MRS. BRANDRETH'S STORY
She came--into a room with all the blinds up, the curtains pushed back,
and floods of sunshine streaming in.
Just for an instant I was chilled with doubt of last night's impression,
for her face was so pale and anxious that she was more like Rosemary
than had been the red-rose vision at the theatre. But she was genuinely
surprised at sight of me.
"Why!" she exclaimed. "You are the lovely lady who sat next us at the
play!"
"Does my name suggest nothing to you?" I asked.
"Nothing," she echoed.
"Then we'll sit down, and I'll tell you a story," I suggested.
I began with the _Aquitania_: the man in the cushioned deck-chair, going
home condemned to die; the beautiful girl who appeared on the second day
out; the recognition. I mentioned no names. When I said, however, that
years ago the two had been engaged, a sudden light flashed into my
visitor's eyes. She would have interrupted, but I begged her to let me
go on; and she sat silent while I told the whole story. Then, before she
had time to speak, I said: "There's just _one_ thing I know! You are not
the woman who came to England and married Ralston Murray. If you have a
heart in your breast, you'll tell me where to find that woman. He will
die unless she goes back to him."
Her lips parted, but she pressed them tightly together again. I saw her
muscles stiffen in sympathy with some resolve.
"The woman, whoever she was, must have personated me for a reason of her
own," she answered. "It's as deep a mystery to me as to you."
I looked her in the eyes. "That's not true. Mrs. Brandreth," I flung at
her, brutally. "In spite of what I've said, you're afraid of me. I give
you my most sacred word that you shall be protected if you will help, as
you alone can, to save Ralston Murray. It is only if you _refuse_ your
help that you may suffer. In that case, my husband and I will fight for
our friend. We won't consider you at all. Now that we have a strong clue
to this seeming mystery, and it is already close to our hands,
everything that you have done or have not done will soon come out."
The beautiful woman broke down and began to cry. "What I did I had a
right to do!" she sobbed. "There was no harm! It was as much for the
sake of my husband's future happiness as my own, but if he finds out
he'll never love or trust me again. Men are so cruel!"
"Tell me who went to England in your place, when you pretended to sail,
and he sha'n't find out. Only ourselves and Ralston Murray need ever
know," I urged.
"It was--my twin sister," she gasped, "my sister Mary-Rose Hillier, who
sailed on the _Aquitania_ as Mrs. Guy Brandreth. It was the only way I
could think of, so that I could be near my husband and watch him without
his having the slightest suspicion of what was going on. Mary-Rose owed
me a lot of money which I couldn't really afford to do without. It was
when she was still in England, before she came to America, that I let
her have it. My mother was dreadfully ill, and Mary-Rose adored her. She
wanted to call in great specialists, and begged me to help her. At first
I thought I couldn't. Guy and I are not rich! But he was flirting with a
woman--a cat of a woman: you saw her last night. I was nearly desperate.
Suddenly an idea came to me. I sold a rope of pearls I had, first
getting it copied, and making my sister promise she would do whatever I
asked if I sent her the thousand pounds she wanted. You look shocked--I
suppose because I bargained over my mother's health. But my husband was
more to me than my mother or any one else. Besides, Mother hadn't wished
me to marry Guy. She didn't want me to jilt Ralston Murray. I couldn't
forgive her for the way she behaved, and I never saw her after my
runaway wedding."
"So it was you, and not your sister, who was engaged to Ralston Murray
eight years ago!" I couldn't resist.
"Yes. It happened abroad--as you know, perhaps. Mary-Rose was away at a
boarding school, and they never met. The whole affair was so short, so
quickly over, I doubt if I ever even told Ralston that my sister and I
were twins. But he gave me a lot of lovely presents, and refused to take
them back--wrote that he'd burn them, pearls and all, if I sent them to
him. Yes, the pearls I sold were a gift from him when we were engaged.
And there were photographs of Ralston that Mary-Rose wouldn't let me
destroy. She kept them herself. She was sorry for Ralston--hearing the
story, and seeing some of his letters. She was a romantic girl, and
thought him the ideal man. She was half in love, without having seen him
in the flesh."
"That is why she couldn't resist, on the _Aquitania_," I murmured. "When
Ralston asked her to marry him, she fell in love with the reality, I
suppose. Poor girl, what she must have gone through, unable to tell him
the truth, because she'd pledged herself to keep your secret, whatever
happened! I begin to see the whole thing now! When your mother died in
spite of the specialists, you made the girl come over to this side,
without your husband or any one knowing. You hid her in New York. You
planned your trip to Europe. You left Washington. Your cabin was taken
on the _Aquitania_, and Mary-Rose Hillier sailed as Rosemary Brandreth,
wearing clothes of yours, and even using the same perfume."
"You've guessed it," she confessed. "We'd arranged what to do, in case
Guy went to the ship with me. But he and I were rather on official terms
because of things I'd said about Mrs. Dupont, and he let me travel to
New York alone. I learned from a famous theatrical wig-maker how to
disguise myself, and I lived in lodgings not half a mile from our house
for three months, watching what he did every day. At first I didn't find
out much, but later I began to see that I'd done him an injustice. He
didn't care seriously for the Dupont woman. It was only a flirtation. So
I was in a hurry to get Mary-Rose over here again, and reappear myself."
"Why did you have to insist on her coming back to America?" I asked,
trying not to show how disgusted I was with the selfishness of the
creature--selfishness which had begun long ago, in throwing Ralston
over, and now without a thought had wrecked her sister's life.
"Oh, to have her book her passage in my name and sail for home was the
only safe way! All had gone so well, I wouldn't spoil it at the end."
"All had gone well with _you_," I said. "But what about _her_?"
