AFTER THE DRAMA ENDED.
"Clifford," says the heiress of Wardour, standing beside her lover, one
winter day, not long after the extinction of the Diamond Coterie,
"Clifford I have been to Mapleton to-day, for the first time since--"
She pauses abruptly, and her lover draws her closer to his side, with
all his olden assurance shining in the eyes he bends down upon her.
"Since the drama ended," he finishes. "You have been to Mapleton,
beloved! tell me about it."
"There's something I wish to tell you, Clifford; something that in full,
Mr. Bathurst generously kept out of his story when he told us the rest;
something that is known as it is only to Mrs. Lamotte, Sybil, Evan, Mr.
Belknap, Mr. Bathurst, and myself, but which I think I had better tell
you now."
"I am listening Conny."
"Well, you see when the robbers made off with my paste diamonds--think
of its being the Lamottes, Clifford--when they robbed me of nothing, I
felt quite relieved, for those diamonds _had_ been a burden. I made up
my mind to make the most of the business, and let everybody think me a
loser, hoping thus to possess myself and my diamonds in peace and
safety. But your Mr. Bathurst--"
"My Mr. Bathurst!"
"Well, _my_ Mr. Bathurst, then; only you very well know that he has a
wife. When _my_ Mr. Bathurst had talked to me a second time--I believe
that man can see straight through people--he had my secret at his
tongue's end; and he warned me to be very cautious and not to tell _any
one_ the truth concerning the diamonds. In spite of this, one evening,
when some imp possessed me, I told Sybil Lamotte; I shall never forget
her strange manner, nor her wild words. Clifford, that awful mistake of
mine almost made Sybil a murderess."
"Constance!"
"Listen, dear! Sybil had brooded over what I had told her. Trouble was
unsettling her mind. She had some valuable jewels; she went with her
mother to the city, and while there, had the real stones replaced by
paste, as I had done, and received two thousand dollars for her
diamonds.
"In some way she had found out that Jerry Belknap was a man to be
bought; she obtained an interview with him, and offered him two thousand
dollars if he would _get John Burrill out of her way_!"
"Good heavens!"
"Don't interrupt me. Belknap agreed to remove Burrill, and received five
hundred dollars in advance. He sent to the city for a ruffian, one of
his tools. The man came, but Mr. Bathurst had his eye upon him. On the
night of the murder, this ruffian was hidden outside of the saloon,
waiting to follow and waylay John Burrill when he should go home. The
boy detective, George, was hidden and watching the ruffian. Do you
follow?"
"Yes! yes!"
"When Burrill came out of the saloon, the ruffian, supposing of course
that he was going home, hurried on ahead, crossed the bridge, and
secreted himself in the hedge. The boy, George, was far enough behind to
see that Burrill was _not_ going home, but he was acting as directed by
Mr. Bathurst, and so followed the ruffian. Think of it, Clifford! While
Sybil's paid assassin lay in wait for his victim, Sybil's brother was
saving her soul from guilt, by taking a crime upon his own. But for
Evan's knife, poor half crazed Sybil would have been a murderess, and
this I knew in part from the first, and that is why I said, that the
true slayer must not be punished; until they brought Evan Lamotte into
court, I believed that Sybil was the guilty one."
"And you could not betray your unfortunate friend? My true hearted
Constance!"
"I had promised Mrs. Lamotte not to betray her, but was nerving myself
to dare all and save you, when poor Evan threw himself into the breach,
and saved us, all three. You must know, Clifford, that Mr. Belknap made
a full confession to Mr. Bathurst, when he found he could do no better.
And Mr. Bathurst, knowing that I was aware of Sybil's dealings with
Belknap, told me everything."
"And this is what Bathurst meant when he said that Sybil believed
herself guilty. I thought he referred to some of her insane ravings."
"So they all thought. But it is best as it is. There is no need to tell
this sad story, unless--"
"Unless what?"
"Unless it seems best that Ray Vandyck should know it."
