Again and again, as Blanche Farrow walked slowly back to Wyndfell Hall,
she went over the meagre details of the strange story she had just been
told. Again and again she tried to fill in the bare outlines of the
tale.
Lionel Varick a murderer? Her mind, her heart, refused to accept the
possibility.
Suddenly there came back to her a recollection of the curious, now many
years old, circumstances which had attended her knowledge of Varick's
first marriage.
Someone, she could not now remember who, had taken her to one of the
cheap foreign restaurants in Soho, which were not then so much
frequented by English people as they are now. She had been surprised,
and rather amused, to see Lionel Varick at a neighbouring table,
apparently entertaining a middle-aged, rather prim-looking lady, whom he
had introduced to her, Blanche, rather unwillingly, as "my friend, Miss
Weatherfield."
Then had come the strange part of the story!
When on her way to stay with some friends in Sussex a few days later,
she found herself in the same railway carriage as Miss Weatherfield;
and, during the course of some desultory talk, the latter had mentioned
that she was daughter to the Chichester doctor who had attended Lionel
Varick's wife in her last illness.
_Lionel Varick's wife_? For a moment Blanche had thought that there
must be some mistake, or that her ears had betrayed her. But she very
soon realized that there was no mistake, and that she had heard aright.
Successfully concealing her ignorance of the fact that their mutual
friend was a widower, she had ventured a few discreet questions, to
which had come willing answers. These made it clear why Varick had
chosen to remain silent concerning what had evidently been a sordid and
melancholy episode of his past life.
Miss Weatherfield told her pleasant new acquaintance that the Varicks,
when they had first come to Chichester, had been very poor, the wife of
an obviously lower class than the husband. But that Varick, being the
gentleman he was, had not minded what he did to earn an honest living,
and that through Dr. Weatherfield he had obtained for a while employment
with a chemist, his work being that of taking round the medicines, as he
was not of course qualified to make up prescriptions.
While Miss Weatherfield had babbled on, Blanche had been able to piece
together what had evidently been a singularly painful story. Mrs. Varick
had been a violent, disagreeable woman, and the kindly spinster had felt
deeply sorry for the husband, himself little more than a boy. But she
admitted that her father, while attending Mrs. Varick, had acquired a
prejudice against the husband of his patient, and she added, smilingly,
that it was without her father's knowledge or consent that she had given
the young man, after the death of his wife, a valuable business
introduction.
Miss Weatherfield evidently flattered herself that this introduction had
been a turning-point in Varick's life, and that what appeared to her his
present prosperity was owing to what she had done. In any case, he had
shown his gratitude by keeping in touch with her, and on the rare
occasions when she came to London, they generally met.
Blanche Farrow, even in those early days, was too much a woman of the
world to feel as surprised as some people would have been. All the same,
she had felt disconcerted and a little pained, that the man who was fond
of telling her that she was his only real friend in the world had
concealed from her so important a fact as that of his marriage.
After some hesitation she had made up her mind to tell him of her
new-found knowledge, and at once he had filled in and coloured the
sketchy outlines of the picture drawn by the rather foolish if kindly
natured Miss Weatherfield. Yes, it was true that he had been a fool,
though a quixotic fool--so Blanche had felt on hearing his version of
the story. At the time of the marriage Varick had been nineteen, his
wife five years older. The two had soon parted, but they had made up
their differences after a separation which lasted four years. Varick's
fortunes had then been at their lowest ebb, and the two had drifted to
Chichester, where Mrs. Varick had humble, respectable relations. After a
while the woman had fallen ill, and finally died. Blanche had seen how
it had pained and disturbed Varick to rake out the embers of the past,
and neither had ever referred to the sad story again.
* * * * *
And now, from considering the past, Blanche Farrow turned shrinkingly to
the present.
In common with the rest of the world, she had at times followed the
course of some great murder trial; and she had been interested, as most
intelligent people are occasionally interested, in the ins and outs of
more than one so-called "poisoning mystery."
