Part 40 (1/2)
Then Keene paused, and a dead silence again fell among us.
”Well,” remarked Logan at last. ”You have heard the truth regarding that incident by one who was its eye-witness. Therefore, I will go further and tell you what happened afterwards.”
I looked at the proud woman who had sneered at my love for Lolita, and who was now swaying pale and unsteadily before us, but even then, after these startling revelations, I did not discern with what marvellous cleverness and daring she had schemed to s.h.i.+eld herself at the price of the life of my well-beloved.
CHAPTER THIRTY FOUR.
THE AFFAIR IN SIBBERTON PARK.
”The woman Marie Lejeune quickly developed from the smart ladies' maid of the Comtesse de Martigny, a gay Parisienne, into the shrewdest and cleverest of adventuresses, and aided by the two Italians, made several large and successful coups at Vichy, Aix-les-Bains, and elsewhere,”
continued the man Logan, speaking in the same clear, decisive tones, addressing the Earl. ”I, however, had parted from them, and was conducting an honest business in London, while Mr Keene had left on a shooting expedition in Africa, where he afterwards met you, and I presume gave his name as Smeeton in order that you should not connect him with the person who had been at San Remo that season.
”Until your marriage, the Frenchwoman did not trouble your wife nor Lolita in the least. She waited her time until Lady Marigold had married and was wealthy and you returned to London from your honeymoon in Cairo, when one day she called at Stanchester House, saw the Countess, and by showing her the letter she had written to Atherton succeeded in extracting blackmail from her, a course which she has continued until quite recently. And not only this,” he added, ”but she approached Lolita secretly and made large requests, threatening that if they were not complied with she would denounce her as the murderess of poor Randolph Glover at San Remo! Her ladys.h.i.+p, helpless and terrified, was forced to comply with these demands although entirely innocent of the crime. On the other hand, however, there was some truth in the woman's allegation against Lady Stanchester--who, by the way, believed that Richard Keene was dead--and these facts were confirmed by Wingfield who, previous to being in the employment of Mr Keene, was valet to Major Atherton.
”One day, it appeared that the woman Lejeune, in an interview in which she repeated her usual demands for money, told her of Wingfield's allegations against her and how she could ruin her in your eyes by bringing forward the young valet. The Countess thereupon paid the sum demanded, but from that moment entered into a conspiracy against Wingfield, fearing the revelation he might make concerning her. Her friends.h.i.+p with Atherton had long ago given rise to rumour, and these, she knew, had reached your ears before your marriage. Therefore she was now in fear of both the Frenchwoman and the valet. She knew where Marie Lejeune, Belotto and Ostini were living in London, and in order to free herself gave information to Scotland Yard, who held a warrant from the French police for their arrest. The trio were, however, wary, and fearing arrest rapidly changed their place of abode, with the result that the police were baffled.”
”And all this time Lolita was being blackmailed?” asked the Earl.
”Yes,” answered my love faintly. ”It is true, George, all this--every word of it.”
”Matters continued thus for two years, until last August, when a tragedy occurred,” Logan went on. ”The young valet, Wingfield, whose love for Lady Lolita had now cooled and who had told her ladys.h.i.+p of his lowly station and of how he had been in the service of Major Atherton, had some time before got into low water, and Lady Lolita, in order to a.s.sist him, had first given him money and then, when her private resources were drained by the woman Lejeune's demands, had given him articles of jewellery, which he sold or p.a.w.ned. The young man's opinion regarding the death of Randolph Glover had changed, for he explained to her ladys.h.i.+p how he had discovered in San Remo that the unfortunate young officer had fallen a prey to those harpies, and that the manoeuvre had been carried out and the charge laid against her ladys.h.i.+p in order to extract blackmail. Lady Lolita had then entered into negotiations with young Wingfield to effect her release from the bondage in which the Frenchwoman held her, and these continued for some months, until that fateful night in August. Of what occurred then her ladys.h.i.+p herself can best explain to us.”
And, pausing, he turned to my love to allow her to tell us with her own lips.
