CORROBORATIVE DETAIL.
Clara had not come sufficiently in contact with the evil side
of human nature to ignore an anonymous letter. She felt all the
contempt for the writer that he or she deserved, and she spurned the
suggestion contained in the letter as utterly unworthy of a moment's
attention. Yet the sting was there. She might ignore the letter to
all appearances, and yet not be able to forget it. The cruelty of the
writer was what she felt, not the force of the blow.
"I cannot understand," she said, laying the letter down and taking a
newspaper, "how a person can go out of his way for the sole purpose of
doing an unkind thing."
"What is it, dear?" asked Louise, stopping on her way out of the room.
Clara started to show her the letter, but, overcome by a sense of
repugnance for it, answered:
"Let it pass until after luncheon. We shall have a great deal to talk
of then."
So Clara was left alone with the newspapers, and she read them with
amazement and consternation. At the very first there was a little
relief at finding no flaring headlines on the first page, for she had
no enjoyment in the notoriety that the case thrust upon her. She bore
it simply as one of the unavoidable features of the situation. As she
searched the first paper, the relief vanished, and in its place came
a growing wonder. The reports of the abandoned wedding had been set
forth in complete detail with every expansion that fertile brains could
suggest, as if every city editor had said to his reporter, "We'll stand
all you can write." It had been the important news feature of the day,
and to Clara it had seemed as if every newspaper in the city had
undertaken to solve the mystery. Where, then, was the long account of
the second day's developments?
Tucked obscurely away in the middle of a page devoted to a
miscellaneous assortment of news, she found at last a few paragraphs
setting forth the conclusions of the detective bureau, that there was
no financial irregularity to be attributed to Mr. Strobel, and that the
missing man had undoubtedly eloped with Lizzie White. Miss Hilman's
health was reported to be good, and it was noted that she had taken a
personal hand in the investigation with every appearance of confidence
in the loyalty of her betrothed.
Clara found longer reports in the other papers, and the one that had
published the first intimation of the elopement, continued to make it
the sensation of the hour, but it was a labored effort, devoted quite
as much to exploiting its own enterprise in beating the other papers as
to setting forth the news.
So, then, the community, of which the newspapers were the reflection,
had contentedly accepted the first solution that offered, and all her
work had gone for nothing, worse than nothing, for she found herself
pictured as a pitiable victim to her lover's faithlessness. The very
fact that the reporters refrained from bringing out the picture of her
misery in strong colors was evidence of the sincerity with which they
wrote. They were satisfied that Ivan had eloped! To tell how loyally
she had clung to him would be to put her in a ridiculous light before
all readers.
The tears that came to Clara's eyes were angrily dashed away at first,
but they would flow, and after a moment she gave full vent to them. Her
experience was one that comes only to those who have to suffer such
great calamities that for the time all life seems to be centered upon
them, and the awaking to the cold fact that all life runs along just as
before, and the great calamity speedily becomes an event of yesterday,
is almost as hard to bear as the original shock. This awakening with
Clara was coincident to a fresh determination to continue her search.
The world might laugh if it chose to be so cruel; she believed in her
lover and would yet find him.
The bell had rung for luncheon, and drying her eyes, Clara went into
the dining room. Her uncle was already at the table. His greeting was
constrained but not lacking in affection and sympathy.
"Don't you think it would be better, Clara," he said gently after they
had exchanged a few words, "to withdraw for a while from public view? I
am afraid you are doing no good, and I will not conceal from you that
I regard your loyal search as hopeless. I am getting to be an old man,
and I have seen a great deal of the world, as we reckon it by the human
beings who populate it. This blow that has fallen upon you has fallen
on others before your time, and it will fall again. This that seems to
you incredible has been no less incredible in the past----"
"Stop, please, uncle," interrupted Clara; "I cannot draw comparisons,
and if I could they would be valueless. I must judge my affair by its
own circumstances alone. I believe Ivan has done no wrong, and it is
nothing less than my duty to him and myself to right the wrong that has
been done to him."
