The little dingy courtroom had never witnessed such a crowd before as
the one that packed it from the justice's desk to the door, and even
out into the hall and down the dirty steps.
Women, men and even little children, had come to see Miss Evelyn
Chandler, of whom they had read in social circles, and many of them
seen, under arrest!
Her reception-dress was covered by the long cloak that had concealed
her gown when she started upon that memorable visit to the rooms of Ben
Mauprat upon that fatal night.
A pair of long, black gloves covered her hands, and a black hat with
nodding plumes shaded her lovely face.
She leaned upon the arm of Lynde Pyne as she entered, pale, but
composed, while he was ghastly. Immediately behind her was Luis
Kingsley, haggard and gray of countenance, while Leonie, followed by a
policeman, brought up the rear.
She still wore her masculine garments, but with an air of timidity and
modesty, now that the world knew her sex.
She had scarcely made her appearance than Andrew Pryor leaped forward,
seizing her effusively by the hand.
"You, Neil!" he cried, almost breaking into tears in his delight. "This
is the greatest happiness of my life! How came you here? Who has been
getting you into trouble? I knew that something had happened to you
when you did not come back; but thank the Lord I've found you at last!
How did you happen to be here? Tell me all about it, my boy, and I will
see that you are released at once!"
Leonie's face was crimson.
She could not keep from smiling, while tears dimmed her vision.
"I am afraid that you will find I have deceived you, Mr. Pryor, and
then I shall lose the friendship that I have valued as one of my best
possessions, and I have few."
"You have deceived me?" he exclaimed. "Nonsense! How have you deceived
me? I tell you, it is not possible! What is it that they accuse you of?
My friend Lynde Pyne is here. He is a lawyer and he shall defend you.
Why, he has tried as hard to find you as I have, and seemed even more
interested. Don't be afraid! He will get you out of here soon enough!"
With utmost good nature he patted Leonie upon the shoulder, and allowed
her to take the seat the officer indicated, turning his attention to
that individual.
"What is that boy accused of?" he asked. "He is as innocent as I am!
Never did a wrong thing in his life!"
"That is no boy!" answered the policeman with a short laugh; "that is a
girl."
Mr. Pryor staggered back as though the officer had threatened to arrest
him.
"A girl!" he gasped. "Have you all gone mad? Why, that boy is Neil
Lowell, and he worked for me as my private secretary. He is the best
fellow in existence, and never did a wrong act in his life!"
"She is a girl, for all that!" returned the officer, serenely.
Andrew Pryor sat down very suddenly. He seemed to be utterly overcome
by the intelligence he had received.
His eyes were riveted upon Leonie as though they could never be removed.
Then by degrees he began to put certain circumstances together.
He remembered the refusal to attend the stag supper, and a smile
came to his face; that was followed by many other minor things that
all seemed important now, then his hand came down upon his knee with
peculiar force.
"And Pyne knew it all the time!" he exclaimed, below his breath, with
a firmness that left no room for contradiction. "I see it all now as
clearly as can be. Of course he knew! Well, this beats a novel!"
His reflections were cut short by the opening of court!
There is so great a sameness about such trials that there is little to
tell of the occurrences of the next hour or more.
Leonie was discharged for want of evidence against her, but Evelyn
Chandler and Luis Kingsley were both held to wait the action of the
Grand Jury, the one to answer to the charge of grand larceny, the other
of felonious concealment of a will.
There was great excitement evidenced when Leonard Chandler took the
stand against his adopted daughter, but the questions that were put
to him were few, and answered in a tone that was not audible to those
twenty feet removed from him.
Then there was a murmur of voices when Lynde Pyne asked for bail for
his client, which was strenuously opposed by Leonard Chandler on the
ground that she had demanded it of him, expressing a determination to
leave the state before the trial.
Thereupon the bail was fixed at a figure that Pyne could not cover,
since the will had not yet been admitted to probate, and the money was
not his until it had.
Miss Chandler and Kingsley were therefore placed in the hands of
officers of the court to be conducted back to prison.
"Take courage!" Lynde whispered to her at parting. "What can be done
for you I will do, you may be sure of that. I will procure the bail and
you will be released within a few hours at most."
