THE MIDNIGHT GATHERING
When the train from Rigsworth brought Violet into Euston Station, she
hurried through the barrier and asked an official to direct her to the
nearest post-office. At this instant a slight accident happened which
had a singular bearing on the events of the day. Neil, the valet, who
had driven to Euston just in time to meet the incoming train, had seen
her, and was pressing in close pursuit when he tripped over a luggage
barrow and fell headlong.
He was not much injured, but shaken more than a little, and when he was
able to take up the chase again, Violet had vanished. Hence she was
freed from espionage, and Van Hupfeldt could only curse his useless
emissary. The man Neil certainly did rush about like a whirlwind as soon
as he recovered his breath; but Violet was in the post-office writing to
David, and securely hidden from his ferret eyes.
Oddly enough, the first person she wished to see was Miss Ermyn
L'Estrange. She remembered the actress well, as she had visited her once
(Jenny, the maid, was out on an errand at the time), and it was one of
the many curious discrepancies in the tissue of mingled fact and
fiction which obscured her sister's fate that such a volatile and
talkative woman should have written the curt little note sent at
Hupfeldt's bidding. Violet could not understand the reason, but she saw
a loophole here. The long journey in the train had enabled her to review
the information she possessed with a certain clarity and precision
hitherto absent from her bewildered thoughts. In a word, there were
several marked lines of inquiry, and she was resolved to follow each
separately.
She felt that she had gone the wrong way to work in the first frenzy of
her grief. She was calm now, more skilled in hiding her suspicion, less
prone to jump at conclusions. All unknown to her, the little germ of
passion planted in her heart by David's few words in the summer-house
was governing her whole being. From the timid, irresolute girl, who
clung to unattainable ideals, she was transformed into a woman, ready to
dare anything for the sake of the man she loved, while the mere notion
of marriage with Van Hupfeldt was so loathsome that she was spurred into
the physical need of strenuous action to counteract it.
So it was in a restrained yet business-like mood that she climbed the
stairs leading to Miss L'Estrange's flat and rang the electric bell. The
door was opened by Jenny.
Not all the resources of pert Cockneyism availed that hapless domestic
when she set eyes on Miss Mordaunt. She uttered a helpless little wail
of dismay, and retreated a few steps, as though she half expected the
wonder-stricken young woman to use strong measures with her.
"Well, what is it now?" came her mistress's sharp demand, for in
that small abode there reigned what the Italians call "a delightful
confidence," Jenny's scream and rush being audible in the drawing-room.
"Ow!" stammered Jenny, "it's a young lady, miss."
"A young lady? Is she nameless?"
"No," said Violet, advancing toward the voice; "but your maid seems to
be alarmed by the sight of me. You know me, Miss L'Estrange. I only wish
I had discovered sooner that you employed my sister's servant, Sarah
Gissing."
Ermyn was accustomed to stage situations. She instantly grasped her
part; for she was fresh from the interview with David, and there could
be no doubt that the unmasking of Van Hupfeldt was as settled now as the
third act of the farcical comedy in which she would play the soubrette
that night.
"Sarah Gissing!" she said with a fine scorn. "That is not her name. She
is Jenny--Jenny--blest if I have ever called her anything else. Here,
you! what is your other name?"
"Blaekey, miss," sobbed Jenny, in tears.
"But you said only yesterday that you were Sarah Gissing?" cried Violet.
"Y-yus, miss, an' it wasn't true."
"So you have never seen my sister?"
"No, miss."
"Why did you lie to me so shamelessly?"
"Please, miss, I was pide for it."
"Paid! By Mr. Van Hupfeldt?"
"There is some mistake," broke in Miss L'Estrange, who was a trifle awed
by Violet's quiet dignity. "It was a Mr. Strauss who came here and asked
permission for Jenny to have the day free yesterday in order to give
some evidence he required."
"Are you quite sure it was Mr. Strauss?" asked Violet, turning away from
Jenny as though the sight of her was offensive.
"Positive! I rented, or rather I took your sister's flat from him, and
he has been plaguing my life out ever since about some papers he
imagined I found there."
"But you wrote to me a little while ago," pleaded Violet.
"Strauss is a plausible person," countered the other woman readily. "He
came here and spun such a yarn that I practically wrote at his
dictation."