"Poor Ray. Conny, if the time ever comes when Ray and Sybil meet again,
_she_ will tell him her own story."
Constance bent over the glowing coals a moment, and then lifting her
face, she said in a hushed voice:
"I saw Evan."
"And he--"
"He is just fading out of life. Oh! it was so fortunate that there was
no resistance to the humane ones who sought to help him out of that
gloomy prison. Sybil never leaves him for a moment. Oh, what must her
feelings have been, when she learned that Evan had saved her from a life
time of remorse. I could see by her face, oh, such a poor, pale, sad,
utterly changed face! that she knew all; everything. She greeted me; so
timidly, yet, with so much of thankfulness. But, she had eyes and ears
for no one but Evan, although she is too weak to do more than sit beside
him and hold his hand. But, Mrs. Lamotte's courage is wonderful. Old Mr.
Schuyler, Sybil's grandfather, is dead; and he has left Mrs. Lamotte his
property; but, so tied up that Mr. Lamotte could never touch a dollar.
Mrs. Lamotte says that when it is over--Evan's life you know--she shall
take Sybil and go to live in her old Maryland home. They will not touch
a penny of John Burrill's money; it is all to be transferred to his
first wife, to be held in trust for her little boy. The woman is going
back to England as soon as the transfer is made. Mrs. Lamotte said to me
to-day:
"'After all these years, Constance, I am to have an old age of peace, I
trust. Mr. Lamotte and I have parted forever. My love for him died long
since, so this gives me no pain. My keenest sorrow is that I never gave
my poor Evan his full share of my mother love. He came with my sorrow,
and bears the impress of my despair and madness. If we could only save
and keep him! But it is best as it is. Mind and body seem dying
together, and it is better so. When all is over, I shall take Sybil
away, where there will be nothing to recall her wretched past; and there
I shall trust her to Time, the Healer.'
"She never mentioned Frank's name, Clifford," bending forward to look in
his face. "Do you know what I see in the future? I see poor Evan laid
away under the snows; I see the memory of John Burrill sunk in oblivion.
I see Sybil Lamotte coming slowly back to life and hope and happiness,
under the kind blue Maryland skies. I see Mrs. Lamotte, her pride
softened and chastened, and a look of serene content upon her face. And
I see Ray Vandyck making his way southward some day, and standing before
Sybil with his heart in his eyes. I see--"
"You see enough. Leave Ray and Sybil face to face; you and I can guess
the rest. Do you see Doctor Clifford Heathercliffe resuming his practice
in W----, as if nothing had happened? For that's what his newly
appointed tyrant has bidden him do. Do you see a certain fair lady,
transformed into Lady Heathercliffe by and by, and sailing away over the
seas to bewilder the dwellers of Heathercliffe Towers, with the
brightness of her eyes and, in spite of the Diamond Coterie, to blaze
forth upon the 'nobility and gentry' of Hampshire, in all the splendor
of the Wardour diamonds? All this shall come to pass, beloved; and,
since it has gained me the fairest, bravest, truest wife in Christendom,
I can even rejoice in the persecutions and the hatred of the Diamond
Coterie.
"If John Burrill had not mistaken me for Herbert, on the night when the
feud began, he might now be living, perhaps, and you and I be far apart;
so, at the last, Herbert Heathercliffe, in his grave, has done me a
service. I do look like him, Conny, and it's small wonder Burrill knew
me for a Heathercliffe, and made capital out of my altered name. But all
that is past. My darling, we have learned our hard lesson, now we have
only to forgive the dead and the erring, to forget the shadows and
sorrows of the past, and to say, 'God bless our friends in need; God
bless Bathurst, king of his kind; God bless the O'Mearas--God bless the
beautiful darling who outwitted the diamond Coterie, and who wears the
Wardour diamonds, and the Wardour honor with regal grace.'"
THE END.
End of Project Gutenberg's The Diamond Coterie, by Lawrence L. Lynch