JEAN LEARNS THE TRUTH.
Months--months of a quiet, peaceful, uneventful life--went by, and Jean
had become even more popular among the English sisters than she had been
in Paris.
Though her life had so entirely changed, and she had naught to worry
her, not a thought nor a care beyond her religious duties and her
nursing, in which she was now growing proficient, she would sometimes
sit and think over her brief married life, and become filled by wonder.
Where was her husband? Where, too, was the low-born thief who had taken
her part and prevented the blow upon that never-to-be-forgotten night?
Sometimes when she reflected upon it all she sat horrified. And when she
recollected how shamefully she had been deceived by the man she so
implicitly trusted and so dearly loved, tears would well in her great,
big eyes. Sister Gertrude, one of the nurses, a tall, fair woman, who
was her most intimate friend, often noticed the redness of her eyes, and
guessed the truth.
Seldom, if ever, Jean went out farther than across Barnes Common or into
Richmond Park for exercise, and always accompanied by Sister Gertrude,
the latter wearing the black habit of the Sisterhood, while Jean herself
was in a distinctive garb as a nurse of the Order of Saint Agnes.
Never once in all those months had she been in London. All she saw of it
was the red glare upon the night sky. But she was happy enough. London,
and especially the neighbourhood of Regent Street, would remind her too
vividly of Ralph and of her dear father.
One spring afternoon, while seated at the open window finishing some
needlework destined for a poor family living in a back street off the
Hammersmith Broadway, she was chatting merrily with Sister Gertrude.
Over their needlework the rules allowed them to chatter, and in that
barely-furnished little room she and Sister Gertrude enjoyed many a
pleasant gossip.
Outside, the garden was gay with daffodils and hyacinths, and the trees
were just bursting into bud, the fresh green rendered the brighter by
the warm sunshine.
Jean concluded her work at last, placed her needle in the cushion, and
removed her thimble.
"At last!" she sighed. "I've been over this a whole week," she added.
"Yes; you've been most patient," declared her friend. "Soon you will
abandon needlework and be sent out nursing. I heard the Mother Superior
talking about it with Sister Lilian after vespers last night. Now that
Sister Hannah has gone back to Paris we are one nurse short, and you are
to take her place."
"Am I?" cried Jean, with delight, for she had studied long and
diligently in the hope that soon outside work would be given her. She
was devoted to nursing, and had made herself proficient in most of the
subjects.
"Yes. I believe you will hear something in the course of a few days.
But," added Sister Gertrude, "I know another secret. Your friend, the
Mother Superior in Paris, is coming here, and ours has been transferred
to Antwerp. The change will be announced, I expect, to-morrow."
At this news Jean expressed the greatest satisfaction, for the grave,
yet rather hard-faced, directress of the convent at Enghien had been so
good and generous that she had become devotedly attached to her. Indeed,
to her she owed her life, for in her despondent state on that morning
when found in the Tuileries Gardens she had seriously contemplated
throwing herself into the Seine.
Jean was therefore loud in praise of the directress from Enghien, and
highly delighted at the thought of her coming to take over the direction
of the English branch of the Order.
"Here is some paper and string to wrap up your work," Sister Gertrude
said at last, handing her an old copy of the _Daily Telegraph_. "I am
taking it with me to Hammersmith this evening."
And then she left the room, promising to return in a few minutes.
Alone, Jean, standing at the window, gazed idly at the newspaper, the
date of which was a Monday in the previous October.
It was strictly against the rules of the Order to read any newspaper,
but as she turned it over, a column headed "Paris Day by Day" caught her
eye. The temptation proved too much, and she scanned it down as she had
been in the habit of scanning the paper each evening in the days when
she had lived at home.
Suddenly a paragraph caught her eye. Her mouth stood open, her eyes
started from their sockets as she read. Then she held her breath,
placing her left hand to her breast as though to stay the beating of her
heart.