"She didn't tell me what you've told me to-day. I supposed till almost
the last that she was just travelling about, as we planned for her to
do. The only address I had was Mother's old bank, which was to forward
everything to Mary-Rose, on her own instructions. Then, a few weeks ago,
she wrote and asked if I could manage without her coming back to
America. She said it would make a lot of difference in her life, but she
didn't explain what she meant. If she'd made a clean breast of
everything I might have thought of some other way out; but----"
"But as _she_ didn't, _you_ didn't," I finished the sentence. "Oh, how
different Mary-Rose Hillier is in heart from her sister Rosemary
Brandreth, though their faces are almost identical! She was always
thinking of you, and her promise to you. That promise was killing
her--that and her love for Ralston Murray. She didn't want his money,
and when she found he was determined to make a will in her favour she
thought of a way in which everything would come to _you_. It was you he
really loved--no doubt she argued with herself--and he wanted you to
inherit his fortune. Oh, poor tortured girl!--and I used to suspect that
she was mercenary. But, thank Heaven, Ralston didn't die, as he expected
so soon to do when he made that hurried will. The woman he truly loves
was never married before, and is his legal wife. Now, when she goes back
to him and he hears the whole truth he will be so happy that he'll live
for years, strong and well."
"I don't believe even you can induce Mary-Rose to go back to Ralston
Murray," Mrs. Brandreth said. "She wouldn't think he could forgive her
for deceiving him."
"He could forgive her anything after what he went through in losing
her," I said. "When you've told me where to find your sister, I will
tell her that--and a lot more things besides."
"Well, if you can make her see your point of view!" Mrs. Brandreth
grudged. "If _my_ secret is kept, I hope Mary-Rose may be happy. I don't
grudge her Ralston Murray or his fortune; but when she feels herself
_quite_ safe as his wife she can pay me my thousand pounds."
"She _has_ paid you, and more, with her heart's blood!" I exclaimed.
"Where is she?"
"In New York. She told me she could never go to England again after what
had happened there. She seems awfully down, and I left her deciding
whether she should enter a charitable sisterhood. They take girls
without money, if they'll work in the slums, and Mary-Rose was anxious
to do that."
"She won't be when she understands what work lies before her across the
sea," I retorted.
Even as I spoke--and as Mrs. Guy Brandreth was writing down her sister's
address--I mentally marshalled the arguments I would use: the need to
save Ralston from himself, and above all from Paul and Gaby Jennings.
But, oh, the sudden stab I felt as those names came to my mind!
_How_ keep the secret when Gaby Jennings had known the real Rosemary
Brandreth in Baltimore? All the complications would have to be explained
to her, if she were not to spread scandal--if she were not to whisper
revengefully among her friends: "Ralston Murray isn't really married to
his wife. I could have her arrested as a bigamist if I chose!"
It was an awful question, that question of Gaby Jennings. But the answer
came like balm, after the stab, and that answer was--"_The pictures._"
By the time Jim and I reached England again, taking Mary-Rose with us,
my tame detective would have got at the truth about the stolen
treasures, and who had made the copies. Then all that Ralston need do
would be to say: "Tell the lies you want to tell about my wife (who _is_
my wife!); spread any gossip at all--and you go to prison, you and your
husband. Keep silence, and I will do the same."
Well, we found Mary-Rose in New York. At first she was horrified at
sight of us. Her one desire had been to hide. But after I had talked
myself nearly dumb, and Jim had got in a word or two edgewise, she began
to hope. Even then she would not go back, though, until I had written
out her story for Ralston to read. He was to decide, and wire either
"Come to me," or "I cannot forgive."
We took her to our hotel, to await the answer; but there something
happened which changed the whole outlook. A long cablegram was delivered
to me some days before it would be possible to hear from Ralston. It was
from Mr. Smith, and said:
G. J. and husband proved guilty portrait fraud. Woman's father
clever old Parisian artist smuggled to England copy pictures. Her
career on stage ruined by cocaine and attempt to change friend's
jewels for false. When she attempted nursing in war, went to pieces
again; health saved by P. J., but would not have married him if he
had not pretended to be R. M.'s heir. R. M. so ill I took liberty
send for Sir B. D. as you directed. Sir B. D. proved nothing
positive against P. J., but suspicion so strong I got rid of couple
by springing portrait discoveries on them and threatening arrest.
They agreed leave England if allowed do so quietly. Consulted R.
M., who wished them to go, and they have already gone. Sir B. D.
installed at Manor. Things going better but patient weak. Hope you
think I did right.--
Smith.
I showed this message to Ralston's wife; and she said what I knew she
would say: "Oh, let's sail at once! Even if he doesn't want me, I must
be _near_."
Of course he did want her. He loved her so much that--it seemed to
him--the only person who had to be forgiven was that creature in
Washington. Her he forgave because, if it hadn't been for her selfish
scheme he would never have met his "life-saving angel."
Yes, that is his name for her now. It is a secret name, yet not so sweet
as Jim's for me. But that's a secret! And it's better than "The
Brightener."
THE END
BOOKS BY C. N. & A. M. WILLIAMSON
A Soldier of the Legion
Everyman's Land
It Happened in Egypt
Lady Betty Across the Water
Lord Loveland Discovers America
My Friend the Chauffeur
Princess Virginia
Rosemary in Search of a Father
Secret History
Set in Silver
The Brightener
The Car of Destiny
The Chaperon
The Golden Silence
The Great Pearl Secret
The Guests of Hercules
The Heather Moon
The Lightning Conductor
The Lightning Conductor Discovers America
The Lion's Mouse
The Motor Maid
The Port of Adventure
The Princess Passes
The Second Latchkey