ARNOLD AND LAURA
The lovers looked at one another in terror. Calvert, surprised by
Laura's sudden entrance, had no time to compose his features. She,
seeing his face, and coming to him already filled with suspicions
against which she strove vainly to fight, reflected the paleness and
haggard looks which startled her. For the moment both masks had
dropped, and these human beings, devoured by terror, stared at one
another as though the fabled Gorgon had changed them into stone.
Arnold was the first to recover himself. He smoothed his face to a
smile, and held out his hands, which she took in a passive manner. "I
did not expect to see you here, dearest," he said, leading her to a
chair. "But how ill you look. Nothing is wrong, I hope."
Laura sat down still gazing at him, but did not reply. "How does my
sister's maid come to be in this house?" she asked abruptly.
"Your sister's maid?" he repeated, staring.
"Yes; Emily Doon. I saw her in the hall as the landlady let me in. As
soon as she caught sight of me she vanished down the stairs to the
basement. And those two men----"
"One question at a time, dear," said Arnold calmly. He had now quite
recovered his composure, and was prepared to deal with the situation.
"And I shall answer the last first. The men who left me are a Mr.
Jasher and Professor----"
"Bocaros," cried Laura, striking her gloved hands together. "I thought
I knew his face. I saw him once at Mrs. Baldwin's. He lives in a
cottage across the meadow, and sometimes comes to borrow her paper.
What a horrid face--what a detestable man!"
Arnold looked rather surprised at her vehemence. "I certainly do not
like the professor, and I met him to-day for the first time. It
happens oddly enough that we are connected."
"Connected?" echoed Laura. "Wait; I have some sort of idea. The
professor told Mr. Tracey that he was a cousin of this woman who was
killed at Ajax Villa----"
"Her mother was the aunt of Bocaros," explained Calvert.
"And you are a cousin of the dead woman?"
"She was Flora Calvert before she married Brand, the daughter of my
uncle. Bocaros and I are connected in a way by marriage. As to Mrs.
Fane's maid being here--we shall soon learn the reason," and he
touched the button of the electric bell.
Mrs. Varney, with her majestic air and false smile, answered so
rapidly that it would seem she had been watching, if such a stately
female would descend so low. She smiled ingratiatingly on Laura, who,
without waiting for Arnold to speak, put the question. "I saw my
sister's maid, Emily Doon, as I entered," she said; "what is she doing
here?"
"What eyes you have, miss, I declare," said Mrs. Varney in her deep
voice. "Yes, miss, it is Emily. She is my younger sister. I was a Miss
Doon before I became Mrs. Varney. Your sister kindly gave Emily
permission to spend a happy day with me, and this afternoon we are
going to a matinée--_Hamlet_," said the landlady in her most serious
voice, "the whole of it--lasting five hours."
Having thus stated her case, Mrs. Varney waited in the attitude of a
startled fawn for a reply. Laura apologised. "I beg your pardon for
asking," she said colouring; "it is, of course, none of my business,
but I was naturally surprised at seeing Emily here."
"Ah," Mrs. Varney cast a look at Arnold, "we know all, miss. Emily has
told me. Juliet's garden--and the Forest of Arden----"
"We are engaged, Mrs. Varney," said Arnold, enraged by the
impertinence of the landlady.
With her false smile she turned to the door. "Certainly, sir, but as
Miss Mason is in the Forest of Arden I would like her to know that
Emily is likewise there. That was why she was in the hall. She has an
eye to Professor Bocaros," burst out Mrs. Varney with pride; "he
admiring her greatly, and living in the vicinity of Ajax Villa.
Good-day, miss, and----" the landlady looked as though she would have
liked to add, "Bless you!" but an imperious glance from Arnold sent
her rapidly out of the room. Stately as Mrs. Varney was, she loved to
be bullied as all women in their hearts do. Arnold's imperious manner
only made her admire him the more. Had he been a bully in addition,
she would doubtless have adored him.
"I don't like it, Arnold," said Laura, starting to her feet when the
door closed. "Professor Bocaros, in spite of his looks and poverty, is
a gentleman. Why should he take notice of Emily, who is merely a
servant? And she is here--oh, what does it mean?"
Arnold, amazed by this outburst, looked at her in surprise. "My dear,
what does it matter?" he said, pressing her to resume her seat. "I
don't care if Bocaros marries a laundress. He has nothing to do with
me."
"He is a dangerous man, and you are in his way."
"Am I? What do you mean?"
"Can't you understand, Arnold? He told Mr. Tracey that his cousin and
yours, Mrs. Brand, intended to leave him the money. I learned from
Mrs. Baldwin, who heard it from the professor himself, that you have
got the ten thousand a year. The professor is poor--from what Mrs.
