"There is the law," Wrayson said, with a horrified glance towards Louise.
He understood now.
The Colonel bowed his head.
"I am prepared," the Colonel answered, "to pay the penalty of all reformers."
There was a ring at the bell. Wrayson threw open the door. A small boy stood there. He held a piece of paper in his hand.
"The lidy said," he declared, "that the white-headed gentleman would give me "arf a crown for this "ere!"
Wrayson gave him the money, and stepped back into the room. He gave the paper to the Colonel, who read it calmly, first to himself and then aloud.
"I leave you to your conshens. He may have been bad, but he was good to me!
"AGNES B."
The Colonel"s eyes grew very soft.
"Poor little woman," he said to himself. "Wrayson, you"ll look after her.
You"ll see she doesn"t come to grief!"
There was the sound of a heavy fall in the room above. The Colonel"s face a.s.sumed an air of intense irritation.
"It"s that infernal window pole," he declared. "I had doubts about it all the time."
Wrayson looked at him in horror.
"What do you mean?" he demanded.
"Perhaps you had better go up and see," the Colonel answered, taking up his hat. "A very commonplace tragedy after all! I don"t quite see what else he could have done. He was penniless, half mad with disappointment; he"d been smoking too many cigarettes and drinking too much cheap liquor, and he was in danger of arrest for selling the landlord"s furniture. No other end for him, I am afraid."
Wrayson threw open the door.
"Don"t hurry," the Colonel declared. "You"ll probably find that he has hanged himself, but he must have been dead for some time."
Wrayson tore up the stairs. The Colonel watched him for a moment. Then, with a little sigh, he began to descend.
"False sentiment," he murmured to himself sadly. "The world"s full of it."
CHAPTER XLII
LOVE REMAINS
Wrayson rode slowly up the great avenue, and paused at the bend to see for the first time at close quarters the house, which from the valley below had seemed little more than a speck of white set in a deep bower of green. Seen at close quarters its size amazed him. With its cl.u.s.ter of outbuildings, it occupied nearly the whole of the plateau, which was like a jutting tableland out from the side of the mountain. It was of two stories only, and encircled with a great veranda supported by embowered pillars. Free at last from the densely growing trees, Wrayson, for the first time during his long climb, caught an uninterrupted view of the magnificent panorama below. A land of hills, of black forests and shining rivers; a land uncultivated but rich in promise, magnificent in its primitivism. It was a wonderful dwelling this, of which the owner, springing down from the veranda, was now on his way to meet his guest.
The two men shook hands with unaffected heartiness. Duncan Fitzmaurice, in his white linen riding clothes, seemed taller than ever, a little gaunt and thin, too, from a recent attack of fever. There was no doubt about the pleasure with which he received his guest.
"Where is Louise?" he asked, looking behind down the valley.
"Coming up in the wagons," Wrayson answered. "She has been riding all day and was tired."
A Kaffir boy came out with a tray and gla.s.ses. Wrayson helped himself to a whisky and soda, and lit a cigar.
"I"ll get my pony and ride back with you to meet them," Duncan said.
Wrayson detained him.
"One moment," he said, "I have something to say to you first."
Duncan glanced at him a little anxiously. Wrayson answered the look.
"Nothing--disturbing," he said. "You learnt the end of everything from my letters?"
"I think so," Duncan answered.
"The verdict on your father"s death was absolutely unanimous," Wrayson said. "He was seen to stagger on the platform just as the train came in, and he seemed to make every effort to save himself. He was killed quite instantaneously. I do not think that any one had a suspicion that it was not entirely accidental."
Duncan nodded.
"And the other affair?"
"You mean the death of Sydney Barnes? No one has ever doubted that he committed suicide. Everything seemed to point to it. There is only one man who knew about Morris Barnes and probably guesses the rest. His name was Heneage, and he was your father"s friend. He did not speak when he was alive, so he is not likely to now. There is the young woman, of course, Mrs. Morris Barnes. She has married again and gone to Canada.
Louise looked after her."
Duncan took up his riding-whip from the table.
"Now tell me," he said, "what it is that you have to say to me."
"Do you read the papers?" Wrayson asked abruptly.
"Only so far as they treat of matters connected with this country,"
Duncan answered.
"You have not read, then, of the Mexonian divorce?"
The man"s eyes were lit with fire. The handle of the riding-whip snapped in his hands.
"They have never granted it!" he cried.
"Not in its first form," Wrayson answered hastily. "The whole suit fell to the ground for want of evidence."