The Seven Secrets Part 19

The trains from Brighton to London on Sunday evenings are always crowded, mainly by business people compelled to return to town in readiness for the toil of the coming week. Week-end trippers and day excursionists fill the compartments to overflowing, whether it be chilly spring or blazing summer, for Brighton is ever popular with the jaded Londoner who is enabled to "run down" without fatigue, and get a cheap health-giving sea-breeze for a few hours after the busy turmoil of the Metropolis.

On this Sunday night it was no exception. The first-cla.s.s compartment was crowded, mostly be it said, by third-cla.s.s pa.s.sengers who had "tipped" the guard, and when we had started I noticed in the far corner opposite me a pale-faced young girl of about twenty or so, plainly dressed in shabby black. She was evidently a third-cla.s.s pa.s.senger, and the guard, taking compa.s.sion upon her fragile form in the mad rush for seats, had put her into our carriage. She was not good-looking, indeed rather plain; her countenance wearing a sad, pre-occupied expression as she leaned her chin upon her hand and gazed out upon the lights of the town we were leaving.

I noticed that her chest rose and fell in a long-drawn sigh, and that she wore black cotton gloves, one finger of which was worn through.

Yes, she was the picture of poor respectability.

The other pa.s.sengers, two of whom were probably City clerks with their loves, regarded her with some surprise that she should be a first-cla.s.s pa.s.senger, and there seemed an inclination on the part of the loudly-dressed females to regard her with contempt.

Presently, when we had left the sea and were speeding through the open country, she turned her sad face from the window and examined her fellow pa.s.sengers one after the other until, of a sudden, her eyes met mine. In an instant she dropped them modestly and busied herself in the pages of the sixpenny reprint of a popular novel which she carried with her.

In that moment, however, I somehow entertained a belief that we had met before. Under what circ.u.mstances, or where, I could not recollect.

The wistfulness of that white face, the slight hollowness of the cheeks, the unnaturally dark eyes, all seemed familiar to me; yet although for half an hour I strove to bring back to my mind where I had seen her, it was to no purpose. In all probability I had attended her at Guy's. A doctor in a big London hospital sees so many faces that to recollect all is utterly impossible. Many a time I have been accosted and thanked by people whom I have had no recollection of ever having seen in my life. Men do not realise that they look very different when lying in bed with a fortnight's growth of beard to when shaven and spruce, as is their ordinary habit: while women, when smartly dressed with fas.h.i.+onable hats and flimsy veils, are very different to when, in illness, they lie with hair unbound, faces pinched and eyes sunken, which is the only recollection their doctor has of them. The d.u.c.h.ess and the servant girl present very similar figures when lying on a sick bed in a critical condition.

There was an element of romantic mystery in that fragile little figure huddled up in the far corner of the carriage. Once or twice, when she believed my gaze to be averted, she raised her eyes furtively as though to rea.s.sure herself of my ident.i.ty, and in her restless manner I discerned a desire to speak with me. It was very probable that she was some poor girl of the lady's maid or governess cla.s.s to whom I had shown attention during an illness. We have so many in the female wards at Guy's.

But during that journey a further and much more important matter recurred to me, eclipsing all thought of the sad-faced girl opposite.

I recollected those words I had overheard, and felt convinced that the speaker had been none other than Ethelwynn herself.

Sometimes when a man's mind is firmly fixed upon an object the events of his daily life curiously tend towards it. Have you never experienced that strange phenomenon for which medical science has never yet accounted, namely, the impression of form upon the imagination? You have one day suddenly thought of a person long absent. You have not seen him for years, when, without any apparent cause, you have recollected him. In the hurry and bustle of city life a thousand faces are pa.s.sing you hourly. Like a flash one man pa.s.ses, and you turn to look, for the countenance bears a striking resemblance to your absent friend. You are disappointed, for it is not the man. A second face appears in the human phantasmagoria of the street, and the similarity is almost startling. You are amazed that two persons should pa.s.s so very like your friend. Then, an hour after, a third face--actually that of your long-lost friend himself. All of us have experienced similar vagaries of coincidence. How can we account for them?

And so it was in my own case. So deeply had my mind been occupied by thoughts of my love that several times that day, in London and in Brighton, I had been startled by striking resemblances. Thus I wondered whether that voice I had heard was actually hers, or only a distorted hallucination. At any rate, the woman had expressed hatred of Sir Bernard just as Ethelwynn had done, and further, the old man had openly defied her, with a harsh laugh, which showed confidence in himself and an utter disregard for any statement she might make.

At Victoria the pale-faced girl descended quickly, and, swallowed in a moment in the crowd on the platform, I saw her no more.

She had, before descending, given me a final glance, and I fancied that a faint smile of recognition played about her lips. But in the uncertain light of a railway carriage the shadows are heavy, and I could not see sufficiently distinctly to warrant my returning her salute. So the wan little figure, so full of romantic mystery, went forth again into oblivion.

I was going my round at Guy's on the following morning when a telegram was put into my hand. It was from Ethelwynn's mother--Mrs. Mivart, at Neneford--asking me to go down there without delay, but giving no reason for the urgency. I had always been a favourite with the old lady, and to obey was, of course, imperative--even though I were compelled to ask Bartlett, one of my colleagues, to look after Sir Bernard's private practice in my absence.

Neneford Manor was an ancient, rambling old Queen Anne place, about nine miles from Peterborough on the high road to Leicester. Standing in the midst of the richest gra.s.s country in England, with its grounds sloping to the br.i.m.m.i.n.g river that wound through meadows which in May were a blaze of golden b.u.t.tercups, it was a typical English home, with quaint old gables, high chimney stacks and old-world garden with yew hedges trimmed fantastically as in the days of wigs and patches. I had s.n.a.t.c.hed a week-end several times to be old Mrs. Mivart's guest; therefore I knew the picturesque old place well, and had been entranced by its many charms.

