A GLEAM OF LIGHT.
"And now, your honour," his deep voice rang out, "I come, perhaps, to
the most inconsequent and incomprehensible part of any that Miss
Hildreth has played in this curious and complicated history of a crime.
I have shown you how she, actuated by an enthusiastic and Quixotic
chivalry, imperilled her own life to help and succour a sister-woman,
who, in a moment of mad passion, had committed such a crime as put her
life in danger. Miss Hildreth, with a courage few men could emulate, had
not only planned her flight, but accompanied her in it, and accomplished
it with safety. It was a daring and hazardous undertaking; but Miss
Hildreth considered neither the danger nor the hazard, so long as there
was a chance of escape for that cruelly-wronged woman, who had struck
down the villain who ruined her.
"The crime committed by Adèle Lamien was an offence against the laws of
man, and being such, she stood a criminal and fugitive in the eyes of
men. But what should be said of the false-hearted traitor who had
committed a far graver moral crime, when he killed for ever the soul and
heart of the woman he had called his wife? That was a question for a
higher tribunal than any mere earthly one to answer, and before that
eternal justice Stevan Lallovich had entered, with the guilt of moral
murder fresh upon him.
"As he had already told his honour, Miss Hildreth parted from Adèle
Lamien in Paris, and although she kept up her disguise and name until
she reached America, it was only to gain time for the poor fugitive, and
to give a false scent to the police. On reaching New York Miss Hildreth
landed under her own proper name, and proceeded at once to her country
place in the White Mountains, where she remained for several weeks
without acquainting her friends with the fact of her return home. This
desire on her part to remain quiet and unnoticed did not arise, as Mr.
Munger would have them believe, from any criminal wish to keep her
whereabouts unknown, but was the outcome of purely personal
motives--motives he was not at liberty to divulge; but this much he
would say, these motives had nothing whatever to do with Adèle Lamien's
movements; Miss Hildreth had indeed heard nothing from, or of, that lady
since their parting.
"During this month or six weeks of solitude Miss Hildreth was engaged
upon a very delicate and purely personal matter, the successful result
of which she had very deeply at heart, and in the carrying out of which
she was willing to adopt any measures, no matter how compromising.
"Upon the nature of this work his lips were sealed, but he was willing
to stake his honour as to the probity and lawfulness of Miss Hildreth's
intentions. In the furtherance of this object circumstances arose which,
in Miss Hildreth's opinion, made it necessary for her to adopt another
character than her own; to enter, in fact, upon a little play-acting, in
which she personated the sole character. What more natural than that she
should make use of the name and disguise of the lady she had so lately
protected? As Adèle Lamien--a foreigner and dependent, with the
suspicion of a tragic past to give effect to the present--she could
enter without fear of detection upon the delicate mission she had marked
out for herself.
"The danger of such a personation never occurred to her; Miss Hildreth
was not one always on the outlook for danger-signals. She desired to
borrow Adèle Lamien's name and story, the latter with modifications, for
a certain length of time, and she did so, without thought of any
possible evil arising therefrom. But, to carry out her project, Miss
Hildreth was obliged to take some one person into her confidence, some
one who, knowing the why and wherefore of this masquerading, would keep
her secret intact while aiding and abetting her. And this some one she
found in Mrs. Newbold. They had all heard Mrs. Newbold's statement; she
acknowledged frankly that Miss Hildreth and her governess, known as
Adèle Lamien, were one and the same, that she had always known this to
be the case, and had given her countenance and support to the deception.
But here he would remind them of Mrs. Newbold's refusal to give any
reason for her collusion with Miss Hildreth, or any explanation of the
latter's motives. Like himself, Mrs. Newbold's lips were sealed by a
promise; she could not reveal her friend's motives, even though that
revelation were to save her from a graver situation than the present
one."
Once more John Mainwaring paused, and once more a sympathetic murmur
ran through the crowd.
He had struck the right chord in his opening sentences, and from the
moment of that favourable beginning he carried the harmony of his
audience along with him.
Even Judge Anstice leant forward in his chair and followed him point by
point with a keen and appreciative interest. Mr. Munger snorted and
tossed back his leonine head, and Vladimir Mellikoff's dark face grew
sterner and more set, while both of them acknowledged that the young
lawyer had hit upon a productive mine, and was working it to good
advantage.