"But tell me, my dear child, is there anything in the situation that
promises a solution other than that found by the detectives and the
reporters?"
"Yes, uncle, there is," replied Clara in a low tone, "and I am glad the
reporters have not found the clew, and I am not sorry that Mr. Bowker
missed it, too. I will tell you about it."
"Papa," said Louise, coming into the room at this moment, "Mr. Dexter
has called. I was coming downstairs when the bell rang, and I answered
it. I showed him into the library."
"I wish he would confine his calls to the office," exclaimed Mr.
Pembroke, impatiently. "You will have to excuse me, though, for I am
obliged to see him."
"I am afraid papa is having a serious time with his business," said
Louise, after he had gone.
"Everything comes at once, doesn't it?" responded Clara; "I am so
sorry! He wants me to give up trying to find Ivan, dear. It hurts me to
displease uncle, but what would you do? I think he would like to have
me go away for a time."
"Oh, I don't think that! I am sure he feels toward you as if you were
his own daughter."
"I am sure he does, Lou. A father couldn't be more affectionate and
kind; but in this matter, how can I yield to his wishes? He does not
know."
"Do you mean about Mr. Poubalov?"
"Partly, but I had more in mind that no one could know Ivan's character
as well as I do."
Louise thought of her own budding love. If Ralph Harmon were under
suspicion, could she fail to defend him? Could she think of him as
other than honorable and faithful?
A servant passed through the room, and left the door in the hall
carelessly ajar. Neither of the young ladies noticed it.
"Clara," said Louise, "I should try to do just as you are doing, but I
know I could not be so brave. I think if you should tell uncle about
Mr. Poubalov it might make him feel better."
"I intend to do so," replied Clara, "and would have done so last
evening if he had been at home."
They were interrupted by Mr. Pembroke's voice. He had stepped from the
library into the hall, and was speaking with ill-suppressed anger.
"I won't listen to anything you have to say on the matter," he said,
"and I will ask you to confine your talks to me to business matters;
and when you must see me, go to the office."
"Ugh!" grunted old Dexter in reply, "she'll make you as ridiculous as
she makes herself."
"Dexter," exclaimed Mr. Pembroke, "I think you're the worst villain
unhung!"
"H'm, h'm, h'm," muttered Dexter, "you're a fool, Mat Pembroke. I think
you're a fool!"
The front door closed loudly and Mr. Pembroke strode into the
dining-room, where the young ladies were looking at each other with
astonished eyes. Mr. Pembroke was flushed, and he bit his lip with
added vexation as he noticed that his daughter and niece had heard the
last words of his conversation with Dexter.
"I am sorry----" he began, his voice still shaking with anger. He did
not complete his remark, but sat down and tried to eat.
After a moment Clara rose and put her arms softly about his neck.
"I am sorry, too, uncle dear," she said, "that you have so much trouble
about me. Of course that vile man was speaking of me."
Mr. Pembroke shuddered violently at her first touch. He released her
arms abruptly and stood up.
"No, don't!" he said with an expression of the deepest pain; "you
continue your search in your own way, child. Don't mind about me or
anybody else, least of all that--that meddlesome Dexter."
"I was going to tell you some of the information I learned yesterday,
uncle."
"No, no! no, no! I don't want to hear it--that is, not now. Forgive me,
child; I am disturbed by business matters and cannot attend to it now.
This evening if you like. Good-by."
He hastened from the room, more agitated than when he had come in.
"It's a shame," said Clara, bitterly, "that any one who is in trouble
has to annoy all those who are near to her."
"I wouldn't think of it that way, dear," responded Louise; "papa is as
sympathetic as can be, and I am sure that when he gets over his anger
at this Mr. Dexter's interference, there will be nothing to regret. He
said himself, you know, that he would talk with you this evening."
"I hope I shall have something definite to tell him then," said Clara.
"Will you go downtown with me again this afternoon?"
Of course she would, and in due time, therefore, the young ladies were
again at police headquarters. Detective Bowker was evidently highly
pleased with himself, although he manfully tried to suppress any signs
of triumph.