"There is no mistake this time, I hope."
Miss L'Estrange's color rose, and her red hair troubled her somewhat;
but she answered with an effort: "There has never been any mistake on
my part. Had you come to me in the first instance, and taken me into
your confidence, I would have helped you. But you stormed at me quite
unjustly, Miss Mordaunt, and it is not in human nature to take that
sort of thing lying down, you know."
Then, seeing the sorrow in Violet's eyes, she went on with a real
sympathy: "I wish we had been more candid with each other at first. And
I had nothing whatever to do with Jenny's make-believe of yesterday. The
girl is a first-rate cook, but she can tell lies faster than a dog can
trot."
This poetic simile popped out unawares; but Violet heard the kindly tone
rather than the words.
"I may want you again," she said simply. "May I rely on you if the need
arises?"
"Indeed you may!" was the impulsive reply. "I have wept over your
sister's unhappy fate, Miss Mordaunt, and I always thought Strauss was a
villain. I hope that nice young fellow, David Harcourt, who has been on
his track for months, will catch him one of these days, and give him a
hiding, at the very least."
"Oh, you know Mr. Harcourt?"
And then Ermyn L'Estrange did a thing which ennobled her in her own eyes
for many a day. "Yes," she said. "He found out that I occupied your
sister's flat after her death; so he came to see me, and, if I may
venture to say so, he betrayed an interest in you, Miss Mordaunt, which,
had such a man shown it towards me, would have been deemed a very
pleasing and charming testimony of his regard."
It was only a line out of an old play; but it served, and they kissed
each other when they said "Good-by."
Although Violet was startled at alighting on such ready confirmation of
Van Hupfeldt's duplicity, there was a remarkable brightness in her eye,
a spring-time elasticity in her step, when she emerged into the High-St.
of Chelsea, which had not been visible a little while earlier. In truth,
she felt as a thrush may be supposed to feel after having successfully
dodged the attack of a hawk. Were it not that she was treading the
crowded streets of London she would have sung for sheer joy.
And now, feeling hungry after her long journey, she entered a restaurant
and ate a good meal, which was a sensible thing to do in itself, but
which, in its way, was another tiny factor in the undoing of Van
Hupfeldt, as, thereby, she missed meeting David at Dibbin's office.
When she did ultimately reach that unconscious rendezvous, she found
there the clerk who had given David such interesting information.
This man knew Miss Mordaunt, and had some recollection of the dead
Gwendoline; so he was civil, and assured Violet that his master would
return from Scotland that evening.
"Mr. Dibbin has been at Dundee for some days?" asked Violet.
"Let me see, miss; he went away on the fourth, and this is the ninth;
practically six days, counting the journeys."
"Then he certainly could not have written to me on the seventh from
London?"
The clerk was puzzled. "If you mean that he wasn't in London, then--" he
began.
Violet did not show the man the letter which she had in her pocket.
Perhaps it was best that Dibbin himself should read it first. But she
did say: "He could not have had an interview with a Mr. Van Hupfeldt,
for instance?"
"Now, that is very odd, miss," said the clerk. "That is the very name of
the gentleman who wired instructions to-day for Mr. Dibbin to go at once
to Portsmouth. And, by Jove! begging your pardon, but the telegram came
from your place, Rigsworth, in Warwickshire. I never thought of that
before."
"It doesn't matter," said Violet, sweetly; "I shall endeavor to meet Mr.
Dibbin at King's Cross. And will you please not mention to any one that
I have called here?"
The knowledge that Van Hupfeldt was striving to decoy Dibbin away from
London revealed that the pursuit had begun. For an instant she was
tempted to appeal to David for help. But she had given her word not
to see him, and that was sacred, even in relation to one whom she
considered to be the worst man breathing.
The clerk promised readily enough to observe due discretion anent her
visit. He would have promised nearly anything that such a nice-looking
girl sought of him. Suddenly Violet recollected that the house-agent
might know the whereabouts of the real Sarah Gissing. She asked the
question, and, Dibbin being a man of dockets and pigeon holes, the clerk
found the address for her in half a minute, told her where Chalfont
was, looked up the next train from Baker-St., and sent her on her way
rejoicing.
