WHAT MARY LOUISE ACCOMPLISHED
I am quite sure it is unnecessary to relate in detail the scene that
followed Mary Louise's introduction or the excited inquiries and
explanations which naturally ensued. To those present the scene was
intensely dramatic and never to be forgotten, but such a meeting
between father and daughter is considered too sacred to be described
here.
Mary Louise's intuition had not played her false. She had found at the
Congress Hotel another Jason Jones, far different from the one she had
known, and a few questions elicited the fact that he was indeed the
father of Alora. So, as briefly as she could, she told him how another
man had usurped his place and seized all of Alora's income, at the same
time willfully depriving the girl of such comforts and accomplishments
as one in her position should enjoy.
"And to think," she added indignantly, "that he is not Jason Jones at
all!"
"I believe you are mistaken there," replied the artist thoughtfully.
"Jason is a family name, derived from one of our most eminent
ancestors, and in my generation it is also borne, I have learned, by
one of my second cousins, a Jason Jones who is also a painter and
aspires to fame as an artist. I have never met the man, but his
indifferently executed canvases, offered for sale under our common
name, formerly caused me considerable annoyance and perhaps interfered
with my career. But of late I have not heard of this Jason Jones, for
soon after my separation from my wife I went to Southern California and
located in a little bungalow hidden in a wild canyon of the Santa
Monica mountains. There I have secluded myself for years, determined to
do some really good work before I returned East to prove my ability.
Some time after Antoinette died I saw a notice to that effect in a
newspaper, but there were no comments and I did not know that she had
made me guardian of our child. That was like Antoinette," he continued,
in gentler tones; "she was invariably generous and considerate of my
shortcomings, even after we realized we were not fitted to live
together. Her renunciation of me seemed harsh, at first, for I could
not understand her ambitions, but in fact she drove me to success. I
have won the Grand Prize, after all these years of patient labor, and
from now on my future is assured."
"Have you never longed for your child?" asked Mary Louise
reproachfully.
"I have, indeed. In imagination I have followed Alora's growth and
development year by year, and one of my most cherished anticipations
when coming here was to seek out my daughter and make myself known to
her. I knew she had been well provided for in worldly goods and I hoped
to find her happy and content. If my picture received favorable comment
at the exhibition I intended to seek Alora. I did not expect to win the
Grand Prize."
* * * * * * * *
It was this newly discovered Jason Jones and his daughter--who already
loved him and shyly clung to this responsive and congenial parent--who
went to Dorfield with the Colonel and Mary Louise and Peter Conant and
Josie O'Gorman to attend the obsequies of the other less fortunate
Jason Jones. Mrs. Orme was there, too; Mrs. Janet Orme Jones; for she
admitted she was the dead man's wife and told them, in a chastened but
still defiant mood, how the substitution of her husband for the other
artist had come about.
"Many years ago, when I was nursing in a New York hospital," she said,
"a man was brought in with both arms broken, having been accidentally
knocked down by a street-car. I was appointed to nurse him and learned
from him that he was Jason Jones, a poor artist who was, however, just
about to win recognition. He showed me a newspaper clipping that highly
praised a painting then being exhibited at the Metropolitan Museum of
Art, which was signed Jason Jones. I know now that it wasn't his
picture at all, but the work of his cousin, but at the time the
clipping deceived me.
"I was ambitious to become something more than a nurse. I thought that
to be the wife of a famous artist would bring me wealth and a position
in society, so I married Jason Jones--without love--and he married me--
also without love--in order to get my wages. He won where I lost, for
during several years I foolishly supported him with my savings, always
expecting him to become famous. At first he attributed his failures to
his broken arms, although they had healed perfectly, and I ignorantly
accepted the excuse. It was only after years of waiting for the man to
prove his ability that I finally woke to the truth--that he had no
talent--and I then left him to his own devices. In Chicago I sought to
forget my unfortunate past and found regular employment there in my
profession.
"It was while nursing Mrs. Jones that I overheard her give to Doctor
Anstruther the supposed address of her husband, which had been
furnished her by a casual acquaintance, and tell him to wire Jason
Jones to come to her at once. I well knew a mistake had been made and
that she had given the doctor my own husband's address--the address of
an entirely different Jason Jones. My first impulse was to undeceive
her, but that would involve humiliating explanations, so I hesitated
and finally decided to remain silent. When the doctor had gone to
telegraph and the die was cast, I reflected that my husband, whom I
knew to be sunk in poverty, would ignore the request to come to Chicago
to be reconciled to his dying wife. _My_ Jason wouldn't care whether I
lived or died and wouldn't have spent a cent to be reconciled with me.
For of course he would think it was I who asked for him, since he would
know nothing of Antoinette Seaver Jones or that she was the wife of his
distant relative, the other Jason Jones.