But such happenings had seemed utterly remote from herself; and to her
imagination the word "murderer" had connoted an eccentric, cunning,
mentally misshapen monster, lacking all resemblance to the vast bulk of
human kind. She tried to realize that, if Mark Gifford's tale were true,
a man with whom she herself had long been in close sympathy, and whose
peculiar character she had rather prided herself on understanding, had
been--nay, was--such a monster.
Blanche felt a touch of shuddering repulsion from herself, as well as
from Varick, as she now remembered how sincerely she had rejoiced when,
reading between the lines of his letter, she had guessed that he was
marrying an unattractive woman for her money. It was now a comfort to
feel that, even so, she had certainly felt a sensation of disgust when
it had come to her knowledge that Varick had assumed, with regard to
that same unattractive woman, an extravagant devotion she felt convinced
he did not--could not--feel. It had shocked her, made her feel
uncomfortable, to hear Helen Brabazon's artless allusions to the
tenderness and devotion he had lavished on "poor Milly."
Helen Brabazon? A sensation of pain, almost of shame, swept over Blanche
Farrow. Were Helen to appear as witness in a _cause célèbre_ the girl's
life would henceforth be shadowed and smirched by an awful memory. And
then there rose before her mind another dread possibility. Was it not
possible--nay, probable--that she, Blanche Farrow, would be sucked into
the vortex?
She remembered a case in which the prisoner had been charged with the
murder of a relation through whose death he had received considerable
benefit, and how four or five men and women of repute had been called to
testify to his high character, and to the kindness of his heart. But
their evidence had availed him nothing, for he had been hanged.
Blanche quickened her footsteps as, in imagination, she saw herself in
the witness-box speaking on behalf of Lionel Varick.
She argued with herself that, after all, it was just possible that he
might be innocent! If so, she would fight for him to the death, and
that, however much it distressed and angered Mark Gifford that she
should do so.
Absorbed in the dread and terrible thing he had come to tell her, she
had not given him, the man who loved her, and whose wife she was to be,
one thought since their solemn, rather shamefaced, embrace. Yet now the
knowledge that, however, much he disapproved, Mark would stand by her,
gave her a wonderful feeling of security, of having left the open sea of
life for a safe harbour--and that in spite of the terrible hours,
perhaps the terrible weeks and months, which now lay before her.
* * * * *
Turning the sharp angle which led to the gate giving admittance to the
gardens of Wyndfell Hall, she suddenly met Helen Brabazon face to face,
and for one wild moment Blanche thought that Helen _knew_. The girl's
usually placid, comely face was disfigured. It was plain that she had
been crying bitterly.
"I'm going to the village," she exclaimed; "I've got to go home to-day,
and I must telegraph to my uncle."
"I hope you haven't had bad news?" said Blanche mechanically.
She was telling herself that it was quite, quite impossible that Helen
knew anything--but as Helen, who had begun crying again, shook her head,
Blanche asked: "Does Lionel know that you want to leave to-day?"
"Yes; I have told Mr. Varick," and then all at once she exclaimed: "Oh,
Miss Farrow, I feel so utterly miserable! Mr. Varick has just asked me
to be his wife, and it has made me feel as if I had been so treacherous
to Milly. Yet I don't think I did anything to make him like me? Do you
think I did?"
She looked appealingly at Blanche.
It was plain that what had happened had given her an extraordinary
shock. "I am sure, now," she went on falteringly, "that Milly--poor,
poor Milly--haunts this house. I have felt, again and again, as if she
were hovering about me. I believe that what I saw in the hall, on that
awful afternoon, was really _her_. Yet Mr. Varick says that Milly would
be very pleased if he and I were to marry each other. Surely he is
mistaken?"
"Yes," said Blanche slowly, "I think he is."
