Oi AN 1NDISCRETIO 
 
 J'W'BRODIEHNNE,
 
 
 RD
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF AN 
 INDISCRETION
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF 
 AN INDISCRETION 
 
 BY J. W. BRODIE-INNES 
 
 LONDON JOHN LANE THE BODLEY HEAD 
 NEW YORK JOHN LANE COMPANY MCMXVI
 
 THE LONDON AND NORWICH PUSS LIMITED, LONDON AND NORWICH, ENGLAND
 
 THE TRAGEDY OF AN 
 INDISCRETION
 
 PART I
 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 MY determination to tell a somewhat extra- 
 ordinary story as simply and directly as 
 possible, concealing nothing and avoiding all 
 mystery, has been frustrated, at the very outset, 
 by the managing director of the hotel in which it must 
 necessarily open. He flatly declines to allow the name 
 of the hotel to be mentioned, and an imperative 
 letter from the company's solicitor leaves me no choice 
 but to call it the Terminus Hotel which is not its 
 name and leave the reader to choose among the many 
 hotels in London the one to which this name might 
 apply. 
 
 Henley was long over, and Goodwood a thing of the 
 past ; the Eton and Harrow match had been played ; 
 London was hurrying out of town and strangers were 
 flocking in. The Terminus Hotel was very busy : 
 guests, coming and going, thronged the entrance hall 
 and besieged the bureau. One caught a glimpse of an 
 orange-coloured dress with a daring touch of black 
 vanishing through a door, over which was inscribed 
 " Ladies' Coiffure." One was aware of a handkerchief 
 and gloves dropped in passing, and a chambermaid 
 hurrying to restore them to their owner ; a scent of 
 jasmine hung for a moment in the air ; that was all. 
 
 Then a sumptuous motor drew up to the door, and 
 a dainty-looking woman stepped out, all in French 
 grey and pink, with sunshade to match, grey shoes 
 
 ii
 
 12 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 with tiny pink rosettes, and grey stockings with pink 
 clocks. She was accompanied by a broad, stalwart 
 man, bronzed as by tropical suns, determination in 
 every line of him ; a man whose will was his law, but 
 with a wistful tenderness in the deep grey eyes as he 
 looked at his fair, fragile companion. The luggage, 
 all new save one battered portmanteau, was plainly 
 marked " R.W.E." or " E.W.E." Porters ran forward 
 there was all the aspect of a honeymoon couple, 
 and wealthy withal, giving earnest of abundant tips 
 but the man had his back to them, talking to the 
 chauffeur. The lady laid her hand on his arm one 
 moment, saying : 
 
 " You arrange with him about to-morrow, Ronny. 
 I'll go on and register. Half-past ten will do. We 
 shan't want to be too early." 
 
 She passed through the great revolving doors, in 
 the wake of the porters ; while the man finished his 
 arrangement with the chauffeur. 
 
 In the hall he was unnoticed among the crowd, 
 but he caught sight of his luggage, and followed in 
 time to hear the clerk say, to the porter, " Suite 27, 
 28 and 29." Immediately opposite, the corner of a 
 corridor was inscribed " Numbers 10 to 50." He 
 walked along the lift had just started upwards 
 and a waiter met him. 
 
 " Have you a room, sir ? " 
 
 " Yes, ail right, I know my way," he replied Shortly, 
 and walked up the broad stairs beside the lift. He 
 turned the wrong way first ; then seeing his mistake 
 retraced his steps, and saw the porter who had brought 
 up his luggage just vanishing down the passage before 
 him. He opened the sitting-room door and walked 
 in. The adjoining bedroom door was ajar. 
 
 " You've got in first, Eulalie."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 13 
 
 " I'm just removing the dust of travel. Order 
 dinner, like a dear boy. I'm so sick of ordering dinner 
 day after day, I do not want to know what's coming. 
 Then you can come through and dress. All your 
 things are in your dressing-room. I'll be ready in 
 half an hour, and so hungry." 
 
 " Good girl ! You shall have all your favourite 
 dishes, and say if I am not a first-class caterer." 
 
 The bedroom door shut, and Ronny rang the bell 
 and interviewed an obsequious waiter, with careful 
 and anxious scrutiny of menu cards and wine lists. 
 This done, he tapped gently at the door. 
 
 " Come in, Ronny, I'm almost presentable. You 
 won't mind the ' almost,' will you ? " 
 
 Twenty minutes later he looked out on the corridor, 
 intending to get shaved at the hairdresser's saloon 
 opposite. The orange-coloured dress, crowned by a 
 newly-dressed chestnut head, emerged from the lift, 
 and arrested a passing chambermaid. 
 
 " Look here," she said, and her voice was very low 
 and musical, " I have left a ring in the hairdresser's 
 room downstairs. I wish you would get it for me. 
 And I'm going out to dinner to-night. Tell some 
 one to call me a taxi. I expect I shall be late. Some 
 one will be up, won't they ? I don't want to be 
 unhooked by the boots. Oh, and I am leaving to- 
 morrow morning. I suppose if I tell you it's all 
 right, isn't it ? " 
 
 Ronny strode across rather impatiently ; that type 
 of woman annoyed him, and he swore a little under his 
 breath at the jasmine scent. 
 
 Ten minutes later, he and Eulalie faced each other 
 across a round table gleaming with glass and silver, 
 and adorned with exquisite flowers. 
 
 " You look lovelier than ever to-night, Eulalie,"
 
 14 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 he said, looking delightedly at the dainty figure before 
 him, the coquettish green ribbon and the single flower 
 in the hair, the wild rose complexion, the simple per- 
 fection of the dress. 
 
 " Flatterer ! It is all in honour of you. And what 
 of yourself big, handsome boy ! " 
 
 " A holiday, Eulalie 1 How good of you to come, 
 and, oh, isn't it good to be alive 1 " 
 
 " Only fancy, Ronny, to-morrow we shall be in dear 
 Penzance. I haven't been there since I was sixteen. 
 It's sweet of you to take me." 
 
 " We might have been there to-night, if only you 
 could have got away in time." 
 
 " I know, I know. Alas, one day gone out of our 
 precious fortnight \\ There was so much to do for 
 Harry before I could get off. Dear me, husbands are 
 a nuisance sometimes. Never mind ! I'm off the 
 chain now for a whole blessed fortnight. Commend 
 me, Ronny : in all my luggage there's not a thing 
 that's marked ; there's not a letter nor a scrap of 
 writing, nothing that could give a clue to the most 
 inquisitive chambermaid. But how clever of you 
 to bring that old battered portmanteau with your 
 initials on it. It's the most ridiculously convincing 
 thing I ever saw. How did you manage it ? " 
 
 " That ! Oh, that belongs to my secretary, factotum, 
 alter ego, Ralph Essendine." 
 
 " That's where you got the name from, then ? " 
 
 " Yes. You see, Ralph Waldo Essendine. He was 
 called, I believe, after Emerson." 
 
 She started slightly. 
 
 " How strange 1 " she murmured. 
 
 " The initials put me on the idea R.W., Ronald 
 Warrington. But Ronald Warrington gives it away 
 to anyone who's got a Peerage, though there are
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 15 
 
 few in England would recognize me now, a spell 
 of big game under a tropical sun changes a man a 
 good bit. So, you see, I just added the " Essendine," 
 and the initials came all right. Dear old Ralph 
 would give me his name, or his head if I asked for 
 it. He is fatuously devoted to me. You must know 
 him some day." 
 
 " I should love to. I don't wonder at his devotion, 
 but I shall love him for it." 
 
 " By the way, Eulalie, where are you officially this 
 fortnight ? " 
 
 She laughed. 
 
 " ' Officially ' is good, I shall remember the phrase. 
 Well, ' officially,' I am staying with some colonial 
 friends. Harry is the most incurious of mortals, and 
 never expects letters, but I shall send him a line from 
 Exeter, and then I think my friends will be motoring 
 me about the country, so a note here and there will be 
 all I can manage. Oh, Ronny, fancy Penzance ! 
 It's like a dream. This time to-morrow we shall be 
 sitting in the Morrab Gardens. It's there, under the 
 palms, that I'm going to tell you the story of my life, 
 and you shall make it into a book if you like. I've 
 always promised it to you ; but somehow the Morrab 
 Gardens seemed the only right setting for it." 
 
 '* So you shall, dear 1 It's queer how little I know 
 about you, and how much." 
 
 " I want you to know everything. No blinds down 
 for you. I want you to think that I am yours entirely 
 with not the tiniest bit of reserve. It's a sad story 
 rather, and not a very common one. I've drawn 
 two blanks in the lottery, but I've drawn you, just 
 the biggest prize in all the world. I've nearly died 
 several times but pulled through somehow, and now 
 I'm so much better and stronger. I don't think I
 
 16 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 shall ever be ill again, now that I have got you to 
 live for. I haven't had the slightest heart trouble 
 for over a year now. You know the doctors said if 
 I lived I should outgrow it and I have." 
 
 " Thank God for that ! " said Ronny fervently. 
 
 "I've never told you about my first husband. He 
 was so good, but it was all a ghastly mistake, and I 
 had to pay. No matter ! In the Morrab Gardens 
 you shall hear it all." 
 
 " And now there's a fortnight of paradise, and a 
 delicious memory to carry away with me into the 
 jungle, and to live upon till I come back to my fairy 
 queen." 
 
