To any imaginative mind there is surely something awe-inspiring in the
thought of the constant secret interlocking of lives which seem as
unlikely ever to meet, in a decisive sense, as are two parallel lines.
How amazed, how bewildered, Laura Pavely would have been could she have
visioned even a hundredth part of the feeling concerning herself which
filled her nearest neighbour, Katty Winslow's, heart!
Even in the old days Katty had disliked Laura, and had regarded her with
a mixture of contempt and envy. And now that Oliver Tropenell had come
back--now that Katty suspected him of being Laura's potential, if not
actual, lover--she grew to hate the woman who had always been kind to
her with an intense, calculating hate.
It seemed as if she hardly ever looked out of one of her windows without
seeing Oliver on his way to The Chase, or Laura on her way to
Freshley--and this although the secret lovers behaved with great
discretion, for Oliver was less, rather than more, with Laura than he
used to be in the old days when Godfrey was alive. Also, wherever Laura
happened to be, her child--cheerful, eager little Alice--was sure to be
close by.
Laura, so much Katty believed herself to have discovered, was now happy,
in her cold, unemotional way, in the possession of a man's ardent
devotion, while she, Katty, who had asked so comparatively little of
life, had been deprived of the one human being who could, and perhaps in
time would, have given her all she wanted.
Poor Godfrey Pavely! No one ever spoke of him now, in that neighbourhood
where once he had counted for so much. Already it was as if he had never
been. But to Katty Winslow he was still an insistent, dominating
presence. Often she brooded over his untimely death, and sometimes she
upbraided herself for not having made some sort of effort to solve the
mystery. The reward was still in being, but one day, lately, when she
had made some allusion to it in Laura's presence, Laura, reddening, had
observed that she was thinking of withdrawing it.
"Lord St. Amant and the Scotland Yard people never approved of it," she
said, "and as you know, Katty, it has led to nothing."
Early in October, Laura, Oliver and Alice, passing by Rosedean one day,
turned in through the gate. "Why shouldn't we go in and ask Katty to
come to tea?" It was Laura's suggestion. Somehow she was sorry for
Katty--increasingly sorry. Yet she could not help feeling glad when
Harber coldly informed her that Mrs. Winslow had left home, and would
not be back for ten days.
* * * * *
At the very time that happy little group of people was at her door,
Katty herself was standing in a queue of people waiting to take her
ticket at York station.
Though Mrs. Winslow would have been honestly surprised had any one told
her she was sentimental, she had actually come down by an earlier train
than was necessary in order that she might retrace the ways that she and
her friend had trodden together a year ago in January.
She had first gone to the Minster, moving swiftly along the paved
streets where she had walked and talked slowly, pleasantly, with the
dead man. Then she had wandered off to the picturesque thoroughfare
lined with curiosity shops. How kind, how generous Godfrey had been to
her just here! Every time she looked up in her pretty little
drawing-room at Rosedean, his gift met her eye.
While she was engaged on this strange, painful pilgrimage, there welled
up in Katty's heart a flood of agonised regret and resentment. She told
herself bitterly that Godfrey's death had aged her--taken the spring out
of her. Small wonder indeed that in these last few weeks she should have
come to hate Laura with a steady, burning flame of hate....
So it was that Katty Winslow was in a queer mental and physical state
when she returned to the big railway station to complete her journey.
She did not feel at all in the mood to face the gay little houseparty
where she was sure of an uproarious, as well as of an affectionate,
welcome.
As she stood in the queue of rather rough North-country folk, waiting to
take her third-class ticket, there swept over her a sudden, vivid
recollection of that incident--the hearing of a voice which at the time
had seemed so oddly familiar--which had happened on the day she had
parted from Godfrey Pavely for the last time.
And then--as in a blinding, yet illuminating flash--there came to her
the conviction, nay, more, the certain knowledge, as to whose voice it
had been that she had heard on the last occasion when she had stood
there, in the large, bare booking office. The voice she had heard--she
was quite, _quite_ sure of it now, it admitted of no doubt in her mind
at all--had been the peculiar, rather high-pitched, voice of Gillie
Baynton....
She visualised the arresting appearance of the man who had been the
owner of the voice, and who had gazed at her with that rather impudent,
jeering glance of bold admiration. Of course it was Gillie, but Gillie
disguised--Gillie with his cheeks tinted a curious greenish-orange
colour, Gillie with his fair hair dyed black, Gillie--her brain suddenly
supplied the link she was seeking for feverishly--_exactly answering to
the description of the sinister Fernando Apra--the self-confessed
murderer of Godfrey Pavely_. Katty left the queue in which she was
standing, and walked across to a bench.
There she sat down, and, heedless of the people about her, put her chin
on her hand and stared before her.