Baldwin told me he is wretchedly poor. Do you think such a man will
tamely submit to the loss of a fortune? No, Arnold, no. He is
dangerous. Take care. If Emily Doon has an eye to marrying the
professor, she is not in this house for nothing."
Calvert tried to soothe the excited girl. "My dear, you are unduly
suspicious. Mrs. Varney has given us the reason for the maid's being
here. Bocaros cannot harm me in any way----"
"Are you so sure?" asked Laura sharply.
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"I mean that you will not be open with me. I love you. Have I not
proved how I love you. Julia is against our marriage: but in spite of
what she says I have remained true to you. Yet you will not trust me?"
"With what? I am quite in the dark."
He may have been. Yet there was a deep colour in his cheeks, and he
looked uneasy. Laura saw these symptoms of emotion, and placed her
hands on his shoulders. "Arnold," she said earnestly, "if you have any
love for me you will speak out. Look at this!" she hastily drew from
her pocket the stage dagger. "This is yours?"
"It is," he admitted readily, and with a look of great surprise. "If
you remember it was bought by me for the second act of this play. I
showed it to you and----"
"You did. You showed it to me before the murder!"
Arnold looked at her in silence. "Perhaps you will permit me to
explain," he said coldly, "as I really do not understand what you mean
by such a speech. I lost that dagger----"
"You threw it into the dustbin after killing that poor woman!"
"Laura!" Calvert rose to his feet pale and trembling. From being a
calm and resolute man he suddenly seemed to change into a coward. With
white lips and a drooping figure, he stood in the middle of the room.
"You will never say anything more cruel than that to me," he said in a
low voice, and covered his face.
Laura looked with sudden joy overspreading her face. "You are
innocent," she cried, running to throw her arms round his neck. "I
knew it. I was certain. Dearest, I never believed--never. I said what
I did say only to try you. But I know now that you did not kill this
woman. I feel it in my heart. You forgive me--you forgive me--come,
kiss me, Arnold--kiss me and make friends."
In a lifeless manner he kissed her, and then submitted to be taken to
his former seat. "Now that we understand one another," said Laura,
sitting down and keeping his hand imprisoned within her own, "we must
have a long talk. You are innocent----"
"How can you be sure of that?"
"Because I am," she replied determinedly. "No, Arnold. Even if you
swore that you were guilty I would not believe it. I tried you by
making what you truthfully call a cruel speech, and your reply,
although it may sound nothing to other people, brought conviction into
my heart. But if I trust you, other people don't. This dagger!"
"Where was it found?" asked Calvert, examining it, but still pale.
"In the dustbin. The cook found it. She brought it to Julia, who
pretended that it was one she had worn at a fancy ball. Then Julia
hinted at your guilt, from the fact that you must have worn such a
dagger in the second act of the play. I denied that this was so, and
came to see you. Arnold, you must be plain with me. For some time,
since the murder in fact, you must have seen how I have avoided
you--how I have kept out of your way."
"Yes," he said with bitterness, "I saw that. When I called at the
house on that day a week or so ago, you avoided me. You have hardly
replied to my letters save in the coldest way. You suspect me----"
"No," answered Laura quickly; "I do not, though I have cause to."
Arnold looked at her keenly. "What do you mean?" he asked quietly.
"Surely you remember the appointment you made with me?"
"What appointment?" he said, still eyeing her, and the colour again
ebbing from his face.
"For the night of the 24th July at half-past nine--on the very night
that poor creature was killed."
"Laura!" his voice was firmer now, and his looks expressed amazement;
"it was you who made the appointment. You sent me----"
"Wait, Arnold. One thing at a time. There is something terrible and
mysterious about this. I suspect pitfalls and snares likely to bring
us into danger. I say, and I can prove it, that you made the
appointment. I have your letter in my pocket asking me to meet you at
half-past nine on that night. I would have destroyed it so as to put
away all evidence of your having been at Ajax Villa on that night, but
I kept it, as I wished to show it to you, and to ask how you came to
gain possession of Walter's latch-key!"
"You sent it to me!" he said, much astonished. "I have your letter
also. The key was lost."
"You dropped it in the road when you spoke to the policeman?"
Arnold nodded. "But how did you guess that I was the man who left the
house--the man for whom the police are searching?"
"Mulligan described your dress and said you had a pointed beard. You
have such a suit and such a beard in the last act of the play. I knew
then that you came later than I expected to keep the appointment, and
in your hurry you had left the theatre without waiting to change your
clothes or take off the false beard."
