After the Seance.-- Daddy, the "Accommodation Husband."-- The
two fascinating Swindlers in Council.-- Miss Evalena's
European Career.-- How the Millionaire Brewer was baited
and played with.-- A Bit of Criminal History.-- A choice
Pair.-- Mrs. Winslow's Aspirations and Resolves.
It appeared that Miss Evalena Gray and Mlle. Leveraux, and their male
companions, or affinities, did not reside at No. 19 West Twenty-first
street, but in more modest quarters farther down-town; and after the
assemblage had dispersed, the two Misses, an attendant or two, a tall,
gaunt, meek-looking fellow, whom the no longer angelical Evalena called
"Daddy," and a very fascinating young man called in the advertisements
W. Sterling Bischoff, manager, were gathered in the front parlor
previous to being driven home, when W. Sterling said quickly, and as if
suddenly recollecting something which it would not be profitable for him
to forget:
"See here, Gray; 'most forgot. Here's a note sent over from the Fifth
Avenue. None of your larks now!"
The person addressed so familiarly as Gray was none other than the
interesting Evalena, who, putting her languor aside, and snatching the
note from the "manager," said:
"Give it here, now! I'll lark if I like, and _you_ won't hinder."
"But there's Mr. Gray," persisted the manager, nodding towards the meek,
gaunt man, whose lips seemed to move, though he ventured no remark.
"Oh, Daddy don't mind, do you, Daddy?"
[Illustration: _"Oh daddy don't mind:--do you daddy?"--_]
"Daddy" was Miss Evalena Gray's husband, but was under such peculiarly
good spiritual "control" that he merely smiled a sickly smile and
murmured that he believed not.
Miss Gray proceeded to examine the note without waiting for the timid
Mr. Gray's opinion, and suddenly exclaimed:
"Gracious! I'm going right over there!"
"What for?" inquired Bischoff anxiously, while Mr. Gray's lips pursed
into the form of an unspoken inquiry; "man or woman, eh?"
"None of your business!" she answered promptly. "Here, Leveraux, help me
on with my wrappings. You drive home. A friend of mine that I haven't
seen for all the last three years is stopping over there, and wants to
see me. I may stay all night. If I shouldn't want to, I'll order a
carriage and come down in an hour or two."
The three, who were elegantly supported by this woman's juggleries,
seemed to realize that there was no use of opposing her; and without
knowing whether it was a man or woman she intended visiting at that hour
of the night, went gloomily home, while a few minutes later Miss Gray,
unannounced, and at the unseasonable hour of eleven o'clock, was
knocking at the door of Mrs. Winslow's room.
In a moment more, though Mrs. Winslow was on the point of retiring, and
was in that easy _déshabillé_ in which women love to wander about, doing
a hundred unmentionable and unimportant things before getting into bed
for good, Miss Gray was pushing her lithe form through the cautiously
opened door, and at once unlimbered her tongue and her reserve; the
result of which, as noted by my operative, showed the eminent vulgarity
of the two female frauds, and illustrated the fact that whatever
pretensions they might make, their conversation alone would serve to
discover the inherent and low vileness of their character.
"Oh, you dear old fraud!" said Evalena, entering, after Mrs. Winslow had
virtuously given herself sufficient time to ascertain that there was no
evil-minded man at the door, and had gladly admitted her visitor; "if
you've got any other company, of course I won't come!"
Mrs. Winslow laughed knowingly, and then told her visitor how really
glad she was to see her. She was sincere in this, and sincerity, even in
a bad cause, is a redeeming feature.
"Well, well, you rascal," continued Miss Gray in a jolly, rollicking
sort of a way, "couldn't wait until to-morrow. Where _have_ you been,
what _have_ you been doing, and how _are_ you, anyhow? Come, now, tell
me all about yourself!"
Saying this in a kind of a rush of excitement, Miss Gray settled
herself in a corner of the luxurious sofa, pulled her feet under her to
get a more comfortable position, and like an interested philosopher,
waited for and listened to the narrative which comprised many of the
facts I have given; but instead of telling the whole truth, only gave
that part of it which made her appear to have been eminently successful
in her swindling operations, and showed life with her to have been
floating calmly upon one continuous, peaceful stream.
"And now, Evalena," said Mrs. Winslow, rounding off her story with a
great flourish over what she was to make out of Lyon, whom she described
as still madly in love with her, "where have _you_ been, and what have
_you_ been doing since I saw you at Chardon?"
The glib tongue of the marvellous Physical Spiritual Medium began at
once, and she rattled away at a terrible rate.
"Well, I've got the same husband----"
"Oh, pshaw!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow half contemptuously.
