MADAME GUERIN, MATRIMONIAL AGENT
There have been many matrimonial agency swindlers, but when Madame
Guerin, the plump little Frenchwoman with the pleasant and engaging
manner, entered that "profession" she introduced new methods into
that old form of fraud. She did not hanker after a lot of clients,
preferring to find a nice, gullible man with money, scientifically
relieve him of it, and then pass on to the next. Her career proved
short and exciting, and only by an accident did it fail to wind up with
a tragedy. But that was not her fault, for she showed that to obtain a
fortune she was capable of running any risk.
It was at Versailles, in the shadow of the old palace, that Madame
Guerin, with the assistance of a friend, who was known as Cesbron, but
who was really her husband, started her matrimonial agency.
It was no ordinary affair worked from a cheap suite of offices with all
the usual appliances of a modern business. Madame Guerin could not be
as sordid as that. She was human and sympathetic, and her personality
was electric. She had reached that time of life when men found her
society agreeable, because a flirtation could not be taken seriously by
her. She let them understand that she knew that most men wanted young
and pretty wives with fortunes, and that she was in a position to help
them to find their ideal.
Her "business premises" took the shape of a pleasant, secluded Villa,
beautifully furnished and delightfully managed. It was an honour to be
invited to an intimate little dinner at her home, and her invitations
were very seldom declined. When it was tactfully whispered that the
fair tenant was in the habit of bringing very eligible girls and
handsome bachelors together, she quickly found the sort of clients she
required.
One of her first victims was a man of good family, who held a
remunerative Government post. He was just the type of man who would
rather die than enter into negotiations with the average matrimonial
agent, but over a recherché meal at the Villa there seemed to be no
loss of dignity in half-carelessly discussing his desire to marry a
girl of beauty and fortune.
It was then that Madame Guerin revealed talents of a high order as a
swindler. She never lost her pose of the smart society woman who was
entertaining a friend and talking about his future amid the soft lights
and the restful furniture.
When the Government official mentioned that he had about three hundred
a year in addition to his salary of about the same amount, Madame
Guerin decided that there must be a way of separating him from some of
his fortune by persuading him that she was going to add to it.
"I know a very pretty girl," she said languidly, "a dear girl, too,
and one who is anxious to marry. She is an orphan, and is bothered by
fortune-hunters. She would like to become a gentleman's wife, and as
she has five thousand a year derived from first-class securities, it
seems to me, my friend, that she would just about suit you."
Five thousand a year! It made his mouth water.
"Where can I meet this delightful lady?" he asked anxiously.
"As she is my dearest friend I could invite her here," she answered,
after a moment's pause. "Her name is Miss Northcliffe."
"She is English then?" said the official, but there was no disapproval
in his tone.
"Her mother was French," said Madame Guerin, who had all the time been
watching his face. "Her father was an eminent doctor in London. Miss
Northcliffe loves France, and she has often told me she would love to
be married to a Frenchman and live all her life in Paris."
The bait took, for the fish rose to it greedily. Thereupon Madame
Guerin, feeling she had "landed" him, dropped her pose as hostess and
became a matrimonial agent. Of course her expenses would be heavy
in connection with the visit of Miss Northcliffe. She would have to
furnish a suite of rooms specially for the great English heiress. Then,
as he would gain five thousand pounds a year by the introduction, it
would not be out of place if he paid something in advance. Madame
Guerin guaranteed success, and so forth. He believed every word.
"You and my dear girl friend will be thrown together for days," she
said, in a confidential tone. "I'll invite no one else here, and it'll
be your own fault if you don't win her. But you must send me one of
your photographs to-night, and I will show it to her the moment she
arrives. She is a very impressionable, impulsive girl, and I am certain
she will fall in love with your picture."
Most men will believe a woman's flattery, and in the case of this
French official he swallowed Madame Guerin's with avidity. It seemed to
him he was on the road to riches, and he scarcely hesitated to send not
only the photograph but a preliminary fee of a hundred pounds.
If he was disturbed by doubts during the succeeding days, they were set
at rest when an invitation arrived to meet Miss Northcliffe at dinner
at the cosy Villa. He was, as he admitted afterwards, almost crazy
with delight. The heiress was a reality. Madame Guerin had not been
"pulling his leg" after all. Had she asked him for a thousand pounds
there and then he would probably have paid it without a murmur.
