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Nobody, a novel by Louis Joseph Vance |
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Chapter 10. Legerdemain |
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_ CHAPTER X. LEGERDEMAIN With a mind half distracted, the battlefield of a dozen unhappy emotions of which the most coherent were seething self-reproach and frantic irritation with Trego (why must it have been he, of all men?) Sally inconsiderately left the two to conclude their quarrel without an audience--took to her heels incontinently and sped like a hunted shadow across the open lawn. She flung through the side door and left it wide, stumbled blindly up-stairs to her bedchamber door, and shut this last behind her with no anticipation so fond as that of solitude and freedom to cry her eyes out. But she had no more than turned from the door toward her bed, in the same movement shrugging off her black cloak and letting it fall regardless to the floor, when she became aware that solitude was no more in that room, that she shared it with an alien Presence--a shape of misty pallor, filling the armchair, silhouetted vaguely against the moonlight rectangle of the window. And she faltered and stopped stock-still, with a strangled whimper, due in part to sheer surprise, but mostly to semi-superstitious dread. The Presence did not move; but she was frightfully aware of the fixed regard of its coldly hostile eyes. "Who are you?" she demanded in a choking whisper. "What are you doing here? What do you want?" "Where have you been?" the Presence retorted in a level voice instantly identified as that of Mrs. Standish. "What have you been doing"--a spectral arm gestured vaguely toward the terrace--"out there?" Sally took firm hold of herself and mustered all her wit against this emergency. "I went out," she said slowly, "because I couldn't sleep, and--everything seemed so lovely. . . ." "Dressed like that!" Profound scorn informed this comment. The girl writhed, but held herself well in hand. "It was so late," she explained, "I didn't think it possible there'd be anybody else about." "Of course you didn't." The woman's tone was saturated with hateful innuendo. "On the other hand, you soon discovered your mistake, didn't you?" Sally muttered a sullen "Yes . . ." "You're wise not to lie I to me," her patroness remarked with just a suspicion of satisfaction. "I knew, you see. I've been sitting here, waiting, the better part of an hour, listening to you two bickering behind the hedge. You little fool!" Sally said nothing. Her mood was all obsessed now with the conviction that this was the end to her life of a moth. An end to everything; come morning and she must be cast forth in disgrace, to go back to . . . She choked upon an importunate sob and dug nails into the palms of her hands. "Who was the man?" Mrs. Standish pursued inexorably. Then she didn't know! "Does it matter?" Sally fenced. "Certainly. I insist upon knowing. Remember your position here--and mine. I have assumed responsibility for you; but I cannot permit you to make me answerable for the antics of a man-crazy woman. If you can't behave yourself and refrain from annoying my aunt's guests, you must go. I thought you understood that." "Of course," the girl muttered. "You didn't think I expected anything else, did you?" "Who was the man you followed out there?" The calculated offensiveness of this was balanced by its sudden revelation to Sally's mind of the fact that Mrs. Standish didn't know there had been two men. It was, however, true that the window did not command a view of the approach to the side door. "Are you going to tell me?" "Please, Mrs. Standish, I'd rather not." "Think again, my girl, and don't forget the circumstances under which I was persuaded, against my better judgment, to introduce you here." "What do you mean?" "Have you forgotten you were caught in the act of burglarising my house--that I first saw you wearing clothes stolen from me? You told a story, but how do I know it was true? You may well have been an accomplice of the ruffian who nearly killed my brother." "That's hardly likely, is it?" "How am I to judge? You may have quarrelled and turned on him in revenge. Judged by your conduct here, I'm sure you're capable of anything. Or you may have thought you saw a way to win greater profit by aiding my brother." "That's all nonsense," Sally retorted hotly, "and you know it." If dismissal from Gosnold House were inevitable, then there was no reason why she should not call her soul her own. A pause was filled by the dramatic effect of Mrs. Standish nobly holding her temper in leash. "When are you going to answer my question?" Sally was dumb. "Was it--that man you went out there to meet--" "I didn't go to meet anybody. It was an accident." "So you say. Was it some one of the guests here?" Silence was all the answer. "If you persist in your present attitude, remembering your dubious history, I have every right to take it for granted you went to meet an accomplice in crime--" "Oh, rot!" Sally interjected impatiently. And then, encouraged by consciousness of her audacity, she let her temper run away with her for an instant. "All that's no good," she declared forcibly, "and you know it. If you mean to speak to Mrs. Gosnold about me in the morning, and have me sent away merely because I've had an unpleasant experience and refuse to discuss it with you--when it's none of your affair--why, I can't stop you. But I'm not a child, to be bullied and browbeaten, and I'm certainly not going to humour your curiosity about my private business. And that's flat. Now run and tell, if you really must--but you won't." "Oh-indeed?" Mrs. Standish rose with vast dignity. "And why won't I, if you please?" "Because you won't dare risk that insurance money, for one thing--" "So you think you can blackmail--" "Call it anything you like," Sally flashed defiantly. "Only bear in mind, I'm not going to submit tamely and be sent away in disgrace, like a kitchen-maid. I'll go, right enough--you don't need to worry about that--but I'll go on my own excuse. If you tell on me, I'll tell on you, and I'll tell everything I know, too." "And what, please," the woman purred dangerously, "do you think you know--?" "What about your signalling that yacht just now?" It was shot at a venture; she had no real knowledge that the lighted window had been that of Mrs. Standish's bedroom; but