"But he's such a dear, good old fool that I can't throw him over. Why, I
can make him shrink from six feet two to two feet six by just looking at
him! Money couldn't hire such a devoted servant anywhere. He'll do just
anything I tell him; and if I want him out of the way for a few days,"
she continued with a comical wink, "I just give him a fifty-dollar bill
and say: 'Daddy, you don't look well; take a run into the country, and
I'll write for you when I want you!' He goes away then with his face
about a yard long. But he goes; and he never made a rumpus in his life!"
"Oh, that's quite another thing," said Mrs. Winslow, evidently relieved
to know that Miss Gray had had so good a reason for living so long a
time as three years with the same man.
"Yes, he's what I call an 'accommodation husband.' He accommodates me,
and I--" here Miss Gray sighed piously--"accommodate myself!"
"Exactly," remarked Mrs. Winslow, beginning to appreciate the pleasant
nature of such an arrangement.
"Well," resumed the marvellous medium, "we went all through the Ohio
towns giving _exposés_; went out through Chicago, and then down to St.
Louis. But the _exposé_ business didn't pay. We found that people would
pay more money to be humbugged than to learn how some other person might
be deluded!"
"Every time!" tersely observed Mrs. Winslow.
"So at St. Louis we resolved to become Spiritualists."
"The very best thing you could have done!" said Mrs. Winslow
approvingly.
"And at Quincy," resumed Evalena, "we blossomed out. Oh, but didn't the
papers go for us, though!--called us everything."
"D----n the newspapers, anyhow!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow in a burst of
indignation over her own wrongs.
"Oh, no, no, no! _that_ won't do. Make huge advertising bills. That's
better--much better. That's what _we_ did, and we made big money too. By
and by we came on here to New York, made a huge show, took in a vast
pile, and then went to Europe. Oh, that's the only way to do it!"
"Yes," said Mrs. Winslow with a deep sigh. "I have often felt the want
of that peculiar tone which going to Europe gives one."
"Well, we did have a gay time, though," said Miss Gray in a dreamy way,
as if ruminating over her conquests; "and at Venice--oh, that delicious,
ravishing, dreamful Venice!--I bilked a swarthy nobleman from the
mountains out of five thousand dollars. At Rome I did a swell American
out of everything he had. At Vienna, a Hungarian wine-grower fell, and I
trampled upon him as his brutes of peasants beat out the grapes in
vintage-time. At Berlin a German student killed himself for me; and at
St. Petersburg I fooled the Czar himself. But when I got back to London
I got better game than him."
"Bigger game than the Czar? Oh, my!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow, thinking
how she had wasted her sweetness on two detectives like Bristol and Fox.
"Well, bigger game this way," pursued little Miss Gray, reasoning it out
slowly. "This Spiritualistic business can only be played on low,
ignorant people ordinarily. Get the recognition of so big a man as one
of the wealthiest brewers in Great Britain, and then, if Miss Gray has
money and can open sumptuous parlors in so fashionable a vicinity as
Madison Square, and can own a quarter of a column of the New York papers
every day, Miss Evalena Gray's fortune is made. Do you see?"
Mrs. Winslow did see, but wanted to know how she had secured such
approval.
Her companion looked at her a moment in blank astonishment; then drawing
down the corners of her mouth as if protesting against such verdancy on
the part of so old a Spiritualistic soldier as Mrs. Winslow, gave a very
expressive series of winks, broke into loud laughter, and then suggested
that if she wanted anything like _that_ explained it would be no more
than fair to order either Krug or Monopolé to help her through so dreary
a recital; whereupon the latter did as requested, and after the two had
washed down a ribald toast with wine, the angelic Miss Gray continued:
"Well, you see, we came directly from St. Petersburg to London, and got
up a big excitement there right off. The _Times_ denounced us, and we
replied savagely through the _Telegraph_ at a half-crown a line. We kept
this up until all London was engaged in the controversy, and our rooms
were constantly thronged."
"What luck!" sighed Mrs. Winslow, sipping her wine.
"By and by the 'nobbies' got discussing the matter at the clubs. We
challenged examination by committees everywhere, of course, and one day
a batch of M.P.s, clergymen, merchants, and all that, came down upon us.
I picked out one man named Perkins--a brewer from the Surrey side, and
one of the wealthiest men in all England, and a man of education and
standing, too--for game right off."
"Must be lots of fools over in London," remarked Mrs. Winslow, as if
she would like to help pluck them.
"Yes," answered Miss Gray, "and millions in this country. We're going to
take a run over to Washington this winter."
"I would if I had your talent," replied her companion.
"Well," resumed the medium, "I saw Perkins was an easy-going fellow, and
I wrote him, saying it was something unusual for me to do, but as the
'spirits'"--here Miss Gray winked very hard at Mrs. Winslow, who
snickered--"had revealed to me that he was an arrant unbeliever, but at
the same time a fair, honorable man, magnanimous enough to be just--I
wished him to make a private investigation."
