MARGARET'S JOURNEY.
While these things were taking place at Winchester, Margaret waited for
the coming of her father. She waited until her heart grew sick, but
still she did not despair of his return. He had promised to come back
to her by ten o'clock upon the evening of the 16th; but he was not a
man who always kept his promises. He had often left her in the same
manner, and had stayed away for days and weeks together.
There was nothing extraordinary, therefore, in his absence; and if the
girl's heart grew sick, it was not with the fear that her father would
not return to her; but with the thought of what dishonest work he might
be engaged in during his absence.
She knew now that he led a dishonest life. His own lips had told her
the cruel truth. She would no longer be able to defend him when people
spoke against him. Henceforth she must only plead for him.
The poor girl had been proud of her father, reprobate though he was;
she had been proud of his gentlemanly bearing, his cleverness, his air
of superiority over other men of his station; and the thought of his
acknowledged guilt stung her to the heart. She pitied him, and she
tried to make excuses for him in her own mind: and with every thought
of the penniless reprobate there was intermingled the memory of the
wrong that had been done him by Henry Dunbar.
"If my father has been guilty, that man is answerable for his guilt,"
she thought perpetually.
Meanwhile she waited, Heaven only knows how anxiously, for her father's
coming. A week passed, and another week began, and still he did not
come; but she was not alarmed for his personal safety, she was only
anxious about him; and she expected his return every day, every hour.
But he did not come.
And all this time, with her mind racked by anxious thoughts, the girl
went about the weary duties of her daily life. Her thoughts might
wander away into vague speculations about her father's absence while
she sat by her pupil's side; but her eyes never wandered from the
fingers it was her duty to watch. Her life had been a hard one, and she
was better able to hide her sorrows and anxieties than any one to whom
such a burden had been a novelty. So, very few people suspected that
there was anything amiss with the grave young music-mistress.
One person did see the vague change in her manner; but that person was
Clement Austin, who had already grown skilled in reading the varying
expressions of her face, and who saw now that she was changed. She
listened to him when he talked to her of the books or the music she
loved; but her face never lighted up now with a bright look of
pleasure; and he heard her sigh now and then as she gave her lesson.
He asked her once if there was anything in which his services, or his
mother's, could be of any assistance to her; but she thanked him for
the kindness of his offer, and told him, "No, there was nothing in
which he could help her."
"But I am sure there is something on your mind. Pray do not think me
intrusive or impertinent for saying so; but I am sure of it."
Margaret only shook her head.
"I am mistaken, then?" said Clement, interrogatively.
"You are indeed. I have no special trouble. I am only a little uneasy
about my father, who has been away from home for the last week or two.
But there is nothing strange in that; he is often away. Only I am apt
to be foolishly anxious about him. He will scold me when he comes home
and hears that I have been so."
Upon the evening of the 27th August, Margaret gave her accustomed
lesson, and lingered a little as usual after the lesson, talking to
Mrs. Austin, who had taken a wonderful fancy to her granddaughter's
music-mistress; and to Clement, who somehow or other had discontinued
his summer evening walks of late, more especially on those occasions on
which his niece took her music-lesson. They talked of all manner of
things, and it was scarcely strange that amongst other topics they
should come by and-by to the Winchester murder.
"By the bye, Miss Wentworth," exclaimed Mrs. Austin, breaking in upon
Clement's disquisition on his favourite Carlyle's "Hero-Worship," "I
suppose you've heard about this dreadful murder that is making such a
sensation?"
"A dreadful murder—no, Mrs. Austin; I rarely hear anything of that
kind; for the person with whom I lodge is old and deaf. She troubles
herself very little about what is going on in the world, and I never
read the newspapers myself."
"Indeed," said Mrs. Austin; "well, my dear, you really surprise me. I
thought this dreadful business had made such a sensation, on account of
the great Mr. Dunbar being mixed up in it."
"Mr. Dunbar!" cried Margaret, looking at the speaker with dilated eyes.
"Yes, my dear, Mr. Dunbar, the rich banker. I have been very much
interested in the matter, because my son is employed in Mr. Dunbar's
bank. It seems that an old servant, a confidential valet of Mr.
Dunbar's, has been murdered at Winchester; and at first Mr. Dunbar
himself was suspected of the crime,—though, of course, that was utterly
ridiculous; for what motive could he possibly have had for murdering
his old servant? However, he has been suspected, and some stupid
country magistrate actually had him arrested. There was an examination
about a week ago, which was adjourned until to-day. We shan't know the
result of it till to-morrow."
Margaret sat listening to these words with a face that was as white as
the face of the dead.
Clement Austin saw the sudden change that had come over her
countenance.
"Mother," he said, "you should not talk of these things before Miss
Wentworth; you have made her look quite ill. Remember, she may not be
so strong-minded as you are."
