"A gentleman wishes to speak with Sir Allan Beaumerville," he announced.
Sir Philip Roden rose to his feet, and pointed to the door.
"The gentleman must wait, Nillson," he answered. "Leave the room now, and see that we are not interrupted until I ring the bell."
The servant bowed and withdrew, after a wondering glance at the faces of the little party. Sir Philip Roden left his seat and, crossing the room, locked the door.
"Sir Allan Beaumerville," he said quietly, "there can be only one course to take with regard to the painful disclosures which you have laid before us to-night. If you have anything to add, please let us hear it quickly."
Sir Allan continued at once.
"I went back to my son"s cottage. I washed my hands in his room, and the towel I concealed in his cabinet. Just as I was leaving he entered. What pa.s.sed between us I need not mention. I took up my botanizing case and hurried away along the cliffs, and afterward was met by Mr. Thurwell"s servant, with whom I returned once more to look upon my work. Then came the time when suspicion commenced to fall upon my son. I implored him to leave the country. He refused. At last he was arrested. For the father whom he can only despise he has been willing to die. To-night I had made up my mind to leave a confession of my guilt and fly. My plans are changed. Only a few hours ago I looked into the face of one whom I had never thought to see again in this world. Her advice I am now following. To her care I entrusted my confession, and to your ears I have detailed it. My story is done, gentlemen. Sir Philip Roden, I place myself in your hands."
His last words had been almost drowned by a clamorous knocking at the closed door. When he had ceased, Sir Philip Roden rose and opened it.
Two men entered at once, followed by Mr. Benjamin Levy. The men recognized Sir Philip, and saluted.
"What is your business?" he asked.
"We hold a warrant for the arrest of Sir Allan Beaumerville, sir," was the respectful answer, "granted on the sworn information of Mr. Benjamin Levy there, by Mr. Pulsford, half an hour ago. Which is he, sir?"
Sir Philip pointed to where his late host was standing a little away from the others, his hand resting on the carved k.n.o.b of his high-backed chair, and his eyes fixed wildly upon them. The man advanced to him at once.
"You are my prisoner, Sir Allan Beaumerville," he said quietly. "I hold a warrant here for your arrest on the charge of having murdered Sir Geoffrey Kynaston on the 12th of August of last year."
Those who were watching Sir Allan"s face closely saw only a slight change. Its deep pallor grew only a shade more livid, and there was a faint twitching of the features. Then with an awful light flashing into his burning eyes, and a cry which rang through the whole building, he threw up his arms and fell like a log across the hearth rug. Every one sprang up and crowded round him, but the physician pushed his way through the group and fell on his knees. He was up again in a moment, looking very pale and awed.
"Keep back, gentlemen; keep back, please," he said in a low tone. "Never mind about the brandy, Sir Philip. Every one had better go away. These people from Scotland Yard need not wait. Sir Allan will answer for his crime at a higher court than ours."
And so it indeed was. Tragical justice had herself added the last and final scene to the drama. Sir Allan Beaumerville"s lips were closed for ever in this world.
CHAPTER XLI
INNOCENT
An hour or two before the _denouement_ of Sir Allan Beaumerville"s supper party, his brougham had driven up to Mr. Thurwell"s town house, and had set down a lady there. She had rung the bell and inquired for Miss Thurwell.
The footman who answered the door looked dubious.
"Miss Thurwell was in, certainly, but she was unwell and saw no visitors, and it was late. Could he take her name?"
The lady handed him a note.
"If you will take this to Miss Thurwell, and tell her that I am waiting, I think that she will see me," she said quietly.
The man took it, and, somewhat impressed by the bearing and manner of speech of the unknown lady, he showed her into the morning-room, and ringing for Miss Thurwell"s maid, handed her the note and awaited the decision. It was speedily given. The lady was to be shown to her room at once.
The agonizing suspense in which Helen had been living for the last few days had laid a heavy hand upon her. Her cheeks were thin, and had been woefully pale until the sudden excitement of this visit had called up a faint hectic flush which had no kindred with the color of health. Her form, too, seemed to have shrunken, and the loose tea-gown which she wore enhanced the fragility of her appearance. She had been sitting in a low chair before the fire, with her head buried in her hands, but when her visitor was announced she was standing up with her dry, bright eyes eagerly fixed upon the woman who stood on the threshold. The door was closed, and they looked at one another for a moment in silence.