it was just possible, and she chanced it, and it told, though she was not yet to know that with any certainty. "What are you talking about?" Mrs. Standish hesitated with a hand on the door-knob. "You know well enough. I saw what I saw. People don't do things like that unless there's something secret about it, something they don't want known." "I think you must be out of your head," the woman responded with crushing hauteur. "I haven't the slightest notion what you mean, and you needn't trouble to enlighten me. I don't in the least care. But you may sleep on this--that your insolence shall be properly rewarded as soon as I can see my aunt in the morning. Good night." With a defiant sniff that covered a spirit cringing in consternation, Sally turned her back and threw herself angrily into a chair. But the sound that she had expected of the door closing did not come, and after a minute she looked round to find Mrs. Standish still at pause upon the threshold. "Oh," said Sally, with an impertinent assumption of remedying an oversight, "good night, I'm sure!" Instead of audible reply, the woman shut the door and turned back to the middle of the room. "I don't wish to be unjust," she said quietly. "I am quick-tempered, just as you are, but I always try to be fair in the end. Perhaps I was unpleasant and too exacting just now; but, you must admit, I really know little or nothing about you, and have every right to watch you closely." She paused, as if expecting an answer; but before Sally could overcome her astonishment she resumed in the same level, reasonable tone: "I was greatly distressed when I came here and found you had gone out at this hour of the night: certainly, you must allow, a queer proceeding on the part of a young woman in your position. And when you come back, after a long talk with a strange man in the shelter of a hedge, and refuse to give an account of yourself, I confess you exasperated me. At the same time, accidents do happen; and it's true you have rights of privacy that even I must respect--to whom you owe a great deal, you must admit. And now I think I've gone as far toward making amends as even you could ask." Astonishment and incredulity yielded to penitence. Sally sat up with a little gesture of contrition and appeal--an outflung hand instantly withdrawn; this was not a woman whose susceptibilities were to be touched by such means; even now, beneath her ostensible generosity, one divined a nature cold and little placable. Then, with a remorseful cry, "Oh, I'm sorry!" the girl yielded to the tension of overwrought nerves and broke down completely, crushed, confounded, shaken by spasms of silent sobbing. In the course of this she was conscious of the touch of a hand on her shoulder; no more than that. And when she had spent herself in tears and grew more calm, it was to find Mrs. Standish seated opposite her and waiting patiently; at all events with a fair imitation of that virtue. "Please," Sally begged between gulps, "please forgive me. I'm so excited and unstrung--" "I quite understand. There--compose yourself." "If you still wish me to--if you insist--of course I'll tell you--" "No." It cost the other woman an effort of renunciation, but she was steadfast to her secret purpose. "Forget that. It doesn't matter. I had no right to ask, and really do not care to know. But if you're quite able to pay attention, I'd like to consult with you--about what got me out of bed and brought me here this morning." "I don't understand." "Of course you don't. But it has been on my nerves all evening, until I felt as if I must talk to somebody--and you are the only one I can trust." Sally stared in a state of dumb bewilderment that eclipsed all she had experienced before. Truly the world was topsyturvy this madcap night! What under the moon now? "You know how worried I've been about that affair in town. Men are so inconsiderate; simply because he knew how things were going--and I presumed they must have been going well--Walter left me without a word till this evening. Then he telegraphed he'd be here to-morrow afternoon and that everything was all right; but that he is bringing with him one of the adjusters for the burglar-insurance people--a detective, I presume, the man is, really--and I'll have to answer some questions before we can collect the money to cover my loss." "A detective!" "Adjuster is a much more pleasant name. And I know it's merely a matter of formality, and I oughtn't to be silly about it, but I can't help it. I've been on edge ever since, fretting for fear something would come out about that case that Walter did bring me from the safe, you remember. If that were found--as it might be, if they ask me to produce what jewelry I have with me--well, I simply can't think what to do." "Why not hide the case?" "That's just it. But where? I can't imagine. Of course I can't very well smuggle it out of the house myself. So I thought perhaps you . . . At any rate, I've brought it to you." "To me?" "Don't be alarmed. Nobody will ever suspect you of any connection whatever with the affair. It'll be perfectly safe here, in your keeping, until you find a way to dispose of it. To-morrow night, for instance, as soon as it's dark, you might take it down to the shore, put a stone in it, and throw it out into the water. Or bury it in the sand. Anything. Nobody will pay any attention if you excuse yourself to go to your room or out to the terrace for half an hour. But I--well, you must see. I've hidden the case under your pillow. You may find some better place for it--but then you haven't a maid to hoodwink. I declare it has nearly driven me mad, these last few days, trying to keep the thing out of Ellen's sight. She's such a nosy, prying creature." Mrs. Standish rose. "You will do this for me, won't you? I was sure I could depend on you. And--let us forget our little misunderstanding. I've forgotten it already." She had left the room before Sally could formulate reasonable protest--reasonable, that is, remembering her burden of obligation to this woman. It was an hour later before she at length settled upon satisfactory concealment for the incriminating jewel-case--in the recess behind a bureau-drawer, where it fitted precisely in the wrappings she did not trouble to remove. In the grey twilight of the dawn at last, she flung herself upon the bed--and fell instantly asleep. _ |
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