"Cannot you see?" she said, placing her hand to her hair and parting it at the side.
I bent to examine, and there saw, half concealed by the skillful manner in which her hair had been dressed by her maid, unmistakable signs of a terrible blow that had been dealt her. It was strange. I also had been felled at the moment I had discovered her creeping silently into that mysterious room in Gloucester Square. Had she also fallen by the same unknown hand? Evidently the injury to her brain was the result of the crushing blow she had received.
"Who caused this?" I inquired. "You have been struck from behind!"
"Yes, by an enemy. But ask me nothing, ask me nothing," she groaned.
"I--cannot think--I cannot talk. The place goes round--round."
The neat maid entered with her young mistress"s hat at that moment, but seeing her mistress lying back in the chair pale and motionless, the girl halted on the threshold, scared.
"Send a messenger at once for Dr Fothergill," I commanded. "Miss Dora has been taken ill again," and while she flew to execute my orders I crossed to the rec.u.mbent invalid and tenderly chafed her hands. They seemed cold and clammy. Her wild staring eyes were fixed upon me and she shuddered, but to my questions she gave incoherent replies, lapsing gradually into a state of semi-insensibility.
On the eve of revealing the secret of Sybil, she had been thwarted by mental weakness. Full of pain and anxiety I watched her, reflecting that this added one more to the string of misfortunes consequent upon my strange union. Even my friends seemed by the conspiring vagaries of Fate prevented from rendering me any aid.
Within a quarter of an hour the great specialist arrived, being followed almost immediately by Lady Stretton, haughty, fussy and rapidly fanning herself. The doctor, after hearing from me how Dora had suddenly been attacked, and having examined her carefully, said, with a sigh:
"Ah! Just as I expected; just what I feared. She has had a relapse, and a very serious one. But she will always be subject to these spasmodic attacks, unless by chance she experiences some great unexpected joy or sorrow, which may restore her mind to its proper balance. We can only hope," he added, turning to Lady Stretton who stood beside him. "Hope!"
"But cannot you cure her?" her ladyship asked. "Surely hers is not such a very serious case?"
"The injury to the brain was very serious," he answered slowly. "Her case is a most perplexing one and full of the gravest complications.
Speaking with candour, I cannot say with any degree of certainty that she will ever completely recover."
"Oh, my child! My poor child!" Lady Stretton exclaimed with a sudden outburst of maternal love quite unusual to her, as she bent over her daughter, imprinting a fervent kiss upon her cold brow. The face was bloodless, the eyes closed, the cheeks sunken; she seemed inanimate, as one dead.
"There is, I cannot help thinking, some great weight upon her mind," the doctor presently exclaimed, speaking in dry businesslike tones. "Once or twice during the past week, in her more lucid moments, she has expressed anxiety regarding a mysterious crime recently committed, in which a wealthy young man was murdered. Did she know that young man; or is she a diligent reader of the newspapers?"
"She has, I believe, taken an unusual interest in the mystery, for the young man was a personal friend of her sister, Lady Fyneshade, and I think she met him at dinner on one occasion at Eaton Square," her ladyship answered.
"Ah! then that would account for her morbid fascination towards the details of the mysterious affair. In her frame of mind any such event would absorb all her thoughts. I will call again after dinner," and rising, he took leave of her ladyship, an example I also followed a few minutes later.
Dora"s object had been to prevent Jack"s arrest, but her plans, whatever they were, had been frustrated by this sudden attack. Without doubt she had gained knowledge of my curious marriage. But how? Her promise to take me to some place where I could ascertain the truth was remarkable, yet throughout that evening I found myself half convinced that her words were merely wild, hysterical utterances precursory of the attack that had followed. No! It was absolutely impossible to place any credence in such a promise, for the probability would be that when she regained her normal condition she would immediately disclaim all knowledge of uttering those words.
Next day was Sunday. In the afternoon I called at Lady Stretton"s, only to ascertain that Dora, having recovered consciousness, was found to be light-headed and distracted. She had spoken no rational sentence since those she had uttered to me on the previous day. I left the house sadly, walking alone in the Park for a long time; then returning I dined and spent the evening at home. A cloud rested upon me always, dark and palpable; it entered into my life; it shadowed and destroyed all my happiness.
The next day and the next pa.s.sed uneventfully. Eagerly I scanned the papers morning and evening to ascertain whether Jack had been arrested, but there was no news of the fact, and I began to believe that my friend had after all succeeded in eluding the vigilance of the police. That he was guilty I could not doubt. Dora"s words were but pa.s.sionate utterances, such as might have been expected of a woman who loves an accused man. Indeed, as time went by I reproached myself for my egregious folly in giving her declaration credence and listening to it attentively. It was, however, impossible to let the matter stand as she had left it. Her mention of my lost well-beloved had whetted my curiosity, and some further inquiry must take place, although I saw that so long as she remained in her present state I could do nothing.
