FANNY DESCRIBES HOW SHE MADE UP HER MIND WHAT TO DO WITH LEMON.
"Devlin put down the newspaper, and waited for me to speak. I think,
sir, I've told you egsactly what he said, and as fur as possible in
his own words. They are so printed on my mind that I couldn't forgit
'em if I tried ever so hard. As he described what had took place it
was as if he was painting pictures, and he made me see 'em. I saw the
poor girl's home; I saw her setting with her father and mother in jest
sech a little room as this--for they are only humble people, sir; I
saw her kiss 'em good-night; I saw her in her bedroom a-doing herself
up before the looking-glass; I saw her put the bunch of white daisies
in her belt; I saw her steal out of the house to the park; I saw the
man and her walking about among the trees, and sometimes setting down
to talk; I heard a scream--another!--another!--and I covered my eyes
with my hands to shut it all out. I was so overcome that I hadn't
strength to wrench myself away from Devlin, who was smoothing my hair
with his hands. But presently I managed to scream:
"'Don't touch me! Don't touch me, you--you----'
"'You what?' asked Devlin in his false voice, moving a little away
from my chair.
"My scream, and him speaking agin, brought me to myself.
"'Never mind, never mind,' I said. 'If you know what I'm thinking
about, it's no use my telling you.'
"'I do know,' he said. 'Why, it's wrote on your face. And I know, too,
that you want to ask me some questions. Fire away.'
"'Mr. Devlin, I said, upon that, 'you slep at home last night, didn't
you?'
"'Certainly, I did,' he answered. 'Don't you remember Lemon and me
coming in together?'
"'Yes,' I said, 'I remember.'
"'Don't you remember,' he said, 'that you brought me up a cup of tea
before you went to bed, and that I told you I had a lot of writing to
do, and that I said what a treasure you was, and how happy Lemon ought
to be with sech a wife?'
"'Yes,' I said, 'I remember.' I couldn't say nothing else, it was the
truth.
"'Inspired by the egsellent tea you make,' he went on, 'I stopped up
late and did my writing. If I mistake not, you put the chain on the
street-door before you went to bed.'
"'Yes, I did.'
"'And when you went down this morning the chain was still up?'
"'Yes, it was.'
"'And I breakfasted with you and Lemon?'
"'Yes, you did.'
"'And I presume you made my bed some time during the day?'
"'Of course I did.'
"'Did it look as if it had been slep in?'
"'Yes.'
"'So that you see, my dear landlady,' he said, grinning at me, 'that
it wasn't possible for me to have murdered the girl.'
"'Who said you did it?' I asked, starting back, for he had come close
to me, and I thought he was going to touch me ag'in.
"'You didn't say so,' he said, 'but you thought so. It was wrote in
your face, as I told you a minute ago. It is women like you who would
put a man's life in danger, and think no more of it than snuffing a
candle.'
"He didn't remain with me much longer, but went up to his room. He was
right in what he said he saw wrote in my face while he was smoothing
my hair; an idea had entered my head that it was him who had killed
the poor girl. I think him bad enough for anything; there's nothing
wicked I wouldn't believe of him. But of course it wasn't possible for
him to have done it; and I thought with thankfulness it wasn't
possible for Lemon to have done it, for he never stirred out of the
house that night. It was what Lemon said in his sleep that made me
tremble and shiver. Why, sir, he spoke of the murder _before it was
done!_ It says in the papers that when the poor girl was found she had
been dead hours, and the doctor fixes it that she must have been
murdered between two and three o'clock in the morning. And two hours
and a half before she was murdered Lemon was raving in his sleep and
telling all about it! How did he know, sir? how did he know?
"If it had been a ordinary case--if Lemon had only spoke in his sleep
about some murder or other, and I'd read the next day that a murder
_had_ been committed that night, it would have been strange, but
nothing so very much out of the way. Our minds sometimes runs on
dreadful things, enough to give one the creeps, and we ain't
accountable for everything we say when we're asleep. But Lemon said
Victoria Park, and it was done in Victoria Park. He said eighteen
years, and that was jest her age. He said golden hair, and she _had_
golden hair. He said a bunch of white daisies, and she wore a bunch of
white daisies. He said blood on 'em, and there _was_ blood on 'em. He
said stabbed to the heart, and she _was_ stabbed to the heart!
"I'll tell you, sir, what come to me, and made me feel almost like a
murderess. It was that if I'd really known what was going to happen
when I heard Lemon talking in his sleep, I might have saved the life
of that poor girl. But how was it possible for me to know? Still, that
didn't prevent me feeling like a guilty woman.
"But how much did Lemon know? Did the wretch who killed the girl tell
him beforehand what he was going to do, and was Lemon wicked enough to
keep it to hisself? Was the murderer an acquaintance of Lemon's? If he
was, I made up my mind that a hour shouldn't pass after Lemon was
awake this morning before I put the police on the wretch's track.
Lemon would know his name, and where he lived, perhaps. Whatever was
the consequences, I'd do what I could to bring the monster into the
dock.
"I was more than sorry that the doctor had give Lemon sech a
strong sleeping draught, and I prayed that he would wake up
sooner than I expected. I went to the bedroom, but there was
Lemon fast asleep, with a face as innocent as a babe unborn. He
wasn't dreaming, he wasn't talking; his mind was at rest as well
as his body. You know more than I do, sir. Could anybody with
something dreadful on his mind have slep' like that? But my mind
was made up. The very minute Lemon was sensible, and knew what
he was about, to the police-station he should go with me, and
make a clean breast of it."