What did her new knowledge portend? What did it lead to? Was Laura
associated with this extraordinary, bewildering discovery of hers? But
the questions she put to herself remained unanswered. She failed to
unravel even a little strand of the tangled skein.
Slowly she got up again, and once more took her place in the queue
outside the booking office. It would be folly to lose her train because
of this discovery, astounding, illuminating, as it was.
She was so shaken, so excited, that she longed to confide in one of the
Haworths, brother or sister, to whose house she was going--but some
deep, secretive instinct caused her to refrain from doing that. Still,
she was so far unlike herself, that after her arrival the members of the
merry party all commented to one another on the change they saw in her.
"She's as pretty as ever," summed up one of them at last, "but somehow
she looks different."
All that night Katty lay awake, thinking, thinking--trying to put
together a human puzzle of which the pieces would not fit. Gillie
Baynton, even if he disliked his brother-in-law, had no motive for doing
the awful thing she was now beginning to suspect he had done. She found
herself floating about in a chartless sea of conjectures, of
suspicions....
She felt better, more in possession of herself, the next morning. Yet
she was still oppressed with an awful sense of bewilderment and horror,
uncertain, too, as to what use she could make of her new knowledge.
Should she go straight up to town and tell Sir Angus Kinross of what had
happened to her yesterday? Somehow she shrank from doing that. He would
suspect her of simply trying to snatch the reward. Katty had never been
quite at ease with the Commissioner of Police--never quite sure as to
what he knew, or did not know, of her past relations to Godfrey Pavely.
And yet those relations had been innocent enough, in all conscience!
Sometimes Katty, when thinking of those terrible times last January, had
felt sorry she had not told Sir Angus the truth as to that joint journey
to York. But, having hidden the fact at first, she had been ashamed to
confess it later--and now she would have to confess it.
She was still in this anxious, debating-within-herself frame of mind
when, at luncheon, something happened which seemed to open a way before
her.
Her host, Tony Haworth, was talking of the neighbourhood, and he said,
rather ruefully: "Of course a man like that old rascal who calls himself
Greville Howard is worse than no good as a neighbour! For one thing he's
a regular recluse. He hardly ever goes outside his park gates. I suppose
the conscience of a man who's done so many naughty deeds in a good world
is apt to make him feel a bit nervous!"
"How far off does he live from here?" asked Katty slowly. The scene at
the inquest rose up before her, especially that moment when "Greville
Howard's" affidavit, accompanied by his doctor's certificate, had been
read aloud amid a ripple of amusement from the general public present.
"About four miles--but no one ever sees him. He's more or less of an
invalid. It's a beautiful old house, and they say he's got some
wonderful pictures and furniture there."
"Does he live quite alone?"
Her host hesitated. "Well, yes--but sometimes he has a lady of sorts
there. He brought one back from France last June (he has a villa at
Monte Carlo), and then--" Tony Haworth hesitated again, but Katty was
looking at him eagerly--"then something dreadful happened! The poor
woman died. She got a chill, developed pneumonia, and, to do the old
rascal justice, he got down the biggest man he could from town. But it
was no good--she died just the same! As far as I know, he's quite alone
now--and precious lonely he must find it!"
Katty was very silent for the rest of the meal, and after luncheon she
drew her host aside.
"Look here," she said abruptly. "I've something to tell you, Tony. I
want to see that person we were speaking about--I mean Greville Howard.
I want to see him about Godfrey Pavely. You know he is one of the few
people who actually saw the man who killed Godfrey. At the time of the
inquest he was ill, and so couldn't attend--I think the police thought
he shammed illness. Sir Angus Kinross was convinced (and so was Lord St.
Amant) that this Greville Howard knew a great deal more about Fernando
Apra than he was willing to tell."
Tony Haworth was much taken aback.
"My dear girl, I don't think there's a chance of your getting at him!
However, of course you shall be driven over as soon as you like. He
_may_ see you--_you're_ not the sort of person he's afraid of."
He looked at her a little sharply. "You never had any money dealings
with him, had you, Katty? Now, honour bright----"
"Of course not," she laughed. "Is it likely? My husband may have had, in
the long, long ago--but I, never!"
* * * * *
An hour or so later, Katty Winslow, alone in her friend's motor, found
herself before the lodge of the big lonely place where the retired
money-lender--a Yorkshireman by birth--had set up his household gods.
The great gates were closed and locked, but there was a bell, and she
rang it.
After a certain interval the lodge-keeper came out.
"I've come to see Mr. Greville Howard," she explained, and smiled
amiably at the man.
He looked at her doubtfully. "The master don't see no one excepting by
appointment," he said gruffly.
"I think he'll see me."
And then an extraordinary piece of luck befell Katty Winslow. While she
was standing there, parleying, she suddenly saw a man inside the park,
walking towards the gates.
"I think," she said boldly, "that that _is_ Mr. Greville Howard?" and
she saw by the lodgekeeper's face that she was right in her guess.
