In truth, the wind was moaning round the house like an uneasy spirit.
"That sound in the wind always means snow," said Charles, evidently for the sake of saying something. "It is easterly, I should think. Yes,"
after a pause, when another silence seemed imminent, "there goes the eight o"clock train. It must be quite a quarter of an hour late, though, for it has struck eight some time. I can hear it distinctly. The station is three miles away, and you never hear the train unless the wind is in the east."
"Come, Charles, not three miles--two miles and a half," put in Ralph.
"Well, two and a half from here down to the station, but certainly three from the station up here," replied Charles; and so silence was laboriously avoided by diligent small-talk until we returned to the drawing-room, thankful that there at least we could take up a book, and be silent if we wished. We all did wish it, apparently. Evelyn was sitting by a lamp when we came in, with a book before her, her elbow on the table, shading her face with a slender delicate hand. She remained motionless, her eyes fixed upon the page, but I noticed after some time that she had never turned it over. Charles may have read his newspaper, but if he did it was with one eye upon Evelyn all the time. Between watching them both I did not, as may be imagined, make much progress myself. How was I to manage to speak to Evelyn alone, and without Charles"s knowledge?
At last Ralph, who had gone into the morning-room, opened the drawing-room door and put his head in.
"Aurelia has not come down yet, and it is a quarter past nine. I wish you would run up, Evelyn, and see if she is coming."
"She is sure to come!" replied Evelyn, without raising her eyes. "She said she _must_ see you."
Ralph disappeared again, and the books and papers were studied anew with unswerving devotion. At the end of another ten minutes, however, the impatient lover reappeared.
"It is half-past nine," he said, in an injured tone. "Do pray run up, Evelyn. I don"t think she can be coming at all. I am afraid she is worse."
Evelyn laid down her book and left the room. Ralph sauntered back into the morning-room, where we heard him beguiling his solitude with a few chords on the piano.
Presently Evelyn returned. She was pale even to the lips, and her voice faltered as she said:
"She has not gone to bed, for there is a light in her room; but she would not answer when I knocked, and the door is locked."
"All of which circ.u.mstances are not sufficient to make you as white as a ghost," said Charles. "I think even if Aurelia has a headache, you would bear the occurrence with fort.i.tude. My dear child, you do not act so well off the stage as on it. There is something on your mind. People don"t upset water at dinner, and refuse all food except pellets of pinched bread, for nothing. What is it?"
Evelyn sank into a chair, and covered her face with her trembling hands.
"Yes, I thought so," said Charles, kneeling down by her, and gently withdrawing her hands. "Come, Evelyn, what is it?"
"I dare not say." And she turned away her face, and tried to disengage her hands, but Charles held them firmly.
"Is it about what happened last night?" he asked, in a tone that was kind, but that evidently intended to have an answer.
"Yes."
"And do you know that I am suspected?"
"You, Charles? Never!" she cried, starting up.
"Yes, I. Suspected by my own father. So, if you know anything, Evelyn--which I see you do--it is your duty to tell us, and to help us in every way you can."
He had let go her hands now, and had risen.
"I don"t know anything for certain," she said, "but--but we soon shall.
Aurelia knows, and she is going to tell Ralph."
"Miss Grant!" I exclaimed. "She knew nothing at tea-time. She was asking me about it."
"It is since then," continued Evelyn. "I went up to her room before dinner to ask her for a fan that I had lent her. She was packing some of her things, and the floor was strewn with packing-paper and parcels. She gave me my fan, and was going on putting her things together, talking all the time, when she asked me to hand her a glove-box on the dressing-table. As I did so my eye fell on a piece of paper lying together with others, and I instantly recognized it as the same that had been wrapped round the diamond crescent when Colonel Middleton first showed us the jewels. I should never have noticed it--for though it was rice paper, it looked just like the other pieces strewn about--if I had not seen two little angular tears, which I suddenly remembered making in it myself when General Marston asked me not to pull it to pieces, which I suppose I had been absently doing. I made some sort of exclamation of surprise, and Aurelia turned round sharply, and asked me what was the matter. As I did not answer, she left her packing and came to the table.