Her countenance was blanched to the lips. The words she read were as
follows:
"The daring exploits of the notorious criminal, Ansell,
alias 'The American,' and Carlier, alias 'The Eel,' are at
an end. Yesterday, in Paris, Carlier was sentenced to seven
years' hard labour, and Ansell, it will be remembered, was
shot by the police while swimming the Seine, but his body
was never recovered."
"Dead!" she gasped, white as death. "Shot down by the police--_my
husband!_"
She staggered, clutching at the small deal work-table for support, or
she would have fallen.
"And Adolphe has been sent to prison for seven years!" she went on,
speaking to herself in a low mechanical tone. "Was it for the crime
committed on that night, I wonder? Were my fears well-grounded, and did
my prediction of discovery come true? Ah, if Ralph had but listened to
my appeal!" she cried in agony. "But he is dead--dead! Shot by the
police--shot down like an animal. Ah, what an ignominious end!"
The newspaper fell from her fingers. The blow had stunned her.
She stood swaying slightly, her white face turned towards the open
window, her eyes staring straight before her--silent, motionless,
aghast.
Sister Gertrude entered, but so preoccupied was she that she was utterly
unconscious of her presence.
"You are unwell, Jean," she said, in her soft, refined voice, for before
entering the convent five years ago she had moved in society, being the
daughter of a well-known Paris banker. "Tell me, dear, what ails you?"
Jean started, and stared at her in amazement.
"I--I--oh, there is nothing," she faltered. "I don't feel very
well--that's all."
The newspaper lay on the floor, where it had fallen from her white,
nerveless fingers.
In Jean's face was a hard, haggard look, and Sister Gertrude, a woman of
the world, noted it, and wondered what could have affected her in those
few moments of her absence.
"Tell me, dear, how you feel? Can I get you anything?" she asked her
friend, to whom she was so much attached.
"Nothing, thanks," was her reply, with a great effort. "I shall be quite
well soon, I hope."
Sister Gertrude advanced towards her, and, placing her hand upon the
girl's shoulder tenderly, said:
"You will soon be all right again, dear, I hope. But why keep your
secret? Why not confide in me?"
"Secret!" she echoed. "It is no secret!"
"Then why not tell me the truth right out? What has upset you?"
Jean clenched her teeth. How could she confess that she was the wife of
a notorious thief--a man who had been shot like a dog by the police?
No. Her secret was hers, and it should remain so. Her past from that
moment was buried. None, save the Mother Superior at Enghien and the two
sisters who had found her in the Tuileries Gardens, knew the truth. And
none should now know.
"Really, you are a little too solicitous of my welfare," she laughed,
well feigning amusement at the situation. "I am quite well now. Quite
well, I assure you."
And picking up the old copy of the newspaper, she resumed the wrapping
up of the parcel of underclothing which she had made with her own hands
for charitable purposes.
And the big bell having clanged out for tea in the refectory, Jean and
Sister Gertrude passed arm-in-arm through the long stone corridor to the
big, vaulted hall, where all the inmates of the convent had assembled
and the Mother Superior was presiding over the four shining tea-urns at
the top table.
But Jean sat silent and thoughtfully sipping her tea, heedless of all
about her.
Her mind was full of that terse announcement which she had read, the
obituary notice of the notorious thief known in Paris as "The
American"--the man whom she loved and who was her husband.
She was thinking, too, of _Fil-en-Quatre_, the shock-headed, rather
uncouth Parisian loafer--the man who had been sentenced to seven years'
hard labour. That meant Cayenne, without a doubt--drudgery at Devil's
Island, that ill-governed penal settlement established by the Republic
of France.
She remembered him. Ah, how often he had sympathised with her! How
frequently he had uttered cheering words to her in secret, although he
had never once betrayed his friend's real profession, nor had he ever
once spoken of the great and fervent affection which he had borne her.
Though he was a thief, a scoundrel of the underworld of Paris,
ingenious, unscrupulous, and even dangerous if cornered, he was
nevertheless loyal and honest towards his friend, and behaved as a
gentleman towards his friend's wife.
