LORD DERRINGTON EXPLAINS
George was rather puzzled to reconcile the apparent contradiction in
Derrington's speech. The old gentleman saw his bewilderment, and
before the young man could speak he anticipated his question.
"You are perplexed," he said quietly. "I thought you would be. To
explain myself clearly it will be better to tell you the whole story
from the beginning."
"What story?"
"The story of your mother's marriage and of my quarrel with your
father. Do not be afraid, I shall say nothing to hurt your pride."
George nodded. "I am sure of that. We are friends now."
Derrington was much gratified by this speech. But he merely
acknowledged it with a grunt and began his family history at once.
"Your father and I never got on well," he said frankly, "and I fear it
was my fault. I wanted Percy to obey me implicitly, and as he was of
an age to judge for himself he objected. You would have done the like
in his case."
"I certainly should, sir. Every man should judge for himself."
"If he has brains to do so. But I fear Percy was not overburdened with
brains. He was gay and thoughtless and thriftless. Your talents,
George, come from your mother. She must have been a remarkable woman."
"So Mr. Ireland says."
"Pooh! he was in love with her, and a man in love is incapable of
giving an opinion. However, I saw your mother several times when she
sang, although I never met her to speak to. She was very beautiful and
had an intellectual face. Yes, George, it is from her that you inherit
your brain. From my side of the family you inherit a strong will and a
propensity to fight. There is Irish blood in our veins," said
Derrington, grimly.
"Was my father a fighter?"
"In a way, yes. But he had not a strong will, save in resisting me."
George smiled and said nothing, but he privately thought that if Mr.
Percy Vane could hold his own against Derrington he must have had a
stronger will than the old gentleman gave him credit for.
"However, to continue," pursued Derrington, pushing away his empty
cup. "Percy saw Miss Lockwood, he fell in love with her, and finally
he eloped. I wrote him a letter saying he was to return or I would
never see him again. He declined to return, and remained on the
Continent with his wife. I never did see him again," added Derrington,
quietly, "for three years later he was murdered at San Remo."
"In his letter to you did my father say he was married?"
"He did; but at the time, as he did not say where the marriage was
celebrated, I thought he mentioned it out of obstinacy."
George colored. "I don't see why you should have so misjudged my
mother," he said hotly. "Admitting that she was not born in the
purple, she was in a good position and had no reason to run away with
my father."
"She was in love with him, I believe."
"Even then she would not have eloped, unless it was to be married."
Derrington nodded. "You are perfectly right," he said; "I tried to
disbelieve in the marriage, but in my own heart I knew there was one.
I have behaved very badly, George."
"You have, sir. But as we are now reconciled the less said about the
thing the better. You are quite sure you do not know where the
marriage was celebrated?"
"No, George, I do not. After the death of your father I tried to find
out, but it was impossible. Had I really seen the register of the
marriage I should have acknowledged you as my heir. As a matter of
fact," added Derrington, with a burst of candor, "I did not trouble
much to search, as I feared lest the marriage should be verified."
George wriggled in his seat. "Let us say no more," he said.
"Very good. I have confessed my sins and I have received absolution
from you. At the present moment we will leave the murder of your
father at San Remo alone, and come to the appearance of Mrs. Jersey in
my life. You were with your grandfather Lockwood in Amelia Square. I
had constituted my second son my heir, and I had relegated to
obscurity the escapade of my son Percy. All was nicely settled, in my
humble opinion, when Mrs. Jersey appeared to make trouble. That was
eight years after your father's death."
"Where was she in the mean time?"
"I cannot say. She told me nothing of her history, but from a word or
two which she let slip I believe she must have been in the United
States. Why she went there from San Remo, or for what reason, I cannot
say. She came here to see me--we had an interview in this very
room--to demand money."
"What threat did she make?"
"That she would tell where the marriage took place,"
"And you bribed her to keep silence?"
Derrington winced at the scorn in his grandson's voice and took a turn
up and down the room. "I am no saint, I admit," he said, "and at the
time, George, I did not know that you would turn out such a fine
fellow. I dreaded a scandal, and there was your uncle to be
considered. I had made him my heir."
"And what about me, sir? Were the sins of my father to be placed on my
shoulders?"
"I have admitted that I was in the wrong," said Derrington,
impatiently, "spare me further sermons."
"I beg your pardon," said George, quietly. "But please touch as
lightly as possible on these matters. We will admit that you acted
according to your lights."
"False lights," said his grandfather, sadly. "However, we need speak
no more on that particular point. Mrs. Jersey said that she knew where
the marriage was celebrated, adding that if I did not give her an
annuity she would go to Lockwood and help him to prove that you were
my legitimate grandson and heir."
"Did she say if the marriage was celebrated in England or abroad?"
"No, sir; Mrs. Jersey was a remarkably clever woman, and if my son
Percy had married her she would have made a man of him."
"Then she really was in love with my father?"
"Very deeply in love--as she told me herself. But she did not regard
his memory with such veneration as to desire to aid his son. She was
content that you should lose your rights, provided that I paid her an
annuity. I tried in vain to learn from her where the marriage had been
celebrated. She refused to open her mouth, so I allowed her an annuity
of five hundred a year----"
"That was a large sum," interposed George.
Derrington shrugged his shoulders. "Much larger than I could afford,
my good sir," he said, "but Mrs. Jersey dictated her own terms. I
arranged that the money should be paid through my lawyers, and she
vanished."
"Where to?"
"I can't say. She might have gone to rejoin Mr. Jersey if there ever
was such a person. She sent a messenger regularly to the office of my
lawyers for the money, but did not trouble me in any way. Her next
appearance was shortly after the death of your grandfather."
"What did she want this time?"
"To set up a boarding-house in Amelia Square. She said that her life
was lonely--a remark which made me think Mr. Jersey was a myth--and
that she wanted company. I expect she learned in some way that I was
buying old Lockwood's house."
"Why did you buy it?"
"I have a lot of property in that district, and I wanted to round it
off with this house. Ireland, in his rage at me for my treatment of
your mother, would not have sold it to me. I bought the house through
an agent; Mrs. Jersey must have heard of the purchase, for it was then
that she came to me and asked me to set her up in the house as a
landlady."
"I wonder why she did that," said George, thoughtfully.
"She was lonely, I understand."
George looked at his shoes. "As Eliza Stokes she lived in that house
along with my mother previous to the elopement. I expect she had a
kind a affection for it."
"Well, whatever her reason was, I did what she asked. She agreed to
pay me a rent, and her money was as good as any one else's. Besides, I
felt that as my tenant I could keep her under my own eye. When she was
away I never knew but what she might die and part with the secret to
some one else, who might come on me for blackmail, also. I thought it
best Mrs. Jersey should have the house so she went into it and used
the old furniture. I don't deny but what she was a good business woman
and made the house pay. At all events she was never behindhand with
her rent."
"I wonder she paid you any at all."
"Oh, she had her annuity and was afraid of pressing me too hard. I
refused to let her the house on a seven years' lease. She only had it
from year to year, and in that way I kept a check on her. She knew if
I once lost my temper that I would throw her over and acknowledge you
as my heir."
"I wish you had done so," said Brendon, moodily; "it would have saved
a lot of trouble."
"I do so now," replied Derrington, testily; "better late than never.
Well, Mrs. Jersey lived and flourished for fifteen years. I tried to
find you out, George, lest she should get at you----"
"Oh, was that why you offered to make me an allowance?"
"It was. I intended to give you a yearly income on condition that you
went to Australia; then I could be sure that Mrs. Jersey would not
seek you out. But you refused my offer and disappeared."
"I went to college under the name of Brendon," observed George.
"And that is why Mrs. Jersey never found you, and why I could not come
across you until you put those advertisements about the marriage into
the papers. It was that which----"
"Yes, so Bawdsey told me. You had me watched."
"I did," said Derrington, "and in that way I found out that you were
going to stop in Mrs. Jersey's house."
"How did you learn that, sir?" asked George in surprise. "I never told
any one."
"Oh, yes, you told Lola."
"So I did," said Brendon, quickly; "she bothered me to come and see
her, and I said that I was going to stop in the neighborhood of Amelia
Square with a friend and would call on her the next day. I expect she
told this to Bawdsey.
"Exactly, and Bawdsey told me. I was afraid lest you should make Mrs.
Jersey confess. I wrote to her and asked her to see me. She refused to
come to my house, so I made up my mind to seek her out in Amelia
Square. I arranged by letter with her to call about eleven o'clock at
her place and see her secretly."
"Why secretly, and why at night?"
"Can't you see, George? My height and figure make me so conspicuous
that I knew I would be recognized if I went in the daytime, and then
people would ask themselves why Lord Derrington went to see a
lodging-house keeper."
"You could have put it down to her being a tenant."
"Ah," said Derrington, grimly, "I never thought of that. I received a
note from Mrs. Jersey saying she would wait for me on Friday evening
at eleven o'clock in her sitting-room; it was a foggy night, if you
remember."
"Very foggy. I suppose you traced the house by means of the red light
over the door."
"I did not trace the house at all," said Derrington, quietly. "I did
not go near the house."
"But I saw you," insisted George.
"You saw my coat and a man with my tall figure, and having my
association with yourself in your head you jumped to the conclusion
that the figure was me."
"Then if not you, who was the man?"
"Bawdsey!" said Derrington, curtly.
George stared. "In your coat?" he said incredulously.
"It seems strange," said Derrington, "but the fact is that Bawdsey is
one of the few who have got the better of me in my life. It was in
this way that he prevented me from seeing Mrs. Jersey. On that night I
visited him at his rooms, which then were in Bloomsbury. I desired to
tell him that I intended to see Mrs. Jersey and to warn her against
revealing anything. I don't suppose the warning was needed, as she
knew when she was well off. But the fact is, Mrs. Jersey was not in
good health and was feeling compunction about keeping you out of your
rights. I learned from Bawdsey that Mrs. Jersey had written out a
confession of the whole matter and that she intended to leave this to
her niece, Margery Watson, so that I might be forced to continue the
lease of the house."
George uttered an ejaculation. "I thought from what Margery said that
there was some such confession," he remarked, "but it is missing; it
was not found among her papers after her death. Unless Miss Bull took
it and forced you to----"
"No," interrupted Derrington, vigorously, "she came here quietly and
put the case of the poor girl to me. She also undertook that the rent
would be paid regularly, and that through Miss Watson she would manage
the house. I was quite satisfied with the existing arrangements, and,
moreover, thought that, if such a confession were found, out of
gratitude Miss Watson might bring it to me."
"If Miss Bull had told her to she would have done so but not
otherwise," said George; "she is under Miss Bull's thumb."
"The best place she could be, George. The girl is a born idiot from
what I saw of her. However, you know why I renewed the year-by-year
lease. Where the confession is I have no idea; but the person who
holds it will certainly make use of it some day to extort money, and
then we will learn who killed Mrs. Jersey."
"I dare say. The assassin must have taken the papers. Well?"
Derrington proceeded with his account of his doings on that night. "As
I said, I went to see Bawdsey at his rooms. I took a cab, and as the
fog was thick I had considerable difficulty in finding the place. The
rain and fog chilled me, for I am not so young as I was, and when I
arrived I was shivering. But I was too anxious to tell Bawdsey about
Mrs. Jersey, to trouble. He heated some water to give me a glass of
hot whisky. While the water was boiling I told him, I was going to see
Mrs. Jersey. He asked me how I could get into the house without being
admitted by one of the servants and thus run a chance of my visit
being known."
"Did it never strike him that Mrs. Jersey expected you and would admit
you when you rang?"
"Yes, it did strike him; but he knew that I didn't want any one to
know that she had a visitor so late at night."
"I don't know why you took all these precautions, sir."
Derrington smiled dryly. "Perhaps they were rather unnecessary, but I
thought it best to be on the safe side. As a matter of fact, I had a
latch-key."
"I thought that Mrs. Jersey never allowed latch-keys."
"This one came to me when I bought the house, and was given to me by
the agent. I told Mrs. Jersey I had it and that I would let myself in.
She expected me at eleven."
"I know she did," said George, "for on that night she asked the
boarders to be in bed by eleven, and broke up her party at ten. I
wondered if she was having any one to meet her then."
"She was expecting me. It was after ten when I told Bawdsey, and I
explained to him that I had a latch-key. He gave me the whisky, and,
being chilled, I drank it. Then I fell asleep."
George looked up suddenly. "The whisky was drugged," he guessed.
"It was," assented Derrington, "and while I was insensible Bawdsey
took the latch-key out of my pocket and put on my coat. He is rather
my height, so with that and the fur coat I expect he passed himself
off as me to Mrs. Jersey until she saw his face."
"When she did, she would have nothing to do with him. Although," added
George, "he was an old boarder in the house."
"Wait till I tell you the rest," said Derrington, "and then you can
give an opinion. When I woke it was after twelve. I never suspected
that the whisky had been drugged, and thought that it was some sort of
illness. Bawdsey was in the room when I awoke. He did not tell me that
he had been to Mrs. Jersey, and I now saw that it was too late to go.
He advised me to see her on the morrow, saying that it was doubtful if
you would speak to her on that night."
"I intended to wait till the next day, but, as a matter of fact, I
became anxious to see if any one was with her, and I went down the
stairs."
"By means of that secret door. Bawdsey told me."
"Well, I crept downstairs, and saw--as I thought--you. It was, of
course, Bawdsey. He was standing at the door of the sitting-room. I
was afraid lest you--as I thought it was--should see me, so I went
upstairs again."
"And Bawdsey left the house. However, I never suspected him. I went
home and found Mrs. Ward waiting for me. She came to tell me that she
had heard from Dorothy that you purposed to stop with Train at Mrs.
Jersey's house, and came to warn me."
"How good of Mrs. Ward!"
"She is a dangerous woman, George. I threw my coat on yonder sofa, and
she sat near it. Feeling something in the pocket, her curiosity led
her to take out the something when I was absent from the room. It was
a stiletto."
George started from his seat. "A stiletto?"
"Yes." Derrington opened the drawer in his desk and took out the
weapon which Mrs. Ward had brought. "This was between the fur and the
lining of the coat. What with the weight of the coat and the position
of this weapon lying along the bottom of the coat, I never suspected
it. I brought it home quite unconsciously. Mrs. Ward found it, took it
away with her, and came the other day to accuse me of having murdered
Mrs. Jersey."
"How dare she do such a thing?"
"Oh, Mrs. Ward is capable of all things! However you can see from what
I tell you what happened. Bawdsey put the stiletto in my coat and
either forgot to take it out or left it there so that I might be
incriminated."
"Did he tell you this?"
"He told me, when I rebuked him too sharply, that he could get me into
trouble, and explained how he had been in the house. He also referred
to the stiletto. I denied that I had seen it, and it was only when
Mrs. Ward brought it the other day that I saw that this part of
Bawdsey's story was true."
"What did you do?"
"I accused him of having killed the woman."
"What did he say?"
"He denied that he had done so. He declared that he went to Mrs.
Jersey's sitting-room door close upon twelve, having let himself in
noiselessly by the front door. He discovered Mrs. Jersey lying dead,
as she was found in the morning. On the floor was the stiletto.
Fearing lest he should be accused of the crime, Bawdsey left the house
quickly, but took the stiletto with him so that he might find out who
had done the deed. He changed his mind or left it by mistake in my fur
coat."
"Did he ask money?"
"No. He has not done so yet. But he told me very plainly that no one
could prove that he had been in the house on that night, and that if
he had been seen, the coat would make people think it was I."
"Exactly what I did think," said George.
"Well, I had to hold my tongue for you see I was in a most awkward
position and I could prove nothing. I bluffed Mrs. Ward, but if the
matter came into court things would look extremely unpleasant for me."
"I can see that," said Brendon, "but Bawdsey----"
"He has made himself secure, as no one can prove that he was in the
house on that night. Even you thought it was I. I can't say for
certain if Bawdsey committed the murder, or if he really did find the
woman dead as he said, but he swears to his innocence. As yet he has
not made any use of his power, but I am quite sure that he will try
and get money out of me, so I have asked you here to advise me about
the matter."
"Do you think Bawdsey has the confession?"
"He may have. If so, he knows where the marriage was celebrated!"
Brendon mused for a time. "I think it best to do nothing at the
present moment," he said. "Bawdsey is friendly to me, as I saved him
from being run over. If he thought I knew this he might turn crusty
and make trouble. Better wait."
"For what?" asked Derrington, restlessly.
"To see what he will do. If he does blackmail you, call me in."
Derrington drew a long breath. "Yes. I think you are right," he said.
"We will wait. But I don't trust that man."
"He's a scoundrel," said George, "but I know how to conquer him."