She had scarcely left his presence than he turned to look for Leonie.
Andrew Pryor was holding her firmly by the hands while she half smiled
into his face.
"You little rascal--I mean witch!" he exclaimed. "Why did you not tell
me of this long ago? Did you feel that you could not trust me? It is
the most extraordinary thing I ever heard of! Where did you get the
information that enabled you to do a man's work?"
"You forget that I was a typewriter for a number of years, and that I
learned a man's business through copying it for him," she answered,
deeply affected by his kindness.
"You are coming right home with me. You shall still be my private
secretary if you are a girl."
"You are so good, sir!"
"Oh, hang it all, I forgot about the fortune you will have now, and
that you will not have need of me any longer. I am half sorry for the
good fortune that robs me of you."
"I am as poor as I was before, Mr. Pryor, and if you will allow me to
return to you, you will save me many hours of distress over what my
future is to be. I am forced to earn my living now as formerly."
"But, my dear, how is that?"
"Changing my male attire for that of a girl will not alter my
circumstances, unfortunately."
"I don't understand it, but come home, and we will talk it over there.
Mrs. Pryor has been just as anxious about you as I have, and will be as
glad to see you. So will the girls, though hanged if I don't believe
they will be disappointed at the change in your sex, for they were
all more than half in love with you. Besides that, you have a cousin
there----"
"And another here, that you will not give an opportunity of speaking
to her," interrupted Pyne. "You must not be so selfish, Mr. Pryor. You
believe me that I am glad to find in you a cousin, do you not, Leonie?
I congratulate you from the bottom of my heart."
She placed her hand in his proffered one without lifting her eyes.
"It is so good of you!" she returned gently. "I realize how hard it
must be for you when you remember that my mother's disgrace is the
first that has ever stained your noble family. Perhaps some day you
will let me tell you the story, and then you may find a little sympathy
for the woman who was driven to the act of which she was guilty to save
her child from starving."
"And my uncle allowed that torture to rest upon his wife? I wonder that
you can look upon one of us, knowing that it was one of our blood that
caused you such suffering!"
"It was not his fault."
"This is not the time to speak of things like those!" Mr. Pryor cut in.
"I am going to take her home with me now, Pyne. You will know where to
find her when you want to see her, and you also know that you will be
always welcome."
They shook hands again and separated.
Andrew Pryor led Leonie, still in her ragged costume, down to his
carriage, placed her inside with old-school courtesy, and gave the
order for "home."
"I can hardly realize it," he exclaimed, when he had closed the door,
"that you are really a girl! What a surprise it will be to Mrs. Pryor
and the girls. And you put on that costume as a sort of private
detective?"
"Oh, no! I put it on because after I discovered Miss Chandler to be
dishonest I was arrested as an accomplice, and in order not to be
forced to tell my story, I ran away. I did it for safety! What I have
discovered about my birth, came to me as the result of accident!"
"A remarkably timely accident! If I can curb my curiosity until we get
home, I must hear all about where you went when you left my house, and
how you happened to be detained. I shall keep you talking for a week."
"There is just one thing that I must do first of all if you will let
me," returned Leonie, almost reverently, "and that is to pay a visit
to Liz. Poor woman! But for her, I might still have been there in that
room surrounded by rats and beaten almost to death by that demon,
Mauprat. I have felt within the last few hours as though the life of
that helpless child of hers had been the price of my freedom and of
Lynde's restoration to his fortune."
"Lynde's restoration?"
"Yes, certainly. And it seems to me that I owe her a debt that never
can be repaid for that, not to speak of her great kindness to me. But
for her I think I should have gone mad."
"Yes, of course you shall pay the visit. That is all right, but what is
this about Lynde's fortune? Surely you know that if you prove yourself
the daughter of Roger Pyne the money is yours."
"The money is not mine, sir. My father never even knew of my existence,
and I have no more right to the money than you have. Surely a man has
the privilege of leaving money that is his where he wishes. But I tell
you this, that right or wrong, I would put my hand in the fire and burn
it off before I touch a cent of it. It was never intended for me, and I
will have nothing to do with it. Please say nothing more about it, but
let this settle it forever!"