"No, no!" gasped Margaret, in a choking voice. "I—I—wish to hear of
this. Tell me, Mrs. Austin, what was the name of the murdered man?"
"Joseph Wilmot."
"Joseph Wilmot!" repeated Margaret, slowly. She had always known her
father by the name of James Wentworth; but what more likely than that
Wilmot was his real name! She had good reason to suspect that Wentworth
was a false one.
"I'll lend you a newspaper," Mrs. Austin said, good-naturedly, "if you
really want to learn the particulars of this murder."
"I do, if you please."
Mrs. Austin took a weekly paper from amongst some others that were
scattered upon a side-table. She folded up this paper and handed it to
Margaret.
"Give Miss Wentworth a glass of wine, mother," exclaimed Clement
Austin; "I'm sure all this talk about the murder has upset her."
"No, no, indeed!" Margaret answered, "I would rather not take anything.
I want to get home quickly. Good evening, Mrs. Austin."
She tried to say something more, but her voice failed her. She had been
in the habit of shaking hands with Mrs. Austin and Clement when she
left them; and the cashier had always accompanied her to the gate, and
had sometimes lingered with her there in the dusk, prolonging some
conversation that had been begun in the drawing-room; but to-night she
hurried from the room before the widow could remonstrate with her.
Clement followed her into the hall.
"Miss Wentworth," he said, "I know that something has agitated you.
Pray return to the drawing-room, and stop with us until you are more
composed."
"No—no—no!"
"Let me see you home, then?"
"Oh! no! no!" she cried, as the young man barred her passage, to the
door; "for pity's sake don't detain me, Mr. Austin; don't detain me, or
follow me!"
She passed by him, and hurried out of the house. He followed her to the
gate, and watched her disappear in the twilight; and then went back to
the drawing-room, sighing heavily as he went.
"I have no right to follow her against her own wish," he said to
himself. "She has given me no right to interfere with her; or to think
of her, for the matter of that."
He threw himself into a chair, and took up a newspaper; but he did not
read half-a-dozen lines. He sat with his eyes fixed upon the page
before him, thinking of Margaret Wentworth.
"Poor girl!" he said to himself, presently; "poor lonely girl! She is
too pure and beautiful for the hard struggles of this world."
* * * * * * * * *
Margaret Wentworth walked rapidly along the road that led her back to
Wandsworth. She held the folded newspaper clutched tightly against her
breast. It was her death-warrant, perhaps. She never paused or
slackened her pace until she reached the lane leading down to the
water.
She opened the gate of the simple cottage-garden—there was no need of
bolts or locks for the fortification of Godolphin Cottages—and went up
to her own little sitting-room,—the room in which her father had told
her the secret of his life,—the room in which she had sworn to remember
the
name of
Henry Dunbar. All was dark and quiet in the house, for the mistress
of it was elderly and old-fashioned in her ways; and Margaret was
accustomed to wait upon herself when she came home after nightfall.
She struck a lucifer, lighted her candle, and sat down with the
newspaper in her hand. She unfolded it, and examined the pages. She was
not long finding what she wanted.
"_The Winchester Murder. Latest Particulars_."
Margaret Wentworth read that horrible story. She read the newspaper
record of the cruel deed that had been done—twice—slowly and
deliberately. Her eyes were tearless, and there was a desperate courage
at her heart; that miserable, agonized heart, which seemed like a block
of ice in her breast.
"I swore to remember the name of Henry Dunbar," she said in, a low,
sombre voice; "I have good reason to remember it now."
From the first she had no doubt in her mind—from the very first she had
but one idea: and that idea was a conviction. Her father had been
murdered by his old master. The man Joseph Wilmot was her father: the
murderer was Henry Dunbar. The newspaper record told how the murdered
man had, according to his own account, met his brother at the Waterloo
station upon the afternoon of the 16th of August. That was the very
afternoon upon which James Wentworth had left his daughter to go to
London by rail.
He had met his old master, the man who had so bitterly injured him; the
cold-hearted scoundrel who had so cruelly betrayed him. He had been
violent, perhaps, and had threatened Henry Dunbar: and then—then the
rich man, treacherous and cold-hearted in his age as in his youth, had
beguiled his old valet by a pretended friendship, had lured him into a
lonely place, and had there murdered him; in order that all the wicked
secrets of the past might be buried with his victim.
As to the robbery of the clothes—the rifling of the pocketbook—that, of
course, was only a part of Henry Dunbar's deep laid scheme.
The girl folded the paper and put it in her breast. It was a strange
document to lie against that virginal bosom: and the breast beneath it
ached with a sick, cold pain, that was like the pain of death.
Margaret took up her candle, and went into a neatly-kept little room at
the back of the house,—the room in which her father had always slept
when he stayed in that house.