Moving gracefully forward, she slid past him, and thus she stood just
within the gates, while slowly there advanced towards her--and, had she
but known it, towards many others--Fate, in the person of a tall, thin,
some would have said a very distinguished-looking, elderly man.
As he came up, he looked at Katty with a measuring, thoughtful glance,
and his eyes travelled beyond her to the well-appointed motor drawn up
in the lonely country road outside.
Now this was the sort of situation to amuse and stimulate, rather than
alarm, Katty, the more so that the stranger, who was now close to her,
was looking at her pleasantly rather than otherwise.
She took a step towards him.
"Mr. Howard?" she exclaimed, in her full, agreeable voice. "I wonder if
you would be so kind as to grant me a short interview? I want to see you
about the late Mr. Godfrey Pavely. He was a great friend of mine."
As she uttered the dead banker's name, Greville Howard's face stiffened
into sudden watchfulness. But he said slowly: "May I enquire your name,
madam?"
"Oh yes," she said eagerly. "My name is Winslow--I am Mrs. Winslow. I
was Godfrey Pavely's oldest friend--we were children together."
"Ah!" he exclaimed. "Your name comes back to me. I think you were
mentioned at the inquest, Mrs. Winslow? But you did not give any
evidence, if I remember rightly."
"No, I was not asked to give evidence," she answered. "And you yourself,
Mr. Howard, were too ill to come and say what you knew about--about----"
"About Mr. Pavely's murderer," he said smoothly.
They were now walking side by side slowly away from the gate, down a
broad, well-kept carriage road, the lodge-keeper staring after them.
"Do you know Sir Angus Kinross?" asked Katty's companion suddenly.
She gave him a curious, side-glance look. "I saw him several times last
winter," she said hesitatingly. "But, Mr. Howard?--I don't like him!"
"Neither do I." He snapped the words out. "I could have told Scotland
Yard a good deal if Kinross had taken the trouble to be civil to me--but
he sent me down a fellow whose manner I exceedingly resented."
There followed a long pause. Katty became unpleasantly aware
that this strange-looking man--she wondered how old he
was--sixty-five?--seventy?--was looking at her with a rather
pitiless scrutiny.
"I can see that you are anxious to know the truth," he observed. He
added: "Are you aware that the reward has just been withdrawn?"
"No, I didn't know that. But I'm not surprised," she said.
She glanced at him, puzzled, and a little nervous. His keen eyes,
grey-green in tint, were much younger than the rest of his face.
"I think I know part of the truth," he went on. "And perhaps you will be
able to supply the other part, Mrs. Winslow. I confess to a certain
curiosity about the matter."
They were now within sight of a charming-looking old house. It was
charming, and yet there was something forlorn about its very perfection.
The low, oak, nail-studded front door was shut, not hospitably open--as
is generally the case with the door of a Yorkshire country house. But
Mr. Greville Howard pulled the bell, and at once the door was opened by
a respectable-looking manservant.
"I am taking this lady to my study, and I do not wish to be disturbed
till I ring. When I ring you can bring tea."
Katty followed her host through a short, vaulted passage into a square
hall. It was a beautiful apartment, in keeping with the delicate,
austere charm of the house outside. And round the hall there were some
fine Dutch easel pictures.
Out of the hall there opened various doors. Greville Howard pushed open
one, already ajar, and Katty walked through into what she at once
realised was her companion's own habitual living-room.
With all her cleverness, and her acquaintance with the art-furnishing
jargon of the day, Katty would have been surprised to know the value of
the contents of this comparatively small room. It contained some notable
examples of the best period of early French Empire furniture. This was
specially true of the mahogany and brass inlaid dwarf bookcases which
ran round three sides of the apartment. Above the bookcases, against the
turquoise-blue silk with which the walls were hung, were a number of
Meissonier's paintings of Napoleon.
On the mantelpiece was a marble bust of the young Caesar as First Consul,
and above it a delightful portrait of Mademoiselle Georges, by Gerard.
As he briefly informed his visitor of the portrait's identity, Mr.
Greville Howard felt just a little disappointed that Mrs. Winslow did
not seem more interested.
During the last quarter of an hour he had recaptured what at the time of
the affair had been a very definite impression as to the relations of
his present visitor and the Wiltshire banker. But now, seeing Katty
there before him, looking so much at her ease, so--so ladylike (Mr.
Greville Howard's own word), he hesitated.
"Pray sit down," he said courteously, "and make yourself comfortable,
Mrs. Winslow. It's getting rather chilly."
Her host put on another log as he spoke, and pulled a low, easy chair
up close to the fire. And then he himself sat down, at right angles to
his attractive guest, in a curiously-shaped winged chair which had once
been part of the furniture in the Empress Josephine's music-room at
Malmaison.