"I feel so miserable," went on the girl, still speaking with a touch of
excitement which in her was so very unusual. "What happened this morning
has spoiled what I thought was such a beautiful friendship! And then I
feel frightened--horribly frightened"--she went on in a low voice.
"What is it that frightens you, Helen?" asked Blanche.
These confidences seemed at once so futile, and yet also so sinister,
knowing what she now knew.
"I'm afraid that Mr. Varick will 'will' me into thinking I care for
him," the girl confessed in a low voice. "He says that he will never
give up hope, and that, although he knows he isn't worthy of me, he
thinks that in time I shall care for him. But I don't want to care for
him, Miss Farrow--I'm sure that Milly is jealous of me; yet at Redsands,
when she was dying, it made her happy that we were friends."
"I don't think you need be afraid that Lionel will ever ask you to marry
him again," said Blanche firmly. "And, Helen? Let me give you a word of
advice. Never, never, tell anyone of what happened to you this morning."
The girl blushed painfully. "I know I ought not to have told you," she
whispered, "but I felt so wretched." She hesitated, and then added:
"Ever since it happened I have been remembering that first evening, when
my dear father warned me to leave this house. Oh, how I wish I had done
what he told me to do!"
"I think you are wrong there," said Blanche. "I think a day will come,
Helen, and in spite of anything that has happened, or that may happen,
when you will be very glad that you stayed on at Wyndfell Hall."
"Do you?" she said wistfully and then she went on, with a note of
diffidence and shyness which touched the older woman: "You and Bubbles
have both been so kind to me--would you rather that I stayed on with
you? I will if you like."
"As a matter of fact, Bubbles and I are going away to-day, after all,"
said Blanche, "so let me send one of the men down with your telegram."
"I would rather take it myself--really!" and a moment later she
disappeared round the sharp turning which led on to the open road.
* * * * *
Blanche walked on, her eyes on the ground, until there fell on her ears
the sound of quick footsteps. She looked up, to see Varick's tall figure
hurrying towards her.
They met by the moat bridge, and as he came up to her he saw her pull
forward the veil which, neatly arranged round the rim of her small felt
hat, was not really meant to cover her face.
"Let's walk down here for a moment," he said abruptly. "I want to ask
you a question, Blanche."
They stepped off the carriage road on to the grass, and, walking on a
few paces, stood together at the exact spot from which Varick, on
Christmas Eve, had looked at the house before him with such exultant
eyes.
Three weeks ago Wyndfell Hall had appeared kindly and welcoming, as well
as mysteriously beautiful, with its old diamond-paned windows all aglow.
Now, in the wintry daylight, the ancient dwelling house still looked
mysteriously beautiful; but there was something cold, menacing, forlorn
in its appearance. The windows looked like blind eyes....
He turned on her suddenly, and held out the telegram she had received
that morning.
"One of the servants picked this up on the breakfast table and brought
it to me. What the devil does it mean? If Mark Gifford wanted to see you
why couldn't he come here?"
Blanche looked at him dumbly. Had her life depended on her speaking she
could not have spoken just then.
He went on: "Have you seen Gifford? Did he say anything about me?"
He uttered the words with a kind of breathless haste. She had the
painful feeling that he wanted to put her in the wrong, to quarrel with
her. Even as he spoke he was tearing the telegram into small pieces, and
casting them down on to the neat, well-kept grass path.
"I suspect I know the business he came about--" He was speaking quietly,
collectedly, now, and she felt that he was making a great effort to
speak calmly and confidently.
"I don't think, Lionel, that you can know," she answered at last, in an
almost inaudible voice.
"Well, let me tell you what it is that I suspect," he said.
There was a long pause. He was looking at her warily, wondering,
evidently, as to how far he dared confide in her. And that look of his
made her feel sick and faint.
"I suspect," he said at last, "that Gifford came to tell you a
cock-and-bull story concocted by my wife's companion, a woman called
Julia Pigchalke."
"Yes, Lionel, you have guessed right."