"I called at your house this forenoon, Miss Hilman," he said, "to
inform you that the driver of the closed carriage has been found."
"What does he say?" asked Clara eagerly.
"He corroborates what I told you yesterday."
"Does he say that he drove Mr. Strobel to the Park Square Station?"
"Yes, just as I told you."
"Can I see him?"
"I have no doubt you will be able to do so. He is not here now. He has
gone about his work, but I can have him here at any time, or he will
call on you. He suggested that himself when I told him that you would
be pretty likely to doubt his story."
"I should like to see him," said Clara, her voice faint and tremulous
in spite of herself. "When did you find him, Mr. Bowker?"
"Well, as to that," replied the detective, reluctantly, "Billings came
in here early this morning. You know I said that might happen."
"Yes. What stable does he drive for?"
"What stable?" echoed Bowker with his stare of surprise; "why should
you ask that, Miss Hilman?"
"Because I have visited every stable in Boston to find whether any
employee could have been driving a closed carriage along Park Street at
the hour when the wheel of Mr. Strobel's coupé came off."
"Whew! you did mean business, didn't you?" exclaimed Bowker with
evident admiration. "It's a pity you had such a time of it. Billings
drove his own carriage. He wasn't connected with any of the stables."
"I am glad to know that my search did not fail through any lack of
thorough inquiry," said Clara, and she felt her courage reviving. "Will
you send word to this Mr. Billings that I would like to see him?"
"Certainly. When shall I tell him to call?"
"Any time this evening. And, Mr. Bowker, can you not give me the name
of the man who said he saw Mr. Strobel buy a ticket for New York?"
"I cannot do so. The fact is, we haven't the name. I expected to get
it, honestly I did, for I heard that Strobel was recognized in the
station by a friend; but that friend hasn't turned up; and, to tell you
the plain truth, we don't think it necessary to inquire for him."
"It seems to me----" began Clara, stopping and reflecting. She was
going to protest against the imperfect character of the investigation,
but she thought better of it. This detective unquestionably had no
interest to find other than the truth, and with his low conceptions of
character, due doubtless to his frequent contact with criminals, it
would be but natural for him to see no other explanation for Ivan's
disappearance than the one to substantiate which he had obtained a
certain amount of evidence. If even her good uncle were disposed to
view the idea of the elopement as a possibility, nay, as a probability,
what better could be expected of one to whom Ivan was merely a man
like other men? And the evidence of the "second driver" which was
undoubtedly straightforward---- Perhaps Ivan had gone to New York. How
could she tell? Not with Lizzie White, of course, but---- She would
talk with the driver.
"I shall be greatly obliged," she concluded, "if you will send me word
should any new development turn up. I don't suppose I can expect you to
pay any further attention to the case."
"We may hear from New York at any time," replied Bowker; "the police
there are on the lookout for Strobel, and if we hear anything I will
let you know."
Louise tucked her arm affectionately within Clara's, and asked:
"Where now, dear?"
"We will go to Mrs. White's," responded Clara, drearily. Her faith
was yet undisturbed, but the mystery seemed the darker, for if the
wily Russian had had to do with Ivan's departure, how much harder it
would be to find him in New York than in Boston! Then, had he gone
voluntarily, might it not be possible that he did not wish her to
search for him? Surely he would write if he could. With that thought,
and a renewed conviction that Ivan was somehow constrained of his
liberty, she arrived at Mrs. White's house.
"I'm so glad to see you," cried the landlady, "with all this talk in
the papers. I have heard from Lizzie. See! Here is the letter."
She handed a sheet of paper to Clara. It was not a long letter, but
what little there was was rambling in style. It was dated from Second
Avenue, New York, and stated that the writer had found a new home.
"I should be happy," she wrote, "if it wasn't for the way I had to go.
But there wasn't any other way. After a while I shall tell you all
about it."
Clara's quick perceptions told her that any person with the elopement
explanation in his head would see a significance in these words that
could not fail to reflect unfavorably upon Ivan.
"Mrs. White," she said tremulously, "you won't show this letter to
reporters, or detectives, or anybody else, will you?"