have seemed to Robert +Melray not merely weak, but criminal. What if he were to carry out the +programme as laid down by his brother to Dunning? What if he were to +advance Dyson the three thousand pounds which would accrue to him +presently under James Melray's will and dismiss him with ignominy? +Nothing less than that did it seem possible for him to do. On the +other hand, he could not afford to overlook the love borne by his +mother for her dead niece's son--a love till now undarkened by the +faintest shadow of a cloud. Mrs. Melray senior was seventy-six years +old. The murder of her eldest son had been a blow which nothing but +her indomitable spirit had enabled her to recover from. Should his be +the hand, Robert Melray asked himself, to strike her another blow, +which, to such a woman as she--one to whom the probity of every member +of the house of Melray was as dear as her own virtue--would be only +less terrible than the first? The more he thought of it the more he +shrank from taking upon himself the onus of such a deed. + +One other course was open to him. He had good hope of being able to +dispose of the business of Melray Brothers before he was many weeks +older. What if he were to go on till then and make no sign? With the +turning over of the business to other hands his relations with Dyson, +so far as the firm was concerned, would cease, and there would be no +need ever to set eyes on him again were he minded not to do so. What +if he were to keep his dark secret undivulged, unless it were to the +criminal himself at their hour of parting, and allow his mother to +live on for the rest of her days in happy ignorance of what, were it +brought to her knowledge, might, perchance, prove well-nigh fatal to +her? Yet it galled Robert Melray's strong sense of right and justice +to think that a crime so flagrant should go wholly unpunished, even +although the criminal were of his own flesh and blood. Willingly, +then, did he accede to Dyson's written request for a ten-days' holiday +on the plea of ill-health, which he found on his desk one morning +shortly after his and Philip Winslade's interview with Mr. Dunning. +For the time being he felt absolved from coming to a decision of any +kind, and he breathed more freely in consequence. + +Fanny Sudlow was another inmate of Loudwater House whose mind was +beset by doubts which refused either to allow themselves to be treated +as if they were of no consequence, or to furnish any ground from +which they might be developed into certainties. It was Phil's last +briefly-worded epistle which had served to upset Fanny's equanimity. +The strange discrepancy between Evan Wildash, as described by those +who had known him, and the same person as described in Mrs. Melray's +statement, was one which it baffled her to reconcile, even as it had +baffled her lover. When she looked at Denia and asked herself whether +it were possible that the foul demon of deceit could find lodgment in +so fair a frame, she could but shake her head and tell herself that +such a thing was very hard to believe. And yet there was Phil's +letter! In her own despite, Fanny began to feel something of that +sentiment of vague distrust which the elder Mrs. Melray avowed that +her daughter-in-law had inspired her with from the first. + +Meanwhile Denia's smiles, as the spring days lengthened, began to come +and go more frequently, and there were times when some quaint remark +on Fanny's part would elicit a little burst of rippling laughter and a +gay rejoinder. The cloud which had for so many months overshadowed her +young life was beginning to melt and disappear. Soon the past, with +all that it held of pleasure or of pain, would for her have become +nothing more than a faint memory which, as time went on, would intrude +itself less and less often upon her. Hers was one of those natures +which no calamity can crush for long. Her heart was like one of those +quiet tarns, deep-buried among the hills, high above which the +tempests rave while they lie softly darkling below. She was happy as +the birds are happy, because it was not in her to be otherwise: that, +at least, was how Fanny Sudlow summed her up in her own thoughts. + +But Denia's talk, however wide it might range, or however apparently +careless it might be, was always strictly impersonal. Herself and her +concerns were kept studiously in the background, and Fanny's hand was +not the one to try to drag them to the front. One afternoon, however, +either of set purpose or because for a moment her usual caution +had deserted her, Denia said to Miss Sudlow: "Don't these sunny, +sweet-breathing spring days, when everything seems bursting with +life, often make you long to have wings that you might fly away +somewhere--anywhere? They do me. Oh! I am not going to bury myself in +this place for ever, let who will think it. I have ideas--intentions. +As soon as my husband's affairs have been wound up and I know for +certain what my portion of the estate will amount to, I shall leave +here and for ever. I have friends in London, and to them I shall go +first of all. Afterwards---- But that is no matter." + +It was a hot close evening in mid May. There had scarcely been a +breath of air all day and the night had brought no coolness. Fanny +Sudlow sat in the dark at the open casement of her bedroom window, her +hair unbound and a handkerchief soaked in vinegar laid across her +forehead. She was suffering from one of those distressing headaches to +which she had been more or less liable all her life. She heard the +clock of St. Mary's strike eleven, and still she sat on, knowing of +old that it was useless for her to go to bed till the pain should in +some measure have abated. Her window looked into a corner of the old +garden, in which, just then, the moon shone silvery bright. She had +not been out of doors all day; her room felt so stifling and the +garden looked so cool and inviting, that a strong desire came over her +to get away from the close atmosphere of the house and pace its silent +walks awhile in search of that nepenthe she was unable to find +indoors. It was a desire which she let have its way. + +Having tied back her hair, she flung a dark travelling cloak around +her, the hood of which she could draw over her head were she so +minded. Then she quitted her room and went lightly downstairs. Early +hours were the rule at Loudwater House, and everybody had retired long +ago. There were two exits from the house into the garden, one through +the conservatory, the other by means of a glass door at the end of a +side corridor. Fanny chose the latter. Having, with as little noise as +possible, unlocked the door, she opened it and stepped out into the +still moonlit night. + +Making her way into the farther walks, she began to pace them slowly +to and fro. Not a light shone anywhere in such windows of the house as +were visible from the garden. The quietude was intense, but presently +the silence was broken by the chiming of the quarter before twelve. +The moonlight seemed to listen, and as the sound died away a low sigh +breathed over the garden, and therewith half-opened leaves and +bursting buds began to stir and whisper. They had awoke to the first +kisses of the soft cool airs which had come as the avant-couriers of +midnight. + +Suddenly Fanny became as rigid as a statue. Her quick ears had caught +a faint sound, as it might be of the crunching of gravel beneath +someone's footsteps. Scarcely breathing, she listened. Yes, there