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Half a Hero: A Novel, a novel by Anthony Hope |
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Chapter 25. The Truth Too Late |
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_ CHAPTER XXV. THE TRUTH TOO LATE By four o'clock the next afternoon the Club had gathered ample materials for fresh gossip. The formalities attendant on the change of government, the composition of the new Cabinet, the prospects of the election--these alone would have supplied many hours, and besides them, indeed supplanting them temporarily by virtue of an intenser interest, there was the account of the inquest on Benyon's body. Medland had gone to it, almost direct from his final interview with the Governor, and Kilshaw had been there, fresh from a conference with Perry. The inquiry had ended, as was foreseen directly Ned Evans' evidence was forthcoming, in a verdict of murder against Gaspard; but the interest lay in the course of the investigation, not in its issue. Mr. Duncombe, a famous comedian, who was then on tour in New Lindsey and had been made an honorary member of the Club, smacked his lips over the dramatic moment when the ex-Premier, calmly and in a clear voice, had identified the person in the photograph, declared the deceased man to have been Benyon, and very briefly stated how he had been connected with him in old days. "The lady," he said, "is Mrs. Benyon. The other figure is that of myself. I had not seen the deceased for many years." "You were not on terms with him?" asked the coroner, who, in common with half the listeners, had known the lady as Mrs. Medland. "No," said Mr. Medland; "I lost sight of him." "You did not hear from--from any one about him?" "No." He gave the dates when he had last seen Benyon in old days. Asked whether he had communicated with him between that date and the dead man's reappearance, he answered, "Once, about four years ago. I wrote to tell him of that lady's death," and he pointed again to the picture, and went on to tell the details of Benyon's subsequent application to him for a post under Government. "You refused it?" he was asked. "Yes, I refused it. I spoke to him once again, when we met on a social occasion. We had a sort of dispute then. I never saw him again to speak to." "It was all done," said Mr. Duncombe, describing the scene, "in a repressed way that was very effective--to a house that knew the circumstances most effective. And the other fellow--Kilshaw--he gave some sport too. The coroner (they told me he was one of Medland's men, and I noticed he spared Medland all he could) was inclined to be a bit down on Kilshaw. Kilshaw was cool and handy in his answers, but, Lord love you! his game came out pretty plain. A monkey! You don't give a man a monkey unless there's value received! So people saw, and Mr. Kilshaw looked a bit uncomfortable when he caught Medland's eye. He looked at him like that," and Mr. Duncombe assumed the finest wronged-hero glance in his repertory. "Oh, come, old chap, I bet he didn't," observed Captain Heseltine. "We've seen him, you know." Duncombe laughed good-humouredly. "At any rate he made Kilshaw look a little green, and some of the people behind called out 'Shame!' and got themselves sat upon. Then they had Medland up again and twisted him a bit about his acquaintance with Gaspard; but the coroner didn't seem to think there was anything in it, and they found murder against Gaspard, and rang down the curtain. And when we got outside there was a bit of a rumpus. They hooted Kilshaw and cheered Medland, and yelled like mad when a dashed pretty girl drove up in a pony-cart and carried him off. Altogether it wasn't half bad." "Glad you enjoyed yourself," observed Captain Heseltine. "If it amuses strangers to see our leading celebrities mixed up in a murder and other distressing affairs, it's the least we can do to see that they get it." The Captain's facetiousness fell on unappreciative ears. Most of Mr. Duncombe's audience were too alive to the serious side of the matter to enjoy it. To them it was another and a very striking scene in the fight which had long gone on between Medland and Kilshaw, and had taken a fresh and fiercer impetus from the well-remembered day when Medland had spoken his words about Kilshaw and his race-horses. Nobody doubted that Kilshaw had kept this man Benyon, or Benham, as a secret weapon, and that the murder had only made the disclosure come earlier. Kilshaw's reputation suffered somewhat in the minds of the scrupulous, but his partisans would hear of no condemnation. They said, as he had said, that