 " The poor fairy queen will be a terribly draggled 
 butterfly when you're gone, Ronny. I'm afraid 
 to think of it. But you wouldn't go unless your 
 uncle gets well, would you ? " 
 
 " Oh, yes, I should go ; the plans are all made, and 
 the time will soon slip away, Eulalie, and we shall be 
 together again. But, anyhow, his Grace is quite well 
 again now, and busy thinking of a second wife, and 
 providing an heir. Thank goodness ! I wish him 
 all conceivable success. May he beget a dozen, and 
 leave no doubt of the succession." 
 
 " You don't want to succeed, do you ? I can hardly 
 fancy you a great magnate in the land." 
 
 " Good heavens, no 1 A fine figure I should make as 
 a duke, with a regiment of flunkeys about me, like my 
 dear old uncle ; sitting on County Boards, and pre- 
 siding at meetings, entertaining an army of other 
 stupid old ' magnates ' as you call tl^em, attending on 
 the King, sitting in the House of Lords, or what's 
 left of it, with reporters noting all my movements, 
 and all the fun gone out of life. No more Penzance 
 with you then oh, good Lord ! "
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 17 
 
 " I think you'd be Ronny Warrington always, 
 duke t>r no duke, the same dear, splendid, irres- 
 ponsible boy. By the way, you're sure of our train 
 to-morrow, aren't you ? " 
 
 " Sure. But now you've raised a doubt, I'll go 
 over to the station and make quite sure, 'phone to 
 Paddington, and see that our places are booked all 
 right. I'll get an evening paper too. Good-bye, 
 sweetheart, back in ten minutes." 
 
 He kissed her tenderly, and she clung to him for a 
 moment, as though loath to let him go. 
 
 " Ronny, I'm frightened. I'm too happy." 
 
 " Silly little girl ! You were made for happiness, 
 as you give it. Now just ten minutes : then 
 Good-bye, sweetheart." 
 
 He slipped on a light overcoat, and was gone. 
 
 The platform was in the usual bustle when an 
 express train is about to start. He pushed his way 
 impatiently towards the booking-office. At that 
 moment a man rapidly disengaged himself from the 
 crowd, and rushed up to him. 
 
 In figure and general cut he was very like Ronny, 
 the same broad, powerful build ; but his face was much 
 more that of the dreamer, the poetic impulsive Celt, 
 where Ronny was the man of action. 
 
 " Thank goodness, you've come in time ! " he said. 
 " You've heard then. We've been hunting for you 
 all over London. Where's your luggage ? How did 
 you get here ? " 
 
 " What the deuce do you mean, Ralph ? For 
 God's sake, keep quiet, man 1 I'm here incog. No 
 one knows where I am, and no one must know." 
 
 " You haven't heard then ? There was a telegram 
 only a couple of hours ago the duke is dying. You're 
 wanted at once, and the lawyers and every one expected
 
 18 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 by this train. Thank the Lord you're just in time to 
 catch it, but only just." 
 
 " Ralph, I simply can't go. You must get me out 
 of it somehow. You haven't seen me, I haven't heard, 
 most unlucky, you failed to find me. Look here, I 
 
 must tell you. I've got " he whispered a name 
 
 " with me here, we're going down to Penzance to- 
 morrow morning. Staying at the Terminus to-night." 
 
 " Won't do, old chap ! Look there " he pointed 
 to a little group of men " they all know you're here, 
 and that I've spoken to you. The lawyers, and a 
 reporter or two, and some cousins, all going to the 
 Castle. If you don't go, it will be all over London 
 to-morrow, told as a spicy story in every club, in full 
 detail with trimmings, and hinted in half the news- 
 papers. For the lady's sake, if not for your own, 
 you mustn't risk it." 
 
 " Good God 1 What a damned fix ! Look here, 
 Ralph, it's her I'm thinking about. All arrangements 
 made for a fortnight's holiday. She simply can't go 
 back, and say it's all off." 
 
 " Well, she can wait here quietly for you. If she 
 doesn't go out, no one will know. In all probability 
 you may be able to come back to-morrow ; or she 
 might go down to Penzance, and wait there. You can 
 have urgent business and get away. His Grace can't 
 live through the night, I gather. He went out riding 
 in spite of warnings, horse bolted, over exertion brought 
 on another fit. He was carried back unconscious. 
 Done for beyond hope or question. You're the next 
 heir, and he sent for you directly he knew." 
 
 " Well, at any rate I can't go like this, in evening 
 dress, I must get some clothes. I'll follow by the 
 next train." 
 
 He was catching at any straw.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 19 
 
 " There's no other train to-night, and your valet 
 is here with a portmanteau. I took the liberty of 
 telling him to come when I found you weren't at the 
 flat, in case you might only just catch the train. 
 Thought possibly you might rush back for luggage, 
 but more likely not." 
 
 " Confound you, Ralph ! You've thought of every- 
 thing. O damn ! damn I damn ! Why the devil did 
 I come out ? Why the devil were you here ? Well, 
 what must be, must. I'm in a cleft stick. All right, 
 I'll come. I must just run back and tell her, and say 
 good-bye. Oh, Ralph, you've pulled me out of Heaven, 
 and all for the sake of a confounded title that I don't 
 want. May the devil catch all dukes and dukedoms 1 
 I won't be five minutes." 
 
 " Stop, stop, man, you can't go ! It's past the train 
 time already. Don't you see the guard is holding it 
 up for you ? So much for being a duke, or going to be 
 one to-morrow." 
 
 This was not quite true ; but Ralph had caught sight 
 of a waved flag, and made play with the incident to 
 coerce Ronny. He knew the urgent importance of not 
 letting him escape. 
 
 " Ralph ! what shall I do ? I can't leave her like 
 that. I tell you I'll cut the whole concern for two pins. 
 Take her with me she'd go like a bird and get off 
 to South Africa, or California, or anywhere, before any 
 of the confounded crew knew where I was." 
 
 " Look here, old man, don't be mad ! It will be 
 all right, 'pon my word it will. I'll go myself and 
 explain to the lady All right, guard, his Grace is just 
 ready. He had to give me most urgent instructions. 
 Hold on another five minutes. See now, I ought to go 
 with you, but I won't, I'll have most important business 
 to do for you. I'll see the lady myself, and explain
 
 20 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 everything. Then I'll send you a telegram, demanding 
 your instant attendance on matters of vital importance. 
 You can come back by the first train to-morrow, and 
 join her either here or in Penzance, as you will. You 
 ought to turn up for the funeral, of course : but even 
 that we may perhaps see a way out of, if you wish it 
 very much. At any rate it will be only one day." 
 
 Ronny caught at the suggestion. It was a gleam of 
 light where pitch darkness seemed to have descended 
 upon him ; and the relief was great. He knew that he 
 could depend absolutely on Ralph Essendine. What- 
 ever Ralph said he would do, that thing was done, no 
 matter at what cost to himself. Years of experience 
 had proved that much. 
 
 " Will you really, Ralph ? By Gad, you're a trump ! 
 Look here then. Go over to the Terminus Hotel, Room 
 27, that's the sitting-room. Break it gently, there's 
 a good chap. No need to tell you. Poor girl, she'll 
 be awfully disappointed. She was so counting on 
 our going down together to-morrow morning. She 
 knows your name already. We spoke of you. She 
 wants to meet you. By the way, I borrowed your 
 name the first that occurred to me Ronald Warring- 
 ton Essendine. So she's Mrs. Essendine, of course. 
 All the better, you can be a cousin. That'll do for 
 the hotel people. Look here, take her down to Pen- 
 zance to-morrow. There's a suite engaged at the 
 Marine. Much better there than stopping in London. 
 Wire to me at the Castle, urgent business. Oh, fudge 
 up any kind of business you like, as long as it's urgent 
 enough. 
 
 "I'll be in Penzance to-morrow afternoon some 
 time. Stay, though, you mustn't tell me to go there. 
 Tell me to meet you at some intermediate place. I'll 
 get through all right. Only twenty-four hours. Well,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 21 
 
 it might have been much worse. Ralph, old man, 
 it's one more tight place you've got me out of. Another 
 item to add to the big score of debt I owe you. That 
 confounded guard is impatient. All right, guard, 
 I'm sorry to have kept you. Some very pressing matters 
 had to be arranged with Mr. Essendine. I have to 
 leave him behind to attend to urgent business. Is that 
 my sleeping berth ? Where's Williams ? Oh, there you 
 are. Good night, Ralph. You'll come to the Castle 
 as soon as you've seen those things through. Ticket ? 
 Oh yes, I'll take Mr. Essendine's ticket. Guard, 
 don't you let me be disturbed. We shall be in before 
 midnight, shan't we ? Come here, Williams, I must 
 get into morning clothes. Good night again." 
 
 The train glided out of the platform only six minutes 
 late. 
 
 Ralph Essendine stood a moment watching the lights 
 disappear. Then he lit a cigarette. 
 
 " I wish some one else had the job," he mused. 
 " Poor old Ronny, he has a genius for getting into a 
 hole. What beastly bad luck I Why couldn't he 
 pick some other time for his escapade, or the duke choose 
 some other time to die, or why the deuce must he 
 needs come out into this very station of all others in 
 London, at this very time, and run right into my arms ? 
 If he'd only told me what he was up to. Good Lord ! 
 I shouldn't have blamed him, I know him too well. 
 Dear old boy, I could have taken care not to see him, 
 and not to let the others see him either. Well, it's 
 done and can't be undone. Now for the lady. Hope 
 there won't be a scene, that's all. ' Essendine ' by all 
 that's comic. It was a stroke of humour, Ronny, my 
 boy." 
 
