"Wait an instant," said Mr. Tamlyn, as he opened the note.
It contained nothing of consequence. Madame St. Vincent had written to say that Lady Jenkins was pretty well, but had finished her medicine: perhaps Mr. Tamlyn would send her some more. Old Tamlyn"s injunction to wait an instant had been given in consequence of a sudden resolution he had then come to (as he phrased it in his mind), to "tackle" Lettice.
"Lettice Lane," he began, winking at Dr. Knox, "your mistress"s state is giving us concern. She seems to be always sleeping."
"She is nearly always dozing off, sir," replied Lettice, her tone and looks open and honest as the day.
"Ay. I can"t quite come to the bottom of it," returned old Tamlyn, making believe to be confidential. "To me, it looks just as though she took--took opiates."
"Opiates, sir?" repeated Lettice, as if she hardly understood the word: while Dr. Knox, behind the desk, was glancing keenly at her from underneath his compressed eyebrows.
"Opium. Laudanum."
Lettice shook her head. "No, sir, my mistress does not take anything of that sort, I am sure; we have nothing of the kind in the house. But Madame St. Vincent is for ever dosing her with brandy-and-water."
"What?" shouted old Tamlyn.
"I have said a long while, sir, that I thought you ought to know it; I"ve said so to the housemaid. I don"t believe an hour hardly pa.s.ses, day or night, but madame administers to her a drop of brandy-and-water.
Half a wine-gla.s.s, maybe, or a full wine-gla.s.s, as the case may happen; and sometimes I know it"s pretty strong."
"That"s it," said Dr. Knox quietly: and a curious smile crossed his face.
Mr. Tamlyn sat down on the stool in consternation. "Brandy-and-water!"
he repeated, more than once, "Perpetually dosed with brandy-and-water!
And now, Lettice Lane, how is it you have not come here before to tell me of this?"
"I did not come to tell you now, sir," returned Lettice. "Madame St.
Vincent says that Lady Jenkins needs it: she seems to give it her for her good. It is only lately that I have doubted whether it can be right. I have not liked to say anything: servants don"t care to interfere. Ten times a-day she will give her these drops of cold brandy-and-water: and I know she gets up for the same purpose once or twice in the night."
"Does Lady Jenkins take it without remonstrance?" asked Dr. Knox, speaking for the first time.
"She does, sir, now. At first she did not. Many a time I have heard my lady say, "Do you think so much brandy can be good for me, Patty? I feel so dull after it," and Madame St. Vincent has replied, that it is the only thing that can get her strength back and bring her round."
"The jade!" spoke Dr. Knox, between his teeth. "And to a.s.sure us both that all the old lady took was a drop of it weak twice a-day at her meals! Lettice Lane," he added aloud, and there was a great sternness in his tone, "you are to blame for not having spoken of this. A little longer silence, and it might have cost your mistress her life." And Lettice went out in contrition.
"What can the woman"s motive be, for thus dosing her into stupidity?"
spoke the one doctor to the other when they were shut in together.
"_That_: the dosing her into it," said Dr. Knox.
"But the motive, Arnold?--the reason? She must have had a motive."
"That remains to be found out."
It turned out to be too true. The culprit was Madame St. Vincent. She had been administering these constant doses of brandy-and-water for months. Not giving enough at a time to put Lady Jenkins into a state of intoxication; only to reduce her to a chronic state of semi-stupidity.
Tod called me, as I tell you, a m.u.f.f: first for not knowing Madame St.
Vincent; and next for thinking to screen her. Of course this revelation of Lettice Lane"s had put a new complexion upon things. I left the matter with Tod, and he told the doctors at once: Madame St. Vincent was, or used to be, Martha Jane Pell, own sister to Captain Collinson the false.
III.
Quietly knocking at the door of Jenkins House this same sunny morning went three gentlemen: old Tamlyn, Mr. Lawrence, and Joseph Todhetley.
Mr. Lawrence was a magistrate and ex-mayor; he had preceded the late Sir Daniel Jenkins in the civic chair, and was intimate with him as a brother. Just as old Tamlyn tackled Lettice, so they were now about to tackle Madame St. Vincent on the score of the brandy-and-water; and they had deemed it advisable to take Tod with them.