in dealing with a man like Medland it would have been folly not to use the weapons fate, or the foe himself by his own misdeeds, offered. As for the disapprobation of the Kirton mob, they held that in high scorn. "They'd cheer burglary, if Medland did it," said one. "Well, he wants to, pretty nearly," added a capitalist. "But the country will take a very different view. Puttock'll rub it into all his people: _they_'ll not vote for him. What do you say, Coxon?" "I think we shall beat him badly," said that gentleman, as he rose and went out. Captain Heseltine soon followed, and was surprised to see Coxon's figure just ahead of him as he entered the gates of Government House. "Hang the fellow! What does he want here?" asked the Captain. Mr. Coxon asked for Lady Eynesford. When he entered, she rose with a newspaper in her hand. "What a shocking, shameful thing this is!" she said. "What a blessing it is that the Government was beaten!" Coxon acquiesced in both these opinions. "I never thought well of him," continued the lady. "Now everybody sees him in his true colours. And it's you we have chiefly to thank for our deliverance." Coxon murmured a modest depreciation of his services, and said, "I hope Miss Derosne is well?" Something in his tones brought to his hostess one of those swift fits of repentance that were apt to wait for her whenever she allowed herself to treat this visitor with friendliness. He was so very prompt in responding! "She is not very well," she answered, rather coldly. "I--I hope I shall have the pleasure of seeing her?" Mr. Coxon's wishes were fulfilled to the moment. The door opened and Alicia came in. On seeing him she stopped. "Come in, Alicia," said Lady Eynesford. "Here's Mr. Coxon come to be congratulated." Coxon stood up with a propitiatory smile. "How do you do, Mr. Coxon?" said Alicia, giving him a limp hand. "Shall I ring for tea, Mary?" "They'll bring it. You haven't wished him joy." "Oh, are you in the new Ministry?" "I have that honour, Miss Derosne. I hope you are on our side?" "I don't quite know which side you are on--now," observed Alicia, in slow but distinct tones. Coxon grew red. "I--I have joined Sir Robert Perry's Ministry," he answered. "Of course he has, Alicia," interposed Lady Eynesford hastily. Alicia seated herself on the sofa, remarking as she did so, "Well, you do change a good deal, don't you?" "Really, Miss Derosne," he stammered, "I don't understand you." "Oh, I only mean that you were first with Sir Robert, then with Mr. Medland, and now with Sir Robert again! And presently with Mr. Medland again, I suppose?" "She doesn't appreciate the political reasons," began Lady Eynesford, with troubled brow and smiling lips; but Coxon, frowning angrily, broke in, "Not the last, I promise you, anyhow, Miss Derosne." "What, you think he's finally beaten then?" "That's not the question. Beaten or not, he is discredited, and no respectable man would act with him." "We needn't discuss--" began Lady Eynesford again, but this time Alicia was the interrupter. She spoke in a cold, hard way, very unlike her own. "If he won, you would all be at his feet." Coxon was justified in being angry at her almost savage scorn of him; regardless of anything except his wrong, he struck back the sharpest blow he could. "I know some people are very ready to be at his feet," he said, with a sneering smile. His shaft hit the mark. Alicia flushed and sat speechless. A glance at Lady Eynesford's face told him the scene had lasted too long: he rose and took his leave, paying Alicia the homage of a bow, but not seeking her hand. She took no notice of his salute, and Lady Eynesford only gasped "Good-bye." The two sat silent for some moments after he had gone; then Lady Eynesford remarked, "Were you mad, Alicia? See what you laid yourself open to! Oh, of course a gentleman wouldn't have said it, but you yourself didn't treat him as if he was a gentleman. Really, I can make a great deal of allowance for him. Your manner was inexcusable." Alicia did not attempt to defend herself. "You are out of temper," continued her sister-in-law, "and you choose to hit the first person within reach; if you can do that you care nothing for my dignity or your own self-respect. You parade your--your interest in this man----" "I shall never speak to him again." "I'm glad to hear it, and, if you come into my drawing-room, I will thank you to behave yourself properly and be civil to my guests," and Lady Eynesford walked out of the room. Alicia huddled herself in a heap on the sofa, turning her face to the wall. She felt Lady Eynesford's scornful rebuke