There was an old box, a battered and dilapidated hair-trunk, with a
worn rope knotted about it. The girl knelt down before the box, and put
her candle on a chair beside it. Then with her slender fingers she
tried to unfasten the knots that secured the cord. This task was not an
easy one, and her fingers ached before she had done. But she succeeded
at last, and lifted the lid of the trunk.
There were worn and shabby garments, tumbled and dusty, that had been
thrown pell-mell into the box: there were broken meerschaum-pipes; old
newspapers, pale with age, and with passages here and there marked by
thick strokes in faded ink. A faint effluvium that arose from the mass
of dilapidated rubbish—the weeds which the great ocean Time casts up
upon the shore of the present—testified to the neighbourhood of mice:
and scattered about the bottom of the box, amongst loose shreds of
tobacco—broken lumps of petrified cavendish—and scraps of paper, there
were a few letters.
Margaret gathered together these letters, and examined them. Three of
them—very old, faded, and flabby—were directed to "Joseph Wilmot, care
of the Governor of Norfolk Island," in a prim, clerk-like hand.
It was an ominous address. Margaret Wentworth bowed her head upon her
knees and sobbed aloud.
"He had been very wicked, and had need of a long life of penitence,"
she thought; "but he has been murdered by Henry Dunbar."
There was no shadow of doubt now in her mind. She had in her own hand
the conclusive proof of the identity between Joseph Wilmot and her
father; and to her this seemed quite enough to prove that Henry Dunbar
was the murderer of his old servant. He had injured the man, and it was
in the man's power to do him injury. He had resolved, therefore, to get
rid of this old accomplice, this dangerous witness of the past.
This was how Margaret reasoned. That the crime committed in the quiet
grove, near St. Cross, was an every-day deed, done for the most pitiful
and sordid motives that can tempt a man to shed his brother's blood,
never for a moment entered into her thoughts. Other people might think
this in their ignorance of the story of the past.
At daybreak the next morning she left the house, after giving a very
brief explanation of her departure to the old woman with whom she
lodged. She took the first train to Winchester, and reached the station
two hours before noon. She had her whole stock of money with her, but
nothing else. Her own wants, her own necessities, had no place in her
thoughts. Her errand was a fearful one, for she went to tell so much as
she knew of the story of the past, and to bear witness against Henry
Dunbar.
The railway official to whom she addressed herself at the Winchester
station treated her with civility and good-nature. The pale beauty of
her pensive face won her friends wherever she went. It is very hard
upon pug-nosed merit and red-haired virtue, that a Grecian profile, or
raven tresses, should be such an excellent letter of introduction; but,
unhappily, human nature is weak; and while beauty appeals straight to
the eye of the frivolous, merit requires to be appreciated by the wise.
"If there is anything I can do for you, miss," the railway official
said, politely, "I shall be very happy, I'm sure."
"I want to know about the murder," the girl answered, in a low,
tremulous voice, "the murder that was committed——"
"Yes, miss, to be sure. Everybody in Winchester is talking about it; a
most mysterious event! But," cried the official, brightening suddenly,
"you ain't a witness, miss, are you? You don't know anything
about——eh?"
He was quite excited at the bare idea that this pretty girl had
something to say about the murder, and that he might have the privilege
of introducing her to his fellow-citizens. To know anybody who knew
anything about Joseph Wilmot's murder was to occupy a post of some
distinction in Winchester just now.
"Yes," Margaret said; "I want to give evidence against Henry Dunbar."
The railway official started, and stared aghast.
"Evidence against Mr. Dunbar, miss?" he said; "why, Mr. Henry Dunbar
was dismissed from custody only yesterday afternoon, and is going up to
town by the express this night, and everybody in Winchester is full of
the shameful way in which he has been treated. Why, as far as that
goes, there was no more ground for suspecting Mr. Dunbar—not that has
come out yet, at any rate—than there is for suspecting me!" And the
porter snapped his fingers contemptuously. "But if you know anything
against Mr. Dunbar, why, of course, that alters the case; and it's yer
bounden dooty, miss, to go before the magistrate directly-minute and
make yer statement."
The porter could hardly refrain from smacking his lips with an air of
relish as he said this. Distinction had come to him unsought.
"Wait a minute, miss," he said; "I'll go and ask lief to take you round
to the magistrate's. You'll never find your way by yourself. The next
up isn't till 12.7—I can be spared."
The porter ran away, presented himself to a higher official, told his
story, and obtained a brief leave of absence. Then he returned to
Margaret.
"Now, miss," he said, "if you'll come along with me I'll take you to
Sir Arden Westhorpe's house. Sir Arden is the gentleman that has taken
so much trouble with this case."
On the way through the back-streets of the quiet city the porter would
fain have extracted from Margaret all that she had to tell. But the
girl would reveal nothing; she only said that she wanted to bear
witness against Henry Dunbar.