"He did, indeed, answer Doctor Anstruther by saying he would not come
unless his expenses were advanced, so the good doctor launched the
future deception by sending him ample funds. I knew of this action and
wondered what I ought to do. There would be a terrible mix-up when my
husband appeared, and I realized how disappointed the sick woman would
be. Knowing her condition to be dangerous, I feared the shock would
kill her, which it really did, for still I kept silent. I told myself
that I had not aided in the deception in any way, that it was a trick
of fate, and I could not be blamed. I thought that when Doctor
Anstruther met my husband there would be explanations and the truth
would come out, but somehow that did not happen. Jason Jones walked
into Antoinette Seaver Jones' room expecting to find _me_ dying, and
saw a strange woman in the bed and his wife--in good health--standing
before him. He let out an oath in his surprise and my patient, who had
raised up in bed to stare at him, uttered a low moan and fell back on
her pillow, dead. I saw the tragedy and involuntarily screamed, and
Jason Jones saw she was dead and cried out in fear. I had just time to
recover my wits and whisper to him to keep his mouth shut and I would
make him rich when Doctor Anstruther hurried into the room.
"The whole thing was unpremeditated up to that time, but now I assisted
fate, for I had witnessed Mrs. Jones' will and knew well its contents.
No one seemed to know there were two artists named Jason Jones and
everyone accepted my husband as Alora's father and the one entitled to
her guardianship and to profit by the terms of the will.
"An hour after Mrs. Jones died I secured a secret interview with my
husband, who until then had been thoroughly bewildered, and explained
to him that the mistake in identity would, if he took prompt advantage
of it, give him the control of an enormous income for seven years--
until the child reached the age of eighteen. He was fearful, at first,
that the other Jason Jones would appear and prosecute him for
swindling, but as the husband of Antoinette Seaver had not been heard
from in years, even by his own wife, I induced him to accept the risk.
It was I who virtually put that income into my husband's hands, and in
return he agreed to supply me with whatever money I demanded, up to a
half of his receipts. But he proved that there is not always honor
among thieves, for after he had been made legal executor of the estate
and his fears had somewhat subsided he endeavored to keep all the money
for himself and begrudged me the one or two instalments I forced him to
give me. Strangely enough, this formerly poverty-stricken artist now
developed a love of accumulation--a miserly love for the money itself,
and hated to spend any of it even on himself or on the girl to whom he
owed his good fortune. The coward actually ran away and hid himself in
Europe, and I, having spent all the money he had given me, with the
idea I had an inexhaustible fund to draw upon, was forced to turn nurse
again.
"After three years I had saved enough to follow him to Europe, where I
located him at a lonely villa in Italy. Its very loneliness was my
undoing, for he made a husky servant lock me up in an outhouse and
there I was held a prisoner until Jason had again escaped to America.
He thought he could hide better in the United States and that I
wouldn't have the money to follow him there, but I had fortunately
saved enough for my return passage. By the time I got home, however, he
had completely disappeared and all my efforts failed to locate him. So
I returned to Chicago and again resumed my profession.
"You will say I might have denounced him as an impostor and made the
police hunt him up, but that would have ruined my chances of ever
getting another penny of the money and might have involved me
personally. Jason knew that, and it made him bold to defy me. I
silently bided my time, believing that fate would one day put the man
in my power.
"You know how I happened to find Alora in Chicago and how I lured her
to my home and kept her there a prisoner."
It was found that the dead man had made large investments in his own
name, and as he had left no will Janet declared that this property now
belonged to her, as his widow. Lawyer Conant, however, assured her that
as the money had never been legally her husband's, but was secured by
him under false pretenses, all the investments and securities purchased
with it must be transferred to the real Jason Jones, to whom they now
belonged. The court would attend to that matter.
"And it serves you right, madam," added Peter Conant, "for concocting
the plot to swindle Alora's father out of the money his dead wife
intended him to have. You are not properly punished, for you should be
sent to jail, but your disappointment will prove a slight punishment,
at least."
"So far as I knew," answered Janet, defending her crime, "Alora's
father was either dead or hidden in some corner of the world where he
could never be found. To my knowledge there was no such person
existent, so the substitution of my husband for him did him no injury
and merely kept the income out of the clutches of paid executors. Had
the right man appeared, at any time during these four years, to claim
his child and the money, he might easily have secured them by proving
his identity. So the fault was his as much as mine."
Jason Jones had personally listened to the woman's confession, which
filled him with wonder. While severely condemning her unscrupulous
methods he refused to prosecute her, although Mr. Conant urged him to
do so, and even carried his generosity to the extent of presenting her
with one of her dead husband's small investments, obtaining from her in
return the promise to lead an honest and respectable life.
It had been the artist's intention to return to his California
bungalow, but after the probate court had acknowledged him and
transferred to him the guardianship of his daughter, he decided to
devote the coming years to Alora and endeavor to recompense her with
fatherly devotion for the privations and unhappiness she had formerly
endured.
Alora did not wish to be separated from Mary Louise, so her father
purchased the handsome residence of Senator Huling, which was situated
directly opposite to that of Colonel Hathaway in Dorfield, and
succeeded in making it a real home for his daughter.
Josie O'Gorman went back to Washington well pleased with her success,
although she said with a little grimace of feigned regret:
"I did pretty well, for an amateur, for I tackled a tough case and won
out; but, after all, it was Mary Louise who solved the mystery and
restored Alora to her honest-for-true father."