Patricia Hildreth changed neither her attitude nor expression, only the
crimson stain upon her cheeks grew deeper as Mr. Mainwaring entered upon
more delicate ground.
Philip Tremain never took his eyes from her face; gradually, and at
first in faint gleams only that grew steadier as his memory added the
one touch needful, the true meaning of John Mainwaring's defence was
breaking upon him, and with the overwhelming rush of the revelation he
felt all the old love and tenderness for Patricia spring afresh to life
within his heart. He longed to snatch her up from out that curious,
eager crowd, and, carrying her away to some spot of safety and
seclusion, lay her head upon his heart and bid her be for ever at peace.
Meantime John Mainwaring had begun again.
"Mrs. Newbold, your honour, having consented to sustain Miss Hildreth in
her adopted character, the two ladies laid their plans and _modus
operandi_, and when the invited guests assembled at the Folly, in the
month of April, they found there a foreign lady whose appearance and
manner were unmistakably suggestive and interesting, to whom they were
introduced as Mdlle. Lamien, the new governess, and whose strange story
Mrs. Newbold related one evening during dinner. And so well did Mrs.
Newbold guard her friend's secret, that not even her husband was
entrusted with it.
"Mr. Tremain was one of the guests, and his attention was immediately
attracted to the quiet, retiring foreigner, an attraction which soon
developed into a stronger sentiment. Mr. Tremain had told them, that he
found no point of resemblance between Miss Hildreth and Mdlle. Lamien;
there were similar tones in their voices, but that was no uncommon
coincidence: he had, however, never seen Mdlle. Lamien in broad
daylight, though this fact made no impression upon him at the time; how
positive had been Mdlle. Lamien's influence over him was shown by his
subsequent proposal of marriage to her. He, Mr. Mainwaring, felt
convinced that were he but free to speak frankly at this point he could
show sufficient reason for this proposal; reasons arising from an
outside source, and which unfortunately he was not at liberty to
explain.
"Miss James had said that she suspected Miss Hildreth from the first;
Miss James was certainly a very clever young lady, for she admitted
entertaining similar doubts of Mdlle. Lamien. She, however, if they
excepted Count Vladimir Mellikoff, would seem to have been the only one
who had suspected a play within a play. Miss Hildreth's arrival was
announced for the 2nd of May, and from the time of her advent, _in
propriâ personâ_, Mdlle. Lamien disappeared. Miss James had not failed
to make a note of this coincidence. Mr. Tremain's proposal to Mdlle.
Lamien, whose reappearance took place after his _adieux_ to Miss
Hildreth, was made on the afternoon of the 5th of May, and from that day
he had heard nothing from her, although he considered himself in honour
bound to her. Nor had he again seen Miss Hildreth up to his return from
Maine early in September, when he was met with the astounding news of
her arrest. Here again, unfortunately, he was debarred from frankly
explaining Miss Hildreth's conduct at this juncture.
"She had carried out her project to a certain limit, and then it would
seem had capriciously abandoned it; for they must not lose sight of the
fact, that, though Mr. Tremain believed himself to be addressing his
proposals to Mdlle. Lamien, it was in reality Miss Hildreth who received
them. On this point he would make no comment, he was not in a position
to do so.
"A good deal of stress had been laid upon the two handkerchiefs, the one
found in the drawing-room at the Folly, the other left in the apartment
of the murdered Stevan Lallovich, both of which bore the same
embroidered initials. To his mind there was nothing incriminating in
this, the coincidence was a strange one, but nothing more. What was more
likely than that during one of the frequent visits paid by Miss Hildreth
to the villa outside St. Petersburg, she should have taken in mistake
one of the unfortunate Adèle Lamien's handkerchiefs, and, on seeing her
error, have remarked it carelessly with her own initials; or that after
a time the bit of muslin should have found its way back to its rightful
owner? As to the second handkerchief, that was a very simple riddle;
Miss Hildreth had in her possession many articles of dress belonging to
Adèle Lamien, having required them in her first disguise as that lady.
The note-paper was easily explained in the same way; he could himself
prove that the penmanship was Miss Hildreth's, though slightly
disguised. As to the conversation which took place in Mrs. Newbold's
boudoir, and the latter lady's evident agitation during it, he would
only ask his honour to consider the decidedly awkward position in which
Mrs. Newbold was placed. She knew what the consequences would be were
Miss Hildreth's Quixotic protection of the real Adèle Lamien to become
known, and she already had her suspicions regarding Count Mellikoff: she
alone rightly estimated the danger run by Miss Hildreth in personating
one who was a fugitive from justice.
