Part 35 (2/2)
Once or twice she felt inclined to laugh at herself for attaching so much importance to a mere newspaper report which seemed to contain nothing to connect it with the persons in whom she was interested, nevertheless she felt convinced that no clue was too small or insignificant for her to investigate. One discovery, amazing yet incomprehensible, she had already made, and it had whetted her desire to know the whole truth in order that her revenge might be more complete.
Egerton returned shortly afterwards. Handing her a bag of burnt almonds of a kind for which she had a particular weakness, he expressed a hope that she had not been dull, and quickly prepared to resume his work.
With eyes sparkling like those of a spoiled child, she tasted the almonds, and gave him one, then, flinging aside her wrap, lay again upon the divan before him, laughing, and crunching her sweets.
The artist was in a mood even more joyful than before he went out, the cause being that he had been given commission for a portrait that was at once easy and lucrative, a fact which he triumphantly announced to his model, and upon which she congratulated him.
In November the light in London grows yellow early, and before four o'clock the artist had to lay down his palette for the day. Tea was brought in a few minutes later, and the pair sat _tete-a-tete_ before the blazing fire, Dolly listening to the painter's technical description of the picture that he had been commissioned to execute.
CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.
WITHOUT THE QUEEN'S PROCTOR.
The last act of a matrimonial drama was being watched attentively by six rows of eager spectators.
Already the gas had been lit, for the dull yellow light of the wintry London moon was insufficient to illuminate the sombre Court. Upon the bench, at the rear of which hung a large square board covered with dark-blue cloth and bearing a golden anchor, the judge sat--grave, silent, almost statuesque. The public who filled the tiers of seats before him listened intently to every word of the story of a woman's faithlessness, which counsel was relating. It was an undefended, and therefore not an unusually interesting case. Nevertheless, the Divorce Court has an attraction for the curious, and is nearly always crowded, even when there are scarcely a dozen people in any of the Queen's Bench or Chancery Divisions. The very word divorce is sufficient to interest some, and for the novelty of the thing they desire to witness the procedure by which husband and wife are disunited.
Perhaps such curiosity is pardonable. It certainly is more excusable than the ignominious conduct of some _soi-disant_ ladies, who consider it good form to attend a Criminal Court where a woman is indicted for murder, and there watch and comment audibly, and with heartless inhumanity, upon the agonies of their wretched sister who is being tried for her life. Such scenes at recent trials of unfortunate women have been a scandal to our civilisation.
In the Divorce Court, however, it is different. The surroundings are more refined. The _denouement_ of the marriage drama there enacted frequently develops into broad comedy before the curtain is rung down by the judicial decision. Even there, however, women gloat over the stories of the domestic woe of another woman, and ridicule the deceived husband with a cool indifference that is astounding; they are apparently quite unimpressed by the gravity of the question at issue.
The President had already disposed of half a dozen undefended suits, when the case of Willoughby _versus_ Willoughby and Lapasque had been called on.
”Pardon me, Mr. Grover. My attention was diverted for the moment, and I did not catch your opening sentences,” the judge was saying to counsel for the pet.i.tioner.
”The facts of the case before you, m'lord, are briefly these,” exclaimed the barrister, recommencing. ”The pet.i.tioner, Captain Willoughby, late of the 10th Hussars, married the respondent, a French subject, at St.
Mary Abbot's, Kensington, in June, 1884. The parties lived happily at Brighton, Leeds, Toulon, and other places until about a year had elapsed, when frequent quarrels arose. The pet.i.tioner discovered that his wife was carrying on an intrigue with a wealthy young man named Arthur Kingscote, with whom she had been acquainted before marriage.
This led to an encounter between the two men at a Manchester hotel, with the result that my client was severely injured in the head, in consequence of which pet.i.tioner took proceedings against Kingscote, who was fined at the Manchester Police Court for the a.s.sault. This apparently incensed the respondent, and quarrels became of more frequent occurrence, until one day, while living at San Remo, Mrs. Willoughby left her home unexpectedly, and never returned. Eventually, after a long series of inquiries, the pet.i.tioner found that his wife was living at Nice, and that she had formed a _liaison_ with the co-respondent, Gustava Lapasque, who is one of the officials connected with the Casino at Monte Carlo. The evidence I shall call before you, m'lord, will prove the latter part of my statement; and as I understand there is no one present representing either respondent or co-respondent, I shall ask your lords.h.i.+p to p.r.o.nounce the decree usual in such a case.”
The captain having briefly borne out the statement of his counsel, the latter turned to the usher, saying--
”Call Giovanni Moretti, please.”
In a few minutes a dapper and rather well-dressed Italian stepped into the witness-box.
”What are you, Signore Moretti?” asked Mr. Grover, when the witness had been sworn and his name taken.
”Head waiter at the Hotel Victoria, Nice,” he replied in broken English.
”Do you recognise this lady?” counsel asked, handing up a cabinet photograph of Valerie.
”Yes,” he said, taking a long glance at it. ”The lady is Madame Lapasque.”
”And this photograph?” continued Mr. Grover, handing him another.
”Monsieur Lapasque. They both stayed at our hotel for nearly three months the summer before last. They came in July and left in October.”
”During those months would you have many visitors at your hotel?”
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