it +was again, nearer than before. Evidently someone was approaching in +the direction where she was. Her first impulse was to hide herself. In +a little trepidation she glanced around. Ah! there, close by her, was +the well-house, as it was called. It was the one sheltered spot in the +garden. A few swift noiseless strides and her form was lost among its +shadows. + +The old well was said to be coeval with the building of Loudwater +House, to the inmates of which it had been the sole source of water +supply for several generations. Of late years, however, that is to +say, since the establishment of the Merehampton waterworks, it had +fallen into the desuetude and neglect which become the portion of all +things which outlast their uses. Nowadays its water was used for two +purposes only. One was to supply the dowager Mrs. Melray's tea-kettle +(there was no water anywhere, in that lady's opinion, equal to that of +the old well for expressing the hidden virtues of Souchong or Bohea). +The other purpose to which it was put was the irrigation of the +garden. The well itself was covered in by a conical overhanging +red-tiled roof, supported by thick oaken beams, with other beams +inside, forming, with the windlass-rope and bucket, the needful +apparatus for bringing the water to the surface. Even on a moonlight +night like the present it was a home of dense shadow. + +Fanny drew the hood of her cloak about her and waited in mute +expectancy, her eyes fixed on the point whence the sound had come. +Nearer came the footsteps--only in the intense midnight quietude could +they have been heard--and presently round a curve of the path advanced +a female figure, also, like Fanny, darkly cloaked; but, for all that, +one glance was enough to reveal to the latter the identity of the +new-comer. It was impossible to mistake either figure or gait for +those of anyone save Denia Melray. + +Fanny, with an arm flung round one of the beams that supported the +windlass and with her other hand pressed to her bosom, watched the +lithe, graceful figure pass her hiding-place and disappear round a +curve of the walk a little further on. Three or four seconds later +came the sound of a low whistle, which was immediately responded to by +another whistle. Then, as in a flash, Fanny recalled to mind that, +among other knick-knacks suspended from a chatelaine which the young +widow occasionally wore, was a tiny silver dog-whistle, which had +struck her as being a somewhat incongruous ornament for a person to +carry who acknowledged to never having owned a dog in her life. Now, +in the direction which Denia had taken was the one door by which +admittance could be had to the garden from the outside; consequently, +when a peculiar grating sound presently made itself heard, Fanny at +once came to the conclusion that Mrs. Melray was at that moment +withdrawing the bolts of the door in question. Who was her midnight +visitor? Fanny's heart beat painfully. On the threshold of what +mystery had she unwittingly found herself? + +Evidently a change of weather was impending. By this time a fine gauzy +mist had overspread the upper reaches of the sky, through which the +moon shone with a chastened lustre. The evergreens babbled softly to +each other of the rain that was soon to come. Presently a sound of +voices reached the ears of the waiting girl, those of a man and a +woman talking together in low tones, and then, half a minute later, +the speakers came round a turn of the path and so towards the +well-house, he with an arm round her waist and with his other hand +holding one of hers pressed close to his breast. Then, while the two +were still some distance away, something in the man's walk, or figure, +or his way of carrying himself, revealed his identity. "It is Richard +Dyson!" exclaimed Fanny to herself, with a thrill that set every nerve +tingling. "Oh, blind, blind that I have been!" + +Phil had written her a brief account of what had passed at the +interviews with Messrs. Noyes and Dunning, and she was aware that +Dyson had been accorded a holiday on the plea of ill-health, Mr. +Melray having mentioned the fact in her hearing in reply to his +mother's question, "How is it that I have seen nothing of Richard for +the last few days?" In all probability Dyson had only just returned, +and his first thought, his first object had been to---- But when +Fanny's thoughts had travelled thus far they veered suddenly round to +his companion. "Oh, it is dreadful--dreadful!" she murmured under her +breath. "Who would have thought it of her?--Who would have believed it +possible?" + +Meanwhile the two were slowly drawing nearer, talking earnestly +together. The first words which reached Fanny distinctly were spoken +by Denia. + +"You are sure your holiday has done you good, and that you have come +back better than you went?" she was saying. + +"On that point I have no doubt whatever," was Dyson's low-voiced +reply. "Only, darling, had _you_ been with me I should have enjoyed my +holiday infinitely more. But the day will come, and that before long, +when you will be mine and I shall be yours, and no one in the wide +world will have the right to come between us." + +With that he bent his head and, unreproved, pressed his lips to hers. + +At that moment they were exactly opposite the well-house. Slowly they +kept on to a point about a score yards beyond it, then they turned and +as slowly retraced their steps. It struck Fanny that the reason why +they kept to that particular walk might be because it was less +overlooked from the windows of Loudwater House than any other part of +the grounds. Ought she to stay and overhear more of what they might +have to say to each other? Ought she not, rather, to try and get away +unseen and unheard? What right had she to be there, hiding and +listening? On the other hand, she could not forget that a certain dark +mystery still remained unfathomed, and in consideration of the strange +and undreamed-of way in which events were shaping themselves, she +could not help saying to herself, "What if by staying here and +listening I should chance to overhear something which would----" She +was about to add, "bring to light the long-sought-for clue?" But her +thought became dumb midway. No, whatever Denia might be, whatever she +might have been guilty of otherwise, she, Fanny, could not and would +not believe that she had had any hand in the bringing about of her +husband's death. It was a hateful thing to be an eavesdropper, and as +soon as they had passed her--they were close to the well-house again +by this time--she would steal away through the shrubbery at the back. + +Suddenly, with a quick movement, Denia disengaged herself from Dyson's +encircling arm. "Ah!" she exclaimed, drawing a deep breath, as she +turned and confronted him, "for the moment I had forgotten. Answer me +this, and truthfully, as the breath is in your body: Did you, or did +you not, just before you went away, on two occasions, take Annabel +Glyn for a walk along the Solchester Road?" + +There was a perceptible pause before Dyson replied. Then with a laugh +which to Fanny in her hiding-place sounded wholly forced and +artificial, he said: "Why, my darling, what rubbishing nonsense is +this you have got into that pretty head of yours? _I_ take Annabel +Glyn for a walk? The idea is preposterous." + +"Your answer is no answer. Did you, or did you not, take her?" + +"I did not." + +"That you will swear?" + +"That I swear." + +"Very well. I