She saw in a moment what I was looking at. I had turned as red as fire, and she was quite white. "I did not mean you to see that," she said, at last, quietly taking up the paper. "I meant no one to know until I had shown it to Ralph. _Do you know where I found it?_" and she looked hard at me. I could only shake my head. I was too much ashamed of a suspicion I had had to be able to get out a word. "I am very sorry," continued Aurelia, "but I am afraid it will be my duty to tell Ralph, whatever the consequences may be. I have been thinking it over, and I think he ought to know. I am going to show it him to-night after dinner," and she put it in her pocket, and then began to cry. I did not know what to say or do, I was so frightened at the thought of what was coming; and, as the dressing-bell rang at that moment, I was just leaving the room when she called me back.
""I can"t come down to dinner," she said. "I hate Ralph to see me with red eyes. Tell him I shall come down afterwards, at nine o"clock, and that I want to see him particularly; only don"t tell him what it is about, or mention it to any one else. I did not mean any one to know till he did."
"She began to cry afresh, and I made her lie down and put a shawl over her, and then left her, as I had still to dress, and I knew that Aunt Mary was not coming down. I was late as it was."
"Is that all?" said Charles, who had been listening intently.
"All," replied Evelyn. "We shall soon know the worst now."
"Very soon," said Charles. "Ralph may come in here at any moment. Evelyn and Middleton, will you have the goodness to come with me?" And he led the way into the hall.
We could hear Ralph in the next room, humming over an old Irish melody, with an improvised accompaniment.
"Now show me her room," said Charles, "and please be quick about it."
Evelyn looked at him astonished, and then led the way up-stairs, along the picture-gallery to another wing of the house. She stopped at last before a door at the end of a pa.s.sage, dimly lighted by a lamp at the farther end. There was a light under the door, and a bright c.h.i.n.k in the key-hole, but though we listened intently we could hear nothing stirring within.
"Knock again," said Charles to Evelyn. "Louder!" as her hand failed her.
There was no answer. As we listened the light within disappeared.
"Bring that lamp from the end of the pa.s.sage," said Charles to Evelyn, and she brought it.
"Hold it there," he said; "and you, Middleton, stand aside."
He took a few steps backward, and then flung himself against the door with his whole force. It cracked and groaned, but resisted.
"The lock is old. It is bound to go," he said, panting a little.
"Really, Charles," I remonstrated--"a lady"s private apartment! Miss Derrick, I wonder you allow this."
Charles retreated again, and then made a fresh and even fiercer onslaught on the door. There was a sound of splintering wood and of bursting screws, and in another moment the door flew open inward, and Charles was precipitated head-foremost into the room, his evening-pumps flourishing wildly in the air. In an instant he was on his feet again, gasping hard, and had seized the lamp out of Evelyn"s hand. Before I had time to remonstrate on the liberty that he was taking, we were all three in the room.
It was empty!
In one corner stood a box, half packed, with various articles of clothing lying by it. On the dressing-table was a whole medley of little feminine knick-knacks, with a candlestick in the midst, the dead wick still smoking in the socket, and accounting for the disappearance of the light a few minutes before. The fire had gone out, but on a chair by it was laid a little black lace evening-gown, evidently put out to be worn; while over the fender a dainty pair of silk stockings had been hung, and two diminutive black satin shoes were waiting on the hearth-rug. The whole aspect of the room spoke of a sudden and precipitate flight.
"Bolted!" said Charles, when he had recovered his breath. "And so the mystery is out at last! I might have known there was a woman at the bottom of it. Unpremeditated, though," he continued, looking round. "She meant to have gone to-morrow; but your recognition of that paper frightened her, though she turned it off well to gain time. No fool that! She had only an hour, and she made the most of it, and got off, no doubt, while we were at dinner, by the 8.2 London train, which is the last to-night; and after the telegraph office was closed, too! She knew nothing could be done till to-morrow. She has more wit than I gave her credit for."
"I distrusted her before, though I had no reason for it, but I never thought she was gone," said Evelyn, trembling violently, and still looking round the room.
"I knew it," said Charles, "from the moment I saw the light through the key-hole. A key-hole with a key in it would not have shown half the amount of light through it; and a locked door without a key in it is safe to have been locked _from the outside_. Had she a maid with her?"
"No," replied Evelyn, "she used to come to me next door when she wanted help--but not often--because I think she knew I did not like her, though I tried not to show it."
"Well, we have seen the last of her, or I am much mistaken," said Charles. "And now," he added, compressing his lips, "I suppose I must go and tell Ralph."