The porter, upon the other hand, was very communicative. He told his
companion what had happened at the adjourned examination.
"There was a deal of applause in the court when Mr. Dunbar was told he
might consider himself free," said the porter; "but Sir Arden checked
it; there was no need for clapping of hands, he says, or for anything
but sorrow that such a wicked deed had been done, and that the cruel
wretch as did it should escape. A young man as was in the court told me
that them was Sir Arden's exack words."
They had reached Sir Arden's house by this time. It was a very handsome
house, though it stood in a back sweet; and a grave man-servant, in a
linen jacket, admitted Margaret into the oak-panelled hall.
She might have had some difficulty perhaps in seeing Sir Arden, had not
the railway porter immediately declared her business. But the name of
the murdered man was a passport, and she was ushered at once into a low
room, which was lined with book-shelves, and opened into an
old-fashioned garden.
Here Sir Arden Westhorpe, the magistrate, sat at a table writing. He
was an elderly man, with grey hair and whiskers, and with rather a
stern expression of countenance. But he was a good and a just man; and
though Henry Dunbar had been the emperor of half Europe instead of an
Anglo-Indian banker, Sir Arden would have committed him for trial had
he seen just cause for so doing.
Margaret was in nowise abashed by the presence of the magistrate. She
had but one thought in her mind, the thought of her father's wrongs;
and she could have spoken freely in the presence of a king.
"I hope I am not too late, sir," she said; "I hear that Mr. Dunbar has
been discharged from custody. I hope I am not too late to bear witness
against him."
The magistrate looked up with an expression of surprise. "That will
depend upon circumstances," he said; "that is to say, upon the nature
of the statement which you may have to make."
The magistrate summoned his clerk from an adjoining room, and then took
down the girl's information.
But he shook his head doubtfully when Margaret had told him all she had
to tell. That which to the impulsive girl seemed proof positive of
Henry Dunbar's guilt was very little when written down in a
business-like manner by Sir Arden Westhorpe's clerk.
"You know your unhappy father to have been injured by Mr. Dunbar, and
you think he may have been in the possession of secrets of a damaging
nature to that gentleman; but you do not know what those secrets were.
My poor girl, I cannot possibly move in this business upon such
evidence as this. The police are at work. This matter will not be
allowed to pass off without the closest investigation, believe me. I
shall take care to have your statement placed in the hands of the
detective officer who is entrusted with the conduct of this affair. We
must wait—we must wait. I cannot bring myself to believe that Henry
Dunbar has been guilty of this fearful crime. He is rich enough to have
bribed your father to keep silence, if he had any reason to fear what
he might say. Money is a very powerful agent, and can buy almost
anything. It is rarely that a man, with almost unlimited wealth at his
command, finds himself compelled to commit an act of violence."
The magistrate read aloud Margaret Wilmot's deposition, and the girl
signed it in the presence of the clerk; she signed it with her father's
real name, the name that she had never written before that day.
Then, having given the magistrate the address of her Wandsworth
lodging, she bade him good morning, and went out into the unfamiliar
street.
Nothing that Sir Arden Westhorpe had said had in any way weakened her
rooted conviction of Henry Dunbar's guilt. She still believed that he
was the murderer of her father.
She walked for some distance without knowing where she went, then
suddenly she stopped; her face flushed, her eyes grew bright, and an
ominous smile lit up her countenance.
"I will go to Henry Dunbar," she said to herself, "since the law will
not help me; I will go to my father's murderer. Surely he will tremble
when he knows that his victim left a daughter who will rest neither
night nor day until she sees justice done."
Sir Arden had mentioned the hotel at which Henry Dunbar was staying; so
Margaret asked the first passer-by to direct her to the George.
She found a waiter lounging in the doorway of the hotel.
"I want to see Mr. Dunbar," she said.
The man looked at her with considerable surprise.
"I don't think it's likely Mr. Dunbar will see you, miss," he said;
"but I'll take your name up if you wish it."
"I shall be much obliged if you will do so."
"Certainly, miss. If you'll please to sit down in the hall I'll go to
Mr. Dunbar immediately. Your name is——"
"My name is Margaret Wilmot."
The waiter started as if he had been shot.
"Wilmot!" he exclaimed; "any relation to——"
"I am the daughter of Joseph Wilmot," answered Margaret, quietly. "You
can tell Mr. Dunbar so if you please."
"Yes, miss; I will, miss. Bless my soul! you really might knock me down
with a feather, miss. Mr. Dunbar can't possibly refuse to see _you_, I
should think, miss."
The waiter went up-stairs, looking back at Margaret as he went. He
seemed to think that the daughter of the murdered man ought to be, in
some way or other, different from other young women.