Lady Jenkins was better than usual; rather less stupid. She was seated with madame in the cheerful garden-room, its gla.s.s-doors standing open to the sunshine and the flowers. The visitors were cordially received; it was supposed they had only come to pay a morning visit. Madame St.
Vincent sat behind a table in the corner, writing notes of invitation for a soiree, to be held that day week. Tod, who had his wits about him, went straight up to her. It must be remembered that they had not yet met.
"Ah! how are you?" cried he, holding out his hand. "Surprised to see you here." And she turned white, and stared, uncertain how to take his words, or whether he had really recognized her, and bowed stiffly as to a stranger, and never put out her own hand in answer.
I cannot tell you much about the interview: Tod"s account to me was not very clear. Lady Jenkins began talking about Captain Collinson--that he had turned out to be some unworthy man of the name of Pell, and had endeavoured to kidnap poor little Mina. Charlotte Knox imparted the news to her that morning, in defiance of Madame St. Vincent, who had tried to prevent her. Madame had said it must be altogether some mistake, and that no doubt Captain Collinson would be able to explain: but she, Lady Jenkins, did not know. After that there was a pause; Lady Jenkins shut her eyes, and madame went on writing her notes.
It was old Tamlyn who opened the ball. He drew his chair nearer the old lady, and spoke out without circ.u.mlocution.
"What is this that we hear about your taking so much brandy-and-water?"
"Eh?" cried the old lady, opening her eyes. Madame paused in her writing, and looked up. Tamlyn waited for an answer.
"Lady Jenkins does not take much brandy-and-water," cried madame.
"I am speaking to Lady Jenkins, madame," returned old Tamlyn, severely: "be so kind as not to interfere. My dear lady, listen to me"--taking her hand; "I am come here with your life-long old friend, William Lawrence, to talk to you. We have reason to believe that you continually take, and have taken for some time past, small doses of brandy-and-water. Is it so?"
"Patty gives it me," cried Lady Jenkins, looking first at them and then at Patty, in a helpless sort of manner.
"Just so: we know she does. But, are you aware that brandy-and-water, taken in this way, is so much poison?"
"Tell them, Patty, that you give it me for my good," said the poor lady, in affectionate appeal.
"Yes, it is for your good, dear Lady Jenkins," resentfully affirmed Madame St. Vincent, regarding the company with flashing eyes. "Does any one dare to suppose that I should give Lady Jenkins sufficient to hurt her? I may be allowed, I presume, as her ladyship"s close companion, constantly watching her, to be the best judge of what is proper for her to take."
Well, a shindy ensued--as Tod called it--all of them talking altogether, except himself and poor Lady Jenkins: and madame defying every one and everything. They told her that she could no longer be trusted with Lady Jenkins; that she must leave the house that day; and when madame defied this with a double defiance, the magistrate intimated that he had come up to enforce the measure, if necessary, and he meant to stay there until she was gone.
She saw it was serious then, and the defiant tone changed. "What I have given Lady Jenkins has been for her good," she said; "to do her good.
But for being supported by a little brandy-and-water, the system could never have held out after that serious attack she had in Boulogne. I have prolonged her life."
"No, madame, you have been doing your best to shorten her life,"
corrected old Tamlyn. "A little brandy-and-water, as you term it, might have been good for her while she was recovering her strength, but you have gone beyond the little; you have made her life a constant lethargy; you would shortly have killed her. What your motive was, Heaven knows."
"My motive was a kind one," flashed madame. "Out of this house I will not go."
So, upon that, they played their trump card, and informed Lady Jenkins, who was crying softly, that this lady was the sister of the impostor, Collinson. The very helplessness, the utter docility to which the treatment had reduced her, prevented her expressing (and most probably feeling) any dissent. She yielded pa.s.sively to all, like a child, and told Patty that she must go, as her old friends said so.
A bitter pill for madame to take. But she could not help herself.
"You will be as well as ever in a little time," Tamlyn said to Lady Jenkins. "You would have died, had this gone on: it must have induced some malady or other from which you could not have rallied."
Madame St. Vincent went out of the house that afternoon, and Cattledon entered it. She had offered herself to Lady Jenkins for a few days in the emergency.