Soon after five o'clock that afternoon I descended from the train at the roadside station, and, mounting into the dog-cart, was driven across the hill to the Manor. In the hall the sweet-faced, silver-haired old lady, in her neat black and white cap greeted me, holding both my hands and pressing them for a moment, apparently unable to utter a word. I had expected to find her unwell; but, on the contrary, she seemed quite as active as usual, notwithstanding the senile decay which I knew had already laid its hand heavily upon her.

"You are so good to come to me, Doctor. How can I sufficiently thank you?" she managed to exclaim at last, leading me into the drawing-room, a long old-fas.h.i.+oned apartment with low ceiling supported by black oak beams, and quaint diamond-paned windows at each end.

"Well?" I inquired, when she had seated herself, and, with the evening light upon her face, I saw how blanched and anxious she was.

"I want to consult you, Doctor, upon a serious and confidential matter," she began, leaning forward, her thin white hands clasped in her lap. "We have not met since the terrible blow fell upon us--the death of poor Mary's husband."

"It must have been a great blow to you," I said sympathetically, for I liked the old lady, and realised how deeply she had suffered.

"Yes, but to poor Mary most of all," she said. "They were so happy together; and she was so devoted to him."

This was scarcely the truth; but mothers are often deceived as to their daughters' domestic felicity. A wife is always p.r.o.ne to hide her sorrows from her parents as far as possible. Therefore the old lady had no doubt been the victim of natural deception.

"Yes," I agreed; "it was a tragic and terrible thing. The mystery is quite unsolved."

"To me, the police are worse than useless," she said, in her slow, weak voice; "they don't seem to have exerted themselves in the least after that utterly useless inquest, with its futile verdict. As far as I can gather, not one single point has been cleared up."

"No," I said; "not one."

"And my poor Mary!" exclaimed old Mrs. Mivart; "she is beside herself with grief. Time seems to increase her melancholy, instead of bringing forgetfulness, as I hoped it would."

"Where is Mrs. Courtenay?" I asked.

"Here. She's been back with me for nearly a month. It was to see her, speak with her, and give me an opinion that I asked you to come down."

"Is she unwell?"

"I really don't know what ails her. She talks of her husband incessantly, calls him by name, and sometimes behaves so strangely that I have once or twice been much alarmed."

Her statement startled me. I had no idea that the young widow had taken the old gentleman's death so much to heart. As far as I had been able to judge, it seemed very much as though she had every desire to regain her freedom from a matrimonial bond that galled her. That she was grief-stricken over his death showed that I had entirely misjudged her character.

"Is she at home now?" I asked.

"Yes, in her own sitting-room--the room we used as a schoolroom when the girls were at home. Sometimes she mopes there all day, only speaking at meals. At others, she takes her dressing-bag and goes away for two or three days--just as the fancy takes her. She absolutely declines to have a maid."

"You mean that she's just a little--well, eccentric," I remarked seriously.

"Yes, Doctor," answered the old lady, in a strange voice quite unusual to her, and fixing her eyes upon me. "To tell the truth I fear her mind is slowly giving way."

I remained silent, thinking deeply; and as I did not reply, she added:

"You will meet her at dinner. I shall not let her know you are here.

Then you can judge for yourself."

The situation was becoming more complicated. Since the conclusion of the inquest I had seen nothing of the widow. She had stayed several days with Ethelwynn at the Hennikers', then had visited her aunt near Bath. That was all I knew of her movements, for, truth to tell, I held her in some contempt for her giddy pleasure-seeking during her husband's illness. Surely a woman who had a single spark of affection for the man she had married could not go out each night to theatres and supper parties, leaving him to the care of his man and a nurse.

That one fact alone proved that her professions of love had been hollow and false.

While the twilight fell I sat in that long, sombre old room that breathed an air of a century past, chatting with old Mrs. Mivart, and learning from her full particulars of Mary's eccentricities. My hostess told me of the proving of the will, which left the Devons.h.i.+re estate to her daughter, and of the slow action of the executors. The young widow's actions, as described to me, were certainly strange, and made me strongly suspect that she was not quite responsible for them.

That Mary's remorse was overwhelming was plain; and that fact aroused within my mind a very strong suspicion of a circ.u.mstance I had not before contemplated, namely, that during the life of her husband there had been a younger male attraction. The acuteness of her grief seemed proof of this. And yet, if argued logically, the existence of a secret lover should cause her to congratulate herself upon her liberty.

The whole situation was an absolute enigma.

CHAPTER XVI.

REVEALS AN ASTOUNDING FACT.

Dinner was announced, and I took Mrs. Mivart into the room on the opposite side of the big old-fas.h.i.+oned hall, a long, low-ceilinged apartment the size of the drawing-room, and hung with some fine old family portraits and miniatures. Old Squire Mivart had been an enthusiastic collector of antique china, and the specimens of old Montelupo and Urbino hanging upon the walls were remarkable as being the finest in any private collection in this country. Many were the visits he had made to Italy to acquire those queer-looking old mediaeval plates, with their crude colouring and rude, inartistic drawings, and certainly he was an acknowledged expert in antique porcelain.

The big red-shaded lamp in the centre of the table shed a soft light upon the snowy cloth, the flowers and the glittering silver; and as my hostess took her seat she sighed slightly, and for the first time asked of Ethelwynn.

"I haven't seen her for a week," I was compelled to admit. "Patients have been so numerous that I haven't had time to go out to see her, except at hours when calling at a friend's house was out of the question."

"Do you like the Hennikers?" her mother inquired, raising her eyes inquiringly to mine.