I dispense with all formal opening, and I begin at once. I want to
tell you a story. Don't ask me why; for, even if I answered the truth,
the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, you would hardly believe
me. Let me merely say that I want to tell you a story, and tell it
without much further preface.
[Illustration]
Two days ago I chanced, for no special reason, to open the drawers
of an old writing-table, which for years past had stood, unused, in
a corner of an upper room. In one I found a rusty screw, in another
a couple of dusty envelopes, in a third a piece of sealing-wax,
half-a-dozen nibs, and a broken pencil. The fourth, and last drawer,
was very stiff. For a long time it defied my efforts, and it was only
by a great exertion of strength that I was at last able to wrench it
open. To my surprise I saw two packets of letters, tied together with
faded ribbon. I took them up, and then remembered, with a start, what
they were. They were all in their envelopes, and all were addressed,
in the same hand-writing, to Sir CHARLES CALLENDER, Bart., Curzon
Street, Mayfair. They were his wife's letters, and, after the
death of Sir CHARLES, whose sole executor I was, they came into my
possession,--Sir CHARLES, for some inscrutable reason, never having
destroyed them, although, after his wife's death, the reading of
them cannot have given him much pleasure. No doubt I ought to have
destroyed them. I had never read them; but there, in that forgotten
drawer, they had lain, the silent dust accumulating upon them as the
years rolled on. They reminded me of the story I am about to relate--a
story of which, I think, no one except myself has guessed the truth,
and which, in most of its details, I only knew from a paper, carefully
closed, heavily sealed, and addressed to me, which I found amongst my
friend's documents. It was in his hand-writing throughout, but I shall
tell it in my own words, and in my own way.
Nobody who was about in London Society some thirty years ago, could
fail to know or know about the beautiful Lady CALLENDER. She was of a
good county family. She was clever and accomplished. She had married
a man rich, generous, amiable, and cultivated, who adored her.
Unfortunately they had no children, but, in every other respect, Lady
CALLENDER seemed to be very justly an object of envy and admiration
to most of the men and women of her circle. Personally I had no great
liking for her. I don't take any credit for that--far from it. The
reason may have been that her Ladyship (although I was one of her
husband's best friends, had been his school chum, and had "kept"
with him in the same set of rooms at Cambridge, where his triumphs,
physical and intellectual, are still remembered) never much cared for
me. She could dissemble her real feelings better than any woman I
ever knew, she always greeted me with a smile, she even made a parade
of taking my advice on little family difficulties, but there was an
indefinable something in her manner which convinced me that beneath
all her smiles she bore me no good-will. The fact is that, without any
design on my part, I had detected her in one or two bits of trickery,
and, in what I suppose I must call her heart of hearts, she never
forgave me. The truth is, though her guileless husband only knew it
too late, she was perhaps the trickiest and the most heartless woman
in England. If there were two roads to the attainment of any object,
the one straight, broad, smooth and short, the other round-about,
obscure, narrow and encompassed with pitfalls and beset by
difficulties, she would deliberately choose the latter for no other
reason that I could ever see except that by treading it she might be
able to deceive her friends as to her true direction. She carried
to a fine art the small intrigues, the petty jealousies, the mean
manoeuvres in the science of outwitting; the shifts, the stratagems,
the evasions by which power in Society is often supposed to be
confirmed, reputations are frequently ruined, and lives are almost
invariably made wretched. But Sir CHARLES knew none of these
things. He was apparently only too proud to be dragged at his wife's
chariot-wheels in her triumphant progress. For the strange part of
the business is that there was absolutely no need for any of her
deeply-laid schemes. Success, popularity and esteem would have come
to her readily without them. She was, as I said, beautiful. Innocence
seemed to be throned on her fresh and glowing face. Her smile
fascinated, her voice was a poem, and she was musical in the best
sense of the word at a time when good music, although it might lack
popular support, could always command a small band of enthusiastic
votaries in London.