 He turned and walked into the Terminus Hotel.
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 THERE was excitement in the entrance hall of 
 the Terminus Hotel. Groups of people were 
 talking together eagerly, but in hushed tones. 
 Ralph caught scraps of sentences here and there. 
 
 " What an awful thing to happen ! " 
 
 " What was it a fit ? Her husband had just gone 
 out, I hear. What a terrible shock for him. Poor 
 man 1 Has he come back yet ? " 
 
 11 How lucky the doctor happened to be on the spot. 
 Who was he ? " 
 
 " Sir Alfred Ross, you know, the King's doctor. 
 Best man in London. He was dining here, a most 
 fortunate chance." 
 
 " But he couldn't do anything." 
 
 " No. But at least it's clear that no one could 
 have done anything. That will be some comfort." 
 
 Something had clearly happened that didn't concern 
 Ralph. He pushed his way through to where he saw 
 the inscription, " Numbers 10 to 50," and strode along 
 the corridor. He heard his name called : 
 
 " Mr. Essendine." 
 
 Mechanically he turned round. 
 
 " Here I am. Who wants me ? " 
 
 " You are wanted at once, sir, in your room, number 
 27. The doctor is there." 
 
 " Good God ! " muttered Ralph, suddenly realizing 
 that the tragedy of which he had caught fragmentary 
 
 22
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 23 
 
 news in the hall concerned the lady he was going to 
 see. 
 
 Something terrible had happened during the quarter 
 of an hour that he had been hurrying Ronny off to 
 attend on the dying duke. What could it be ? He 
 hurried as fast as he could along the corridor, and up 
 the stairs, his heart beating painfully, almost to suffo- 
 cation. They were taking him for Ronny. It seemed 
 absurd, for there was only a superficial likeness in 
 figure. 
 
 His thoughts were racing. What could he say ? 
 Nothing, without betraying Ronny. He had admitted 
 himself to be Essendine. How could he say now that 
 it was really another Essendine, whose name wasn't 
 Essendine, but something else. The whole story would 
 be known ; and the clubs would ring with the spicy 
 gossip of the heir who had just succeeded to a duke- 
 dom, as he was eloping with another man's wife. 
 Clearly, he must hold his tongue until he knew more. 
 
 The waiter was beside him, almost running to keep 
 up with his rapid strides. He threw open the door 
 of Number 27. A tall, grave, dignified looking man 
 stood in the door-way. Ralph recognized at once the 
 handsome well-known features of Sir Alfred Ross, 
 to whom, however, he had never spoken. 
 
 " Mr. Essendine, Sir Alfred," said the waiter. 
 
 The great doctor bowed with a sympathetic solemnity 
 that was second nature to him. 
 
 " You will have been informed doubtless of this sad 
 event, Mr. Essendine. It may be some comfort to 
 you to know that no human skill could have averted 
 the end. I was called hastily from dinner to see your 
 wife, only, as I gather, a very few minutes after you had 
 left her. It was a sudden attack of angina pectoris 
 while she was still at the table. Acute and violent
 
 24 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 convulsions. It is possible that had I been actually 
 in the room when the attack commenced a hypodermic 
 injection of a strong dose of morphia and atropine 
 might have staved it off. But even this is very 
 uncertain. As it was, the sudden grip of the nerves 
 on a heart already excessively weak was almost instantly 
 fatal. By the time I arrived there was nothing that 
 mortal skill could do. Now, of course, you may count 
 on me to do all in my power to help you in this sad 
 emergency. Naturally, my certificate will obviate the 
 trouble of an inquest, or anything of that kind, and I 
 may be able to save you any unnecessary distress. 
 You must communicate at once with some good firm 
 of undertakers . D o you know any ? " 
 
 " I know no one, Sir Alfred, I have only just returned 
 from abroad. I accept your kind offer with the utmost 
 gratitude." 
 
 Ralph caught eagerly at the doctor's offer. Here 
 seemed one solid rock of support where all his universe 
 had gone to pieces. 
 
 " I see. Well, Prosser and Probyn are good, reliable 
 people. I will take the liberty to phone to them at 
 once. Where will the interment be ? You must pardon 
 me that in such a moment of bereavement I trouble 
 you with these details. But, believe me, it is necessary, 
 and it is well for you also to take your mind off your 
 terrible loss, and occupy it with material matters. 
 Naturally, as you will believe, I have had much 
 experience. The interment will be at ? 
 
 " Penzance," said Ralph. 
 
 Why he said it he never knew/ He was dazed, 
 and incapable of thinking. At that moment he would 
 have followed any suggestion that might be made to 
 him. One thing only presented itself clearly : he 
 must not deny the position thus thrust upon him ;
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 25 
 
 he must not say a word that could possibly give a hint 
 of Ronny's share in the business. For himself, he 
 must get out of it as best he could. Penzance was 
 in his mind, it was the place Ronny had mentioned, 
 and his brain refused to think of any other name. 
 
 " Penzance, oh yes, I have friends there. One of the 
 doctors was a fellow-student of mine in Edinburgh 
 long ago. Have you a family burial-ground there, 
 Mr. Essendine ? " 
 
 " No. No connection whatever, but I know she 
 would like it." 
 
 " Well, I take it you are quite inexperienced in these 
 matters. You will allow me, so far as I can, to take 
 all the trouble of the arrangements off your hands, 
 I think, if I judge correctly, you are far from fit to 
 undertake them, and I do not want to have another 
 case on my hands, I can see you are strung near to break- 
 ing point already. Will you allow me to communicate 
 with my friend in Penzance, and also with the railway 
 company, and make all the proper arrangements ? 
 You will, of course, communicate with any of your 
 friends whom you may think desirable, and all you will 
 have to do will be to accompany the coffin to 
 Penzance, and you will find everything prepared for 
 you." 
 
 " Sir Alfred, you are too good," said Ralph. 
 
 At that moment he would have agreed to anything. 
 He simply could not think, and the matter was arrang- 
 ing itself without his concurrence. 
 
 " Well, now I'll go and ring up Prosser and Probyn, 
 and put every thing in train, so that you need not 
 worry at all. You must have another bedroom here, of 
 course, and I'll come back in an hour or so, and give 
 you a simple dose that will secure you a good sleep and 
 put your nerves right by to-morrow morning. Will
 
 26 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 you come in and see your poor wife ? I think you 
 should. It is very painful, but it is worse to put it off." 
 
 He took Ralph's arm, and together they entered the 
 bedroom. There on the bed lay Eulalie, composedly 
 laid out, but still in the pretty evening gown put on in 
 honour of Ronny, with the coquettish ribbon and flower 
 in her hair, now crushed in the struggle of her convul- 
 sions, when she fought in vain for life. She looked 
 almost more beautiful now in the waxen pallor of death 
 than with the wild rose complexion. 
 
 Ralph looked down on the body, and started violently, 
 gripping the doctor's arm hard. 
 
 " Great God 1 " he muttered below his breath. 
 "Is it possible ? " his thoughts ran. " Eulalie ! 
 After all this time, we meet thus again. Oh, where 
 have you been, what have you done since that last 
 time ? How I have hoped ! And now it's all over 
 all over. The words that should have been spoken 
 will never be spoken now." 
 
 He fell on his knees beside the bed, sobbing 
 violently. 
 
 The kindly doctor stood for a few moments, letting 
 his grief have its way. It seemed quite natural to him. 
 At length he laid his hand on Ralph's shoulder. 
 
 " Come, Mr. Essendine, you must brace yourself. 
 We cannot have you break down." 
 
 He took a small morocco leather case from his 
 pocket, from which he selected a tube, and shook a 
 tiny pellet into a glass of water. 
 
 " Drink this at once and come away. We will see 
 about a bedroom for you. You will lie down for half 
 an hour. I dare say there will be letters you will have 
 to write, but in half an hour you will be quite able to do 
 so. By the time you have done all that is immediately 
 urgent I shall be back, and I will give you something
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 27 
 
 to take just before you go to bed. You must have a 
 good night's rest." 
 
 Ten minutes later he left Ralph lying down, his 
 thoughts gradually composing themselves, and his 
 power of connected reasoning returning. 
 
 Sir Alfred had taken complete control of the situation. 
 It was one of the many kindly actions that endeared 
 him to his friends and patients, and made his name 
 as much beloved as it was honoured. Though he little 
 guessed at the circumstances, he saw at once that Ralph 
 had had a bad shock, and was utterly incapable of 
 coping with the position. The sudden and tragic 
 death of his wife was quite enough to account for this, 
 and the doctor's instant resolve, to take all the trouble 
 on his own shoulders, was as natural to him as the 
 administration of appropriate remedies in a case of 
 sickness. 
 
 The potent drug that he had administered coursed 
 through Ralph's veins ; and his grip on things and 
 power of initiative came back. 
 
 The problems suddenly thrust upon him, the decisions 
 demanded at once in so many tangled circumstances 
 had appeared so overwhelming that the tortured brain 
 was on the edge of collapse. Now he got up, and took 
 two or three turns up and down his bedroom, and found 
 himself able to sort out and consider calmly the various 
 questions that confronted him. 
 
 He had promised to wire to Ronny on the morrow, 
 bidding him come at once. Ronny would expect that 
 telegram, and its form must be settled. Then he 
 had been left in charge of a woman whom he had 
 promised to escort to Penzance. He found her dead 
 and himself without any will or action of his own 
 accepted as being her husband, and responsible for her 
 burial, and that under circumstances that seemed
 
 28 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 entirely to prohibit his telling the true story, and 
 to necessitate his accepting the responsibility, what- 
 ever it might involve. Then his strange recognition 
 of Eulalie. Whatever he did seemed to involve the 
 certainty of dire trouble in the future. 
 