"'Private investigation's' good!" said Mrs. Winslow, laughing heartily.
"Certainly good for me," continued the little medium in a self-satisfied
way. "He came, though, and I gave him my tricks in my best possible
style. I pretty nearly scared him to death. Then I let him tie me, and
the old man's hands trembled as he put the ropes around my waist and
over my bosom. 'Miss Gray,' said he tenderly, 'I shall injure you!' 'Mr.
Perkins,' I replied, also tenderly, 'the good spirits will protect me.
Pull the ropes tighter!'
"He pulled the ropes tighter and tighter, and finally got me tied. Then
he darkened the room and in a few minutes I was entirely free of the
ropes of course, and I told him to raise the curtain. As soon as he did
so I left, telling him I was ill; and as soon as I could change my
dress, came back and sat down with him. I got close to him--as close as
I am to you now, Mrs. Winslow--and then, putting my right hand on his
knee, and my left hand on his shoulder----"
"Splendid!" interrupted Mrs. Winslow, pouring more wine for the
ingenuous Miss Gray, and taking some herself.
"Then," continued Miss Gray, laughing in a peculiarly wicked manner, "I
got my face pretty close to his and asked: 'Mr. Perkins, I want you to
give me an answer that you are willing to have made public. On your
honor as a man, do you not now believe in the genuineness of these
spiritual manifestations produced through me?' 'I do,' he said
passionately, throwing his arms around me, and--and I don't know what he
would have done had not Leveraux entered the room at that supreme
moment!"
[Illustration: _"Leveraux entered the room at that supreme moment."--_]
"Oh, _I_ see!" murmured the other blackmailer.
"Think of it, Mrs. Winslow!" added Miss Gray tauntingly; "think of it!
In the arms of a man who can draw his check for a million sterling--and
poor little me from Chardon, Ohio!"
"My! but you are a little rascal, though!" said Mrs. Winslow admiringly.
"I always knew you'd make an impression somewhere."
"'Leveraux!' said I indignantly, and springing from Perkins's embrace
after I had kissed him in a way that set him shaking again, 'if you ever
breathe a word of this, or annoy Mr. Perkins in any manner under heaven,
I'll kill you! Go!'
"Poor Leveraux knew her cue and replied hotly, 'I'd kill myself before
I'd do so disgraceful an act!' and then flounced out of the room."
"_What_ a pair!" exclaimed Mrs. Winslow.
"He thought I was just perfectly splendid after that; kept coming and
coming, indorsed me publicly, got wild over me; but I held him at arm's
length for months, until I thought the man would really go crazy; and
finally--well, you know I told you Daddy was an 'accommodation husband,'
and if he hadn't been one after I had tripped up one of the richest men
in all England, I would have just hired somebody to have dumped him into
the Thames, sure!"
The sparkling flow of Miss Gray's experience was here interrupted by
Mrs. Winslow's ordering another bottle of wine, and after the couple had
partaken of the same, the spicy narrative was continued:
"But now comes the fun, Winslow. I can't tell you _how_ my rope trick is
done. I've got a little addition to it that makes it a regular
sensation. It don't hurt me a particle, and allows the strongest men to
pull away with all their might."
"I'd give a thousand dollars for it, Evalena," said her friend warmly.
"No good; no good for you," replied Miss Gray, critically looking over
Mrs. Winslow's splendid physical completeness. "Fact is, Winslow, you
aren't built exactly right for that kind of work. There's too much of
you to do the rope trick with eminent success. I played Daddy as my
brother, and myself for an innocent, so neatly that Perkins honestly
thought he had made a wonderful conquest. He believed it all, for he was
one of those honest fools--in fact, came near being too honest for me."
"Why, how?"
"Well, he installed me as his mistress in grand style; but, of course, I
insisted in giving seances and compelled public recognition through
_his_ public recognition of my 'wonderful spirit-power.' The man was so
infatuated that he bored me terribly with his visits. Why, I could
hardly get time to attend to business. You know we always have a stock
of ropes on hand in the seance-rooms, so that when any one objects to
the one I ordinarily use, there are always other ropes at hand that I
_can_ use. One night some fellow broke my best rope, and the next day I
was carelessly practising with another with my door unsecured. Perkins
had been down to Brighton for a week or two, and of course had to rush
over to see me the minute he got in London--to give me a 'happy
surprise,' I suppose. There I sat when he suddenly bolted into the room
and saw the thinness of the whole thing in an instant."
"What did he see?" asked Mrs. Winslow abruptly.
"You _are_ shrewd, Winslow, but you can't catch me that way; no, no, no!
