The Leather Bag
The girl had known it, but there was something brutal in the way the
woman said it which affected her almost as if she had thrown something
in her face; she shrank back--shivered. The woman seemed to be enjoying
her obvious discomfiture; she smiled, as if the joke had grown still
funnier.
"You see, that's what made me say that you had better think. Suppose
you do give me away; after all, I'm not the person whom you saw in
possession of the bag, and you did see someone. That someone was a
gentleman friend, whose name, I am sure, you don't want to have shouted
from the house-tops. Now do you?"
The girl seemed to be reflecting; her cheeks had grown whiter, trouble
had come into her eyes; her bearing was in striking contrast to that of
the woman in front of her, who could not have seemed to be more
completely at her ease.
"How long have you known him?"
"Oh, some time. We've been in one or two little matters together, out
of which we have done very well."
"You mean that this is not the first time, that he has done this sort
of thing?"
"Gracious, no; he has been in the business quite a time; but I'm not
going to give him away, never fear."
She laughed right out, while the girl winced.
"Where is he to be found?"
"I beg your pardon."
"I asked where is he to be found?"
"And you may ask; do you suppose I'd tell you? What, for you to give
him away? He'd get--well, he'd get penal servitude for this alone; and
then there's that Captain Draycott, or whatever is the name, to whom he
owed one."
Again Miss Forster shivered; she glanced about her, as if fearful that
the other's words had been overheard.
"What do you mean--about--Captain Draycott?"
"Why, of course you know it was he who did it; you don't want me to
tell you that. You know what cause he had; it was he who put him in the
cart at that little game of cards."
One could see that Violet Forster made an effort at self-control; but
the hideous picture conjured up by the other's careless words was too
much for her. She put her hands up to her face; she sank on to a chair,
so helpless before the stress of emotion which seemed to be raging
within that she sat swaying to and fro. The woman, still smiling, stood
and watched; then she said, her voice seeming to be broken by laughter:
"Why, I never thought that you'd take on like this, if you really are
taking on, and it isn't put on for my special benefit; it can't be any
news to you, you must have known. You saw the man lying dead there; you
knew the cause he'd given--the person whose name we won't mention--to
out him. What's all the fuss about? This sort of thing won't improve
your looks, you know."
If the woman paused expecting Miss Forster to speak, she paused in
vain; the agony which seemed to be tearing at the very sources of her
being had bereft her of the powers of speech. The spectacle she
presented, instead of moving the other to sympathy, seemed to divert
her thoughts into channels of bitterness. The smile passed from her
face; her tone became hard.
"What has Sydney Beaton to do with you that you should take on like
this about him? Let me tell you something about him, which may be a
piece of genuine news. If anyone ought to take on about him, it is I,
since I'm his wife."
There was silence; then the girl did begin to regain some vestiges of
self-control. She ceased to sway to and fro; the dry sobs which seemed
to be rending her bosom grew less insistent; she withdrew her hands
from her eyes, she looked the speaker steadily in the face.
"That I do not believe."
The words were uttered with an air of quiet conviction which the other
resented.
"What don't you believe?"
"I do not believe that you are Sydney Beaton's wife; your statement
that you are makes me doubt all that you have said. I am sure that you
are not his wife; I believe him to be incapable of marrying such a
creature as you. He may have sunk low, but I do not think that he could
ever fall quite so low as that. The fact that you have told me that one
great lie makes it obvious that you have probably told me others; I
doubt that he is the kind of person you make him out to be."
"Oh, you doubt it, do you? Very well. Then rouse the household; they'll
soon be getting up without your doing anything to rouse them; hand over
the bag and tell your story--give me into custody if you like. Unless
you perjure yourself, and I don't think you'll do that, you haven't one
shred of evidence against me, as you're perfectly aware. All the
evidence you have is against my husband; you could send him to penal
servitude. I daresay you could hang him if you set your heart on it;
but--I really don't see what good that will do you. By the time the
whole story is told, you'll be in almost as bad a mess as he will be,
and you know it."
"You steal to get money; I'll give you an opportunity of getting money
without stealing. I want to be placed in immediate communication
with--the person you know; for what sum of money will you tell me where
he is to be found?"
"How much will I take to sell him, that's what you mean!"
"I mean nothing of the kind--and you know it well enough. I simply wish
to have an interview with him."
"What good do you expect to get from that?"
"That's my affair."
"Oh, is it? You seem to be forgetting that he is my husband."
"I'm not. No harm will come to him, or to you, even if he occupies the
position towards you which you say he does."
"Tell me plainly just what it is you want me to do."
"Give me an opportunity of having an interview with him in the next
twenty-four hours, or at the earliest possible moment, and I will give
you any sum, in reason, you like to ask."
"You're a fool--you must excuse me speaking plainly, but you are. Even
supposing your intentions are all that you pretend they are, can't you
see for yourself what harm you'd be doing him? You don't know much
about the ways and dodges of the police, that's pretty plain.
