It marked ten minutes to twelve on the tower of the ancient chantry
church of Darnaston as Blanche Farrow walked across the village green
and past the group of thatched cottages composing the pretty hamlet
which looks so small compared with its noble house of God. But, though
she was early, the man she was to meet was evidently already there, for
a big, mud-stained motor-car was drawn up in the lane which runs to the
left of the church.
Feeling more and more apprehensive, she knew not of what, she walked up
the path between the graves, and then suddenly she saw Mark Gifford--his
spare, still active-looking figure framed in the stone porch, his plain,
but pleasant, intelligent-looking face full of a grave welcome.
He stepped out of the porch and gripped her hand in silence.
She felt that he was deeply stirred, stirred as she had never known him
to be--excepting, perhaps, on that occasion, years and years ago, when
he had first asked her to be his wife.
Still holding her hand in that strong grasp, he drew her within the
porch. "I'm so grateful to you for having come," he said. "I hope you
didn't think what I did very odd?"
"I did think it just a little odd."
She was trying to smile--to be her usual composed self.
"I couldn't come to Wyndfell Hall," he said abruptly, "for a reason
which you will soon know. But I had to see you, and, by a bit of luck, I
suddenly remembered this splendid old church. I passed by here once on a
walking tour, years and years ago. It's the sort of place people come a
long way to see; so, if we are found here together--well, we might have
met by accident."
"As it is, we have met by appointment," she said quietly.
She was feeling more and more frightened. Mark now looked so set, so
grim.
"Would you rather stay out here," he asked, "or shall we go into the
church?"
"I'd rather stay out here. What is it, Mark? Don't keep me in suspense."
They were standing, facing one another; he had let go her hand at last.
"What I've come to tell you will give you, I fear, a great shock," he
began slowly, "for it concerns someone to whom I believe you to be
deeply attached."
He looked away from her for the first time.
"Then it _is_ Bubbles!" she cried, dismayed. "What on earth has the
child done?"
He turned and again looked into her face, now full of a deeply troubled,
questioning anxiety. "Bubbles Dunster?" he exclaimed. "Good heavens, no!
It's nothing to do with Bubbles."
A look of uncontrollable relief came over her eyes and mouth.
"Who is it, Mark? You credit me with a warmer heart than I possess--"
But he remained silent, and she said quickly: "Come! Who is it, Mark?"
"Can't you guess?" he asked harshly. And, as she shook her head, he
added, in a slow, reluctant tone: "I've always supposed you to be really
attached to Lionel Varick."
Lionel? That was the last name she expected to hear!
"I don't know exactly what you mean by 'attached,' Mark," she said
coldly. "But yes, I've always been fond of him--in a way I suppose you
might call it 'attached'--since that horrid affair, years ago, when you
were so kind both to him and to me."
"Don't couple yourself with him," he said sternly, "if, as I gather, you
don't really care for him, Blanche." And then, almost inaudibly, he
added: "You don't know the tortures of jealousy I've suffered at the
thought of you and that man."
"Tortures of jealousy?" she repeated, astonished, and rather touched.
"Oh, Mark--poor Mark! Why didn't you ask me? I've never, never cared for
him in--in that sort of way. How could you think I did?"
"Yet you're here, in his house," he said, "acting (so you said in your
letter) as hostess to his guests? And surely you've always been on terms
of what most people would call close friendship with him?"
"Yes, I suppose I have"--she hesitated--"in a way. I've always felt
that, like me, he hadn't many real friends. And, of course, in old days,
ages ago, he was very fond of me," she smiled. "That always pleases a
woman, Mark."
"Does it?" he asked, probingly; and as only answer she reddened
slightly.
There came a little pause, and then Blanche exclaimed:
"I'm sorry, very sorry, if he's got into a new scrape, Mark; and I'm
surprised too. Some two years ago he married a rich woman; she died not
long after their marriage, but she was devoted to him, and he's quite
well off now."
"Did you know her?" asked Mark Gifford, in a singular tone.
"No, I never came across her. I was away--in Portugal, I think. He wrote
and told me about his marriage, and then, later, when his wife fell ill,
he wrote again. He was extremely good to her, Mark."
"D'you know much about Varick's early life?" he asked.
"I think I know all there is to know," she answered.
What was Mark getting at? What had Lionel Varick done? Her mind was
already busily intent on the thought of how disagreeable it would be to
have to warn him of impending unpleasantness.
It was good of Mark to have taken all this trouble! Of course, he had
taken it for her sake, and she felt very grateful--and still a little
frightened; he looked so unusually grave.
"What _do_ you know of Varick's early life?" he persisted.
"I don't think there's very much to know," she answered uneasily. "His
father had a place in Yorkshire, and got involved in some foolish, wild
speculations. In the end the man went bankrupt, everything was sold up,
and they were very poor for a while--horribly poor, I believe. Then the
elder Varick died, and his widow and Lionel went and lived at Bedford. I
gather Lionel's mother was clever, proud, and quarrelsome. At any rate,
she quarrelled with her people, and he had a very lonely boyhood and
youth."