Yes, Adolphe Carlier, though a thief, was still a gentleman in the true
sense of the word.
The weeks went by, and poor Jean, a widow in secret--for she told no one
of what had occurred--was sent forth daily in the poorer districts of
London on her mission to the sick, to whom she carried food and
delicacies prepared by the kind hands of the sisters.
The slums she visited in Clerkenwell and other places often reminded her
of those last few days of her married life, those days before she parted
for ever from "Le Costaud." Where men feared to venture, and where no
police-constable cared to go alone, she went without fear, down into the
deepest depths of the unknown underworld of London, and through months
she worked hard each day amid the most sordid and poverty-stricken
surroundings, returning each night to the convent fagged and hungry. But
now that she knew the bitter truth, her whole life was devoted to her
work of mercy and to her religious duties. Her sweetness of disposition,
her calm patience, her soft voice, and her cheerful manner all endeared
her to those whom she tended with such unremitting care.
Thus she passed the long summer days in the stifling slums of London.
So devoted was she, and so hard did she work, that at last a serious
illness was threatened, in consequence of which she was sent by the
Mother Superior to the West of England branch of the Order, who had a
small convent at Babbacombe, near Torquay, and in the latter town, in
better air, she continued her labours.
Not far from the convent, on the road leading to Newton Abbot, was the
ivy-covered lodge and great, handsome gates of ornamental iron leading
to Bracondale Park, the seat of the Right Honourable the Earl of
Bracondale, K.G.
The park, a spacious domain with great oaks and elms, was situated high
up, overlooking the English Channel, and away in the distance the long,
rather low-built mansion with a square, castellated turret at the
western end. The fine domain of the Bracondales, one of the most ancient
families in England, extended over many thousands of fertile acres in
Devon, besides which the Earl possessed a deer forest near Grantown, in
the Highlands; a pretty winter villa at Beaulieu, close to Nice; the
old-fashioned town house in Belgrave Square, and a pretty seaside villa
in the new and fashionable little resort, Saint-Addresse, near Havre.
But, as His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs,
the Earl of Bracondale had but little time in which to enjoy his
beautiful residences. True, he spent a few weeks on the Riviera in
winter, shot once or twice over the Bracondale coverts in the season,
and spent an annual fortnight up at the shooting lodge in Scotland; but
he was usually to be found either at Downing Street or down at
Bracondale immersed and absorbed by the affairs of State.
His one hobby was motoring, and he frequently drove his own car--a big
six-cylinder open one. Years ago, on the introduction of the motor-car,
he had been a young man, and had quickly become an enthusiast. He had
motored ever since the early days, and was still an expert driver. Once
he had held a world's distance record, and nowadays, even with the heavy
responsibilities upon him, he was never so happy as in overcoat and cap
at the steering-wheel. And in this recreation he found a very beneficial
change after so many hours of studying complicated reports and worrying
despatches from the Embassies abroad.
One summer's night he had been addressing a big political meeting at
Plymouth, and at ten o'clock he turned out of the garage of the Royal
Hotel, and alone drove through the brilliant, starlit night back to
Babbacombe. Usually when he went out at night he took Budron, the head
chauffeur, with him. But on this occasion he had left the man in London,
superintending some repairs to one of the other cars. Hence he put on a
cigar, and, alone, drove leisurely along the rather narrow, winding high
road which leads from Plymouth through Plympton and Ivybridge.
The distance was twenty-five miles or so, and he travelled swiftly
during the last portion of it.
It was nearly half-past eleven when he passed through Torquay, then
silent and deserted, and ascending the hill, was quickly on the
Babbacombe road.
Suddenly, however, when within half a mile of his own lodge gates, at a
sharp bend in the narrow road along the cliffs, he found himself facing
a heavy wagon, the driver of which was asleep.
There was the crash of a heavy impact, a shattering of glass, a rearing
of horses, and next second his lordship, shot out of his seat, was lying
on the other side of a low hedge, doubled up and quite still, while the
car itself was overturned and completely wrecked.