For a few moments she remained pale and silent. Her great blue eyes met mine, and then looking me straight in the face she said--
”What Mr Logan has told you is perfectly correct. The poor young man was working in my interests, and I had written him a cipher letter making an appointment to meet me in the park at a spot where we had met several times previously, as I knew, secretly watching the Frenchwoman and her accomplices in London as he was, he had something to report to me. That afternoon, however, as I drove through the village I saw at the window of the Stanchester Arms the one man whom I feared would denounce me--the man who had been witness of the affair at San Remo, and who had openly expressed belief in my guilt--Richard Keene. He had come to Sibberton evidently to make inquiries about me. By his presence there, I knew he meant mischief.
”That same evening I also received a secret visit from Marie Lejeune.
Still I kept the appointment and walked across the park by a circuitous route, in order that none of the servants should recognise me. I knew I had plenty of time by the chiming of the stable clock, therefore I did not hurry. But when I reached the hollow I found he was not there, and had waited for a moment in expectation, when of a sudden I saw something in the darkness lying close to me. I bent and to my horror discovered that it was the young man Wingfield--dead! I screamed and rushed away, not knowing whither I went, but scarcely had I gone a few yards when I ran right into the arms of Mr Logan. I had, in my horror, picked up the knife lying at the dead man's side, a long, thin Italian dagger, and when he met me I still held it in my hand. That very fact, of which I was unconscious at the moment, convinced him of my guilt. Thus on a second occasion was I suspected of a crime of which I was innocent. Of what occurred afterwards I have little recollection. I only know that Mr Logan took the knife from my hand, and that for hours we wandered, he trying to obtain from me the true facts against Marigold which the dead man had alleged. Then at dawn we parted, and I was met by Mr Woodhouse, who set about swiftly to remove every piece of evidence that might convict me of the mysterious crime. Ah!” she cried, ”G.o.d alone knows how much I have suffered--how Marie Lejeune and her accomplices have tortured me.”
”I admit,” declared Logan frankly, ”that I believed Lady Lolita to be guilty. The horror at finding the dead man and the knowledge that the great intrigue was still in progress produced upon her an effect which I unfortunately mistook for guilt. You must first know that on the night in question, being again a.s.sociated with Marie Lejeune, I had accompanied her to Sibberton, whither she went at Lady Lolita's request.
Her ladys.h.i.+p saw her privately, while I awaited her in the `Mermaid'
over at Geddington. Marie had, by secret means, learnt of Lolita's intention to meet Hugh Wingfield in the park that night, therefore on leaving the Hall she awaited in order to watch and obtain knowledge of the negotiations against her which she knew were in progress between the valet and her ladys.h.i.+p, while I, surprised at her long absence, strolled across to the park in order to meet her on her return, as the way was dark and lonely.
”According to the statement she afterwards made to me, it appears that she watched the young valet's arrival. He stood listening for about five minutes, when suddenly a woman, whom by her ermine cloak she knew was Lady Lolita, approached in the gloom, but as the young man uttered her name and put his hand out to welcome her, she stepped nimbly past him and struck him full in the back--a fatal blow. It was but the work of a single instant. `Ah! my lady!' he gasped, clutching at her cloak.
`You--you've killed me!' And he sank upon the ground and expired. At that instant Marie Lejeune stepped from her hiding-place and the two women met face to face. Then Marie was staggered to discover that the woman who wore Lady Lolita's cloak was not Lady Lolita herself--but that woman standing there!” he exclaimed, pointing to the Countess, ”Lady Stanchester!”
”Lady Stanchester!” we all gasped in one breath, while the wretched woman thus denounced stood before us, swaying and shrinking from our gaze.
”But surely she was still at Aix-les-Bains!” I cried.
”No,” he declared. ”She had returned to London on the previous day, and was living at Burton's boarding-house, in Hereford Road, Bayswater, under the name of Mrs Frith. That very morning she had seen the young valet in Westbourne Grove, and had followed him down to Sibberton. As soon as she saw him take a ticket for Kettering she knew of his intention to meet Lady Lolita clandestinely, therefore she saw in that her opportunity to deal him a fatal blow, and thus prevent any ugly revelation regarding her past.”
”But the cloak?” I asked.
”Lady Lolita had lent it to her just before her departure for Aix, and she wore it on that night.” Then I saw how, by my neglecting to tell Lolita of the finding of the cloak by the gamekeeper Jacobs, I had myself withheld the truth from her! Had she known that the cloak she had lent Marigold had been found torn and cast aside, she would of course have suspected the ident.i.ty of the a.s.sa.s.sin.