will take your word for the truth of what you tell me. +It was the dusk of evening and my informant must have mistaken someone +else for you. Only, I want you to understand, Dick, that if I know how +to love, I know how to hate just as fervently. It is as easy to me to +do one as the other. Therefore, _cher ami_, woe be to you if you +deceive me. Don't forget--never for one moment forget, that your +secret is my property--that I hold your life in the hollow of my +hand!" + +For a moment or two longer her emotion seemed almost to choke her; +then suddenly turning, she placed her hand within his arm. "Come," she +said, and her voice was again as soft as that of a cooing dove, just +one turn more and then you must positively go. "Who can say what prying +eyes may not be secretly watching us?" + +With that they passed out of earshot, and the same instant Fanny +turned and sped softly away through the shrubbery at the back of the +well-house. As she passed the conservatory she saw that the door was +ajar, but she did not pause till she reached her own room. Then she +stood with her hands pressed to her head, amazed--confounded--not so +much by her own blindness as by the revelation of Denia's unparalleled +cunning and duplicity. It almost took her breath away to think of it. +How she had hoodwinked them all!--she, with her doll's eyes and +candid-seeming brow, and her smile that was almost infantine in its +sweetness. What puppets they had been in her fingers--Mr. Melray, +Phil, and herself! + +And she loved Richard Dyson! On that point, after what she, Fanny, had +been witness to, there could be no possible doubt; and yet all along +Denia had made believe that Dyson's presence was utterly repugnant to +her. But over and above their love for each other was there not some +dark secret between the two--some bond the nature of which was known +to themselves alone? "Your secret is my property. I hold your life in +the hollow of my hand." Those had been Denia's words, and they had +been meant as a warning to Dyson. What hidden meaning lay at +the back of them? Could it, after all, be possible that Denia----? +"No--no--even now I will not believe it!" cried Fanny when her +thoughts had carried her thus far. + + + + +CHAPTER XIX. +AN UNAVOIDABLE NECESSITY. + + +Little sleep had Fanny Sudlow that night. In the morning she arose +weary and unrefreshed, but by that time she saw her duty clearly +before her. How distasteful soever it might be to her to do so, it was +evident that she must acquaint Mr. Melray with what she had seen and +heard overnight in the garden. This was no commonplace instance of a +pair of secret lovers, of two people meeting stealthily at midnight. +With the knowledge strong upon her of what had happened under that +roof one fatal September night and of all that had since occurred, no +other course seemed open to her. It was a necessity from which she +shrank with the most heartfelt repugnance, but she was powerless to +help herself. Her first impulse had been to telegraph to Phil and ask +him to meet her at Merehampton station. She would have given much, +very much, to be able to confide her secret to him and so shift to his +broad shoulders the responsibility of deciding what ought to be done +next. But she called to mind the fact that Phil was on the Continent, +having been sent there, in the interests of the _Pharos_, to work up a +certain subject which was just then attracting a good deal of public +attention, and that the date of his return was uncertain. It was very +unfortunate, but in nowise could it be helped. + +She was almost glad, when she went downstairs, to find that Mr. Melray +had left home for the day on business and would not be back till a +late hour. A respite, however brief, was welcome. + +It was something of an ordeal for her to be compelled to meet Denia at +meal times, and yet, neither by tone, nor look, nor manner, allow +anything to escape her which would tend to arouse the suspicions of +that sharp-witted young woman. Fortunately the day was a wet one. +There was no possibility of going out, consequently no opportunity was +afforded Denia for a private gossip with Miss Sudlow. The latter kept +close to the school-room, and, except at table, the two saw nothing of +each other. The dowager Mrs. Melray, being unaware of Richard Dyson's +return, made no inquiry about him; and so the day wore itself +uneventfully away. There was no slightest sign to give warning of the +storm that was so soon to break. + +It was close upon eleven o'clock when Robert Melray reached home. He +would have been annoyed had he found anyone waiting up for him except +the one man-servant who was kept at Loudwater House. His supper had +been laid for him in the dining-room. "You can fasten up, Johnson, and +get to bed as soon as you like," he said to the man as he took off his +overcoat in the hall. "I shall not want you any more to-night." + +Robert Melray had finished his supper and was glancing somewhat +sleepily over the _Times_, when a low knock at the door startled him +into wakefulness. His surprise was not lessened when, in response to +his "Come in," the door opened and he saw that his untimely visitor +was none other than Miss Sudlow. + +Of Fanny's apologies for her intrusion, and of the narrative she +presently proceeded to unfold to her wondering listener, it is not +requisite that we should speak in detail. What she had to tell is +already known to the reader. + +"It is an odious duty, Mr. Melray, that I have taken upon myself," she +said in conclusion, with a little break in her voice, "but I felt that +no other course was open to me." + +"None whatever, Miss Sudlow. You have done your duty, and I honour you +for it; indeed, I may add that I am infinitely obliged to you." + +That he was terribly pained and distressed by what had just been told +him was plainly evident. Sick at heart, Fanny left him. Just then she +devoutly wished that she had never set foot across the threshold of +Loudwater House. + +Mention has been made of a certain Miss Annabel Glyn. Till within six +months of the date at which we have now arrived the young woman in +question had been a milliner's assistant in one of the Merehampton +shops. Then, by the death of an uncle in Australia, she had come in +for a fortune of eight thousand pounds, whereupon she had at once +thrown up her situation, and, till she could decide upon her future +plans, had gone to lodge with the widow of a Captain Malcolm in the +most fashionable part of Merehampton. Miss Glyn being of age and both +her parents being dead, she was at liberty to bestow her hand and +fortune on whomsoever she pleased. + +Denia's information with regard to Dyson and Miss Glyn having been +seen walking out together had reached her through a very simple +channel. It so fell out that Charlotte Wallis (she who had been the +first to find Mr. Melray's body and give the alarm), whose duties were +partly those of own maid to young Mrs. Melray, had a brother who was a +member of the very limited police force of Merehampton. It was through +information furnished by him to his sister and passed on by the latter +to her mistress, that Denia had based the interrogatory she put to +Dyson in the garden. Still, she was willing to believe that +Charlotte's brother might have been mistaken, more especially after +Dyson's emphatic denial that he had ever been out walking with Annabel +Glyn. + + + + +CHAPTER XX. +"WE MUST SPEAK BY THE CARD." + + +It was Thursday