But he did see the whole trick as dear as a June day. Do you think I
fainted?"
"Not much," said her companion tersely.
"No; but _he_ nearly did. He reeled and staggered as though he had been
struck by a sledge-hammer, and I saw in his face a determination to rush
from the room and denounce me to all London. It was make or break with
me then, Winslow, and with a bound I got to the door, turned the key,
and sent it crashing through a five-pound pane of glass into the street
below. Then I just whipped out this little derringer," she continued,
producing a beautifully mounted, though diminutive weapon, "just run it
right up under his eyes, and backed him into a seat."
"'Great God!' he whimpered, 'I'm undone! I'm undone!--what a very devil
you are!'
"My heart did go thumping to see the man used up so; but I had to be
rough, and said: 'Yes, I _am_ a devil, Perkins, and you must pledge me
your word--yes, you must take a solemn oath before that God you have
called upon, that you will never expose me, or I will blow your brains
out!'"
"Splendid! splendid!" ejaculated Mrs. Winslow. "Did he do it?"
"I should say he did do it! He got down on his knees and begged like a
baby. And do you know, my blood was up so then, and I so despised him
for his want of manliness, that I came within an ace of killing the
infernal booby!"
"He deserved it!" said Mrs. Winslow sympathetically.
"After I had him nearly scared to death," resumed the marvellous medium,
"I began reasoning with him, and, by being excruciatingly tender,
convinced him that by exposing me he would gain nothing, but would lose
in everything that a man of spirit prided in--honor, social reputation,
and business standing, and drew a lively picture of his disgrace at the
clubs and in social circles, and of the cartoons which would certainly
appear in _Punch_ and the other comic papers; and the result was that I
held on to his affection and his purse-strings by compelling him to feel
that my detaining him in the room and threatening to shoot him was the
only thing which prevented him from rashly ruining both. Altogether,
Winslow, I got over two thousand pounds out of him. He wasn't deprived
of a first-class mistress while I remained in London, and--and we are so
good friends now that every little while I get a splendid remittance
from him; and if I ever should want to go back, I could have the very
best in all England!"
"Well, well, well!" murmured Mrs. Winslow for the want of something
better with which to express her admiration.
"I _do_ think I played it pretty well," resumed Miss Gray; "and I made
him swallow it all, too. He really believed everything from the moment I
fell into his arms until he caught me with the ropes. I was his
spirit-wife--" another hard wink--"and he my only affinity. Leveraux
helped me in the whole thing splendidly.
"Who is Mlle. Willie Leveraux?" inquired Mrs. Winslow.
"She is a sister of Ed. Johnson, the 'bank-burster,' and a keen girl,
too," answered the medium.
"How did you happen to get hold of her?"
"Well, you see, Ed. Johnson, Mose Wogle, Frank Dean--'Dago Frank'--and
Dave Cummings, with Chief of Police McGillan and Detective Royal, of
Jersey City, put up a job on the First National Bank there. McGillan was
to keep everybody away from them; and he, or Royal, was to always remain
at headquarters to let the boys off if they got nabbed. They played it
as plaster-workers--Italians, you know--and began working from a room
over the bank down through the ceiling into the vault; but an old
scrub-woman about the place got suspicious, and had them arrested one
day when both McGillan and Royal happened to be in Philadelphia. They
had promised the boys help to break jail, but they failed everywhere;
and Willie, thinking to get Johnson off, went to the bank officers and
told them the whole story. They promised to help her brother, but said
her evidence would have to be corroborated. So she sent for McGillan and
Royal, got them into her rooms, then over on Thirty-seventh street, and
had a Hoboken official in a closet, with a stenographer, who took all
the conversation, which amounted to a complete confession of their
complicity. It never did any good, though. McGillan and Royal got the
most swearing done, and got clear; while Johnson and the rest of the
boys got fifteen years' solitary confinement in the New Jersey
penitentiary. It almost broke Willie down; but she is splendid help
now."
Mrs. Winslow drew a long sigh, and the two drank again to drown the
doleful feelings raised by this recital; for even high-toned and
uncaught criminals do not find the contemplation of stone walls and iron
bars by any means pleasant and refreshing; and with this lively history
of herself and her companions, the "Marvellous Physical Spiritual
Medium" called a servant, ordered a conveyance, and was driven home,
after having promised to call with her own carriage on the next day;
while Mrs. Winslow, after surveying her own magnificent physique as
reflected in the pier-glass, muttered:
"_I'll_ make an effort, go to Europe, and, like so many others, win fame
too!"
Then with a resolute toss of her head the adventuress plumped into her
bed, where, for aught we know, she carried on her vile conquests and
miserable villainies in her dreams the whole night long.