VINCENT DASHWOOD
Ralph's face grew stern as he stared at the intruder. The newcomer
returned the stare with insolent audacity. The pleased and softened
expression had left Lady Dashwood's features, she looked white and
anxious, and Ralph could see that her hands were trembling. It was
quite evident that she was greatly afraid of the man with the cold
black eyes.
"Beg pardon," the newcomer muttered. "Didn't know you were engaged.
Friend of yours?"
"Mr. Ralph Darnley," Lady Dashwood said. "A very old friend of the
family, or, at any rate his father was. Let me introduce you to Mr.
Vincent Dashwood."
"I have heard of you," said Ralph, with a queer vibration in his
voice. "I understand that one time your father had some idea of
claiming the succession to the property. I have heard my father speak
of your branch of the family."
Dashwood muttered something that Ralph could not quite follow.
"We could tell a different story, the old lady and self," he went on
suggestively. "I shall have a pleasant surprise for Sir George some of
these days. I'm only waiting for some papers from the other side and I
shall move. My father married a Californian lady, you see, and they
are pretty careless there in their keeping of records. Still, it is
only a matter of time."
"That is very strange," Ralph said grimly. "My father also married a
Californian lady. Oh, you need not look so uncomfortable; I am not
likely to interfere with your claim. Indeed, I may be in a position to
assist you a little later."
Just for the moment there was a queer grey tint on Vincent Dashwood's
face. He seemed to be horribly frightened about something. But the
expression passed, and his old saturnine look returned. Ralph was
smiling, too, as if something amused him. Lady Dashwood glanced from
one to the other furtively, as if she feared some outbreak of
violence. There was no means of reading Ralph's thoughts from the
expression of his face, or Dashwood would not have been standing there
so utterly at his ease. For he was a scoundrel of the vilest type, the
class who do not hesitate to blackmail women.
"Well, I'll just go and look round till you have finished with the
gentleman," Dashwood said airily. "Then mind that you are ready for
our little business, old lady. I've got to be in London this evening,
and no mistake about it. By the way, the Hall is in the hands of the
firemen and police, but I'm told that no great damage has been done."
The speaker swaggered from the room with his hands in his pockets,
whistling as he went. Ralph's expression grew _stern and hard_.
"So this is one of the crosses that you have to bear," he said. "At
the risk of being curious, I must ask you a question. Is this the man
for whose sake you have been raising money on the family jewels? How
long has it been going on?"
Lady Dashwood clasped her hands and the tears came into her eyes.
"Nearly two years," she whispered. "Thank God, you have come to me,
for my strength would not have borne the burden much longer. Nobody
knows anything; nobody suspects but Slight. And he pretended to be my
grandson. We were both utterly deceived. He knows everything, he told
me all about the original quarrel, he had letters which I had written
from time to time to your--to my son. And he is an infamous scoundrel.
He desired me to keep his presence and his claim a secret, and for the
credit of the family I did so. The few who know him think he comes
from the Yorkshire side of the house. He traded on my fears; he knew
what I thought of him. And when he had drained me of thousands, and in
sheer despair I pressed him to push on his claim, he always pleaded
that he could not get certain papers--his mother's marriage
certificate, I think it was. Mind you, I believed in him implicitly;
with all the sacred private information he had, I could do nothing
else. And Slight also was equally deceived. He has had nearly
everything of mine that he could lay his hands on. You see that I am
powerless to protest; if I had forced him to speak, there would only
have been a scandal. He has been getting bolder lately or he would not
have spoken so freely to you just now. And directly I saw your face
today I knew at once that it had all been a hideous mistake. You will
free me from that man, Ralph?"
"Not quite yet," Ralph replied. "You must play your part a little
longer. If, as you say, you have nothing more to bestow, you need not
be afraid of him. That man has given me a new idea for bringing about
the object that I have most closely at heart. I am going to make use
of him, if necessary. If it is not necessary, then I shall make very
short work of Mr. Vincent Dashwood. But before that you must tell me
everything. Mind, I say everything as regards my--your son's marriage
with Maria Edgerton. I believe that marriage was the cause of all the
mischief."
"Indeed it was," Lady Dashwood said. Her voice was filled with the
deepest sadness. "What will you think of me when you hear of the part
I played in that unhappy affair? But I cannot tell you now, I am unfit
to go into the matter at present. The shock of meeting you has been
almost more than I can bear. Come and dine with me here on Saturday
night, and I will tell you everything. My dear Ralph--if I may call
you so in private--is it possible that your coming is the augury of a
happier time for me? Happiness I won't ask for, but I should like to
go down to the grave in peace."
"It shall be no fault of mine if you do not," Ralph replied. "I have
planned out my scheme and I am going through with it to the end. There
may be troubles and trials to come, but everything is going to end
happily for us all. Goodbye."
Ralph held out his hand, but Lady Dashwood drew him down to her chair.
"Give me a kiss, my bonny boy," she whispered. "It may be as well for
us to keep up the formality and play the drama till the time comes,
but it is no harm to kiss an old woman and let her look into the eyes
that she has seen in her dreams for forty weary years. God bless you,
Ralph, and prosper your schemes, for nothing you do will be wrong."
Ralph went on his way presently through the shrubbery in the direction
of the Hall. A great crowd of people still lingered there, but the
police had kept almost intact the trim lawn and the beds of brilliant
flowers. Inside the house were a posse of police and a few firemen
from Longtown. In the stable yard the scarlet fire engine glittered in
the sun. So far as it was possible to see, no great harm had been
done.
Nobody was allowed in the house except the firemen and police, an
inspector informed Ralph, who had asked for Sir George. None of the
structure had been much damaged, none of the furniture had suffered
anything except from smoke and water. There was just a suspicion that
one of the great beams under the hall floor was still smouldering, and
the firemen were going to stay until they were absolutely sure on the
point.
"Most extraordinary thing, Darnley," Sir George said. "There seemed to
be nothing but smoke. Slight will tell you that there was nothing but
smoke. At the present moment an expert in this kind of things is
making an examination with a view to discovering the cause of the
outbreak. Nuisance to have these people here, but it can't be helped."
"Better these, Sir George, than Mr. Mayfield's friends," Slight
croaked. "At any rate, we have got rid of them for the present. If
somebody set the house afire on purpose, they could not have done us a
better turn, seems to me."
Slight spoke loudly as a man in a kind of uniform came up. He touched
his cap to Sir George, and looked fixedly at the old butler. Evidently
he had overheard what was said.
"Many things more unlikely than that," he said. "Sir George, I think
that I have discovered the origin of the mischief, if you will kindly
come this way."
"Of course I was joking," Slight said indignantly. "You don't suppose
that I mean to imply that the fire was anything but an accident, Mr.
Sayers?"
"All the same it was no accident," the official said grimly. "If you
will come this way, I will prove to you that the fire was a wicked and
deliberate act on the part of somebody."