morning, the morning of the day following that of Mr. +Melray's journey to London. Denia, Freddy, and Miss Sudlow breakfasted +by themselves, Mr. Melray having requested that his tea and toast +might be taken upstairs to his dressing-room. Denia had just left the +table and was on her way back to her own room, when she was accosted +by Charlotte. "If you please, ma'am," said the girl, "I have had a +note this morning from my brother. I don't know whether you would +care to read it, but in case you should I have left it on your +dressing-table." + +Be it noted that Charlotte was the only person, or so Denia believed, +who had any knowledge or suspicion of the relations between Dyson and +her mistress. + +Denia nodded and passed on. Shutting the door of the room behind her, +she went quickly up to the table and pounced on the note. She felt +quite sure that Charlotte would not have left it for her to read had +there not been something in it which nearly concerned her. + +Here is what she read: + + +Dear Lotty,--This comes to inform you that on Tuesday evening, between +nine and ten o'clock, I see Mr. R. D. and Miss G. a-walking out +together. They passed close under a lamp by which, I was standing, so +that I could not be mistaken about either one or the other. Still, to +make quite sure, I thought I would follow them. I did so, and I see +them part at Mrs. Malcolm's door. He kissed her, and then she rang the +bell. Then he strolled back to his lodgings in Peelgate, I strolling +after him; and that is all I know. + + "Your loving brother, + + "Edgar Wallis." + + +(It was at midnight on Tuesday that Dyson had kissed Denia in the +garden.) + + +Ten minutes later Denia received a message to the effect that Mr. +Melray would feel obliged if she would step downstairs to his office. +"Something about money matters, I suppose," she said wearily to +herself. She went at once, presaging nothing, fearing nothing. She was +as one half dazed, who, having been struck down from behind, as yet +can hardly realise what has happened to him. Although she was unaware +of it, the note which had been to her as a message of doom was still +clutched tightly between her fingers as she entered the room. Robert +Melray was at once struck by the pallor of her face, and by a certain +hard, cold glitter in her eyes such as he had never noticed in them +before. + +"Sit down, Dania; I have something of particular moment to say to +you," he began, in no unkindly tones, indicating a chair at the table +opposite his own. Then, opening the door of the outer office, he said: +"Mr. Cray, will you be good enough to see that I am not disturbed by +anybody till I ring." Then he turned the key of the door which opened +into the side lane, after which he sat down facing Denia. It was +evident to that clear-sighted young woman, even through her own +perturbation, that he was extremely nervous and ill at ease. + +With his elbows resting on the table and his fingers interlocked, he +gazed at her for a few seconds with a sort of sad, wistful +earnestness. Then clearing his voice he said: "I am a poor hand at a +preface, or at leading up by degrees to anything I may have to say. In +short, I cannot beat about the bush." For a moment he paused, and +again he cleared his voice. "Denia, it has come to my knowledge that +you and Richard Dyson were together in the garden at midnight on +Tuesday. It was your hand that admitted him by way of the side-door." + +He ceased, as though to afford her time to recover herself. The pallor +of her face gave way to a great wave of colour which surged quickly up +from her bosom to her cheeks and thence to the roots of her hair. For +a few moments it remained thus, at high-water mark as it were, and +then began to subside. + +"His arm was round you," continued Robert, "he kissed you and you did +not repulse him Only one inference can be drawn--that he and you are +in love with each other." + +Denia's bosom rose with the slow indrawing of her breath. It was one +of those supreme moments when, brought to bay, one's whole future +course in life may depend on the next few sentences that fall from +one's lips. + +"I believed that Richard Dyson loved me, but now I know that I was +mistaken," said Denia in a low voice. "I loved him (or, perhaps, I +only dreamt I did), but now--I hate him!" + +"You hate him!" exclaimed Robert. "And yet, less than thirty-six hours +ago, you allowed him unreproved to press his lips to yours." + +"A great deal may happen in thirty-six hours. I loved him then. I hate +him now." + +"So be it. Whatever reasons may have influenced you in this sudden +change of feeling are no concern of mine. What, however, does seem to +concern me (and you yourself can best infer why), and what I must ask +you to afford me some explanation of, is a certain threat which you +made use of to Dyson on Tuesday night. You bade him beware in that his +secret was your property, that you 'held his life in the hollow of +your hand.' Now, will you be good enough to tell me to what those +words referred?" + +Denia's hesitation was of the briefest. For a moment or two she set +her teeth hard, then with a little nod of her head she said: "Yes, Mr. +Melray, I will tell you--will tell you everything. From this moment +there shall be no more secrets between you and me. I used those words +to Richard Dyson because to his hand was due the death of my husband +and your brother!" + +Robert Melray sank back in his chair with a gasp. "You have known this +all along, and yet you have kept it hidden from everyone in your own +breast!" he contrived to say after a time. + +"I have known it all along, and yet I have kept it hidden from +everyone," came like an echo from Denia's lips. + +Robert knew not what to say. Never had he been so utterly at a loss +for words. There was a space of silence while the two sat confronting +each other. Denia was the first to break it. + +"You stare at me, Mr. Melray, as if I were some monster of +wickedness," she said with a bitter smile. "Perhaps, before you open +your lips to reproach me or to give utterance to words such as, later +on, you might see reason to regret, it may be as well that you should +be enlightened about certain matters as to which at present you are +wholly ignorant. If you will condescend to listen to me, I will +promise to be as little tedious as possible, and that, on this +occasion at least, you shall hear from me the truth, the whole truth, +and nothing but the truth!" + +"Go on," said Robert in a voice that was hardly raised above a +whisper. + +But Denia did not at once respond to the invitation. It was neither +shyness nor hesitation that held her back; the former, indeed, was a +quality of which she knew nothing; she was merely considering in what +terms it behoved her to couch her version of what could no longer be +kept back. + +"It was my husband who, soon after our marriage introduced Richard +Dyson to me," at length she began, her blue eyes fixed calmly on +Robert Melray's face. Before long he began to spend three or four +evenings a week in the drawing-room, and by the time I had been half a +year married it was evident to me that (not to mince my words) he had +either fallen in love with me or was wishful of making me believe that +he had done so. He was young and handsome and had a certain +fascinating way with him; he played and sang charmingly, or so it +seemed to me. I liked and respected my husband--no one could help +doing that--and I strove to do my duty by him