 She must have relations, belongings, a home of 
 some kind somewhere. But where ? What entourage 
 had become hers since those long ago days. She and 
 Ronny were lovers, so much was clear ; and clandes- 
 tine lovers, so he inferred. Ronny could have cleared 
 it up, but Ronny was not available. True, he might 
 wire to Ronny and bid him come up at once. But this 
 would bring all the scandal about him that it was so 
 necessary to avoid. Every movement of the new 
 Duke of Glenstaffen would be watched and known, 
 and the whole story would be public property in two 
 days. That was not to be thought of. In all his 
 perplexity, his loyalty to his friend never swerved. 
 
 Yet his duty would be to communicate at once with 
 her people, but who were they ? He remembered the 
 name Ronny had whispered to him " Mrs. Greville." 
 He rang his bell and ordered a London Directory. 
 Vain hope, there was nearly a page of Grevilles. Fully 
 half of them might possibly be the right people, absurd 
 and impossible to attempt to communicate with all 
 of them, and what could he say ? And again, he had 
 no reason even to suppose that she lived in London. 
 Then a gleam of light came to him. He was regarded 
 as her husband. No one had the least doubt on this 
 point. Therefore it would be his duty next day to 
 examine her belongings, and return them to her people. 
 Somewhere in her luggage would certainly be some clue. 
 
 He would know who was her husband, and he would 
 go himself and see the husband, and explain the 
 whole thing, only he would take all the onus on himself,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 29 
 
 and keep Ronny's name out of it. Deucedly unpleas- 
 ant, he reflected, but there was nothing else for it. 
 But there was one vital necessity Ronny must not 
 know. His chivalry and sense of honour would be 
 his undoing. He would come and take everything 
 on his own shoulders, and for the Duke of Glenstaffen 
 to start his career with such a story would be fatal. 
 It would never be forgotten against him, whereas for 
 the unknown secretary, Ralph Essendine, who would 
 heed or care ? The husband would cut up rough, 
 of course, he might get mad and shoot, perhaps, 
 but couldn't do anything else. Really, the whole 
 matter seemed to be straightening itself out most 
 remarkably. The intervention of Sir Alfred had been 
 providential. If he had known the whole circumstances 
 and followed all Ralph's reasoning, he could not have 
 done anything that fitted more exactly with what he 
 now saw was the best line to take. 
 
 The one immediate point was what to say to Ronny, 
 and here a flash of inspiration came to Ralph he 
 would tell him that Mrs. Greville was obliged to go 
 home. " Go home ! " Aye, the truth for once, but not 
 in the sense he would understand it. " Poor Eulalie ! 
 She has gone home indeed to rest, I trust, ' after 
 life's fitful fever.' ' 
 
 He left the room and walked along passages and 
 corridors to Number 27. He had a haunting wish to 
 know what they were doing there. Sir Alfred had 
 evidently given prompt instructions, for women in 
 nurses' uniforms were moving silently. He guessed 
 they were rendering the last offices to the dead. A 
 waiter accosted him respectfully. It was the man who 
 had waited on Ronny and Eulalie at that happy dinner. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir," he said. " Could I speak 
 to you for a moment ? "
 
 30 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " Certainly, my man. What is it ? " 
 
 The waiter carefully shut the door, then the bedroom 
 door. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir, if I seem to be rude, but 
 where is he ? " 
 
 " He 1 Whom do you mean ? " 
 
 " The gentleman who dined here, sir, Madam's 
 husband." 
 
 Ralph took in the situation in a flash. His brain was 
 singularly clear now. This man had seen and noticed 
 Ronny. 
 
 " Look here, my man, can you keep a secret ? Can 
 you hold your tongue ? " 
 
 "Yes, sir." 
 
 " Well, look here then, I must tell you a most sad 
 and unfortunate story, which I hoped need never 
 have been known to anyone, and you will see the 
 importance of letting it go no further. Unfortunately, 
 my poor wife, who lies there, fell in love with my cousin. 
 Understand that I am not blaming her for a moment, 
 or him. She has gone before a higher Judge, and is, 
 I trust, forgiven for any wrong she may have done. 
 Probably I was most to blame. He is the finest man 
 on earth, and he could have made her happy, I couldn't. 
 Anyhow they would have gone away together. But 
 by a chance one of those strange things that happen 
 now and then he was suddenly called away. I came 
 hoping against hope, to persuade her to come back 
 with me, and found her dead. Strangely too, every 
 one seems to have taken it for granted that I was the 
 man who came here with her. I thought this was the 
 finger of Providence, that the evil was averted, and I 
 should be left free to bury my dead without a taint 
 of scandal. But I see you know, therefore I owe you 
 this explanation, as man to man. I will not tell you
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 31 
 
 who my cousin is ; perhaps in a few days you will 
 know, or guess, and then you will see why he had to 
 go so hurriedly. But I have told you enough to show 
 you the urgent need of saying nothing to any human 
 soul of what you know." 
 
 His hand crackled a five-pound note. 
 
 Waiters are but human, and probably a vision of 
 some more welcome tips, as the price of silence even 
 to himself he would not call it blackmail floated before 
 his consciousness. But withal he was a kindly man, 
 and Ralph's frank statement affected him, and woke 
 chords of sympathy. 
 
 " You may rely on me confidently, sir, I shall not 
 say a word to anyone. It is a fortunate thing, and 
 curious as one may say, that no one in the hotel seems 
 to have noticed the gentleman, your cousin, sir, parti- 
 cularly. You see, sir, Madam herself registered at the 
 bureau, and the gentleman, he walked up to the rooms 
 without saying anything to anyone. He seemed to 
 know his way about. So no one took special notice 
 of him. You are, if you will excuse me, sir, about the 
 same build. I was speaking with the other waiters when 
 you came in, and none of them seemed to have a doubt. 
 But I waited on them at dinner, and when I saw you 
 face to face, I knew you were not the same gentleman 
 I had waited on." 
 
 " You said nothing about this to anyone. Not to 
 any of the other waiters or at the bureau, or anywhere ? ' ' 
 
 " Not a word, sir, so help me God ! Indeed, I 
 didn't know myself till you came out with Sir Alfred 
 to get another bedroom, and then I thought I should 
 speak to you first, before I said anything to the others. 
 I was taught as a boy, sir, that much harm may be done 
 by talking, but none by keeping quiet. It is a lesson 
 we need every day in my profession, sir."
 
 32 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " Quite right ! Now you have a secret, and I think 
 you will see it will be to your advantage to keep it." 
 
 The man's eyes gleamed for a moment. An honest 
 soul, he would probably have kept counsel in any case ; 
 but plainly interest and inclination went together, and 
 both supported the natural instinct of the trained 
 hotel servant never to gossip about a guest. 
 
 Ralph left the room to return to the bedroom he 
 had engaged. At the gate of the lift a woman in an 
 orange-coloured dress was talking to a chambermaid. 
 Evidently the latter was retailing what had happened, 
 with some gusto and the delight of the lower class in 
 a tragedy. 
 
 " How terrible 1 " said she of the orange dress. 
 " Oh, poor, poor woman ! I wish I had been here, I 
 might have done something. I am a good nurse. 
 Oh, Sir Alfred Ross is splendid I know, but he wasn't 
 in tune. I might have been in time. And how 
 dreadful for the husband, poor man, to come back 
 and find her dead. Newly married, did you say ? 
 Poor things, may the Lord have mercy on them both, 
 and deliver her soul. Oh " her voice sank to a 
 whisper, evidently the chambermaid had pointed him 
 out to her. 
 
 " Thank goodness she wasn't there," said Ralph 
 to himself. " A fool, a most kind and affectionate 
 fool, I should say. Very pretty too, and fascinating 
 I expect, but still a fool." 
 
 He returned to his room and pulled out his writing- 
 case. What should he say to Ronny ? That was the 
 immediate question now. He couldn't put it in a 
 telegram. No, the telegram must simply keep him 
 from coming, and a letter must give the necessary 
 explanation that was no explanation. Then Ronny 
 was going for his big game shoot. He would not give
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 33 
 
 that up probably. He mustn't give it up. Ralph 
 was going with him. When they were out on the blue 
 water, and nothing could possibly be done, then he 
 would tell him all the story. The advisability of 
 letting the whole thing sleep would be obvious then. 
 The blame, whatever it was, would rest entirely on 
 Ralph's shoulders. Any chivalrous attempt by Ronny 
 to disturb that position would simply rake up the whole 
 story again, and make public property what for every 
 one's sake should be allowed to rest ; would do wrong 
 to the memory of the dead woman, and cause trouble 
 to all concerned, with no possible advantage. 
 
 So far, his course was clear. He would send off his 
 telegram in the morning. Then he would examine 
 the luggage, far enough to identify Eulalie, and dis- 
 cover her home address. Having this, he would 
 communicate with her husband, if indeed she was 
 married, and the name " Mrs. Greville " was not 
 merely a title assumed for convenience, or in any 
 case with her people or friends. He would state the 
 arrangements made for the funeral, and so far as his 
 own assumed position was concerned, he would just 
 " face the music." Then at leisure he would compose 
 a letter to Ronny. 
 
 The only awkward element in the case was the waiter, 
 and he had been effectually dealt with. Probably 
 some further payments might be needed to keep him 
 quiet, but these Ronny would gladly meet, and by the 
 time they returned from their shoot it would matter 
 very little if the old scandal were raked up. It would 
 attract no attention then. 
 