Violet, like the majority of her charming sex, paid small heed to time,
and, indeed, time frequently returns the compliment to pretty women. It
was five hours ere Dibbin was due at King's Cross, and five hours were
sufficient for almost any undertaking. So she journeyed to Chalfont,
found the genuine Sarah, and was alarmed and reassured at the same time
by the girl nearly fainting away when she set eyes on her.
Here, then, at last, was real news of her Gwen. She could have listened
for hours. The landlady of the little hotel charitably let the two talk
their fill, and sent tea to them in the small parlor where David had met
Sarah. Like David, too, whom Sarah did not forget to describe as "that
nice young gentleman, Mr. Harcourt," Violet outstayed the train time,
and, when she did make an inquiry on this head, it was impossible to
reach King's Cross at six-thirty P.M.
Amid all the tears and poignancy of grief aroused by the recital
of her sister's lonely life and tragic end, there was one strange,
unaccountable feature which stood out boldly. Neither by direct word
nor veiled inference did Sarah Gissing attribute deliberate neglect or
unkindness to Strauss. If anything, her simple story told of a great
love between those two, and there was the evidence of it in Gwendoline's
latest distracted words about him. Of course, had Violet read the
diary, this would have been clear enough; but, in view of the man's
present attitude, this testimony of the servant's was hard to
understand.
At any rate, Violet, sure now beyond the reach of doubt that Van
Hupfeldt was Strauss, and that he was engaged in an incomprehensible
conspiracy, nevertheless felt a sensible softening toward him. Perhaps
her escape from the threatened marriage had something to do with this;
and then, the man seemed to have almost worshiped Gwen.
Assuredly the gods, meaning to destroy Van Hupfeldt, first decided to
make him mad. When he reached Dibbin's office, the clerk recognized him
as Strauss, and was rendered suspicious by his reappearance, after this
long time, within an hour of Violet's call, seeing that the first person
he inquired about was Violet herself. Hence, being of the same mind as
Miss Ermyn L'Estrange as to the secret of success in London life, he
failed to recognize any young lady named Mordaunt as among the list
of Dibbin's visitors that day. Further, when Van Hupfeldt, goaded to
extremities, was fain to confess that it was he who had telegraphed
from Rigsworth, the clerk became obtuse on the matter of his employer's
whereabouts. All he could say definitely was that Dibbin would be in his
office next morning at ten o'clock.
The outcome of these cross purposes, seeing that David was in no hurry
to meet the agent, was that Dibbin met only the clerk at King's Cross,
and had a mysterious story poured into his ear, together with a bag of
gold placed in his hands, as he tackled a chop prior to catching a train
for the home of the Dibbins at Surbiton.
Van Hupfeldt took Mrs. Mordaunt to her old residence at Porchester
Gardens, enjoining her not to say a word to Mrs. Harrod about Violet's
escapade.
That was asking too much of a mother who had endured such
heart-searchings during a day of misery. Not even the glamour of a
wealthy marriage could blind Mrs. Mordaunt to certain traits in his
character which the stress of fear had brought to the surface. She began
to ask herself if, after all, Violet were not right in her dread of the
man. She was afraid of she knew not what; so kind-hearted Mrs. Harrod's
first natural question as to Violet's well-being drew a flood of tears
and a resultant outpouring of the whole tragedy. But, lo and behold!
Mrs. Harrod had dreamed of clear water and a trotting horse the previous
night, and this combination was irresistible in its excellence on behalf
of her friends. Mrs. Harrod's prophetic dreams were always vicarious;
her own fortunes were fixed--so much _per annum_ earned by keeping a
first-rate private hotel.
The manifold attractions of town life did not suffice to while away
the weary hours of that evening for at least three people in London.
Violet, returning from Chalfont, took a room in the Great Western Hotel
at Paddington, and, when asked to sign the register, obeyed some
unaccountable impulse by writing "Miss Barnes." It gave her a thrill to
see poor Gwendoline's _nom de theatre_ thus resurrected, and there was
something uncanny in the incident too; but she was aroused by the hotel
clerk's respectful inquiry if she had any luggage.
"No," she said, somewhat embarrassed; "but I will pay for my room in
advance, if you wish."
"That is not necessary, madam, thank you," was the answer; so Violet,
unconscious of the trust reposed in her appearance, took her key and
went to rest a little before undertaking the last task she had set
herself. She carried in her hand some violets which she had bought
from a poor woman outside the hotel.