"Then you know very little of how Varick lived before you yourself met
him? How old would he have been then, Blanche?"
"I should think four or five-and-twenty," she said hesitatingly.
"I suppose," and then Mark Gifford looked at her with a troubled,
hesitating look, "I suppose, Blanche--I fear I'm going to surprise
you--that you were not aware that he'd been married before?"
"Yes," she said eagerly, "I did know that, Mark."
What on earth was he driving at? That woman, Lionel Varick's first wife,
was surely dead? She, Blanche, had had, by a curious accident, someone
else's word for that. And then--there rose before her the vision of a
ghastly-looking, wild, handsome face; quickly she put it from her, and
went on: "He married, when he was only nineteen, a girl out of his own
class. They separated for a while; then they seem to have come together
again, and, fortunately for Lionel, she died."
"She died murdered--poisoned."
Mark Gifford uttered the dread words very quietly. "Almost certainly
poisoned by her husband, Lionel Varick."
A mist came over Blanche Farrow's eyes. She turned suddenly sick and
faint.
She put out her hand blindly. Gifford took it, and made her sit down on
a stone bench.
"I'm sorry," he said feelingly, "very, very sorry to have had to tell
you this dreadful thing, Blanche."
"Never mind," she muttered. "Go on, Mark, if there's anything else to
say--go on."
As he remained silent for a moment, she asked, in a dull, tired tone:
"But if this awful thing is true, how was it found out, after so many
years?"
"It's a peculiar story," he answered reluctantly. "The late--I might say
the last--Mrs. Varick, whose name, as you of course know, was Millicent
Fauncey, had first as governess, and then as companion, an elderly woman
called by the extraordinary name of Pigchalke. This Julia Pigchalke
seemed to have hated Varick from the first. She violently disapproved of
the engagement, quarrelled with Miss Fauncey about it, and the two women
never met after the marriage. But Miss Pigchalke evidently cared deeply
for poor Mrs. Varick; I've seen her, and convinced myself of that."
"What is she like?" asked Blanche suddenly.
"Well, she's not attractive! A stout, stumpy, grey-haired woman, with a
very red face."
Blanche covered her eyes with her hands. "Go on," she said again, "go
on, Mark, with what you were saying."
"Where was I? Oh, I know now! When Mrs. Varick died, within less than a
year of her marriage, Miss Pigchalke suspected foul play, and she
deliberately set herself to track Lionel Varick down. She made it her
business to find out everything about him, and but for her I think we
may take it that he would have gone on to the end of the chapter a
respectable, and in time highly respected, member of society."
There was a pause. Blanche was staring before her, listening.
"About five weeks ago," went on Mark Gifford quietly, "Miss Pigchalke
got into touch with the head of our Criminal Investigation Department.
She put before him certain--one can hardly call them facts--but certain
discoveries she had made, which led to the body of the first Mrs. Varick
being exhumed." Blanche Farrow uttered a stifled exclamation of
surprise, and Gifford went on: "I may add that Miss Pigchalke behaved
with remarkable cunning and intelligence. She found out that the doctor
at Redsands--the place where her poor friend died--was a firm friend of
Varick's. She thinks him an accomplice, but of course we regard that as
nonsense, for we've found out all about the man, and he is coming to see
our toxological expert to-morrow."
(Then that was Dr. Panton's urgent appointment in town.)
"And now, Blanche, comes the curious part of the story! The doctor who
had attended the first Mrs. Varick years and years ago _had_ suspected
foul play. He's a very old man now, and he retired many years ago, but
he happened to come across an advertisement which Miss Pigchalke put
into one of the Sunday papers asking for information concerning Lionel
Varick's past life. _He answered the advertisement_, with the result
that his one-time patient was exhumed. It was then found beyond doubt
that the woman had been poisoned; and a few days ago the second Mrs.
Varick's body was exhumed."
Blanche looked up, and in answer to her haggard look, he said: "Though
perhaps I oughtn't to tell you so, there isn't a shadow of doubt that
she also was foully done to death, and rather more intelligently than
the other poor soul, for in _her_ case the process was allowed to take
longer, and the doctor attending her was quite taken in."
"How horrible!" muttered Blanche. "How very, very horrible!"
"Yes, horrible indeed! But why I've come here to-day, Blanche, is to
tell you that to-morrow Lionel Varick will be arrested on the charge of
murder. I have come to say that you and Bubbles must leave Wyndfell Hall
this afternoon."
Blanche hardly heard what he was saying. She was absorbed in the horror
and in the amazement of the story he had just told her, and in what was
going to happen to-morrow to the man who had been for so long her
familiar friend.
"It is an immense relief to me to hear that you never even saw the late
Mrs. Varick." Mark Gifford went on: "I was afraid that you might have
been mixed up with this dreadful business; that he might have used you
in some way."