as a true wife should +do; but I did not love him. Love is a very different sentiment from +that which I experienced for James Melray. Is it, then, greatly to be +wondered at if, at times, my heart could not help fluttering a little +under the ardent glances of Richard Dyson? But, for all that, when, +one day, he ventured to whisper certain words in my ear such as he had +no right to whisper in the ear of any married woman, I was not slow in +giving him to understand what an egregious piece of folly he had been +guilty of. So strongly, indeed, did I resent the liberty he had taken +that he never ventured to err in the same way again. And so matters +went on as before. I continued to do my duty by my husband and guarded +my feelings to the best of my ability; but, having promised that this +shall be a full and frank confession, let me at once admit that deep +down in my heart a germ of love lay perdu, and that it was only my +strong sense of wifely obligation and the remembrance of all I owed my +husband, which kept it there, frozen and half torpid, like a bulb +buried deep under the snow. + +"Such was the state of affairs on Friday, the 18th of September. +Richard had gone for his annual holiday about ten days before. +Sometimes I felt sad and lonely without him, missing his bright, +vivacious talk and those half-veiled glances the meaning of which +could be read by me alone; at other times I wished most devoutly that +I might never set eyes on him again. + +"At eight o'clock that evening I saw my husband off on his way to Mr. +Arbour's for his usual rubber of whist. After that I sat down with the +intention of writing a long letter to my friend, Mrs. Simpson. I was +alone in the little sitting-room at the back of the drawing-room. The +servants were all below stairs. Your mother had gone to her own room +at the further end of the long corridor, and Miss Armishaw with her. I +had got about half-way through my letter when a slight noise caused me +to turn my head, and there in the open doorway I beheld Richard +Dyson! Next instant he came forward and fell on his knees at my feet. +His dress was disordered, his face was as white as that of corpse, +while his eyes were charged with horror and fear, the like of which I +have never seen in those of anyone else. 'Save me! Save me!' were the +first words he gave utterance to. + +"I have no wish to weary you, and will relate, as succinctly as +possible, the story told me by Richard on that memorable night. + +"Lack of funds had brought him back from his holidays two or three +days before he was due at business. He had been compelled to leave his +luggage in pawn at the seaside hotel where he had been staying. Not +wishing it to be known, for private reasons of his own, that he had +come back before his time, he had alighted from the train at a station +a couple of miles away, and was making his way through some of the +back streets to his lodgings, when he came face to face with Mr. +Melray. The recognition was mutual. It would seem that Richard had +been guilty of something at which my husband had just cause to be +offended, but of what nature the something in question was even now I +have no knowledge. In any case, Mr. Melray insisted on Richard there +and then accompanying him back to his office. Once there, they appear +to have got to high words, one thing leading to another, till at +length Mr. Melray threatened Richard with some kind of public +exposure. There was a struggle for the possession of some papers, and +in the result my husband unhappily came by his death. On his knees +Richard swore to me by everything he held sacred that it was purely an +accident. Well, I believed him. Some people might say that, instead of +putting credence in what he told me, I ought there and then to have +denounced him as a murderer; but to me it seemed too terrible a thing +to credit that he could wilfully have been guilty of such a crime. +But, be that as it may, when he appealed to me to save him I felt it +impossible to reject his appeal. From Friday night till an early hour +on Monday he lay hidden in the lumber-room on the top floor, which is +rarely entered from one year's end to another, I supplying him with +food meanwhile. On Monday morning he made his appearance at his +lodgings, and, later on, at the office, no one suspecting otherwise +than that he had just got back from his holidays." + +Robert Melray had not interrupted her by a word. He sat for a space +after she had done with drawn brows and introverted eyes which saw +nothing of what was before them. At length he roused himself with a +deep sigh. "That your narrative throws a wholly unexpected light on a +mystery which has long perplexed both me and others cannot be denied, +he said, and I am obliged to you for the frankness which has at length +prompted the telling of it. Still, I altogether fail to reconcile what +you have just told me with the details of certain circumstances as set +down in your written statement of a fortnight ago." + +A short derisive laugh broke from Denia. "My good sir," she said, +"seeing that I have just told you the true history of the events of +the 18th of September as far as they concern me individually, but one +inference can be drawn by you with regard to my so-called statement, +namely, that from beginning to end it was a simple tissue of +romance." + +Mr. Melray stared at her in wide-eyed amazement. "But surely," he +gasped, "you don't mean to say that all which was there stated with +reference to Evan Wildash and yourself was----" + +"A sheer piece of rigmarole--that and nothing more. I found it +impossible to resist the temptation Miss Sudlow was good enough to put +in my way. Besides, I had a suspicion, which may or may not have been +baseless, that she had been brought to Loudwater House purposely to +watch me and spy upon my actions, so that when she gave me a certain +story to read, which undoubtedly seemed to embody in rather a +startling way a number of details in connection with my husband's +death, I decided to accept it as a true narrative, and it was on that +assumption that I wrote out my statement. I need hardly add that my +object in acting thus was to divert suspicion from the real quarter, +and, if it were possible thereby to do so, to bring to an end, once +and for ever, the inquiry into the causes of my husband's death." + +"It is most extraordinary!" ejaculated Robert Melray. "But do you mean +to imply that Evan Wildash never came back from Africa?" + +"Never, to my knowledge. He was reported to have died there, and, for +anything known by me to the contrary the report was true." + +"Then, as regards the man who was killed in the railway accident?" + +"I know no more about him than about the man in the moon." + +Robert Melray sat back in his chair like a man bereft of speech. + + + + +CHAPTER XXI. +THE TRUTH AT LAST. + + +Some minutes later Robert Melray opened the door which led to the +outer office, and said to his head clerk, "Mr. Cray, will you be good +enough to ask Mr. Dyson to step this way?" + +When Richard Dyson entered the private office he had no prevision that +he was wanted about anything more important than some ordinary +business detail. Long immunity from suspicion had bred in him the +belief that his dark secret was buried out of sight for ever. He +glanced round as he entered. He had not the remotest suspicion that +the high screen in the corner hid Denia from his view. + +"Sit there," said Robert, pointing to the chair