Impatient, with head full of cogent arguments I had raised against myself, I waited in agony of mind indescribable. I lived for one purpose alone, to solve the inscrutable mystery.
A discovery I made accidentally struck me as curious. One afternoon, while in the Park, I saw Fyneshade and his wife driving together.
Sitting beside her husband, with an expression of perfect contentment and happiness, Mabel"s attention had been attracted in the opposite direction, therefore she did not notice me. That there had been a reconciliation was apparent, and it gave me intense satisfaction, for I knew that no questions would now be asked me regarding that clandestine meeting in the grounds of Blatherwycke.
Curiously enough, on the following day I received an invitation from Mabel to dine _en famille_ at Eaton Square, and believing that she had some strong motive in this I accepted.
The meal was served with stateliness even though the Earl and his wife had no other visitor. It had been a breathless day in London, and was still light when dinner ended and Mabel rose and left us. The eastern sky was growing from blue to a violet dusk, and even then the crimson-shaded candles upon the table were merely ornamental.
We had been smoking and gossiping some time, and as I sat opposite my host I thought I somehow observed a change in him. Some anxiety seemed reflected in his clear-cut features, the expression upon which was a trifle stern and moody. It had softened a little while his wife kept up her light amusing chatter, but when she left there again settled upon his countenance the troubled look that puzzled me. It was caused no doubt by his suspicions of Mabel"s faithlessness.
He had been describing a new play he had seen produced in Paris, when suddenly he turned to me, exclaiming, as he wiped his single eye-gla.s.s and readjusted it: "Dora"s illness is most unfortunate, isn"t it? The whole thing seems enshrouded in mystery. Even Mabel is either ignorant, or desires to keep the cause of her sister"s affliction a secret. What do you know about it?"
I removed my cigar from my lips very slowly, for I hesitated whether I should unbosom myself and explain the strange circ.u.mstances in which I had discovered her. But in that brief moment I saw that if I did so I might become an unwilling witness in the tragedy. I knew the Earl as an inveterate gossip at his club, and having no desire that my name should be bruited all over London in connection with the affair, I therefore affected ignorance.
He plied me with many questions regarding Bethune"s movements, but to these also I remained dumb, for I could detect the drift of his conversation.
"Well," he said at length, "he killed young Sternroyd undoubtedly, though from what motive it is impossible to imagine."
"I suppose it will all come out at the trial," I observed. "All come out! What do you mean?" he asked, moving slightly to face me.
"I mean that his motive will then be made clear."
"Ah! yes, of course," he said smiling. "You see this wretched business is most unfortunate for us; it so closely affects my wife, and therefore worries me beyond measure. Even now there are many people evil disposed enough to couple Mabel"s name with his, merely because of the will; but he was a mad-brained young fool, and only those who knew him personally can imagine the irresponsibility of his actions."
"Were you acquainted with him?" I asked, eagerly seizing upon this opportunity to dear up a point on which I had been in doubt. "Oh, yes!
I knew him quite well. His father was my friend when a young man, but what induced Gilbert to leave all his money to Mabel I really cannot understand."
"Perhaps he did it in accordance with his father"s instructions. He may have been under some obligation to you. Had not Gilbert any relatives?"
"I believe he had some direct relatives; but by some means they seriously offended him before his father"s death. Of course, one cannot disguise the truth that such a large sum would be very acceptable were it not for the melancholy facts surrounding it," and an expression of sadness crossed his heavy brow as he added with a touch of sorrow: "Poor lad--poor lad!"
"Yes, he seemed a good-hearted young fellow," I said. "I met him on one occasion with Mabel."
"Where?" he inquired, quickly. "Where were you?"
"In Radnor Place."
"Radnor Place? What took you there?" he demanded with undisguised anxiety.
"I went there to try to find a certain house."
"And did you discover it?"
"Yes."
"And you met them there!" he cried, as if a sudden amazing thought occurred to him.
"Certainly, I met them there. The carriage was waiting, and together we drove towards the Reform to call for you. I alighted, however, at Piccadilly Circus."
"They--they gave you no explanation--I mean you did not enter this house you speak of?" he added, bending towards me, restlessness portrayed on his countenance.
"On that occasion, no. But I have been inside since."
"You have! And--and you found her there--you saw her!"
"No," I replied calmly; "I have never seen Mabel in the house. But why are you so upset at these words of mine? Was it not within your knowledge that Gilbert was seen in public with your wife, that--"
"Of course it was. I"m not an idiot, man," he cried, as, crimson with anger, he rose and paced the room in feverish haste. "But I have been misled, fooled, and by heaven! those who have deceived me shall pay dearly. I won"t spare them. By G.o.d! I won"t," and he brought down his fist so heavily upon the dining-table that some flowers were jerked from the epergne.
Then halting unsteadily, and pouring out some brandy into a liqueur gla.s.s, he swallowed it at one gulp, saying: