LEAH'S STORY.
Our dismayed faces might have formed a study for a painter, as we
stood in my room in Essex Street: the doctor, George Coney, Lennard
and myself. On the floor, between the hearthrug and the desk, lay the
dead man, the blaze of the fire and the gaslights playing on his
features. Mr. Brightman was dead. In my mental pain and emotion I
could not realize the fact; would not believe that it was true. He had
died thus suddenly, no one near him; no one, so far as was yet known,
in the house at the time. And to me, at least, there seemed to be some
mystery attaching to it.
But, at this particular moment, we were looking for George Coney's
sovereigns, which Mr. Brightman, not much more than an hour before,
had locked up in the deep drawer of his desk, returning the keys to
his pocket. After Dr. Dickenson had handed me the keys I unlocked and
opened the drawer. But the bag was not there.
If the desk itself had disappeared, I could not have been more
surprised. Lying in the drawer, close to where the bag had been, was a
gold watch belonging to Mrs. Brightman, which had been brought up to
town to be cleaned. That was undisturbed. "Coney," I exclaimed, "the
money is not here."
"It was put there," replied young Coney. "Next to that watch."
"I know it was," I answered. I opened the drawer on the other side,
but that was full of papers. I looked about on the desk; then on my
own desk, even unlocking the drawers, though I had had the key in my
own pocket; then on the tables and mantelpiece. Not a trace could I
see of the canvas bag.
"What bag is it?" inquired Dr. Dickenson, who, of course, had known
nothing of this. "What was in it?"
"A small canvas bag containing some gold that Mr. George Coney had
wished to leave here until Monday," I answered.
"'Twas one of our sample barley bags; I happened to have it in my
pocket when I left home," explained the young man. "My father's
initials were on it: S. C."
"How much was in it?" asked Lennard.
"Thirty pounds."
"I fear you will be obliged to go without it, after all," I said, when
I had turned everything over, "for it is not to be found. I will remit
you thirty pounds on Monday. We send our spare cash to the bank on
Saturday afternoons, so that I have not so much in the house: and I
really do not know where Mr. Brightman has put the cheque-book. It is
strange that he should have taken the bag out of the drawer again."
"Perhaps it may be in one of his pockets," suggested the doctor.
"Shall I search them?"
"No, no," interposed George Coney. "I wouldn't have the poor gentleman
disturbed just for that. You'll remit it to me, Mr. Strange. Not to my
father," he added, with a smile: "to me."
I went down with him, and there sat Leah at the bottom of the stairs,
leaning her head against the banisters, almost under the hall lamp.
"When did you come in, Leah?" I asked.
She rose hastily, and faced me. "I thought you were out, sir. I have
come in only this instant."
"What is the matter?" I continued, struck with the white, strange look
upon her face. "Are you ill?"
"No, sir, not ill. Trouble is the lot of us all."
I shook hands with George Coney as he got into his cab and departed,
and then returned indoors. Leah was hastening along the passage to
the kitchen stairs. I called her back again. "Leah," I said, "do you
know what has happened to Mr. Brightman?"
"No, sir," answered she. "What has happened to him?"
"You must prepare for a shock. He is dead."
She had a cloth and a plate in her hand, and laid them down on the
slab as she backed against the wall, staring in horror. Then her
features relaxed into a wan smile.
"Ah, Master Charles, you are thinking to be a boy again to-night, and
are playing a trick upon me, as you used to do in the old days, sir."
"I wish to my heart it was so, Leah. Mr. Brightman is lying upon the
floor in my room. I fear there can be no doubt that he is dead."
"My poor master!" she slowly ejaculated. "Heaven have mercy upon
him!--and upon us! Why, it's not more than three-quarters of an hour
since I took up some water to him."
"Did he ask for it?"
"He rang the bell, sir, and asked for a decanter of water and a
tumbler."
"How did he look then, Leah? Where was he sitting?"
"He was sitting at his table, sir, and he looked as usual, for all I
saw, but his head was bent over something he was reading. I put some
coals on the fire and came away. Mr. Charles, who is up there with
him?"
"Dr. Dickenson and----"
A knock at the door interrupted me. It proved to be the other doctor I
had sent for.
The medical men proceeded to examine Mr. Brightman more closely. I had
sent for the police, and they also were present. I then searched his
pockets, a policeman aiding me, and we put their contents carefully
away. But there was no bag containing gold amongst them. How had it
disappeared?
A most unhappy circumstance was the fact that I could not send for
Mrs. Brightman, for I did not know where she was. Mr. Brightman had
said she was out of town, but did not say where.
When Watts came home, I despatched him to the house at Clapham,
allowing him no time to indulge his grief or his curiosity. Leah had
knelt down by Mr. Brightman, tears silently streaming from her eyes.
The fire in the front room was relighted; the fire, the very coals,
which he, poor man, had so recently taken off; and I, Lennard and
Arthur Lake went in there to talk the matter over quietly.
"Lennard," I said, "I am not satisfied that he has died a natural
death. I hope----"
"There are no grounds for any other supposition, Mr. Strange," he
interrupted. "None whatever. _Are_ there?" he added, looking at me.
"I trust there are none--but I don't quite like the attendant
circumstances of the case. The loss of that bag of money causes all
sorts of unpleasant suspicions to arise. When you came to the house,
Lennard, did you go straight upstairs?" I added, after a pause.
"No, I went into the front office," replied Lennard. "I thought Sir
Edmund Clavering might still be here."
"Was Leah out or in?"
"Leah was standing at the front door, looking--as it seemed to
me--down the steps leading to the Thames. While I was lighting my
candle by the hall-lamp, she shut the front door and came to me. She
was extremely agitated, and----"
"Agitated?" I interrupted.
"Yes," said Lennard; "I could not be mistaken. I stared at her,
wondering what could cause it, and why her face was so white--almost
as white as Mr. Brightman's is now. She asked--as earnestly as if she
were pleading for life--whether I would stop in the house for a few
minutes, as Mr. Brightman had not gone, while she ran out upon an
errand. I inquired whether Sir Edmund Clavering was upstairs, and she
said no; he had left; Mr. Strange was out, and Mr. Brightman was
alone."
"Did she go out?"
"Immediately," replied Lennard; "just as she was, without bonnet or
shawl. I went up to your room, and tapped at the door. It was not
answered, and I went in. At first I thought the room was empty; but in
a moment I saw Mr. Brightman lying on the ground. He was dead even
then; I am certain of it," added Lennard, pausing from natural
emotion. "I raised his head, and put a little water to his temples,
but I saw that he was dead."
"It is an awful thing!" exclaimed Lake.
"I can tell you that I thought so," assented Lennard. "I knew that the
first thing must be to get in a doctor; but how I found my way up the
street to Dickenson's I hardly remember. No wonder I left the front
door open behind me."
I turned all this over in my mind. There were two points I did not
like--Leah's agitation, and Lennard's carelessness in leaving the door
open. I called in one of the policemen from the other room, for they
were there still, with the medical men.
"Williams," I began, "you saw me come down the street with my latch-key
in my hand?"
"I did, sir, and wished you good-evening," replied Williams. "It
wasn't long after the other gentleman," indicating Lennard, "had run
out."
"I did not see you," cried Lennard, looking at him. "I wish I had seen
you. I wanted help, and there was not a soul in the street."
"I was standing in shadow, at the top of the steps leading to the
water," said the man. "You came out, sir, all in a hurry, and went
rushing up the street, leaving the door open."
"And it is that door's having been left open that I don't like," I
observed. "If this money does not turn up, I can only think some rogue
got in and took it."
"Nobody got in, sir," said the policeman. "I had my eye on the door
the whole time till you came down. To see two folk running like mad
out of a quiet and respectable house roused my suspicions; and I went
up to the door and stood near it till you entered."
"How did you see two running out of it?" I inquired. "There was only
Mr. Lennard."
"I had seen somebody before that--a woman," replied the officer. "She
came out, and went tearing down the steps towards the river, calling
to someone out of sight. I think it was your servant, Mrs. Watts, but
I was only half-way down the street then, and she was too quick for
me."
"Then you are quite sure no one entered?"
"Quite sure, sir. I never moved from the door."
"Setting aside Williams's testimony, there was scarcely time for
anyone to get in and do mischief," observed Lake. "And no one could
take that gold without first getting the keys out of Mr. Brightman's
pocket," he rejoined. "For such a purpose, who would dare rifle the
pockets of the dead?"
"And then replace the keys," added Lennard.
"Besides," I said impulsively, "no one knew the money was there. Mr.
Brightman, myself, and George Coney were alone cognisant of the fact.
The more one thinks of it, the stranger it seems to grow."
The moments passed. The doctors and the police had gone away, and
nothing remained but the sad burden in the next room. Lennard also
left me to go home, for there was nothing more to be done; and Arthur
Lake, who had gone round to his rooms, came in again. His conscience
was smiting him, he said, for having deserted me. We sat down in the
front room, as before, and began to discuss the mystery. I remarked,
to begin with, that there existed not the slightest loophole of
suspicion to guide us.
"Except one," said Lake quietly. "And I may pain you, Charley, if I
venture to suggest it."
"Nonsense!" I cried. "How could it pain me? Unless you think I took it
myself!"
"I fancy it was Leah."
"Leah?"
"Well, I do. She was the only person in the house, except Mr.
Brightman. And what did her agitation mean--the agitation Lennard has
referred to?"
"No, no, Arthur; it could not have been Leah. Admitting the doubt for
a moment, how could she have done it?"
"Only in this way. I have been arguing it out with myself in my rooms:
and of course it may be all imagination. Leah took up some water, she
says, that Mr. Brightman rang for. Now, it may be that he had the
drawer open and she saw the money. Or it may even be that, for some
purpose or other, he had the bag upon the table. Was he taken ill
whilst she was in the room? and did she, overcome by temptation, steal
the money? I confess that this possibility presents itself forcibly to
me," concluded Lake. "Naturally she would afterwards be in a state of
agitation."
I sat revolving what he said, but could not bring my mind to admit
it. Circumstances--especially her agitation--might seem to tell
against her, but I believed the woman to be honest as the day.
There is not the slightest doubt that almost every man born into the
world is adapted for one especial calling over all others; and it is
an unhappy fact that this peculiar tendency is very rarely discovered
and followed up. It is the misdirection of talent which causes so many
of the failures in life. In my own case this mistake had not occurred.
I believe that of all pursuits common to man, I was by nature most
fitted for that of a solicitor. At the Bar, as a pleader, I should
have failed, and ruined half the clients who entrusted me with briefs.
But for penetration, for seizing without effort the different points
of a case laid before me, few equalled me. I mention this only because
it is a fact: not from motives of self-praise and vanity. Vanity? I am
only thankful that my talents were directed into their proper channel.
And this judgment, exercised now, told me that Leah was not guilty. I
said so to Arthur Lake.
The return of Watts interrupted us. He had brought back with him Mr.
Brightman's butler, Perry--a respectable, trustworthy man, who had
been long in the family. I shall never forget his emotion as he stood
over his dead master, to whom he was much attached. Mrs. and Miss
Brightman had gone to Hastings for two or three days, he said, and I
determined to go there in the morning and break the sad tidings to
them.
Sad tidings, indeed; a grievous calamity for us all. That night I
could not sleep, and in the morning I rose unrefreshed. The doubt
about Leah and the money also troubled me. Though in one sense
convinced that she could not have done it, the possibility that she
might be guilty kept presenting itself before me.
She came into the room while I was at breakfast--earlier than I need
have been, so far as the train was concerned--and I detained her for a
moment.
Very spruce and neat she looked this morning.
"Leah," I began, "there is an unpleasant mystery attending this
affair."
"As to what Mr. Brightman has died of, sir?"
"I do not allude to that. But there is some money missing."
"Money!" echoed Leah, in what looked like genuine surprise.
"Last night, after Mr. Brightman came in from dinner, he put a small
canvas bag, containing thirty pounds in gold, in the deep drawer of
his desk in my room, locked it and put the keys in his pocket. I had
occasion to look for that gold immediately after he was found dead,
and it was gone."
"Bag and all?" said Leah, after a pause.
"Bag and all."
"Not stolen, surely?"
"I don't see how else it can have disappeared. It could not go without
hands; and the question is, did anyone get into the house and take
it?"
She looked at me, and I at her: she was apparently thinking. "But how
could anyone get in, sir?" she asked in tones of remonstrance.
"I do not see how, unless it was when you went out, Leah. You were out
some time, you know. You ran out of the house and down the steps
leading to the river, and you were in great agitation. What did it
mean?"
Leah threw up her hands in distress. "Oh, Mr. Charles!" she gasped.
"Please don't question me, sir. I cannot tell you anything about
that."
"I must know it, Leah."
She shook her head. Her tears had begun to fall.
"Indeed you must explain it to me," I continued, speaking gently.
"There is no help for it. Don't you see that this will have to be
investigated, and----"
"You never suspect me of taking the money, sir?" she exclaimed
breathlessly.
"No, I do not," I replied firmly. "It is one thing to be sure of
honesty, and quite another thing to wish mysterious circumstances
cleared up, where the necessity for doing so exists. What was your
mystery last night, Leah?"
"Must I tell you, sir?"
"Indeed you must. I dare say to tell it will not hurt you, or to hear
it hurt me."
"I would die rather than Watts should know of it," she exclaimed, in
low, impassioned tones, glancing towards the door.
"Watts is in the kitchen, Leah, and cannot hear you. Speak out."
"I never committed but one grave fault in my life," she began, "and
that was telling a deliberate lie. The consequences have clung to me
ever since, and if things go on as they are going on now, they'll just
drive me into the churchyard. When I lived with your people I was a
young widow, as you may remember, sir; but perhaps you did not know
that I had a little child. Your mamma knew it, but I don't think the
servants did, for I was never one to talk of my own affairs. Just
your age, Master Charles, was my little Nancy, and when her father
died his sister took to her; old Miss Williams--for she was a deal
older than him. She had a bit of a farm in Dorsetshire, and I'm afraid
Nancy had to work hard at it. But it failed after a time, and Miss
Williams died; and Nancy, then about seventeen, had come, I heard, to
London. I was at Dover then, not long returned from abroad, and was
just married to James Watts; and I found--I found," Leah dropped her
voice, "that Nancy had gone wrong. Someone had turned her brain with
his vows and his promises, and she had come up to London with him."
"Why don't you sit down whilst you talk, Leah?"
"I had told Watts I had no children," she continued, disregarding my
injunction. "And that was the lie, Mr. Charles. More than once he had
said in my hearing that he would never marry a ready-made family. For
very shame I could not tell him, when I found how things were with
Nancy. After we came to London, I searched her out and went to her in
secret, begging her to leave the man, but she would not."
A burst of emotion stopped Leah. She soon resumed:
"She would not leave him. In spite of all I could say or do, though I
went down on my knees to her, and sobbed and prayed my heart out, she
remained with him. And she is with him still."
"All this time?"
"All this time, sir; seven years. He was once superior to her in
position, but he has fallen from it now, is unsteady, and drinks half
his time away. Sometimes he is in work; oftener without it; and the
misery and privation she goes through no tongue can tell. He beats
her, abuses her----"
"Why does she not leave him?"
"Ah, sir, why don't we do many things that we ought? Partly because
she's afraid he would keep the children. There are three of them. Many
a time she would have died of hunger but for me. I help her all I
can; she's my own child. Sir, you asked me, only yesterday, why I went
shabby; but, instead of buying clothes for myself, I scrape and save
to keep her poor body and soul together. I go without food to take it
to her; many a day I put my dinner away, telling Watts I don't feel
inclined for it then and will eat it by-and-by. He thinks I do so. She
does not beg of me; she has never entered this house; she has never
told that tyrant of hers that I am her mother. 'Mother,' she has said
to me, 'never fear. I would rather die than bring trouble on you.'"
"But about last night?" I interrupted.
"I was at work in the kitchen when a little gravel was thrown against
the window. I guessed who it was, and went up to the door. If Watts
had been at home, I should have taken no notice, but just have said,
'Drat those street boys again!' or something of that sort. There she
was, leaning against the opposite railings, and she crossed over when
she saw me. She said she was beside herself with misery and trouble,
and I believe she was. He had been beating her, and she had not tasted
food since the previous day; not a crumb. She kept looking towards the
steps leading to the Thames, and I thought she might have got it in
her head, what with her weak condition of body and her misery of mind,
to put an end to herself. I tried, sir, to soothe and reason with her;
what else could I do? I said I would fetch her some food, and give her
sevenpence to buy a loaf to take home to her children."
"Where does she live?" I interposed.
"In this parish, St. Clement Danes; and there are some parts of this
parish, you know, sir, as bad as any in London. When I offered to
fetch her food, she said, No, she would not take it; her life was too
wretched to bear, and she should end it; she had come out to do so. It
was just what I feared. I scolded her. I told her to stay there at the
door, and I shut it and ran down for the food. But when I got back to
the door, I couldn't see her anywhere. Then I heard a voice from the
steps call out 'Good-bye!' and I knew she was going to the water. At
that moment Mr. Lennard came up, and I asked him to remain in the
house whilst I went out for a minute. I was almost frightened out of
my senses."
"Did you find her?"
"I found her, sir, looking down at the river. I reasoned her into a
little better mood, and she ate a little of the food, and I brought
her back up the steps, gave her the sevenpence, and led her up the
street and across the Strand, on her way home. And that's the whole
truth, Mr. Charles, of what took me out last night; and I declare I
know no more of the missing money than a babe unborn. I had just come
back with the empty plate and cloth when you saw me sitting on the
stairs."
The whole truth I felt sure it was. Every word, every look of Leah's
proclaimed it.
"And that's my sad secret," she added; "one I have to bear about with
me at all times, in my work and out of my work. Watts is a good
husband to me, but he prides himself on his respectability, and I
wouldn't have him know that I have deceived him for the universe. I
wouldn't have him know that _she_, being what she is, was my daughter.
He said he'd treat me to Ashley's Circus last winter, and gave me two
shillings, and I pretended to go. But I gave it to her, poor thing,
and walked about in the cold, looking at the late shops, till it was
time to come home. Watts asked me what I had seen, and I told him such
marvels that he said he'd go the next night himself, for he had never
heard the like, and he supposed it must be a benefit night. You will
not tell him my secret, sir?"
"No, Leah, I will not tell him. It is safe with me."
With a long drawn sigh she turned to leave the room. But I stopped
her.
"A moment yet, Leah. Can you remember at what time you took up the
water to Mr. Brightman?"
"It was some time before the stone came to the window. About ten
minutes, maybe, sir, after you went out. I heard you come downstairs
whistling, and go out."
"No one came to the house during my absence?"
"No one at all, sir."
"Did you notice whether Mr. Brightman had either of the drawers of his
desk open when you took up the water?"
Leah shook her head. "I can't say, sir," she answered. "I did not
notice one way or the other."