vacated by Denia a +minute before. There was something in his tone which caused Dyson to +glance keenly at him, something which warned him to be on his guard. +The two had not met since the latter's return from his leave of +absence. + +"Since I saw you last to speak to," began Robert, regarding the other +with a cold steady gaze, "certain facts have come to my knowledge +which have shocked and surprised me far more than I could express to +you in any words. In order that you need be under no misapprehension +as to how much, or how little, I know of the circumstances in +question, I will at once enlighten you on the point. Being in want of +money for some purpose of which I know nothing, you abstracted my +brother's life policy from the safe, and on the security of it +obtained an advance of three hundred pounds from Mr. Noyes of +Solchester. But, in order to carry out your nefarious purpose, you +were compelled to forge James's signature to three several documents. +Of the means by which you contrived to make Mr. Noyes believe that he +was dealing with my brother in person, I will say nothing. Whether it +was your intention ultimately to redeem the policy and put it back in +the place whence you had taken it, or whether----" + +"Certainly it was my intention to redeem the policy and replace it in +the safe, without, as I hoped, anyone being the wiser," broke in Dyson +a little impetuously. He was pale, but composed. + +Robert's exordium had allowed time for his nerves to recover from any +shock which the latter's opening words might have caused them. "The +three hundred pounds was only borrowed for a term of four months, by +the end of which time I had every reason to believe that I should be +in ample funds. I may add that my difficulties were the result of some +unfortunate operations on the Stock Exchange, but latterly I had hit +on a good thing and I felt no doubt whatever about being able shortly +to far more than recoup myself for all my losses." + +"I will refrain from asking you how you proposed to yourself to get +out of the clutches of Mr. Noyes, and to redeem the policy in case +your expectations should come to nothing. But, in all likelihood, that +was a contingency which you never cared to face. In any case, it is a +matter of no consequence at this time of day; so, if you have no +objection, we will now come to the events of the 18th of September." + +Dyson started visibly and bit his under-lip hard, as he might have +done had he been on the point of undergoing a surgical operation. + +"For reasons best known to yourself," resumed Robert in the same +quiet, passionless voice in which he had spoken before, "you arrived +back from your holiday on Friday evening, although you were not due at +business till the following Monday. While on your way to your lodgings +you came face to face with my brother, and in consequence, doubtless, +of certain representations on his part, you accompanied him back to +his office--to this very room, in point of fact. A quarter of an hour +later you surprised Mrs. Melray in her sitting-room. In explanation of +your intrusion you gave her to understand that, through some +mischance, my brother had met his death at your hands, and you +appealed to her to help to save you from the consequences of your rash +act. To that appeal she responded by finding you, unknown to anyone, +shelter and food for three nights and two days; by which means you +were enabled to appear at the office on Monday morning as if you had +but just got back from your holiday. Now, Richard Dyson, I demand of +you that you shall account to me for my brother! I hint no threats, +but it must be plain to you on the verge of what a precipice you are +standing. Let me have the truth about what happened just as it did +happen. I ask for no more and I have a right to look for no less." + +It would not be easy to describe with what a strange confluence of +emotions Dyson had listened to the growing indictment. Wonder as +whence and how Robert had gleaned his information was, perhaps, his +predominant feeling just then. Could it be possible, he asked himself, +that Denia had turned traitor and betrayed him? But such was his faith +in the sincerity of her love for him that he dismissed the thought +almost as soon as it was formed. But it was no time for indulging in +futile speculations. Robert Melray was waiting with bent brows. + +Dyson's face darkened as his thoughts concentred themselves on the +story he had to tell. "Yes," he presently began, facing Robert with +the quiet and collected air of one who has nothing to hide, "as you +have stated, I unexpectedly encountered cousin James on my way from +the railway station to my lodgings. Gripping me by the arm he said, +'So you are back, are you? That is well. I want particularly to speak +with you. Come with me at once to my office.' Nothing more was said, +but I pretty well guessed what was in the wind. As soon as we were +inside the office, with the door shut and the gas alight, he turned +upon me. As I surmised, he had found out about the abstraction of the +policy and the advance obtained by means of it from Noyes. I at once +admitted that it was an infamous return to have made for all that he +had done for me. I explained to him, as I have explained to you, by +what means it happened that I was temporarily 'cornered,' that not to +have raised the three hundred pounds meant exposure and ruin, and that +I had every expectation of being in a position to repay the amount +before the bill would fall due. But by this he had worked himself into +a passion and was no longer in a condition to listen to any excuses. +You cannot have forgotten to what ungovernable bursts of rage he would +give way on rare occasions, in one of which, when you were boys, I +have been told he all but strangled you, his brother. + +"He had already opened the safe and brought thence the documents to +which I had forged his signature. Placing one finger on them as they +lay on the table, and speaking in coldly contemptuous tones, which +stung me far more than any invective on his part would have done, he +said: 'Here are the proofs of your guilt. Here is the evidence that +will condemn you to penal servitude. In less than an hour from now the +four walls of Merehampton gaol will hold your worthless carcase.' It +was a threat that maddened me. I dashed his hand aside and seized the +papers. With a cry like that of some wild animal, he sprang from his +chair and flung himself upon me. Although double my age, he was a much +more powerful and muscular man than I, and when once he had got his +fingers fixed firmly inside my necktie and was grinding his knuckles +into my throat, I was almost as powerless in his hands as a child +would have been. As it seems to me now, it was all the work of a few +seconds. Backward and forward we swayed and struggled, I trying +desperately, but vainly, with one hand to loosen his hold of me, but +still gripping the papers fast with my other hand; he, his eyes +glaring with a passion that was almost maniacal, and those terrible +knuckles still compressing my windpipe. I was being slowly but surely +choked. Vivid jets of flame began to dance and quiver before my eyes; +my heart laboured almost to the point of bursting; the papers dropped +from my fingers; I could feel myself being forced back against the +table till my spine was bent half double. Suddenly my fingers, wildly +clutching at nothing, came in contact with a heavy iron paperweight +and closed over it. With a last effort I struck with all my force at +my cousin's head. For aught I know, I may have struck more than once, +but in the very act consciousness left me. + +"When I regained my senses, a quarter of an hour later, I was lying on +the floor. A little way off lay the body of my cousin--stone dead. +Hardly had I time to realise the horror of the situation before I +heard the voices of two men talking in the lane outside. With that, +the instinct of self-preservation came back in full force. As in a +flash, I seemed to see how hardly it would fare with me should I +chance to be found there. After picking up the papers which had cost +me so dearly, I put out the gas, and then a sudden impulse, for which +I am unable to account, decided me to--to---- But you know already +what befell afterwards." + +"And the paperweight--what became of that?" demanded Robert Melray +after a short silence. + +"I dropped it into the pocket of my coat and took it upstairs with me. +Later on I hid it away in the lumber-room where I myself was in hiding +at the time." + +"You had better leave me now," said Robert presently. "I will see you +again later in the day. I must have time to think over what you have +told me and to decide upon some course of action which----" + +But at this juncture there came a tap at the door, which was followed +by the intrusion of Mr. Cray's spectacled head. "I beg your pardon, +sir," said the chief clerk, "but Mr. Bayliss has been waiting some +time, and he says that if you can't see him at once, he will call +again to-morrow, or next day." + +Now, Mr. Bayliss was the person with whom Robert was in negotiation +for the purchase of the business of Melray Brothers. + +"I will see him now--at once," was his reply. + +Richard Dyson stepped quietly out without a word more, as Robert went +forward into the outer office to greet his visitor. At the same moment +Denia slipped out of her hiding-place, and out of the room by the +other door, unseen and unheard by anyone. + + + + +CHAPTER XXII. +ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL. + + +Richard Dyson went out to luncheon at his usual time, but failed to +return. About five o'clock Mr. Melray asked for him, but no one knew +what had become of him, nor did any authentic tidings of him come to +hand till the following day. It was then discovered that he and Miss +Glyn had gone off together, after having been married at an early hour +by special license. Neither of them was ever seen in Merehampton +again. It may be that Robert Melray was not ill-pleased to have the +hard problem which circumstances would otherwise have compelled him to +solve taken out of his hands and done with, as far as he was +concerned, for ever. + +Mrs. Melray the elder was never told that it was to the hand of her +nephew that James Melray owed his death-blow. To her, as to the world +at large, the Loudwater Tragedy remained an unsolved mystery. Neither +was she ever enlightened as to that secondary crime of forgery and +fraud of which her nephew had been guilty. To have told her would have +answered no good purpose, but might, indeed, have had a serious effect +upon her health, already hardly tried by that which had gone before. +It was a quite sufficient shock to her to learn of the elopement of +Dyson and Miss Glyn. Womanlike, she laid the whole blame of the affair +on the girl. Doubtless she was one of those double-faced, scheming +hussies who seem sent into the world purposely to spoil the lives and +ruin the careers of whatever young men may not be strong-minded enough +to resist their siren-like blandishments. That poor dear Richard had +been both weak and foolish she could not deny; still, he was to be +pitied far more than blamed. He was not the first man by many, nor +would he be the last, to fall a victim to the arts of a designing +woman. As long as she lived Mrs. Melray continued to think and speak +of Dyson with mingled pity and tenderness, and at her death it was +found that she had bequeathed him half of all she had to leave. + +Long before that event took place Robert Melray had paid over to +Dyson, or rather to the solicitor who represented him, the three +thousand pounds willed him by the man whose death lay at his door. Had +it not been for those two legacies falling in one after another, +Dyson, in all probability, would have lived several years longer than +he did. But for them--his wife's fortune having been quickly +dissipated--he would not have been able to continue in that course of +fast living, combined with hard drinking, which gradually shattered +his constitution and consigned him to a premature grave while he ought +still to have been in the prime of life. + +The Erinyes have many ways of avenging their misdeeds on the children +of men. + +Within twenty-four hours of Dyson's disappearance Denia had quitted +Loudwater House, never to return. She announced her intention of +taking up her abode, for a time at least, with certain friends in +London whom she had known during her uncle's lifetime. About a year +later, she married again, by which time she had received her share of +the property left by her husband. Her second husband (a blackleg with +the manners and education of a gentleman) was a very different type of +man from James Melray, as, later on, Denia found to her cost. + +It was about the time of Denia's marriage that the final mystery in +connection with the Loudwater Tragedy found its solution. + +One day a young American arrived at Merehampton in search of his +brother, who had been missing for upwards of a year. After some +difficulty he had succeeded in tracing him as far as the little +seaport, but at that point he came, for the time being, to a deadlock. +Like so many of his countrymen, the missing man had been fond of +adventure and change of scene. For many months he had been touring +about England, chiefly on foot, and, with a view of eking out his +slender means, had been in the habit of writing sketches of English +life and character for one or more American newspapers, as well as +occasional short stories for sundry magazines. + +It would be beyond the scope of this narrative to recount how Gavin +Pryce, having succeeded in picking up the missing clue, was led onward +step by step till at length a shred of doubt was no longer left him +that the unidentified victim of the Eastwich accident was none other +than his brother Evan. + +The way in which the latter had acquired his intimate knowledge of the +details of the Loudwater Tragedy, as set forth by him in the MS. which +fell into the hands of Mr. Timmins, was as peculiar as it was simple. + +It may be remembered that the alarm raised by the housemaid Charlotte, +which followed immediately on her discovery of her master's body, was +responded to by a constable and a couple of strangers who happened to +be passing at the time. One of the strangers in question was the young +American, Evan Pryce. He it was who helped the constable to examine +the body with the view of ascertaining whether life was extinct, and, +a little later, assisted in carrying it upstairs. At the inquest he +was called as a witness, and, being a newspaper man, the case had an +exceptional interest for him in so far as it furnished him with an +ample supply of "copy" for some time to come. Having used it up as far +as the newspapers were concerned, the idea would appear to have +occurred to him that the main incidents of the affair, if worked up +into a magazine