It was an unutterable relief that he thus made the way easy for her; a
relief--but she now knew that what Gifford had told her was true.
"He wants me to get everyone away from here to-day," she went on, in a
tone so low that he could scarcely hear her.
"Away from here? To-day?" he repeated, startled.
"Yes, away before to-morrow midday." She moistened her dry lips with
her tongue.
"I am the victim of a foul conspiracy!" he exclaimed. "Panton warned me
that I should have trouble with that woman." He waited a moment, then:
"Did Gifford tell you that they have sent for Panton?" he asked
suddenly. So that, she told herself, was what had really put him on the
track. She nodded, and he added grimly: "They won't get much out of
him."
Then he was going to fight it--fight it to the last?
"You will stand my friend, Blanche," he asked, and slowly she bent her
head.
"Of course you know what this woman Pigchalke wishes to prove?"
He was now looking keenly, breathlessly, into her pale, set face.
"Come," he said, "come, Blanche--don't be so upset! Tell me exactly what
it was that Gifford told you."
But she shook her head. "I--I can't," she murmured.
"Then I will tell you what perhaps he felt ashamed to say to any friend
of mine--that is that Julia Pigchalke suspects me of having done my poor
Milly to death! She went and saw Panton; she did more, she actually
advertised for particulars of my past life. Did he know that?"
He waited, for what seemed a very long time to Blanche, and then in a
voice which, try as he might, was yet full of suppressed anxiety, he
added: "She had got hold somehow of the fact that I once lived at
Chichester."
Blanche looked down, and she counted over, twice, the thirty little bits
of the torn telegram before she answered, in a low, muffled voice:
"It's what happened at Chichester, Lionel, that made them listen to
her."
There was a long moment of tense, of terrible, silence between them.
At last Varick broke the silence, and, speaking in an easy, if excited,
conversational tone, he exclaimed: "That's a bit of bad luck for me! I
have an enemy there--an old fool of a doctor--father of that woman you
met me with years ago."
He walked on a few steps, leaving her standing, and then came back to
her.
More seriously he asked the fateful question: "I take it I am to be
arrested to-morrow?"
He saw by her face that he had guessed truly, and as if speaking to
himself, he said musingly: "That means I have twenty-four hours."
She forced herself to say: "They think you have a good sporting chance
if you stay where you are."
"It never occurred to me to go away!" he said angrily. "I want you
always to remember, Blanche, that I told you, here, and now, that, even
if appearances may come to seem damnably against me, I am an innocent
man."
She answered: "I will always remember that, and always say so."
He said abruptly: "I want you to do me a kindness."
She asked uneasily: "What is it, Lionel?"
"I want you to get Gifford to prevent the meeting which has been
arranged for to-morrow morning between Panton and the Home Office expert
called Spiller."
He waited a moment, then went on: "It was the summons to Panton which
put me on the track of--of this conspiracy." And Blanche felt that this
time Varick was speaking the truth.
She said, deprecatingly: "Mark would do a great deal to please me, but
I'm afraid he won't do that."
"I think he may," he answered, in a singular tone, "you may have a
greater power of persuasion than you know."
She made no answer to that, knowing well that Mark would never interfere
with regard to such a matter as this.
"Can you suggest any reason I can give, why we should be all going away
to-day?" she asked falteringly.
Without a moment's hesitation he answered: "You can say there has been
trouble among the servants, and that I should feel much obliged if I
could have the house cleared of all my visitors by to-night."
Then Blanche Farrow came to a sudden determination. "I will get them all
away to-day, Lionel, but I, myself, will stay till to-morrow morning."
For the first time during this strange, to her this unutterably painful
conversation, Varick showed a touch of real, genuine feeling. It was as
if a mask had fallen from his face.
He gripped her hand. "You're a brick!" he exclaimed. "I ought to tell
you to go away, too, but I won't be proud, Blanche. I'll accept your
kindness."