like the stroke of a whip. She had descended to a vulgar wrangle, and had been worsted in it: the one thing of all which it concerned her to hide had by her own act been opened to the jeer of a stranger; she had violated every rule of good breeding and self-respect. No words--not even Lady Eynesford's--were too strong to describe what she had done. Yet she could not help it; she could not hear a creature like that abuse or condemn a man like Medland--though all that he had said she had said, and more, to Medland himself. She was too miserable to think; she lay with closed eyes and parted lips, breathing quickly, and restlessly moving her limbs in that strange physical discomfort which great unhappiness brings with it. A footstep roused her; she sat up, hurriedly smoothing her hair and clutching at a book that lay on the table by her. The intruder was her brother, and fortunately he was too intent on the tidings he brought to notice her confusion. "Great news, Al!" he cried. "They've offered me Ireland. We shall start home in a month." "Home in a month?" she echoed. "Yes. Splendid, isn't it?" "You're pleased, Willie?" The Governor was very pleased. He liked the promotion, he liked going home; and finally, pleasant as his stay in New Lindsey had been on the whole, there were features in the present position which made him not sorry to depart. "I shall just see the elections through, and Perry well started--at least, I suppose it'll be Perry--and then we'll be off. Shan't you be glad to see the old home again, Al?" "It's so sudden," she said. "I shall be sorry to leave here." "Oh, so shall I--very sorry to leave some of the people too. Still, it's a good thing. Where's Eleanor? I must tell her. I say, Dick gets here to-morrow." "Oh, I'm so glad." The Governor hurried out again, and Alicia returned to the sofa. The knot of her troubles had been rudely cut. Perhaps this summary ending was best. She herself would not, she knew, have had the strength to tear herself away from that place, but if fate tore her--perhaps well and good. Nothing but unhappiness waited there for her; it seemed to her that nothing but unhappiness waited anywhere now; but at least, over at home, she would not have to fear the discovery of her secret, the secret she herself kept so badly, nor to endure the torture of gossip, hints, and clumsy pity. No one, over at home, would think of Medland; they might just know his name, might perhaps have heard him rumoured for a dangerous man and a vexatious opponent of good Sir Robert. Certainly they would never think of him as the cause of bruising of heart to a young lady in fashionable society. So he would pass out of her life; she would leave him to his busy, strenuous, happy-unhappy life, so full of triumphs and defeats, of ups and downs, of the love of many and the hate of many. Perhaps she, like the rest, would read his name in the _Times_ now and then, unless indeed he were utterly vanquished. No, he was not finally beaten. Of that she was sure. His name would be read often in cold print, but the glow of the life he lived would be henceforth unknown to her. She would go back to the old world and the old circle of it. What would happen after that she was too listless to think. It was summed up in negations; and these again melted into one great want, the absence of the man to whom her imagination and her heart blindly and obstinately clung. Lady Eynesford had left her newspaper, and Alicia found her hand upon it. Taking it up, she read Medland's evidence at the inquest. A sudden revulsion of feeling seized her. Was this the man she was dreaming about, a man who calmly, coolly, as though caring nothing, told that story in the face of all the world? Was she never to get rid of the spell he had cast on her before she knew what he really was? For a man like this she had sacrificed her self-respect, bandied insults with a vulgar upstart, and brought on her head a reproach more fitting for an ill-mannered child. She threw the paper from her and rose to her feet. She would think no more of him; he might be what he would; he was no fit subject for her thoughts, and he and the place where he lived and all this wretched country deserved nothing better than to be forgotten, resolutely, utterly, soon. "I am very sorry, Mary," she was saying, ten minutes later; "I deserved all you said. I don't know what foolishness possessed me. See, I have written and apologised to Mr. Coxon." And Lady Eynesford kissed her and thanked heaven that they would soon have done with Mr. Coxon and--all the rest. _ |
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