 He put away his writing materials. There was no need 
 
 to compose that telegram till the following morning. 
 
 He had mapped out all the course of his procedure, 
 
 and Sir Alfred Ross, on his return, found a calm, 
 
 c
 
 34 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 steady, self-reliant man, with little traces of the nerve 
 storm that had come so near to actual collapse a couple 
 of hours before. 
 
 " I am indeed glad to see you so much better, Mr. 
 Essendine. After a good night's rest, you will find 
 yourself able to face all you have before you. Now 
 you will please go to bed, and when you are in bed 
 you will dissolve three of these tabloids in a glass of 
 water and drink it. I do not think you will wake 
 before the morning, but, if you should, take three 
 more. Keep your mind quite at ease. I have given all 
 the necessary directions, and nothing remains for you 
 to do. I see you have been writing, I trust you have 
 done all that was needful for to-night." 
 
 " I have nothing more to write to-night, Sir Alfred. 
 I do not know how I can ever thank you sufficiently. 
 You have been more than kind." 
 
 " Not at all, not at all. I am very thankful I have 
 been able to be of some service. Now good night. I 
 shall see you in the morning."
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THANKS to Sir Alfred's treatment, Ralph slept a 
 sound and dreamless sleep, waking early the 
 following morning with a strange sensation of 
 having got into another body of whose nature and very 
 history he was ignorant, the remains indeed of a 
 fantastic morning vision of some queer transmigration. 
 He reviewed the position. Yesterday morning he 
 had waked the secretary and factotum of a beloved 
 friend wealthy and irresponsible, with a sublime 
 habit of getting into scrapes with whom he was about 
 to start in some three weeks' time on a fascinating 
 expedition into the unknown, in search of big game 
 and any other adventures the gods might provide. 
 Now he found himself generally recognized as the 
 husband of a dead woman, of whose history, belongings 
 and immediate antecedents he was wholly ignorant, 
 and pledged to bury her under a name that he knew was 
 false. 
 
 And beyond this was the further prospect, when he 
 had discovered something of her history, of taking 
 on himself the equally false character of an immoral 
 seducer, and again not knowing what circumstances 
 had led up to that tragic final denouement, and pretty 
 certain that whatever story he invented would be 
 promptly discredited. Only, as he said to himself, 
 it is a position in which a man is expected to lie. 
 But, in any case, he was absolutely debarred by the 
 
 35
 
 36 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 claims of friendship and by every possible considera- 
 tion from telling the truth. 
 
 Well, there was only one thing to do, and that was to 
 do the immediate next thing, and think as little as 
 possible about future developments, until they present 
 themselves for solution, and here, fortunately, fate 
 left him no choice. He must go on in the role so 
 unavoidably thrust upon him. Wire to Ronny 
 he would compose that wire very carefully prepare 
 for the funeral as though he were the husband he was 
 supposed to be, and in that capacity search Eulalie's 
 luggage. Then he must be guided by what he found. 
 
 The powerful drug Sir Alfred had administered still 
 dominated him. He grew intolerably sleepy, and no 
 sooner had he reached this conclusion and resolved 
 to get up than his limbs relaxed into a warm heaviness, 
 his thoughts grew confused, a funeral cortege was cut 
 in two by a charging elephant, mists floated before his 
 eyes as he tried to raise his rifle then unconsciousness. 
 
 At ten o'clock Sir Alfred Ross stood by his bedside 
 with a tumbler in his hand. 
 
 " Wake up now, Mr. Essendine. I have brought you 
 your morning draught. Drink this off, and I think 
 you will feel as well as ever you did in your life. And 
 don't worry at all about anything. I cannot of course 
 repair your irreparable loss, and I know that time 
 alone will bring you some measure of consolation ; 
 but, so far as I can, I have taken all the material 
 trouble off your shoulders. I have taken the liberty to 
 give all the essential directions in your name. It is 
 not the first time, as you may imagine, that I have had 
 to make such arrangements. The hotel people made a 
 special request that the removal of your poor wife's 
 body should not be delayed longer than was absolutely 
 necessary. Fortunately, I knew thoroughly reliable
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 37 
 
 people who will have done everything needed. There 
 is a good train about half-past one. That will give 
 time for any friends who wish to attend to go down with 
 you. You will find all arrangements made when you 
 get to Penzance, and my old friend and fellow-student, 
 Dr. Giles, will meet you there. I would go down with 
 you myself, but I can't be spared from London. How- 
 ever, you may safely trust Giles there's no better 
 fellow on earth." 
 
 " I don't know how I can ever hope to thank you or 
 to repay you, Sir Alfred, for all you have done for me," 
 said Ralph earnestly. " Not one man in a million 
 would take such trouble for a total stranger." 
 
 " Nonsense, Mr. Essendine, I am a doctor, and you 
 are, pro tern, my patient. I am not going to spoil the 
 effect of my treatment by allowing you to bring on a 
 bad collapse, which would have been the inevitable 
 result if I had left you to face all this trouble and 
 anxiety by yourself. Last night you were as near a 
 complete breakdown as I have ever seen a man, and I 
 don't wonder. You have tremendous physical strength 
 and pluck, but you have the Celtic temperament. 
 You are Celtic, I think ? Ah, yes, Irish, I thought so. 
 Well, your emotions will fret your nerves to fiddle 
 strings. You will keep up till the very last moment, 
 then you will collapse. Now this I must prevent. 
 See now, put this note in your pocket and give it to 
 Giles. It simply indicates my diagnosis, and my 
 treatment. Do exactly what he tells you and you will 
 be all right. By the way, you will probably send your 
 luggage and your wife's back to your home, or if it 
 suits you better the hotel people will be glad to take 
 charge of it for you until you return, or tell them where 
 to send it." 
 
 " Again you have taken a load off my mind, Sir
 
 38 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Alfred. As I think I told you, I have but just come back 
 from abroad. I have no home at present in this 
 country. You may have noticed that our luggage is all 
 new. Just bought on arrival, in fact." 
 
 " I concluded that might be the case," said the 
 doctor. 
 
 " Well, I must just think whether I will send it to 
 friends, or take this kindly offer and leave it here. 
 Any way I must pack it all up, and, as you say, 
 there will be plenty of time for that." 
 
 " Plenty. Now, Mr. Essendine, you will get up, 
 have a bath and a good breakfast. Make your arrange- 
 ments about your luggage quietly and calmly. There's 
 no hurry. I will come back at one and see you off. 
 Meantime I will say good-bye. I am due at the 
 hospital." 
 
 Ralph, as the doctor had foretold, felt extraordinarily 
 well. But at the same time he was conscious of a 
 sense of unreality. He was like a man in a very vivid 
 dream, or was it that he was now awake and all that he 
 had deemed his past life a dream ? He said over and 
 over again to himself, " Eulalie is dead. Eulalie, my 
 wife. I have to bury her ! What has she been 
 doing all these years ? Who was it that was shooting 
 with Ronny ? Why should I think that was me too ? 
 Ronny is the Duke of Glenstaffen. Oh Lord, all that 
 time is so tangled. Well, never mind, I must bury my 
 dead- 
 Then his mind cleared, and he saw the immediate 
 things to be done. As he sat at breakfast, he had a 
 sheaf of telegraph forms beside him he wanted to 
 frame the most judicious message he could to Ronny. 
 The waiter he had talked with on the previous night 
 came up. 
 
 " I thought I had better come and tell you myself,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 39 
 
 sir. The motor that came with your cousin, sir, 
 last night, has come back according to orders, he says. 
 He was to be back at 10.30. What shall I say to him ? 
 Perhaps you had better not see him yourself." 
 
 " No, of course not," said Ralph hastily, realizing 
 that the man would expect to see Ronny who had 
 hired him. " No, just ask him what I owe him, and 
 tell him he will not be wanted." 
 
 In a few minutes the waiter reappeared. 
 
 " The man says there is nothing to pay, sir. Every- 
 thing was settled up last night, and he has got another 
 job. A lady leaving this morning wanted a taxi, but 
 there was not one on the rank, so rather than wait 
 she hired him and he has agreed to take her. I expect 
 he'll put that little bit in his own pocket, sir. He comes 
 from one of the big garages." 
 
 Ralph reapplied himself to his breakfast and the 
 consideration of his telegram. 
 
 By this chance it was that the lady of the orange 
 dress of last night got the luxurious motor ordered for 
 Ronny Warrington, instead of the taxi she had be- 
 spoken, and was now talking to the chauffeur, while her 
 luggage was being brought down. She was evidently 
 a conversational person, and bound to talk to some one. 
 Moreover, she was greatly interested in the details of 
 the tragic happenings of last night. The chauffeur 
 was willing enough to talk, but he had not much light 
 to throw on it. Mr. Essendine had hired the motor 
 from the garage. He had never seen him before. 
 Was he the Mr. Essendine whose name had been in the 
 papers and who had presented some strange beast to 
 the Zoo ? Well, the chauffeur couldn't say for certain. 
 The lady knew him slightly, she said. Here it must 
 be confessed she drew a long bow. She had once 
 been in the same room with Ralph after his return
 
 40 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 from a shooting expedition with Warrington, and he 
 had been pointed out to her. 
 
 No matter ; it gave the chauffeur confidence to 
 enlarge on what he knew. He had driven Mr. Essendine 
 to the Army and Navy Stores, where they had picked 
 up a lot of new luggage. Mr. Essendine had only 
 just come home from abroad, he understood, and had 
 to buy everything. He believed he had been just 
 married. Then they went across the Park and picked 
 up Mrs. Essendine, such a beautiful lady. He had 
 been terribly shocked to hear of her sudden death this 
 morning. They had picked her up at a house in 
 Kilburn, with her luggage, so of course they couldn't 
 have been married yesterday morning he didn't 
 mean that ; but it was no business of his, and he was 
 not curious. 
 