"In that case," said Arnold, very pale, "you must think me guilty of
Flora's death, seeing that I left the house when----"
"No," interrupted Laura quickly; "you did not come, at half-past nine,
for I was at the gate waiting for you. I rang the bell, since you said
you would admit me in your letter. As you came finally in your stage
clothes, you must have been unable to get away earlier from the
theatre. Therefore, as Flora was murdered before nine o'clock you must
be innocent. But I never thought you guilty," she added tenderly,
wreathing her arms round his neck, and whatever any one said I would
never believe you killed the woman. You are not the man to commit a
brutal murder. "Yet Arnold," her arms dropped and she looked anxious,
"the evidence is strong. This dagger is yours, you left the house, the
police are looking for you and----"
"All that goes for nothing, seeing I was not at the house before nine
o'clock."
"You were not?" she exclaimed joyfully.
"No! Listen, Laura, and I will tell you the whole truth and you will
see why I kept silent. Like yourself--seeing that you deny writing the
letter----"
"Show it to me. We must have a clear ground before we can go further.
Here is the letter I received. Look at it while I see if Mrs. Varney
is lurking outside. I don't trust that woman, and now that I know my
sister's maid, who loves Professor Bocaros, is here, I trust her less
than ever. O Arnold, how I wish I had come to see you before!"
"It would have been better. Why did you not?"
"I was afraid. Arnold, how could I come to you and declare that the
man I loved was guilty? I did not believe it--no--but I knew that you
had the key--that you had been in the house on that night!"
"I can explain that," said Calvert quickly; "see if all is safe and
return to your seat."
While Laura peered outside the door, he opened a cash-box and took
therefrom a letter. This he laid open on the desk beside the letter
given to him by Laura. When she returned, having ascertained that the
coast was clear, he pointed to this last. "I never wrote that," he
said firmly; "it is a forgery."
"And the letter you received is one also," said Laura, staring at the
document; "and oh, what a clumsy one! See--I do not separate my words
like that. I often forget to dot my 'i's' and cross my 't's.' The
signature is excellent--exactly like mine, but the rest of the letter
is very bad--not at all a good imitation."
"But you will observe," said Arnold, pointing again, "that you end
'yours in haste.' I thought the hurried writing was thereby accounted
for. Although I never suspected but that the letter was yours, I
certainly thought that the calligraphy was different to your usual
neat handwriting."
"I always write neatly," she replied, "and this letter is one I should
have been ashamed to send out. But I use this colour and texture of
paper," she sniffed it, "and the same kind of scent. I wonder how the
person who forged this came to get my stationery. But, Arnold, your
letter is written from the theatre--here is the printed name both on
the envelope and inside sheet. How could I doubt but that the letter,
was yours. It came to me by post at Mrs. Baldwin's."
"And yours containing the latch-key came on the afternoon of the 24th
July. It was delivered by messenger to Mrs. Varney, who brought it to
me."
"What do you mean by containing the latch-key?"
"Let us examine the letter first. Then you will see!"
The letter to Arnold at his lodgings, written on perfumed,
lavender-tinted paper, contained a few hurried lines asking him to
meet Laura at Ajax Villa on the night of the 24th July at half-past
nine. "I may be a little late," the letter continued, "so I send you the
latch-key, which I got from Walter who is at the seaside. You can let
yourself in." The letter ended with an admonition not to fail to keep
the appointment, and was signed with what appeared unmistakably to be
Laura Mason's signature.
"I never wrote a line of it," said Laura, very pale; "and I never sent
the latch-key. Walter was at the seaside certainly, but he would not
have given me the key out of fear of Julia. I stopped with the
Baldwins and never went to the villa while Julia was away."
"The letter to Laura at Mrs. Baldwin's, written on paper belonging to
the Frivolity Theatre, likewise contained a few hurried lines saying
that the writer would be with her as asked, at half-past nine on the
night of the 24th of July, that he would obey instructions if he was
early and admit her into the house if she rang the bell. It also
stated that his understudy would play his part in _The Third Man_ so
that the appointment could be kept.
"I never wrote a line of that," said Arnold when Laura had finished
reading the letter. "When did you get it?"
"On the afternoon of the 24th. I was astonished, as I knew I had not
written you a letter about the villa, and I wondered how you would be
able to let me in."
"Now observe, Laura," said Calvert, sitting down, "both these letters
are delivered to you and I so late that there is no chance of our
meeting for an explanation save at Ajax Villa. It seems to me like a
trap--whether for you or for me I cannot say--perhaps for us both."
"Did you really come to the villa?" asked Laura, knitting her brows.
"I did. You were right in your guess about my being the man who spoke
to Mulligan. When I received your letter I asked the manager to let my
understudy take the part. He made some objection, but finally he gave
permission for the change. Then I came home, intending to keep the
appointment at half-past nine, and wondering what you wished to say,
seeing that we had met three days previously, and then you had given
no hint of your possession of the latch-key."