To an artist, the figures of these two women, each so intensely interested in the other, and each possessed of a distinctive and impressive personality, would have been full of striking suggestions.
Helen, in her loose gown of a soft dusky orange hue, and with no harsher light thrown upon her features than the subdued glow of a shaded lamp, and occasional flashes of the firelight which gleamed in her too-brilliant eyes, seemed to have lost none of her beauty. All her surroundings, too, went to enhance it: the delicately-toned richness of the coloring around, the faintly perfumed air, the indefinable suggestion of feminine daintiness, so apparent in all the appointments of the little chamber. From the semi-darkness of her position near the door Helen"s visitor brought her eager scrutiny to an end. She advanced a little into the room and spoke.
"You are Helen Thurwell?" she said softly. "Sir Allan Beaumerville has bidden me come to you. You have read his note?"
"Yes, yes, I have read it," she answered quickly. "He tells me that you have news--news that concerns Bernard Maddison. Is it anything that will prove his innocence?"
"It is already proved."
Helen gave a great cry and sank into a low chair. She had no doubts; her visitor"s tone and manner forbade them. But the tension of her feelings, strung to such a pitch of nervousness, gave way all at once.
Her whole frame was shaken with pa.s.sionate sobs. The burning agony of her grief was dissolved in melting tears.
And the woman whose glad tidings had brought this change stood all the while patient and motionless. Once, when Helen had first yielded to her emotion, she had made a sudden movement forward, and a sweet, sympathetic light had flashed for a moment over her pale features. But something had seemed to restrain her, some chilling memory which had checked her first impulse, and made her resume her former att.i.tude of quiet reserve. She stood there and waited. By and by Helen looked up and started to her feet.
"I had almost forgotten; I am so sorry," she said. "Do sit down, please, and tell me everything, and who you are. You have brought me the best news I ever had in my life," she added with a little burst of grat.i.tude.
Her visitor remained standing--remained grave, silent, and unresponsive; yet there was nothing forbidding about her appearance. Looking into her soft gray eyes and face still beautiful, though wrinkled and colorless, Helen was conscious of a strange feeling of attraction toward her, a sort of unexplained affinity which women in trouble or distress often feel for one another, but which the sterner fiber of man"s nature rarely admits of. She moved impulsively forward, and stretched out her hands in mute invitation, but there was no response. If anything, indeed, her visitor seemed to shrink a little away from her.
"You ask me who I am," she said softly. "I am Sir Allan Beaumerville"s wife; I am Bernard Maddison"s mother."
Helen sank back upon her chair, perfectly helpless. This thing was too much for her to grasp. She looked up at the woman who had spoken these marvelous words, half frightened, altogether bewildered.
"You are Sir Allan Beaumerville"s wife," she repeated slowly. "I do not understand; I never knew that he was married. And Bernard Maddison his son!"
Helen sat quite still for a moment. Then light began to stream in upon her darkened understanding. Suddenly she sprang to her feet.
"Who was it? then, who killed--Oh, my G.o.d, I see it all now. It was----"
She ceased, and looked at her visitor with blanched cheeks. A low, tremulous cry of horror broke from Lady Beaumerville"s white lips. Her calmness seemed gone. She was trembling from head to foot.
"G.o.d help him! it was my husband who killed Sir Geoffrey Kynaston," she cried; "and the sin is on my head."
Helen was scarcely less agitated. She caught hold of the edge of the table to steady herself. Her voice seemed to come from a great distance.
"Sir Allan! I do not understand. Why did he do that horrible thing?"
"Sir Geoffrey Kynaston and my husband were mortal enemies," answered Lady Beaumerville, her voice scarcely raised above a whisper. "Mine was the fault, mine the guilt. Alas! alas!"
The stately head with its wealth of silvery white hair was buried in her hands. Her att.i.tude, the agony which quivered in her tone dying away in her final expression of despair like chords of wild, sad music, and above all her likeness to the man she loved, appealed irresistibly to Helen. A great pity filled her heart. She pa.s.sed her arm round Lady Beaumerville, and drew her on to the sofa.
There were no words between them then. Only, after a while, Helen asked quietly:
"Sir Allan--must he confess?"
"It is already done," her visitor answered. "To-morrow the world will know his guilt and my shame. Ah," she cried, her voice suddenly changing, "I had forgotten. Turn your face away from me, Helen Thurwell, and listen."