 The luggage now appeared with a porter and 
 boots and the obsequious chambermaid ostentatiously 
 carrying a dressing-case. Did Madam notice that she 
 had forgotten to write the label ? 
 
 " So I have. How careless of me, and my fountain 
 pen is locked up. Do write it for me, there's a good 
 girl ; see, here it is : Mrs. Donelly, 25, Poulett Road, 
 Kensington. It's close to Earl's Court really. Do you 
 know I once left that dressing-case in a taxi, so I 
 always label it now. See here," she said to the 
 chauffeur, " I shall remember you when I want a 
 motor. I hope you'll drive me again. How shall I 
 know you ? " 
 
 " Milven's Garage, madam, Car No. 2058. I always 
 drive this car." 
 
 " All right, I've got the number. Now go to 
 Poulett Road." 
 
 Every one was duly tipped, and the car vanished 
 into the stream of traffic.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 41 
 
 Meanwhile Ralph, after a score of attempts, finally 
 wrote his telegram : 
 
 " Do not come to-day E suddenly obliged to go home 
 says do not call or write till you hear most important 
 Ralph." 
 
 He picked up the morning paper, which the waiter 
 had placed beside his plate, and the first item that 
 caught his eye was the announcement of the sudden 
 death of the Duke of Glenstaffen. 
 
 He addressed his wire to the Duke of Glenstaffen, 
 Staffen Castle, Dunchester. 
 
 Rapidly skimming the article, he gathered that the 
 late duke, after being unconscious for some hours, 
 had rallied slightly about midnight, and had been able 
 to speak alone to Mr. Ronald Warrington, his heir, 
 who had arrived at the Castle about 12 o'clock, after 
 which he sank gradually, and the end came at 2 a.m. 
 A sketch of the late duke's career followed, and a short 
 notice of the heir's exploits as a big game hunter in 
 various countries, and his fame as an athlete, with 
 hints at sundry romantic adventures. Mention was 
 also made of his own name as the friend and secretary 
 who had accompanied Mr. Warrington in his expedi- 
 tions, and had achieved some distinction of his own by 
 bringing home and presenting to the Zoological Society 
 a new type of sloth, and by some papers read before 
 the Geographical Society, which had attracted more 
 than a passing interest. 
 
 It all seemed a dream of the past. Something that 
 had happened to some one else. 
 
 He must now address himself to the work in hand. 
 He had to identify poor Eulalie, discover her immediate 
 belongings, and frame some story sufficiently plausible 
 to keep the new duke out of any grievous scandal. 
 
 Ralph, though a Celt and a dreamer, was not what
 
 42 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 is ordinarily termed a religious man. Yet it was with 
 a feeling of awe and of involuntary silent prayer that 
 he entered the chamber of death. Sir Alfred Ross's 
 instructions had been fully carried out. The workers 
 had been busy through the night, and all the last 
 preparations had been made with the least possible 
 delay. The oak coffin stood on tressels with two large 
 candles burning beside it, and many flowers ; the 
 lid had not yet been fastened, and the beautiful face 
 was uncovered. Ralph sank on his knees for a moment 
 in prayer for the departed soul. 
 
 Then he addressed himself to the task in hand. 
 It seemed almost a sacrilege to open the repositories 
 of the dead, but it had to be done. The dainty little 
 morocco hand-bag held her keys, but the large trunk was 
 open ; only the dressing-case was locked. 
 
 Resolutely and methodically Ralph examined every 
 article, but with growing perplexity. Everything 
 was new, not an article had even initials. There 
 was not a note, not a scrap of paper anywhere that 
 could give the faintest clue. Only the writing-case 
 held a sheet of blotting-paper that had been once 
 used. Eagerly he took this to the looking-glass, 
 only to meet a fresh disappointment. All that was 
 visible was the end of a letter " Your affectionate 
 Eulalie." 
 
 In despair he turned to that silent figure lying so 
 still in the coffin. 
 
 " Eulalie," he murmured, " can't you, won't you 
 tell me who you were ? Won't you relieve me from 
 this horrible position ? Speak to nie, Eulalie, for the 
 sake of the old past. Forgive me, dear. It was all my 
 fault." 
 
 But it seemed that the dead face smiled gently but 
 inscrutably.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 43 
 
 Reverently, and with loving care, he repacked every 
 article, folding the dainty garments with skill very 
 rare in a man. Then the big trunk and the dressing- 
 case were locked and strapped, the keys replaced in the 
 hand-bag, and everything sealed with his own signet 
 ring. 
 
 Ronny's luggage remained. Ralph went to the 
 dressing-room. Everything was open, and the morning 
 clothes thrown negligently over the foot of the bed, 
 with the characteristic carelessness of a man accustomed 
 to a valet. Ralph's old portmanteau lay open. Here 
 again the same disappointment met him : every 
 article was new, nothing was marked. There was no 
 smallest scrap of paper to give the least hint. Stay 
 though, in the pocket of the morning coat there was a 
 telegram, dated the day before : 
 
 " Meet you at 5 at the little dressmaker's cannot 
 possibly come earlier stay in London to-night E." 
 
 The office of origin was a small post office in Ken- 
 sington. Ralph noted the address. Here might be a 
 possible clue, which he could follow without letting 
 Ronny know anything. Also, and the thought struck 
 him suddenly, he might send Ronny a telegram from 
 the same office that would effectually prevent his 
 making any inquiries before he started on the big game 
 shoot. It would be another thing he would have to 
 confess to his friend when they were out in mid-ocean. 
 Ronny would be very angry. It might, probably 
 it would, be the end of their friendship. No matter, 
 he would have saved him from what he deemed would 
 be simple ruin. 
 
 Again he mentally reviewed the whole position, 
 but could see no other alternative ; loyalty demanded 
 this sacrifice, and Ralph was quixotically loyal. He had 
 resolved to take the whole burden on himself, and he
 
 44 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 would not shirk one atom of it. Now that he saw 
 his path clear he would go through with it at whatever 
 cost. 
 
 All Ronny's articles were accordingly repacked 
 with the same care, the portmanteau and the two suit- 
 cases were locked and sealed. Then he summoned 
 the waiter, and directed the two sets of luggage to be 
 kept separate, under the charge of the manager, to 
 await his orders. 
 
 The undertaker's men were waiting to screw down 
 the coffin. Ralph took one final look at the beautiful 
 waxen face. Then with a sudden impulse he bent and 
 kissed the cold pale lips, and passed from the room. 
 The hearse was at the door, and a single mourning 
 coach, in which he took his place. Just as they were 
 starting Sir Alfred Ross bustled up. 
 
 " Just in time to say good-bye, Mr. Essendine, and 
 God bless you. I have a wire from Giles. He will 
 meet you at Penzance Station. It is all arranged. 
 The coffin will be placed in the church, and rooms 
 have been secured for you. You will have no trouble. 
 No 1 Don't thank me. I have only done what 
 common humanity dictated. Good-bye again. Your 
 friends join at Paddington, I presume. Yes, just so. 
 I have to hurry for an operation or I would accompany 
 you to the station, but there's no need, everything 
 is arranged." 
 
 Slowly the two vehicles bearing the dead and the 
 living once so closely united, now so tragically 
 strange to one another wound through the maze of 
 London traffic to Paddington. Sir' Alfred had been 
 as good as his word, and Ralph found everything 
 arranged for his journey to Penzance. 
 
 Ensconced in a first-class carriage, with no fellow- 
 passenger, he tried again to assort himself to the new
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 45 
 
 role thus suddenly thrust upon him, and to determine 
 his future course of action. It was just possible that 
 Eulalie might have been known at the post office she 
 had telegraphed from, and so he might discover her 
 husband. If he did not if this clue should fail also 
 what then ? A wave of pity for the unknown 
 husband came over him. The absolute and utter 
 disappearance of his wife would be a tragedy. Almost 
 he thought, in view of this, that he must tell the whole 
 story to Ronny. before they started on the big game 
 shoot. Then his knowledge of Ronny, his dread of 
 the impetuous quixotic action he was certain that he 
 would take, the necessity of saving him from himself, 
 came back with redoubled force. Here were two men, 
 one of whom must suffer, one of whom was his dearest 
 and best friend, to whom all his duty and loyalty were 
 owed, the other a stranger to whom he owed nothing. 
 There could be no doubt which way his duty lay. 
 Yet the thought of that unknown husband haunted 
 him. 
 
 Then a gleam of light broke on his mind : in con- 
 versation with Ronny he might tactfully, without 
 arousing any suspicion, draw from him who this 
 Mrs. Greville was, and where she lived. Then he could 
 go to the husband and tell all the story, putting him- 
 self in Ronny's place, account as best he could for not 
 communicating with him at once. It would be a 
 lame story at the best, and he would incur her husband's 
 just and most righteous wrath. It was impossible 
 to say what might eventuate, but he would have 
 saved his friend, and he would have relieved the husband 
 from life-long anxiety. His own ruin, or perhaps 
 death, mattered not in the balance. He felt the 
 relief of a man who sees a possible course of action 
 where there had appeared to be no outlet.
 