"As to the part Miss James had played in the whole matter, he should be
sorry to call it by its right name; he believed there was no enmity so
bitter or treacherous as the enmity of a jealous woman. Might not the
motive power of Miss James's conduct be found in the one word--jealousy?
However, with that he had nothing to do. He begged again, and finally,
to submit to his honour's consideration the point at issue; namely, the
proved identity of Miss Hildreth, not with the governess known as Adèle
Lamien, but with the real Adèle Lamien, the wife and murderer of Stevan
Lallovich, which identity he submitted, had in no particular been
established. The warrant of arrest must therefore fall to the ground."
Up to a certain point Mr. Mainwaring felt that he carried his public
with him; but beyond that point--when he came to the equivocal position
held by both Miss Hildreth and Mrs. Newbold--he knew himself to be
losing touch again. He could calculate his audience's pulse to a
fraction of a beat, and he was aware of the exact moment when their
allegiance fell away from him, and veered back again to the opposing
scale.
It was as he had warned Patricia it would be; the instant he touched
delicate and doubtful ground and advanced a theory in support of which
he could produce no proofs, that instant the _entente cordiale_ failed
him. The public likes to believe in its own strict integrity, and its
abhorrence of anything not honest and above-board, and to have so
extravagant a story as this masquerading of Miss Hildreth's thrust down
its throat, accompanied by such lame excuses as sealed lips and secret
promises, was not at all to its taste.
Therefore when Mr. Munger sprang to his feet, he but expressed the
public's opinion when he told his honour "that Mr. Mainwaring must gauge
them by a fool's measurement, if he expected them to swallow such a
cock-and-bull story as that he had expounded. If Miss Hildreth had not
some awkward secret to conceal, why should she bind the tongues of both
her lawyer and her friend? What possible reason could she have for
concealment, unless the work she was engaged upon would not bear
official scrutiny? Mr. Mainwaring had begun boldly enough, and had not
spared his insinuations as to the good faith of those opposing him; but
he must say he failed to see how Mr. Mainwaring had established even one
point in his elaborate theory.
"He had submitted that while Miss Hildreth was Adèle Lamien, still she
was not Adèle Lamien. Such reasoning sounded to him very like a page out
of 'Alice in Wonderland,' where everything was not what it seemed, and
seemed not what it was. Why did not Mr. Mainwaring bring forward proofs
to establish his theory of there being two Adèle Lamiens? Were they to
meekly accept this melodramatic story of Miss Hildreth's heroic
championship of the wretched woman who had killed her lover, and not ask
for proofs? Both Mr. Mainwaring and Mrs. Newbold had made a great show
of acknowledging Miss Hildreth as Adèle Lamien, the governess; and then
they asked his honour to accept the absurd tale of Miss Hildreth's
personating Adèle Lamien, only to further some foolish plot of her own
devising, some personal intrigue that would not bear investigation.
"Either Miss Hildreth was or was not Adèle Lamien-Lallovich. She had
been proved to be the Adèle Lamien of the Folly, and had been
acknowledged by Mr. Mainwaring as such, and yet now, forsooth, he wanted
to prove that while she was the one Adèle Lamien, she was not the real
Adèle Lallovich--not the Simon Pure article. It was about as logical a
deduction as that of a child, who told you it either rained, or it did
not rain; it did not rain, therefore it rained! Altogether too much time
had been spent in such foolish arguments; on his side time was valuable,
would his honour, therefore, make known his decision; a decision which
could only be made in one way, and end this farce by declaring in favour
of the validity of the warrant, and the identity of the Adèle Lamien,
therein named, with the lady calling herself Miss Hildreth."
Mr. Munger's harsh voice threw out his words energetically, while he
clenched each sentence by a single hammer-like beat of one hand upon the
other. He had sprung up so suddenly, and poured out his rough eloquence
in such a stream, no one had an opportunity of interrupting; he finished
with another contemptuous snort and settled himself down in conspicuous
defiance.
With the calling of the noon recess, the case against Patricia Hildreth
had assumed a more ugly and threatening aspect than ever.