story, would not prove ineffective. Hence, in order to +supply the crime with a _raison d'être_, his invention of a lover for +the young wife, who finding on his return from abroad that she is +married, picks a quarrel with the husband; at which point, as the +reader may remember, the manuscript broke off abruptly. Whether the +author had written no further when he came by his untimely end, or +whether only a part of the manuscript was recovered from the _débris_ +of the accident, is a question which must remain for ever unanswered. +It will not have been forgotten that it was Mr. Timmins who furnished +the story with an ending after a fashion of his own. + +That it was as gall and wormwood to Mrs. Sudlow to have to be beholden +to a woman she disliked more than anyone, and whom she had contemned +and turned her back upon as the widow of a notorious felon, for the +pecuniary help which had been forthcoming from no other source, may be +taken for granted. But for Mrs. Winslade the Vicar would have been a +ruined man. It was bitter, very bitter, to have to acknowledge that +such was the indisputable fact. And then, what likelihood was there of +her husband ever being in a position to pay back the sum which had +been thus generously and unconditionally advanced? None at all as far +as Mrs. Sudlow could see. A few pounds might be spared now and +again--mere driblets, as it were--but, in the face of family expenses +which could not but help growing for several years to come, it would +not be possible to do more. In those days Mrs. Sudlow was a very +unhappy woman. + +No one, not even her husband, ever heard her mention Mrs. Winslade's +name. When, half a year later, Philip and Fanny were married, no word +of opposition fell from her lips; but, on the other hand, she +resolutely declined to be present at the ceremony. Neither when, later +on, Philip offered to find a situation for her eldest son in the +counting-house of Mr. Layland did she raise the slightest objection to +his doing so. It was as though her life was burdened with the weight +of an obligation from which she found it impossible to rid herself. + +Finally, it may be said of the "Vicaress" that, if from the date of a +certain transaction Mrs. Winslade's name found no mention at her lips, +neither did that of her kinsman, the Earl of Beaumaris. One seemed to +have passed out of the sphere of her mental retina as absolutely as +the other. + +Once and once only did Fanny and Denia see each other again after the +latter's abrupt departure from Loudwater House. + +Late one autumn evening about a year and a half after Fanny's +marriage, as she was sitting alone in the drawing-room, she was +informed that a lady was waiting in the entrance-hall who wished +particularly to see her, but who refused to send in her name. The +untimely visitor proved to be none other than Denia Melray, now Mrs. +Ferdinand Gascoigne. The two years which had elapsed since Fanny had +seen her last had wrought a great change in her appearance, but not +for the better. She had fallen away both in face and figure; there +were dark half-circles under her eyes; while that expression of +mingled candour and ingenuousness which had been one of her greatest +charms in days gone by had given place to the anxious careworn look of +one whose days and nights were full of trouble. + +That Fanny was surprised to see her goes without saying. She did not +know then, nor does she to this day, by what means Denia had +discovered her address. When greetings were over and they were +together in the drawing-room, Mrs. Gascoigne said: "I am here this +evening, my dear, on purpose to ask you a very great favour. But where +is Mr. Winslade?" + +Fanny explained that her husband had gone for a couple of days' +shooting to the house of a bachelor friend in the shires. + +"So much the better," observed Denia in her old quick way. "Pleased as +on many accounts I should have been to see Mr. Winslade again, I am +more pleased that he is not here to-night. But your eyes are asking +what the favour is that I want you to grant me. It is simply this: I +have left my husband, without his knowledge or consent, and I want you +to give me shelter till morning." + +"You have left your husband!" exclaimed Fanny. "Oh, Mrs. Gascoigne!" + +"Yes, I have left him, never to go back," replied Dania with a hard +cold glitter in her blue-grey eyes. Then with deft fingers she +unfastened a portion of her dress, and baring her left shoulder, +exposed to Fanny's shocked gaze a great livid bruise. "That is where +he struck me last night with his clenched fist and felled me to the +ground. It is not the first occasion by many that he has struck me. +But last night was the climax. Then and there I swore an oath to leave +him. He did not believe me, but when he gets home from his club at +midnight he will not find me there. To-day I have been making certain +arrangements which to-morrow will see completed. At ten o'clock my +cousin, William Champneys--the son of my late uncle--will call here +for me (you see, dear, I have taken the liberty of assuming that you +won't turn me into the street), and will take me down into the country +to some relatives of my mother, whom I have not seen since I was quite +a child." + +It is almost needless to state that Mrs. Gascoigne was accorded the +shelter she craved. + +At ten o'clock next morning a hired brougham drove up at the door, and +Mr. William Champneys was announced. Denia had already breakfasted +(her troubles seemed in no wise to have impaired her appetite), and +two minutes sufficed her to put on her outdoor things. Having +introduced her cousin to Fanny, she seemed in a hurry to be gone. Her +last words as she touched Fanny's cheek with her lips were: "I shall +be sure to write to you, dear, and let you know how I am getting on." +But she never did. + +Two months later Mr. Ferdinand Gascoigne fell down a flight of stairs +and broke his neck. + +Half a year later still came an Australian newspaper, addressed to +Winslade, containing an announcement of the marriage of "Evan Wildash, +Esq., formerly of Solchester, England, to Denia (_née_ Lidington), +widow of Ferdinand Gascoigne, Esq., of London." + +When Phil read the announcement aloud he and his wife could only stare +at one another in blank bewilderment. + +"Evan Wildash alive!" gasped Phil. + +"And married to Denia at last!" exclaimed Fanny. "Of all the strange +developments brought about by the Loudwater case this last one is the +strangest of all." + +"By the way," remarked Phil a little later, "you never told me, or +else I omitted to ask, what kind of looking man was the cousin in +whose charge Mrs. Gascoigne left here." + +Thereupon Fanny proceeded to describe Mr. William Champneys to the +best of her ability. + +"Your description tallies exactly with that of Evan Wildash, as given +me at Solchester. And now that I begin to call things to mind, I am +nearly sure I was told by somebody that Mr. Champneys, Denia's uncle, +was a bachelor. Can it be possible that the man she introduced to you +as her cousin was none other than Evan Wildash himself? It would be +just like one of Denia's _supercheries_ if it were so." + +It was a question to which no answer was ever forthcoming. + + + + +PRINTED BY +SPOTTISWOODE AND CO., NEW-STREET SQUARE +LONDON + + + + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Loudwater Tragedy, by T. W. Speight + +*** END OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK 57623 *** |