Part 44 (1/2)
”Help!” she shrieked.
Upon her throat she felt a hot hand; she saw the heavy vase uplifted above her.
”Take that!” he cried, as he brought it down upon her head with a crus.h.i.+ng blow, and she fell senseless upon the stone pavement.
For a second or two he looked at her, wondering if she were dead. Then tearing off his surplice, he rushed into the vestry, and, putting on his coat and hat, fled from the church, locking the door after him.
The upturned face of the prostrate girl was calm and deathlike. She lay motionless upon the cold grey flags. The sun shone out again, and the coloured light, streaming from the stained-gla.s.s window, fell full upon her handsome features. But its warmth did not rouse her; she gave no sign of life.
Late in the afternoon, however, she struggled back to consciousness, and sat for a long time on the pulpit steps trying to calm herself and decide how to act.
The excruciating pain in her head would not allow her thoughts to shape sufficiently, so she made a tour of the building to discover some mode of egress. It was not long before she found that in one of the main doors the key had been left, and, unlocking it, she stepped out into the bright, warm afternoon with a feeling that a strange, oppressive weight had suddenly clouded her brain.
That evening the city clerks, small shopkeepers, with their wives and relations, who comprise the majority of the congregation of St.
Barnabas, Camberwell, were agog when it transpired that their popular spiritual guide, the Rev. Hubert Holt, had suddenly thrown up his curacy. The vicar took the service, and at the conclusion announced with regret that his a.s.sistant had written to him that afternoon resigning his appointment, stating that a pressing engagement made it imperative that he should leave England at once. He gave no reason, but when the vicar sent round to his lodgings to request him to call and wish him adieu, it was discovered that he had packed a few things hurriedly, and already departed.
Then a local sensation was produced in the district between Denmark Hill and Camberwell Gate, and the devout paris.h.i.+oners prayed for the preservation and well-being of their popular but absent curate.
CHAPTER TWENTY SEVEN.
SILKEN SACKCLOTH.
The certificate of death is all we require.
”I have it here.”
”Why, how did you obtain it?”
”By a most fortunate circ.u.mstance. We saw one day, in the _Independance Belge_, that an unknown Englishman, apparently a gentleman, had died at the Hotel du Nord at Antwerp. Pierre at once suggested that he might identify him as Hugh Trethowen. He went to Antwerp and did so. The man was buried as my husband, and here is the certificate.”
”A very smart stroke of business--very smart. But--er--don't talk quite so plainly; you--”
”What do you mean? Surely you have no qualm of conscience? The payment we agreed upon ought to counteract all that.”
”Of course. Nevertheless, it is unnecessary to refer to the strategy too frequently. As long as we have an indisputable death certificate in the name of Hugh Trethowen, and you have your marriage certificate as his wife, there will not be the slightest difficulty.”
”I know that. To me you appear afraid lest we should be exposed.”
”You need not upbraid me for exercising due caution. The success of the plan you have been so long maturing depends upon it. Supposing we were unable to prove the will, in what position should we be?”
”In an awkward one--decidedly awkward. But why speak of failure when we are bound to succeed?”
”Are you quite sure the--er--dead man will never trouble us?”
”Positive. A sentence of fifteen years in New Caledonia means certain death. He might just as well have been buried at once, poor devil!”
This confidential conversation took place in Mr. Bernard Graham's gloomy private office in Devereux Court. The old solicitor, with a serious, intense expression upon his countenance, was sitting at his littered writing-table with a short legal doc.u.ment, covering only half of the sheet of foolscap, spread out upon his blotting-pad. Its purport was that the testator, Hugh Trethowen, left all he possessed to his ”dear wife, Valerie,” and the date of the signatures showed that it had been completed only a few days before they left Coombe for Paris.
In the client's chair, opposite her legal adviser, sat Valerie. Attired in deep mourning, that became her well, her thin black veil scarcely hid the anxious expression upon her face. a.s.suming her part with an actress's regard to detail, she did not overlook the fact that pallor was becoming to a widow; therefore, since she had put on the garments of sorrow, she had refrained from adding those little touches of carmine to her cheeks which she knew always enhanced her beauty. Neither her face nor voice betrayed signs of nervousness. With the steady, dogged perseverance of the inveterate gambler she had been playing for heavy stakes, and now, at the last throw of the dice, she had determined to win.