Van Hupfeldt, tortured by want of knowledge of the actions of those in
whom he was most interested, was compelled to enlist Neil's services
again after reviling him. The valet went openly to Eddystone Mansions
and inquired for Harcourt.
"He's bin aht all d'y," said Jim the porter, speculating on Neil's
fighting weight, if he was one of the ghosts to be laid after midnight.
Neil brought back this welcome information, and Van Hupfeldt hoped
uneasily that his ruse had been successful. If it had, David would be
somewhere near Birmingham, and would there await a message from Violet,
which Van Hupfeldt would take care he received next day.
As for David, he smoked and mused in Hyde Park until after night had
fallen. Then he returned to his abode by the way indicated by the
porter, and smoked again in the dark, and without a fire, until a few
minutes after midnight, when he heard the clank of the ascending lift,
followed by a ring at the door. In case of accident, he had his revolver
in his pocket this time; moreover, his right hand was ready when he
opened the door with his left.
But it was his ally; Jim pointed to the lift with a grin. "Everybody
else is in, sir," he said. "Just step in there an' I'll take you to the
next floor. We'll switch off the light inside, but leave it on here as
usual. Then we can see a mouse comin' up the stairs if need be, an'
there's no other way in, unless a real ghost turns up."
They took up their position, leaving the door of the lift open. Thus
they could step out without noise if necessary. They had not long to
wait. Scarcely five minutes had elapsed before the porter, with an ear
trained to the noises of the building, whispered eagerly:
"Some one has just closed the front door, sir."
They heard ascending footsteps. It was Van Hupfeldt, panting, darting
quick glances at shadows, hastening up the stairs with a sort of felon
fright. In front of No. 7 he paused and listened. Apparently not daring
to risk everything, he rang the bell; he had not forgotten that a bullet
had seared his leg at one of his unauthorized visits. Again he listened,
being evidently ready for flight if he heard any answering sound. Then,
finding all safe, he produced a key, entered, and closed the door behind
him.
"Well, I'm--" began the porter, in a tense whisper, this unlawful entry
being a sacrilege to him.
But David said in his ear: "Let him alone; we have him bottled."
Nevertheless, seeing that Violet had undoubtedly stated her intent (or
it seemed like that) to visit the flat that night, he began to consider
what he should do if she put in an appearance. What would happen if she
unexpectedly encountered Van Hupfeldt within? That must be provided
for. The unforeseen difficulty was an instance of the poverty of man's
judgment where the future is concerned. In keeping his implied promise
to Violet, he would expose her to grave peril; for, in David's view,
Van Hupfeldt had done her sister to death in that same place, and there
was no knowing what the crime a man in desperate straits would commit.
David was sure now that, actuated by widely different motives, both Van
Hupfeldt and Violet were bent on searching for the photograph and letter
reposing securely in his own pocket. He smiled grimly as he thought of
that which Van Hupfeldt would find, but, obviously, he ought to warn
Violet beforehand. Or would it suffice if he followed quickly after her,
thus giving her the opportunity of scaring Van Hupfeldt into the right
mood to confess everything?
There was a slight risk in that; but it seemed to offer the best
solution of a difficulty, and it would avoid the semblance of collusion
between them, which Van Hupfeldt was adroit enough to take advantage of.
So, when Violet did run lightly up the stairs, though his heart beat
with joy at the sight of her, he restrained himself until she had opened
the door. She applied her key without hesitation.
"She trusts in me fully, then!" thought David, with a pang of regret
that he should be compelled now to disobey her.
He gripped the porter's arm as he stepped noiselessly out on to the
landing above, and thus lost sight of Violet. The man followed, and
David, leaning over the stair-rail, saw the door of his flat close. He
had never before realized how quietly that door might be closed if due
care was taken. Even his keen ears heard no sound whatever.
And then he heard that which sent the blood in a furious race from his
brain to his heart and back to his brain again. For there came from
within a cry as from some beast in pain, and, quickly following, the
shriek of a woman in mortal fear.
David waited for no key-turning. He dashed in the lock with his foot
and entered. The first thing that greeted his disordered senses was
the odor of violets which came to him, fresh and pungent, with an eery
reminiscence of the night he thought he saw the spectral embodiment of
dead Gwendoline.