 46 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 So deeply had his mind been occupied with these 
 thoughts that he had not noticed the lapse of time, 
 till the slowing down of the train caused him to look 
 out, and he found they were just running into Pen- 
 zance.
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 BERMUDA Avenue is in Bayswater. There is 
 an air of solid respectability about the 
 white-fronted houses, with tiny patches of 
 garden separating them from the road, decorous 
 but dull. No. 25 was exactly like its neighbours 
 except for a pair of curly horns over the door that 
 supported between them an electric light. 
 
 Inside it was very up-to-date, with an air of having 
 been recently done up with every modern appliance, 
 and very little cosiness. The hall was rather larger 
 than is usual, with a parquet floor and white paint, 
 old rose-coloured panels, and a frieze of stuffed heads, 
 mainly of moose and deer of various kinds. The 
 drawing-room on the right hand side was elaborately 
 furnished but too full ; and there was a marked 
 incongruity about the ornaments and decorations. 
 
 Large Dore engravings hung on the walls, inter- 
 spersed with water-colour drawings of Canadian scenes 
 and surmounted by curios belonging to Red Indian 
 life : mocassins, feather head-dresses, weapons of 
 many kinds ; and specimens of the same littered 
 tables, and filled cabinets. But here and there were 
 some really beautiful pieces of old French china, and 
 dainty silver work. The flowers were arranged with 
 exquisite taste ; but they were drooping, and some 
 were dead, as though they had been neglected for a 
 day orj:wo. 
 
 47
 
 48 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 On the hearth-rug before a bright fire stood a big 
 man, with red hair and a reddish face, his legs 
 wide apart and a general air of satisfaction, looking 
 down on a long thin man who lounged in a deep arm- 
 chair. 
 
 " Have a cock-tail before dinner, Trevenna ? " 
 he said, " I'll mix you any style you fancy." 
 
 " No thanks, old man, swore off. No drinks 
 till after dinner. I'm sorry to miss your wife, I hoped 
 we should have seen her to-night." 
 
 *' No, she's away. Eulalie comes and goes, you know. 
 She hates London after the freedom of Canada. Odd, 
 isn't it ? Now I can't stand any other place. Get 
 bored stiff. Three days in the country settles me, then 
 I want Piccadilly." 
 
 " She's well, I hope. You must miss her rather 
 badly." 
 
 '* Oh, yes, she's all right, thanks. Staying with some 
 colonial friends somewhere in the West of England. 
 Motoring about, I fancy." 
 
 " Not the Lymans of Toronto, is it ? They are at 
 home now, and motoring in the West I heard. You 
 know them, of course." 
 
 " No, I don't, and that wasn't the name. Shot if 
 I remember who it was she said she was going to. 
 Some Canadians. I've got the name somewhere, 
 but I don't remember. You'll have a hostess though. 
 Mrs. Donelly has kindly undertaken to help me 
 entertain. You know her, I think. ' ' 
 
 " Oh, yes. Met her here several times. Charming 
 woman. Shall be delighted to see her again. All the 
 same I wish we could have Mrs. Greville, the most 
 perfect hostess in London, I always say. You're a lucky 
 dog, Harry." 
 
 " Well, next time perhaps. Eulalie will come back
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 49 
 
 when she's tired. She raves about the country, but 
 she harks back to London all the same. It's getting 
 late, some of the people ought to be coming. Ah, 
 there's a ring. That will be Mrs. Donelly. Seen the 
 evening paper ? " 
 
 " No. There's nothing in the papers now, columns 
 about the Duke of Glenstaffen's funeral, and des- 
 criptions of Staffen Castle and all that. He was rather 
 a fine old chap, I fancy. Best sort of old English 
 nobleman. The new duke is a great sportsman, I 
 understand." 
 
 " Oh, yes. He's a splendid shot, and a good all 
 round man. I met him in Canada, after moose. A wild 
 devil though. He was always in some hair-brained 
 mischief. A chap who ought to have lived in the 
 Stuart times, he didn't seem to fit into modern life 
 a bit. I wonder how he will settle down into a country 
 magnate. I liked him though myself. He used to 
 come here at one time, then he gave up, and sort of 
 sheered off. I thought at first that we weren't big 
 enough for him. But it wasn't that. Ronny Warring- 
 ton, as he was then, wasn't a bit of a snob, whatever 
 his faults were." 
 
 " He won't settle down that type of man never 
 does till he gets too old to move out of an arm-chair. 
 You may take my word the big game will call him, 
 or he'll go to the Himalayas to fight border tribes, or 
 something. The Warringtons are all like that wild 
 as hawks, and mad as March hares. Here comes Mrs. 
 Donelly." 
 
 It was the lady of the orange-coloured dress at the 
 Terminus Hotel. She sailed into the room, with a 
 gracious smile for Harry Greville. and a warm greeting 
 for Mr. Trevenna. She was undeniably a very pretty 
 woman, of the soft, rather languid, Devonian type,
 
 50 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 with a great flow of small talk. She was now dressed 
 in some soft creamy material, loose and flowing, with 
 much lace about it, and the inevitable black bow. 
 People said that Mrs. Donelly always had some black 
 about her, whatever dress she wore. 
 
 " So glad to meet you again, Mr. Trevenna. I 
 always remembered the wonderful things you told me 
 about the old Italian cities, and your experiences 
 there. You promised to tell me more about Este, 
 and the old Dukes. Wasn't that where you found that 
 marvellous cameo haunted by the soul of a wicked 
 monk ? Dear me ! I'm afraid I'm awfully late. 
 Shocking, isn't it, for the hostess. But really I couldn't 
 help myself. The dressmaker kept me such a time. 
 Tiresome little person ! But I can't do without her. 
 She's the best woman in London, though she does 
 live in a rather out-of-the-way neighbourhood, and, 
 thank goodness, isn't known. And then the hair- 
 dresser was late, and so with one thing and another. 
 Well, you know how it is." 
 
 " At all events the result is well worth the waiting 
 for," said Trevenna, with a courteous bow. 
 
 " You were bound to say that, Mr. Trevenna. 
 And really that little woman does take great trouble 
 for me. Of course she does so well out of Eulalie 
 that she feels she owes me something. She chances 
 to be just Eulalie's size and figure. So she makes 
 lovely gowns for her, and when Eulalie gets tired of 
 them she just gives them to the dressmaker." 
 
 " And I have to foot the bill," said Greville with a 
 grimace. 
 
 " Well, Harry, you can afford it, and you might 
 find much worse ways of spending a few pounds. 
 She has been making a lot of things for Eulalie lately, 
 and that threw her back with every one else, poor me
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 51 
 
 included. By the way, Harry, have you heard from 
 Eulalie yet ? " 
 
 " No, I haven't. But I hardly expected to. She's 
 not much of a correspondent, you know. I suppose 
 I shall have a card in a day or two, when she knows 
 where she is going. She will be with those Canadian 
 people, I never remember their name." 
 
 " And I never knew it. There's a ring now. 
 Who are coming, Harry ? " 
 
 " Oh, quite a family sort of party that is to say, 
 only intimates. When I am en garqon I don't really 
 give dinner-parties. Eulalie likes them, I don't. 
 There's Brathwayte and his wife, of course. You 
 know, Trevenna, the King's Counsel. He was at 
 College with me and dined with me every fort- 
 night after we went down, until I went abroad. 
 And since I came home the old custom was revived 
 and he brought his wife, and to-night he brings 
 a niece from Australia. Capable girl, I'm told. She 
 and her brother held a log-hut against a troop of 
 bushrangers, I believe. I'm not quite sure of the story. 
 Anyhow she can ride and shoot. Then there's Colonel 
 Fraser and his wife, friends of Eulalie's more than 
 mine. Nice enough people, but dull. Mixed up with 
 her in some of the charitable things she goes in for. 
 They were asked before she settled to go this motoring 
 run. So I had to explain that she was away, and ask 
 them to come notwithstanding, and they said ' yes.' 
 So that's the lot." 
 
 " And how do we pair, Harry ? I'll just run in 
 and settle the places." 
 
 " Let's see Brathwayte must take you, Hilda ; 
 I shall have to take Mrs. Fraser for my sins, or we 
 should pair wrong ; Fraser has Mrs. Brathwayte ; 
 and you, Trevenna, will have the niece. Put her on
 
 52 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 my left hand. Square table you see. Two at each 
 end, two at each side. You needn't bother, Hilda. 
 It's always laid that way for eight. There's 
 Brathwayte coming, I hear his voice." 
 
 Brathwayte's voice was one of the notable things 
 about him. Counsellor Silver-tongue some called him, 
 reviving an old epithet. He was a tall, strikingly 
 handsome man, with a clean-shaven, keen, legal 
 face, intensely mobile, and expressing every emotion, 
 a face that would have made an actor's fortune. 
 When he brought out the deep tones of his voice in 
 a peroration, and looked at the jury with his clear, 
 wonderful blue eyes he could play on them as on a 
 musical instrument. Judges laboured hard in the 
 summing up to wipe off the glamour, and restore hard 
 common sense, but Brathwayte sat and looked into 
 the jury box and his features were as eloquent as his 
 voice had been. Often a half smile, barely perceptible, 
 a lift of the eyebrows, would destroy the effect of the 
 judge's closest reasoning. But there was nothing 
 anyone could lay hold of. It was more of a brain wave 
 than even an expression, so slight and evanescent 
 was it, but it told. 
 
 " Not the last, are we ? " he said, after the first 
 greetings were over. " Couldn't get away from Court, 
 you know. Old Masterman was determined to finish 
 to-day." 
 
 " That was your poisoner, wasn't it ? How did it 
 go?" 
 