The dinner was a brilliant success from start to finish. Never before
had he met such a charming, unaffected girl. A typical English beauty
with fair hair, a peach-like skin and dark grey eyes, who dressed
exquisitely, and spoke French with a fascinating accent. Her reserve,
too, was perfectly enchanting. She did not gush or chatter, and during
the greater part of the dinner she hardly uttered a word, but towards
the end she became animated.
"She said she would wait until she had made up her mind about you
before becoming friendly," whispered Madame Guerin at the first
opportunity.
He thrilled with pleasure and turned to resume his conversation with
Miss Northcliffe; and when he left the Villa close on midnight his
brain was in a whirl.
Miss Northcliffe had plainly shown her preference for him, and he was
in love with her. He was an expert on old engravings and modern poetry,
and she had, wonderful to relate, revealed a knowledge of those two
subjects which, though not profound, proved that she would be an ideal
collaborator when they were married.
And then her dress! It was a dream, an exquisite creation that might
have been made out of angels' wings. The pearl necklace the English
heiress had worn was worth twenty thousand pounds. At least, Madame
Guerin said so, and she ought to know, because she had some famous
pearls herself. He lay awake most of the night exulting over his good
fortune, and early the following morning rushed off to Versailles to
take Miss Northcliffe for a motor drive.
A week later Madame Guerin suggested that he should propose, but she
warned him that the girl was suspicious of fortune-hunters and that he
must prove to her that he was not a needy vagabond marrying to be kept.
He laughed at the notion, but he took it seriously all the same, and
when Miss Northcliffe modestly and blushingly accepted his offer of
marriage he impulsively asked to be tested as to his means.
But Miss Northcliffe preferred to leave that to her dear friend and
guardian, Madame Guerin, and the latter thereupon suggested that he
should realize a couple of thousand pounds and settle it right away
on Miss Northcliffe, who was, of course, equally willing to supply
evidence that her fortune was not a myth.
The infatuated man declined to doubt his fiancée for a moment, and the
two thousand pounds were in the possession of Madame Guerin two days
later. She received the money with a congratulatory smile, and told him
to call again the following Sunday and fix the date for the wedding.
There were four days to Sunday, and how he passed them he never knew.
Certainly he was a very inefficient public servant during that time,
for his mind was concentrated on the beauty and fortune of the lovely
English girl who was about to become his wife. When Sunday came round
he was up at dawn, and two hours before he was due to start for
Versailles he was hatted and gloved.
The Villa looked very inviting as he walked up to it and pulled the
old-fashioned bell. A long pause ensued, and then the fat cook opened
the door and breathlessly informed him that Madame was resting in her
room but would be down in a few minutes. He expressed his regrets,
but when he was in the drawing-room he began to feel that there was
something wrong. The atmosphere depressed him, and he had to reprove
himself audibly for being morbid to prevent a fit of pessimism
overwhelming him.
He was staring through the window when Madame Guerin entered, very
pale and dabbing at her eyes with a handkerchief. In great alarm he
rushed to her side. What had happened? Where was Miss Northcliffe? Was
she ill? A dozen questions tumbled over one another, and all the time
the plump little widow tried to control her sobs.
"Oh, monsieur," she exclaimed, with a piteous expression, "how shall
I break the news? I am distracted, desolate! Miss Northcliffe--she
has gone--disappeared. I know not where. She may be kidnapped or she
may have run away. I am too distracted to be able to think. It is all
dreadful and--" A flood of tears completed the sentence.
In vain he implored her to tell him plainly what had happened. The
result was that he left the Villa aware that he had lost his two
thousand pounds and dimly suspicious of Madame Guerin, although she
had sworn that Miss Northcliffe had taken away every penny of it, and,
indeed, owed a goodly sum to her.
Further reflection convinced him that he had been swindled, and he
began to think of appealing to the police, but at forty-five one does
not do things in a hurry, and he was not the person to court ridicule.
