"Some of Miss Deveen"s jewels disappeared--were stolen; and Lettice Lane was suspected. It turned out later that she was not guilty; but I could not get over my dislike to her. We cannot help our likes and dislikes, which often come to us without rhyme or reason," acknowledged Miss Cattledon, "and I admit that I am perhaps too persistent in mine."
Not a soul present, myself excepted, had ever heard about the loss of the emeralds: and somehow I felt sorry that Cattledon had spoken of it.
Not that she did it in ill-nature--I give her that due. Questions were immediately poured out, and she had to give the full history.
The story interested them all, Dr. Knox especially.
"And who did take the jewels?" he asked.
But Cattledon could not enlighten him, for Miss Deveen had not betrayed Sophie Chalk, even to her.
"I don"t know who it was," tartly confessed Cattledon, the point being a sore one with her. "Miss Deveen promised, I believe, to screen the thief; and did so."
"Perhaps it was really Lettice Lane?"
"I believe not. I am sure not. It was a lady, Miss Deveen told me that much. No; of that disgraceful act Lettice Lane was innocent: but I should never be surprised to hear of her falling into trouble. She is capable of it."
"Of poisoning somebody, perhaps?" spoke Dr. Knox.
"Yes," acquiesced Cattledon, grimly.
How prejudiced she was against Lettice Lane! But she had given this last answer only in the same jesting spirit in which it appeared to have been put, not really meaning it.
"To be wrongly suspected, as poor Lettice Lane was, ought to make people all the more considerate to her," remarked Janet, her thoughts no doubt reverting to the time when she herself was falsely suspected--and accused.
"True, my dear," answered old Tamlyn. "Poor Lettice must have had her troubles."
"And she has had her faults," retorted Cattledon.
But this story had made an impression on Dr. Knox that Cattledon never suspected, never intended. He took up the idea that Lettice Lane was guilty. Going into Mr. Tamlyn"s sitting-room for "Martin Chuzzlewit,"
when tea was over, I found his hand on my shoulder. He had silently followed me.
"Johnny Ludlow," he said, looking down into my eyes in the dim room, which was only lighted by the dim fire, "I don"t like this that I have heard of Lettice Lane."
And the next to come in was Tamlyn. Closing the door, he walked up to the hearthrug where we stood, and stirred the fire into a blaze.
"I am telling Johnny Ludlow that this story of Miss Deveen"s emeralds has made an unfavourable impression on me," quoth Dr. Knox to him. "It does not appear to me to be at all clear that Lettice Lane did not take them; and that Miss Deveen, in her benevolence, screened her from the consequences."
"But, indeed----" I was beginning, when Dr. Knox stopped me.
"A moment, Johnny. I was about to add that a woman who is capable of one crime can sometimes be capable of another; and I should not be surprised if it is Lettice Lane who is tampering with Lady Jenkins."
"But," I repeated, "Lettice Lane did _not_ take the jewels. She knew nothing about it. She was perfectly innocent."
"You cannot answer for it, Johnny."
"Yes, I can; and do. I know who did take them."
"_You_ know, Johnny Ludlow?" cried old Tamlyn, while Dr. Knox looked at me in silence.
"I helped Miss Deveen to find it out. At least, she had me with her during the progress of the discovery. It was a lady who took the jewels--as Miss Cattledon told you. She fainted away when it was brought home to her, and fell on my shoulder."
I believe they hardly knew whether to give me credit or not. Of course it did sound strange that I, young Johnny Ludlow, should have been entrusted by Miss Deveen with a secret she would not disclose even to her many years" companion and friend, Jemima Cattledon.
"Who was it, then, Johnny?" began Mr. Tamlyn.
"I should not like to tell, sir. I do not think it would be right to tell. For the young lady"s own sake, Miss Deveen hushed the matter up, hoping it would be a warning to her in future. And I dare say it has been."
"Young, was she?"
"Yes. She has married since then. I could not, in honour, tell you her name."
"Well, I suppose we must believe you, Johnny," said Dr. Knox, making the admission unwillingly. "Lettice Lane did get fingering the jewels, it appears; you admit that."
"But she did not take them. It was--another." And, cautiously choosing my words, so as not to say anything that could direct suspicion to Sophie Chalk--whose name most likely they had never heard in their lives--I gave them an outline of the way in which Miss Deveen had traced the matter out. The blaze lighted up Mr. Tamlyn"s grey face as I told it.
"You perceive that it could not have been Lettice Lane, Dr. Knox," I said, in conclusion. "I am sorry Miss Cattledon should have spoken against her."
"Yes, I perceive Lettice could not have been guilty of stealing the jewels," answered Dr. Knox. "Nevertheless, a somewhat unfavourable impression of the girl has been made upon me, and I shall look a little after her. Why does she want to emigrate to Australia?"
"Only because two of her brothers are there. I dare say it is all idle talk--that she will never go."
They said no more to me. I took up my book and quitted the room, leaving them to talk it out between themselves.
II.
Mr. Tamlyn might be clever in medicine; he certainly was not in diplomacy. Dr. Knox had particularly impressed upon him the desirability of keeping their suspicion a secret for the present, even from Madame St. Vincent; yet the first use old Tamlyn made of his liberty was to disclose it to her.
Tossed about in the conflict of doubts and suspicions that kept arising in his mind, Mr. Tamlyn, from the night I have just told you of, was more uneasy than a fish out of water, his opinion constantly vacillating. "You must be mistaken, Arnold; I feel sure there"s nothing wrong going on," he would say to his junior partner one minute; and, the next minute, decide that it _was_ going on, and that its perpetrator must be Lettice Lane.
The uneasiness took him abroad earlier than he would otherwise have gone. A slight access of fever attacked him the day after the subject had been broached--which fever he had no doubt worried himself into. In the ordinary course of things he would have stayed at home for a week after that: but he now went out on the third day.
"I will walk," he decided, looking up at the sunshine. "It will do me good. What lovely weather we are having."
Betaking himself through the streets to the London Road, he reached Jenkins House. The door stood open; and the doctor, almost as much at home in the house as Lady Jenkins herself, walked in without knocking.
The dining-room, where they mostly sat in the morning, was empty; the drawing-room was empty; and Mr. Tamlyn went on to a third room, that opened to the garden at the back with gla.s.s-doors.
"Any one here? or is the house gone a-maying?" cried the surgeon as he entered and came suddenly upon a group of three people, all upon their knees before a pile of old music--Madame St. Vincent, Mina Knox, and Captain Collinson. Two of them got up, laughing. Mina remained where she was.
"We are searching for a ma.n.u.script song that is missing," explained madame, as she gave her hand to the doctor. "Mina feels sure she left it here; but I do not remember to have seen it."
"It was not mine," added Mina, looking round at the doctor in her pretty, gentle way. "Caroline Parker lent it to me, and she has sent for it twice."
"I hope you"ll find it, my dear."
"I must have left it here," continued Mina, as she rapidly turned over the sheets. "I was singing it yesterday afternoon, you remember," she added, glancing up at the captain. "It was while you were upstairs with Lady Jenkins, Madame St. Vincent."