Now--well, now, you know nothing--to speak of; and particularly you
don't know where he is, if anyone was to ask you, and mind you, it's
quite possible that someone will before very long. But if you were to
see him, and were to get out of him anything of what I'm dead sure you
would try to get, then the situation would be changed altogether. As
things are, no one can do anything to you, even if you do hold your
tongue, because you don't know anything, whatever you may--well, we'll
say suspect. But have you ever heard of an accessory after the fact? If
you got anything out of him of what you'd try to get, that's what you'd
be, an accessory after the fact, if you didn't give him away straight
off; and with the best will in the world you wouldn't find it so easy
not to do that as you suppose. No, take my word for it, Miss Forster,
this is a case, if you don't know it, in which your ignorance is his
bliss, and, for both your sakes, it would be folly for you to be wise."
"All of which means----?"
"It means that you'll get no information out of me concerning a certain
person who happens to be my husband, if you were to give me all the
money you have. Now we'll drop the subject, if you please; time is
passing. You don't want to have all Avonham interrupting our
tête-à-tête. What's going to happen to this bag? It's his bag. As you
pretend to have some sort of feeling about him, and I know he is an old
friend of yours, why don't you go back upstairs to bed, and keep from
interfering in what, after all, is no concern of yours? I give you my
personal assurance that there isn't so much as a ha'p'orth of anything
in that bag that belongs to you. For his sake what you don't want is a
fuss; he'll never forget the debt he owes you if you keep from making
one; you may be the death of him if you do; let me give you my arm to
help you up the stairs."
"Let me invert the proposition--you go upstairs, and leave me here."
"And take the bag with me?"
"Empty."
"What will you do with what's inside?"
"The entire contents will be returned to the Countess of Cantyre."
"And if the Countess of Cantyre asks questions?"
"What is that that someone says about the Countess of Cantyre asking
questions?"
The inquiry came from the staircase just above them. Before either of
them could move, or speak, a small figure came running into the hall.
It was the Countess of Cantyre herself.
"Violet!" she exclaimed, "what on earth are you doing here? And--who
are you?" The last inquiry was addressed to the woman; but, without
waiting for an answer, her ladyship continued: "Do you know, Violet, I
couldn't sleep; I haven't had one single wink of sleep, and at last I
couldn't stay in bed any longer, I had to come to you. I had a feeling
that you mightn't be getting much sleep either; but I didn't expect to
find your bed empty, especially considering the state that your foot
was in when I saw you last. I prowled about to see what had become of
you, and then I heard voices down here, and perhaps now, Violet, you
will tell me what this new and most extraordinary behaviour of yours
may mean, and who is this woman?"
"This woman," Miss Forster replied, "is the person who calls herself
Jane Simmons."
"And pray what may Jane Simmons be doing here, at this hour of the
morning, with you?"
"If you please, my lady," replied Jane Simmons, "I heard Miss Forster
in the hall, and knowing that she had hurt her foot, I came down to see
if I could be of any use to her."
Nothing could have been more becoming to a person of her station than
her manner of saying this. Her ladyship eyed her askance.
"Is that so? Well, Violet, has she been of any use to you?"
"None whatever."
"Then, Jane Simmons, I should think that you could go."
The woman went, swiftly, noiselessly, with downcast eyes, across the
hall, towards the service stairs. When she was out of sight, she turned
towards the direction in which they were; she did not look pleased, and
she said, quite loudly enough to have been audible to anyone who might
have been standing near:
"I've as good as half a mind to get him hanged, to spite the two of
you."
The countess, in the hall, regarded her friend; it was now much
lighter, so that it was easy to see how white and worn the girl was
looking. It is possible that the consciousness of the pallid face
beside her softened the asperity which the lady had meant to mark her
tone. She just spoke two words, in the form of a question.
"Well, Vi?"
Miss Forster's reply was still briefer; she merely echoed the other's
first word. "Well?"
Her ladyship waited; the girl continued still.
"Is that all you have to say to me?"
Miss Forster sighed, the long-drawn sigh of the sick at heart. Her tone
was in tune with the sigh.
"Margaret, if I were to start telling you all there is to tell--and I
am so tired. I feel as if I hadn't slept for years, and as if I should
never sleep again."
Her ladyship's tone was practical.
"That's all very well, my dear; I can see you're not feeling yourself,
but don't you think you ought to tell me something?"
"I'll do better than tell you, since actions speak louder than words."
Miss Forster raised the blue velvet cover, and she opened the chest,
this time without interruption; from within she took a brown leather
bag and held it out to the countess, who observed it with doubtful
eyes.
"What bag is that?"
"Take it and see."
The countess took it, a little gingerly, as if she feared that
unpleasant consequences might come from touching it.