He had walked into the trap open-eyed, and if his colleagues in the
Government service heard the story of the "English heiress" they would
make his life a misery with their vulgar chaff. So beyond another visit
to the Versailles Villa to inquire if Miss Northcliffe had returned he
took no steps to recover his losses.
The next exploit was even more subtle. Some one introduced a well-to-do
Parisian of the name of Lalère to Madame Guerin along with the
information that he was on the look-out for a wealthy wife. As Monsieur
Lalère had a comfortable bank balance of his own she enthusiastically
agreed to provide him with a bride, and when she learnt that he was
partial to an English girl her delight was boundless.
On this occasion the Versailles Villa was not utilized as the stage for
the little comedy. She decided to vary her methods, and she started by
going to London and putting up at a fashionable hotel. The two thousand
pounds extracted from the Government official came in very handy, as
even in London one can live quite a long time in an expensive hotel on
that amount.
Shortly after her arrival Lalère came at her invitation. Madame Guerin
was, of course, fashionably dressed and apparently busy all day calling
upon the leading members of the English aristocracy. She could not
give him more than a few minutes one afternoon, and when he expressed
disappointment she promised to do her best when she had fulfilled her
social obligations. She mentioned glibly that she was dining that night
with Mrs. Asquith, whose husband was then Chancellor of the Exchequer,
and that the day after she was lunching with "the Crewes."
The Frenchman was greatly impressed by these lies, and he therefore
appreciated all the more her spontaneous invitation to him to accompany
her to the opera the following Monday evening. It seemed that a friend
of hers had been called out of town and that her stall was vacant.
Madame Guerin added that she hoped to be able to introduce Lalère to
some English heiresses between the acts.
Monday night found Madame Guerin and Monsieur Lalère seated in the
stalls at the Covent Garden Theatre. Just before the curtain went
up the woman indicated a private box wherein three young ladies,
beautifully dressed, were sitting.
"Three friends of mine and all rich, monsieur," she said
confidentially. "You can have your choice. Let me know the one you
prefer. They will be guided entirely by my advice."
Of course after that Lalère had no eyes for the stage, and some of the
greatest singers in the world failed to engage his attention. His
eyes were always wandering to the box where the three English beauties
were, and he studied their appearances carefully. Eventually his choice
alighted upon the girl in the centre, whose name was, Madame Guerin
informed him, Miss Northcliffe.
Thus once more the mysterious Miss Northcliffe appeared on the scene,
and again she found a Frenchman who was mesmerized by her beauty and
her reputed fortune. All the acting that night at Covent Garden was not
behind the footlights. Both Madame Guerin and Miss Northcliffe could
have given points to many of the professionals.
That the girl who acted as the matrimonial agent's decoy was clever and
educated there can be no doubt. She could speak French fluently, and
she had a first-rate knowledge of the world. She had been able to talk
intelligently to the authority on old engravings and modern poetry,
and now she charmed Lalère by her acquaintance with the subjects that
interested him.
The sequel was that Lalère paid Madame Guerin fifteen hundred pounds on
the understanding that she was to bring about a match between himself
and Miss Northcliffe. But no sooner had he parted with the money
than the "heiress" vanished, greatly to Madame Guerin's distress and
Lalère's annoyance; and all he had to show for his expenditure was a
cynical and bitter contempt for women-folk in general.
Success made Madame Guerin avaricious. She began to crave for a large
fortune, and she believed that she was clever enough to gain it at
one stroke. Experience had proved that it was easy enough to open a
man's purse with a story of a rich bride, and her victims took their
disappointment so calmly that there was no danger of retribution.
Perhaps the sight of wealthy London fired her imagination. Anyhow, she
immediately began to look round for a suitable dupe there.
It was, however, necessary to have her husband's help. As she pretended
to be a widow, she called him her friend, and it was as Monsieur
Cesbron that she introduced him to her friends and acquaintances.
Hitherto Cesbron had wisely kept in the background, an admiring
spectator from afar of his wife's astuteness, and no doubt he shared in
the little windfalls from the Government official and Lalère.
He was not averse to taking a leading part in the next big swindle,
and it was Cesbron who found the very man for their purpose. Through a
friend he had heard that in the West End of London there was a doctor
who had saved a considerable sum of money, and who was in every way a
very eligible bachelor.
The initial difficulty was how to make themselves known to him, but
Madame Guerin solved the problem by planning a pretty little scheme.
She might have called on the doctor in the guise of a patient, but she
decided not to do this lest he discovered there was nothing the matter
with her.
Her final plan was to pretend that she had invented a new method of
sterilizing milk, and that she wished to have a doctor's opinion of its
merits.
Madame Guerin underrated her abilities, for, as events proved, she
need not have bothered about the "invention." The doctor was pleased
to make the acquaintance of the charming widow, and she soon had every
opportunity for dragging in references to her rich young lady friends
who were anxious to find husbands.
The medical man was incredulous at first, then curious, and eventually
impressed. Madame Guerin did not look like a swindler or talk in the
manner of a professional matrimonial agent. She was too human for that,
and there was nothing of the hard-headed business woman about her.
The doctor readily agreed to join her at a dinner-party and meet the
young heiresses, and choose which of them he would care to marry.
The meeting took place at an hotel, and on this occasion Miss
Northcliffe failed to win his approval. A young lady whose name was
given as Miss Smith gained his vote.
Miss Smith was a beauty, vivacious, clever, and fascinating. When he
was persuaded to believe that she had a large fortune, the doctor
considered himself the luckiest man in the world.
The girl, one of Madame Guerin's cutest confederates, was equally as
good an actress as Miss Northcliffe, and, shrewd man of the world as
the doctor was, she had no difficulty in persuading him that he had
captured her maiden fancy.
Now, as I have said, the doctor was not a penniless adventurer.
He was a prosperous professional man, with a good position and a
consoling balance at his bankers, the _Crédit Lyonnais_. Apart from
the somewhat unconventional means by which they had become acquainted,
the engagement was, on the surface, nothing remarkable. Miss Smith was
obviously well educated, and fit to preside over the doctor's home.
They were, therefore, of equal social position.
Madame Guerin was, of course, the brains of the affair, and only the
"spade work" was left to her husband. It was she who decided when she
and Miss Smith should leave London on the plea that they had to keep
engagements in France, and it was she who instructed Miss Smith to
agree to her fiancé's request that she should name the day.
The two women left for Paris the day before Cesbron, but they only
stopped a day at the capital before they proceeded to the Villa the
swindler had rented in the vicinity of Fontainebleau. It was situated
in a very lonely spot, and Madame Guerin and Cesbron had taken it
because they had decided to murder the doctor and obtain his fortune.
They had already endeavoured to get the doctor to transfer his account
to the Paris bank which they said looked after Miss Smith's immense
fortune; but he declined to effect the change. However, they were not
disheartened. If they were equal to killing the doctor they were also
capable of forging a claim to his money at the _Crédit Lyonnais_.
The marriage was fixed to take place in the second week in November,
1906, and early in the same month Madame Guerin invited the doctor
to spend a few days at her Villa before he became the husband of the
heiress. He was very busy just then, but, of course, he was most
anxious to see his friends, and he accepted the invitation, and in due
course arrived at the isolated house.
If he had not been absorbed in his forthcoming marriage, the doctor
would hardly have found the place attractive at that time of the year.
Of course, Madame Guerin was always interesting, and she was a perfect
hostess. There were good points about her friend Cesbron, too, and,
with the excitement of the engagement, the flattery of his hostess, and
the attentions of Cesbron, the doctor was never dull.
He could never be expected to believe that the woman with the plump,
smiling face and the sympathetic eyes had planned his murder, or that
Cesbron, her husband, was merely waiting for the proper moment to
"remove" him.
One afternoon Madame Guerin and the doctor were chatting in the front
room, when Cesbron drove up in a cart with a huge, iron-bound trunk.
"Is our friend going to be married too?" he asked jocularly.
Madame Guerin's eyes glinted, but her lips parted in a smile.
"Oh, he is always buying clothes," she said indifferently, "and he
likes to keep them clean and dry when travelling. He told me yesterday
he had ordered a new trunk. It is a hobby of his."
The truth was that that trunk had been purchased to hold the doctor's
corpse!