Blanche shook her head, and he went on, musingly: "There were two ladies
living next door to the house at Redsands where the poor woman was done
to death. They, I expect, will have to give evidence, at least I know
that one of them will, a certain Miss--Miss--?"
"Brabazon?" supplied Blanche quickly.
"Yes, that's the name! A certain Miss Brabazon was a great deal with
Mrs. Varick. She seems to have been an intimate friend of both the
husband and wife. She used to go out with Varick for motor drives. Has
he ever spoken to you of her?"
"Miss Brabazon is here, now, at Wyndfell Hall," exclaimed Blanche. "You
must have heard of her, Mark? She's the owner of some tremendously big
city business."
"Oh, I don't think it can be that girl!"
Mark Gifford looked surprised and perturbed.
"But I know it's that girl. She's become quite a friend of mine, and of
Bubbles. Oh, Mark, I do _hope_ Helen Brabazon won't be brought into this
dreadful business--d'you think that will be really necessary?"
"I don't know," he said slowly. "But some of our people think that
Varick may put up a fight. British criminal law is much too kind to
murderers. Even if there's evidence enough to hang a man ten times over,
there's always a sporting chance he may get off! There is in this case."
Blanche turned suddenly very pale. The full realization of what those
words meant rushed upon her. He feared she was going to faint.
"Forgive me," she muttered. "It's stupid, I know; but you must remember
that--that I've known Lionel Varick a long time."
"I'm not a bit surprised that you are so distressed," he said
soothingly.
And then something happened which did surprise Mark Gifford! He was
supposed to be a clever, intelligent man, and there were many people who
went in awe of him; but he knew very little about women. This, perhaps,
was why he felt utterly astounded when Blanche suddenly burst into
tears, and began rocking herself backwards and forwards. "Oh, Mark!" she
sobbed. "Oh, Mark, I'm so unhappy,--I'm so miserable--I'm so frightened.
Do--do help me!"
"That's just what I came to do," he said simply. But he was very much
troubled. Her face was full of a kind of agonized appeal....
Greatly daring, he bent down over her, and gathered her into his arms.
She clung to him convulsively; and, all at once, there came insistently
to Mark Gifford, George Herbert's beautiful saying: "There is an hour in
which a man may be happy all his life, can he but find it." Perhaps that
hour, that moment, had come to him now.
"Blanche," he whispered, "Blanche--darling! You didn't really mean what
you wrote yesterday? Don't you think the time has come when two such old
friends as you and I might--"
"--make fools of themselves?"
She looked up at him, and there came a quivering smile over her
disfigured face. "Yes, if you really wish it, Mark. I'll do just as you
like."
"D'you really mean that?" he asked.
And she said firmly: "Yes, Mark--I really do mean it." And he felt her
yielding--yielding in spirit as well as in body--in body as well as in
spirit.
"I suppose you couldn't come back with me to London, now?" he asked a
little shyly. "We could get the woman at the post office down there to
send up a letter to Bubbles, explaining that you had to go away
unexpectedly, and telling her to follow you to town to-day."
It was rather a wild proposal, and he was not surprised when he saw her
shake her head. "I can't do that," she said. "But oh, Mark, I wish I
could! Bubbles is in bed. There was an accident--it's too long to tell
you about it now. But, of course, I'll manage to get her away to-day."
And then the oppressive horror of it all suddenly came back to her.
"When did you say they were going to arrest Lionel?"
She uttered the words slowly, and with difficulty.
"They're going to arrest him to-morrow, Friday, in the early afternoon,"
he said in a low voice. "By God's mercy," he spoke simply, reverently,
"I got your letter in time, Blanche."
He looked at her anxiously. "I'm afraid even now you will have some
difficult hours to live through," and, as he saw her face change, "I
trust absolutely to your discretion," he said hesitatingly.
"Of course," she gave the assurance hurriedly. "Of course you can do
that, Mark."
Without looking at her, he went on:
"As a matter of fact, the house has been watched for some days. If he
tries to get away he will destroy the--the sporting chance I mentioned
just now."
"I must be going back," she said, getting up. "Several of the party
were, in any case, leaving this afternoon, and I must manage to get
everybody else away as well."
Her mind was in a whirl of conflicting feelings and emotions. And then,
all at once, she was moved, taken away from the dreadful problem of the
moment, by what she saw in Mark Gifford's face. It was filled with a
kind of sober gladness. "Mark," she exclaimed, "what a selfish brute
I've always been to you--never giving--always taking! I'll try to be
different now."
She held out her hand; he took it and held it closely. "When shall I see
you again?" he asked. "May I come and meet you and Bubbles at Liverpool
Street to-morrow?"
"Yes--do. That will be a great comfort!" And then, acting as she very
seldom did, on impulse, Blanche rather shamefacedly held up her face to
his....