"I wondered in exactly the same way," exclaimed the girl. "I said to
Mrs. Baldwin on Saturday night--_the_ night you know--that I would go
out for a stroll, the evening being hot. Gerty was at the theatre with
Mr. Tracey. I then went to the villa at half-past nine or a little
later. I did not see you, and but few people were about. I slipped
into the garden so as not to be seen waiting in the road. I was afraid
lest any of Julia's friends should see me. I then rang the bell
somewhere near a quarter to ten, thinking you had arrived and were
within. I rang and rang but no one appeared, so I fancied you had not
been able to get away from the theatre, and returned to Mrs. Baldwin.
I said I had been strolling in the Nightingales' Walk."
"Did you see a light in the room where the crime was committed?"
"No! Had I done so I should have waited. But the villa was quite in
darkness," said the girl decisively. "You did not come?"
"I did later. There was a chapter of accidents. I came home rather
tired and lay down to sleep after dinner. When I awoke it was nine
o'clock. How I came to oversleep myself I can't say. I usually waken
when I wish. Then a message came from the theatre just as I was
getting ready to come--although I knew I would be late for the
appointment. My understudy was taken ill, so I had to go back and
finish the play. Afterwards, so eager was I to see if you were
waiting, that I left the theatre without changing my clothes. I took a
fast cab and reached Achilles Avenue about twenty or fifteen minutes
to eleven."
"Did you drive up to the door?" asked Laura.
"No; I thought, for your sake, it was best to keep my visit quiet. I
left the cab in Circe Street, and walked to the villa. No one was
about. I went into the garden, but did not see you. I then walked into
the house, letting myself in by the front door. I knew that you must
have gone away, but I opened the door, just to see if you had left a
note. Also I saw a light on the second story and fancied you must have
got in and were perhaps waiting for me. These things are rather
contradictory," added Arnold, passing his hand across his face, "but
the mystery of your letter and the appointment rather worried me.
However, I went in, and up to the White Room. There I saw a woman
lying, dead face upwards on the mat before the piano. I saw that she
was my cousin and was horrified. I turned the body over, and found
the wound. She had been murdered. I was horrified. At first I intended
to give the alarm. Then I thought that I might be accused of the
crime----"
"But you had no motive," said Laura, "unless you knew that the money
would come to you in the event of her death."
"I did not know that," said Arnold quickly; "no one was more
astonished than I when I heard of the will. But at the time I was
overcome by the horror of the deed. I had not my wits about me. I
wondered how Flora came there. Then, my being her cousin and having
the latch-key. O Laura, can you not guess that I lost my head! waited
to see how I could escape. I went down the stairs, and then opened the
door. Mulligan was leaning over the gate. I went and spoke to him, and
escaped in the way the papers stated. I lost the latch-key and so I
was connected with the matter. Thanks to my stage dress and make-up,
no one thought I was the man mentioned in the papers. I did not come
forward at the inquest. Now that the money has come to me, I dare
not come forward. Here is the motive for the commission of the
crime,"--Arnold walked up and down the room feverishly---"no one will
believe me guiltless. Laura, don't ask me any more. The peril of my
position overwhelms me."
"Darling." Laura rose to embrace him. "I believe in your innocence. We
will find out who killed the woman. Do you suspect any one?"
"No," said Arnold after a pause, and with an effort; "how can I suspect
any one? I know very little of my cousin. But now that I have the
money, I intend to learn the truth. Laura, Professor Bocaros seems to
suspect me. I can't say why he should. He cannot possibly know I was
at the villa on that night. He brought Jasher to me, and to avert all
suspicion, I engaged Jasher to hunt for the assassin."
"O Arnold, have you laid that bloodhound on your own track?"
"Yes; it seems foolish, but it is wise. Even if Jasher does learn that
I was at the villa, he will say nothing if I pay him well. He is a
venal creature, as I gathered this morning. He may find the real
criminal, and take this horror out of my life. If he does not, he will
never hurt me if I pay. It is the professor I fear."
"We must keep the professor quiet, Arnold. Let Mr. Jasher hunt. He may
learn the truth, and that is better than this suspense. But what of
the dagger I brought you?"
"It is mine. But after showing it to you I went to see my cousin. I
left it there, I fancy, and it must have been Flora who took it to
Ajax Villa--Heaven knows why! Laura, what is to be done?"
"Wait! wait!" she said, with her arms round him. "You are innocent,
and your innocence will be proved. You employ Jasher. I shall ask Mr.
Tracey to help me."