There was quite a little party at the Villa that night, and all the
time the huge box was waiting in the next room for its victim. The
visitor had no suspicion that anything was wrong. He knew by now that
Madame Guerin would expect a commission for having introduced him
to the great heiress, but he thought none the less of her for that.
Cesbron, too, was respectful and attentive, and all appeared to be
looking forward with intense satisfaction to the marriage celebration.
Miss Smith was not, of course, at the Villa. She was now in Paris
selecting her trousseau, and her fiancé had to be content with a
charming little love-letter which came to him every morning.
The day before the one fixed for the tragedy Cesbron and the doctor
happened to be in the little garden, when the former playfully started
a discussion as to their respective physical conditions, and before
long the two men had agreed to a friendly wrestling match to see which
of them was the stronger.
To Cesbron's surprise and annoyance, he discovered that the doctor was
by far the better of the two. This put him out, for it meant that he
would have to resort to fire-arms to achieve his object--the murder of
the guest.
Cesbron did not like using a revolver. It made a lot of noise, and,
lonely as the Villa was, there was always the danger that some one
might be passing at the moment of the crime. However, the risk had
to be taken. He knew now for certain that he was quite incapable of
seizing the doctor by the throat and strangling him, and that if it
came to a fight he would be no match for his opponent.
On November 9, 1906, the doctor was alone writing a letter in the
drawing-room. The house was very quiet, and he was under the impression
that Madame Guerin and Cesbron had gone out. At this time of the year
it was dark at half-past four, and the doctor wrote leisurely, pausing
occasionally to improve a phrase before committing it to writing.
Suddenly an explosion seemed to take place in the room, and
simultaneously he felt something sting him. The next moment he knew
that a bullet had passed into his neck behind his left ear, cutting
through the tongue and soft palate, and breaking several teeth.
But the wound was not sufficient to prevent his rising and confronting
Cesbron, who was standing near the door with a smoking revolver in
his hand. Only for a fraction of a second did the two men pause. Then
the injured man made a dash at Cesbron, who, recalling his playful
encounter of the day before, took to flight, well aware that he would
be helpless if the doctor got his fingers round his throat.
When Cesbron sped into the darkness the doctor made his way out of the
house and into the garden, stumbling towards the gate. To his surprise
this was locked. Evidently the conspirators had not forgotten anything.
There was nothing for him to do now but to try and climb over the wall,
and he succeeded in getting his head above the top, but immediately it
was silhouetted against the sky another shot was fired, and for the
second time he was hit. He fell back into the garden, where, thanks
to the darkness and the shelter of the bushes, he was able to remain
concealed until the morning, when he crawled to the police station at
Fontainebleau, and told the story of the attack on him at the Villa.
The police took the doctor to the local hospital, and then went in
search of Madame Guerin who, when arrested, thought to avenge herself
by swearing that the doctor was her accomplice. She lied so skilfully
that she persuaded the police to detain him for a time, but in the
long run the truth was discovered, and it was proved that the doctor
was merely another of her dupes.
A strange feature of the case was the disappearance of Cesbron. The
police and detective force of France searched for him everywhere, but
he was never seen, and the same lack of success was experienced when
the authorities became anxious to make the acquaintance of the English
heiresses, Miss Smith and Miss Northcliffe. Not a trace of them could
be found, and this was very fortunate for Madame Guerin, because, when
she was brought up for trial in July, 1907, she could pose as a poor
woman who was being prosecuted whilst her partners were allowed to go
free owing to the incompetence of the authorities.
The jury took a lenient view of her swindles, ignoring the charge of
attempted murder, because it was undoubtedly Cesbron who had fired
the two shots at the doctor, and without his presence in the dock it
was impossible to tell exactly what part the female prisoner took in
the final tragedy. But that she was a very dangerous adventuress and
swindler was obvious, and everybody was surprised when the judge passed
sentence of three years' imprisonment only.
Her face lit up with joy. She had been afraid that it would have been
at least ten years. Three years! Why, it was worth running such a bogus
matrimonial agency if that was the only punishment.
It is the French custom to sentence any accused person who fails to
answer the charge in person, and Cesbron was ordered two years' hard
labour. He did not, however, oblige the prosecution by appearing and
undergoing his punishment, and from that day to this nothing has been
seen or heard of him.