There was at this time living in London an Italian artist, man
of letters and musical _virtuoso_, who was the spoiled darling of
Society. All the women raved about him, the men liked him, for he had
fought bravely on the field of battle, was a sportsman and had about
him that frank and abundant _gaieté de coeur_, which powerfully
attracts the less exuberant Englishman. For his part CASANUOVA (that
was his name) bore all his successes with good-nature and without
swagger. Of course there were whispers about him. Where so many women
worshipped, it was certain that two or three would lose their heads.
Amongst this limited number was little Mrs. MILLETT, one of Lady
CALLENDER's most intimate friends. She made no secret of her _grande
passion_. She poured her tale into the ears of Lady CALLENDER, and
asked for sympathy and help. Lady CALLENDER promised both, and at the
self-same moment, made up her mind that she would withdraw from Mrs.
MILLETT such affection as CASANUOVA had honoured her with, and bring
him, not because she cared for him, but merely for the sport of the
thing, to her own feet. She succeeded admirably. Under the pretence
of bringing CASANUOVA and Mrs. MILLETT together (such things, you
know, have been done in good Society) she invited him constantly to
her house; she gave musical parties in his honour, she used all her
fascinations, and finally, having fooled Ariadne to the top of her
bent, she captured Theseus, and bore him off.
Mrs. MILLETT was a foolish and frivolous little woman. Rage and
despair made her a demon. She resolved on revenge, and proceeded to it
with a cool and astonishing persistency. Now I do not myself believe
that Lady CALLENDER cared two straws about CASANUOVA. What she aimed
at and enjoyed was the discomfiture of a friend. In order to obtain
it, however, she committed a fatal imprudence. She wrote some letters
which would have convinced even a French jury of her guilt. By a
master-stroke of cunning wickedness, Mrs. MILLETT gained possession of
them, and sent them to Sir CHARLES. It happened that about this time
Sir CHARLES was in a very low state of health, and his friends were
anxious about him. One afternoon, when Sir CHARLES was confined to
his bed, Lady CALLENDER was playing the piano to her Italian slave. A
message was brought to her that her husband desired to see her for a
few minutes, and she tripped gaily away, saying to CASANUOVA, "Wait
here; I shall return directly." In a quarter of an hour, however, her
maid came to tell him that her Ladyship was suffering, and begged
him to excuse her, and he departed. When the maid returned to Lady
CALLENDER, she found her lying dead on the floor of her room, with a
small phial, which had contained prussic acid, clasped tightly in her
hand.
This is what had happened: Sir CHARLES had received the letters; they
left no doubt in his mind that the wife he adored was betraying him,
and he, too, resolved on revenge. He sent for his wife. When she came
in, he at once confronted her with her letters, and taxed her with her
guilt. A terrible scene of tears, entreaties, and bitter reproaches
ensued, but Sir CHARLES was as adamant, and his wife retired to her
bedroom in a state of nervous prostration, which immediately brought
on a toothache. At this point she sent for her maid, and gave her the
message to CASANUOVA.
The Coroner was sympathetic, and did what he could, but the evidence
in favour of the suicide theory seemed overwhelming, and the jury
returned a verdict to this effect, with a rider strongly commenting on
the danger of selling such deadly poisons. But it was never explained
how Lady CALLENDER obtained the prussic acid, nor why she had selected
that particular moment for its use. I ought to add, that CASANUOVA
left England before the inquest, and has never returned. On the
mystery of the final catastrophe the manuscript throws no light. It
ends abruptly. But the whole tone of it leads me to believe, that in
some unexplained manner Sir CHARLES himself had been instrumental in
causing his wife's death. But you, no doubt, know, and could tell us
if you wished.
So there, my friend, you have the story. Sorry I couldn't make it more
cheerful. Do you remember the part you played in it?
Yours, &c., DIOGENES ROBINSON.
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[Illustration: EXTRACT FROM THE CATALOGUE OF A RECENT SALE.
"A PAIR OF OLD-FASHIONED SNUFFERS. VERY RARE."]
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