"Vi, what are you playing at? Whose is this bag, and how did it get
into that chest, and why have you given it to me, and what is in the
thing?"
"I cannot tell you quite, as I've only seen the outside of the bag, and
that for a moment only, but I can guess what it contains."
"Then it's not yours?"
The girl shook her head.
"Then why have you given it to me?"
"I fancy, if you look inside, its contents will supply the answer."
"But whose bag is it?"
"That I cannot tell you."
"But what right have you to give me permission to look into a bag that
certainly doesn't belong to you?"
"Don't be silly, Margaret; I fancy its contents will explain why you
should not stand on foolish points of etiquette; open it."
The countess did as she was bid--then broke into exclamation.
"Why, Vi, whatever is all this?"
"That's what I want to know."
"It looks as if it were a diamond necklace."
"I shouldn't be surprised if there were more than one."
"Vi, it's stuffed with them!"
"I thought so; I fancy, when you come to make inquiries, that you will
find all those precious things whose loss your guests are bemoaning."
"Was it Jane Simmons who took them?"
"That is a subject on which I would rather you asked me no questions; I
cannot answer them."
"But, my dear child, what reason have you for screening her?" Miss
Forster merely shook her head. "But in the face of this you can't
expect to be allowed to take up an attitude of silence. What
explanation am I to give?"
"Give any explanation you choose; you'll find that the people will be
too glad to have their things restored to bother you with questions."
"That's all you know; each one of those women will insist on knowing
how I was able to restore them, and if I can't give a satisfactory
answer they'll begin to think unpleasant things of me. I must tell them
something--what am I to tell them? Am I to tell them that I found them
in a leather bag which you handed over as if it were a cup of tea? If I
do, then for the history of the bag they'll refer to you."
"Then they'll not get it. I'm very sorry, Margaret, but if you knew how
I feel you'd let me off, at least for a while; talk to me later on.
Mayn't I go upstairs, and try to get a little sleep? I believe that if
I could I'd be better able to talk to you than I am now."
Shutting her eyes, the girl pressed her fingers against the lids as if
they ached with weariness. The countess did show some signs of
sympathy.
"My poor dear Violet, do get between the sheets, and get all the sleep
you can; sleep the clock round, if you like. Is your foot still bad?
Shall I come up and help you into bed?"
"No, thank you, Margaret; my foot isn't all that I could wish it to be,
but I think I can manage. If you only knew how much I want to be
alone!"
There was a pathetic something in the girl's voice which touched the
other's heart; there was such a ring of sincerity in the expression of
her desire to be alone.
She suffered the girl to go, so conscious of her wish to escape the
scrutiny of even friendly eyes that she did not turn to look at her.
When the pit-pat of her slippered feet had died away, her ladyship said
to herself, with rueful visage:
"That girl's in a mood for anything; I'm not sure that I was wise to
let her go alone; but how could I thrust myself upon her craving for
solitude? I only hope she'll do nothing worse than she's done already.
Now, who's that? Is she coming back again, or is it Jane Simmons? Those
steps belong to neither--that's Rupert; he's found out that I'm
missing, and he's coming dashing after me."
The lady's surmise proved to be correct; someone was "dashing" after
her, two or three stairs at a time--a gentleman who, rushing out into
the hall, looked about him; then, espying her, exclaimed:
"Margaret! You little wretch! If you only knew what a fright you gave
me. What the dickens made you get out of bed, out of the room, at this
time of the morning and slip down here?"
"Business."
"Business! What in thunder do you mean by business?"
The gentleman approached close to the lady's side; she was looking up
at him with the demurest smile.
"Rupert, I've had a dream."
"You've had a what? What's that you're holding?"
"That's the dream."
"The dream? What are you talking about--it's a bag."
"Precisely, it is a bag, and the bag's the dream."
She observed him with a look in her big, wide open eyes which made them
seem almost as if they were a child's.
"Are you dreaming still, or am I?"
She replied to his question with another.
"Rupert, do you always believe every word I say?"
"Well"--he made a sound as if he might have been clearing his
throat--"that depends."
"At least you must believe every word I am going to tell you now; you
hear, Rupert, you must. You know what those people said last night
about the things they had lost?"
"Am I likely to have forgotten? Am I ever likely to forget?"
"Rupert--now this is the part which you have to believe--I dreamt that
all those things were in a leather bag which was in this chest."
"Great Cæsar's ghost!"
"The dream was so real that, when I woke, I had to come downstairs to
see if it was true--and it was."
"You don't mean it!"
"There is the chest; in it was this bag; and in the bag I do
believe are all the jewels which were lost--including my own. Isn't
that--wonderful?"
"It's more than wonderful, young woman, it's----"
She put her small hand up to his lips and stopped him, commenting on
his sentence as if it had been finished.
"I quite agree with you, Rupert, it is delightful; nothing more
fortunate could possibly have happened."