 " Oh, we got the verdict, in spite of Masterman. 
 He summed up dead against me, 'and he was quite 
 right. The beggar ought to have been hanged. I 
 don't think he did that, but he's done heaps of other 
 things. He didn't deserve his verdict, but they had 
 Johnson the other side, and oh, Lord, he w,as dull.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 53 
 
 I believe they let the rascal off because they were so 
 bored with Johnson." 
 
 " Or fascinated with you, Brathwayte ? I believe 
 you are responsible for more unjust judgments than 
 any man in Great Britain. If ever I get into a tight 
 place I shan't rest till I get you to pull me out. Look 
 here, old man, just introduce me properly to this young 
 lady. You come in and say casually ' my niece,' 
 as though that were distinction enough for anyone." 
 
 " Really, I beg pardon, I was so concerned at the 
 thought of being late. Let me present you in form, 
 Miss Macarthy Mr. Greville, my oldest and best 
 friend, Mrs. Donelly, our charming hostess, in Mrs. 
 Greville's absence. But I hope, my dear, you'll meet 
 Mrs. Greville herself next time, if Greville allows me 
 to bring you again, and Mr. Trevenna, popularly 
 known as a cyclopaedia of useless knowledge. You 
 needn't chaff, Greville, the fact is I am chiefly known 
 now as Miss Macarthy 's uncle." 
 
 " Mr. Brathwayte, I owe you a grudge," said Tre- 
 venna, " I am to take Miss Macarthy in to dinner, 
 and you have already started a prejudice against me 
 by that remark of yours." 
 
 " No, I assure you, Mr. Trevenna," said Miss Macarthy 
 with a lift of her long dark eyes. " If there's one thing 
 I really love it is useless knowledge. My uncle is so 
 stuffed with the other kind, he becomes perfectly 
 tiresome. Useless things are far the most interesting, 
 I'm afraid that's conceited, for I'm utterly useless 
 myself." 
 
 " Fishing with a ship's cable, my dear. Won't do I 
 There's a ring now. What luck for us. Some one 
 else later than we were." 
 
 " That's Colonel Fraser," said Greville. " Now we 
 are complete, Hilda."
 
 54 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 The colonel was a short, somewhat consequential 
 man, with a bustling energetic wife who talked almost 
 incessantly. 
 
 Greetings and introductions over, Greville gave his 
 arm to Mrs. Eraser, and led the way to the dining-room, 
 the lady chattering volubly. 
 
 " So good of you to ask us to come in spite of 
 Eulalie's absence. The house seems strange without 
 her. Now, please don't let me go away without her 
 address, it's most important ; vital indeed." 
 
 " That's just what I can't give you, Mrs. Fraser, I 
 haven't a notion where she is at this moment. She 
 wasn't sure herself. Somewhere or other I have the 
 name of the people she is with, if I haven't lost it, 
 but for the life of me I can't remember it now, I shall 
 be sure to hear in a day or two." 
 
 " Oh, but I must know at once. Isn't there some- 
 where that I could get it ? She must have left an 
 address somewhere. I don't know what we shall do. 
 It's the meeting of the Theatrical Ladies' Guild, you 
 know, the day after to-morrow. Eulalie has all the 
 books and accounts and everything, and she is so 
 particular, she could never have forgotten that." 
 
 " Oh well, in that case you'll have a letter from her 
 to-morrow. Let me know, like a good soul, if you 
 do. I believe she's motoring about somewhere, 
 and she won't be bothered to write more than she 
 must." 
 
 " Yes, that will be it. There'll be a letter at the 
 office. She will be back in ten days anyhow for the 
 Amateur Concert. She is down for a violin solo, and 
 she never fails us." 
 
 " Oh, that's it, is it? She told me she was to be 
 home again in a fortnight ; but I didn't know why. 
 Never thought of asking, as a matter of fact."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 55 
 
 ' ' But surely you are coming to the Concert. We look 
 to you to head the subscription list. It's for the orphans 
 of musicians, a most wonderful charity ; so needed, 
 but in terrible lack of funds." 
 
 " But why me ? I don't know one note of music 
 from another, and I hate musicians." 
 
 " But listen a moment, Mr. Greville, I must tell 
 you about this charity." 
 
 Greville resigned himself. There was no stopping 
 the flow of Mrs. Eraser's eloquence, as he knew by 
 experience, and the entrees were well under way 
 before the woes of the musicians' orphans were fully 
 expounded. He looked across once or twice to Hilda 
 Donelly, with a grimace of despair. That lady was 
 listening, with an appearance of keenest interest, 
 to Brathwayte, who was telling her about Miss 
 Macarthy. 
 
 " My nephew Jack Macarthy, her brother, is one of 
 those harum-scarum chaps who have extraordinary 
 luck,fluke upon fortunes, and never keep a halfpenny. A 
 year or two ago he was absolutely penniless, borrowed 
 some money from me and went out to the Wild West. 
 There he had the luck to chance on gold in a most 
 unlikely place, pegged out his claim, built himself a 
 log-hut, and set to work to dig all alone. Lola went 
 out to keep house for him. She had been in Australia 
 all her life before, with my sister on an up-country 
 station, and was always keen for adventure. So she 
 and Jack lived in this log-hut mainly, I believe, on the 
 game he shot. Well, Jack got some nuggets, and a 
 fair amount of gold dust, and kept very quiet about it. 
 But a band of ruffians somehow got wind of it, and one 
 night they attacked the hut, about a dozen of them with 
 Winchester rifles. It was a mighty strong little place, 
 and Jack said it could stand a siege as long as he had
 
 56 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 powder and shot. But Lola was not so sure about it, 
 she watched until all the men were blazing away in 
 front, without doing much harm, then she slipped out 
 through a window at the back, and got her mare 
 before they knew anything about it.." 
 
 ' ' She managed to creep up to where they had tethered 
 their horses, cut the ropes and stampeded the lot. 
 Then she jumped on her mare without bridle or saddle, 
 riding astride as girls do in the Wild West and in 
 Australia, too, for that matter just guiding by the 
 halter, and galloped for all she was worth five miles 
 over the prairie to the sheriff's. Luckily, she found him 
 and a' dozen of his men just going off to look for some 
 train robbers, and galloped back with them and reached 
 the hut just as the rascals had broken the door and Jack 
 was standing in the door-way with his rifle, determined 
 to sell his life as dearly as possible. He had 
 accounted for two of them, but of course, it was a 
 hopeless thing. Then the sheriff and his men rushed in 
 and bagged the lot. They were righteously hanged 
 soon after. One of the worst gangs in that district, 
 I believe. It was just a stroke of Master Jack's 
 luck. He got several thousand pounds' worth of gold 
 in a few weeks, sold his claim for several thousands 
 more, and lost nearly the whole of it at poker. Then 
 he went to Alaska, and Lola went back to Australia. 
 She doesn't look like that, does she ? " 
 
 Indeed, it was hard to imagine Lola Macarthy in 
 any such wild adventures. A most daintily feminine 
 creature she looked, with her sun-touched hair and clear 
 delicate skin, and an irrepressible gleam of fun in the 
 long dark eyes. But to a physiognomist the slightly 
 large nose and the firm curve of the lips, though they 
 rippled with ready laughter, indicated great strength 
 of will and determination, and the rounded arms and
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 57 
 
 supple figure showed that muscles taut as steel lay 
 beneath the satin skin. 
 
 " Yes, she's an Ai sportswoman," went on Brath- 
 wayte, after a pause. " A first class shot, too. She 
 used to go out sometimes with Ralph Essendine. Was 
 with him when he got the famous sloth that he gave 
 to the Zoo." 
 
 " Mr. Essendine ? " said Mrs. Donelly. " I met him 
 once at some function or other. Poor fellow, he has 
 just lost his wife, most sadly and suddenly." 
 
 " I think you must be mistaken there. Ralph 
 Essendine never had a wife that I heard of. My 
 sister knew him well." 
 
 " Oh, but I'm sure it is the same. I was in the hotel 
 when she died. I didn't see her, and I only just saw 
 his back. But I heard all about it from the chamber- 
 maid." 
 
 " Mrs. Donelly, do me a great favour. Don't men- 
 tion this to my niece. I am sure there is a mistake 
 somewhere. It could not have been Ralph Essendine, 
 but he was a hero and demigod to Lola. She just 
 simply adores him, and my sister thought and hoped 
 that it was reciprocal and that something might come 
 of it. And if she heard a story like that it would do 
 untold mischief. She's a queer girl, wildly unconven- 
 tional in some ways, but if she thought he had deceived 
 her, and kept the fact of his having a wife secret, I 
 think she would never speak to him again, but she would 
 break her heart for him all the same. Mind you, I 
 am sure there is some mistake in the story. So I 
 wouldn't for worlds that it came to her ears before the 
 explanation was forthcoming." 
 
 " I quite understand, Mr. Brathwayte. I'll be as 
 mute as a mouse. All the same I can't help thinking 
 the story is true, and, if it wasn't that Mr. Essen-
 
 58 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 dine, I would give worlds to know who it was. You 
 see I am curious. All women are. So I do wish you 
 would try and find out and tell me." 
 
 The talk rippled pleasantly on round the table, 
 Trevenna tried hard to draw Lola Macarthy into the 
 story of some of her adventures, but he only succeeded 
 in getting enthusiastic accounts of Ralph Essendine's 
 prowess. Her own share in any of the expeditions 
 was passed over in silence. Gradually, and almost 
 insensibly, she drew him on to speak of Italy, and the 
 old Lombard cities and the Etruscan tombs, even at 
 last to his haunted amulet, and the ghost of the dead 
 monk who had warned him of danger. He was on 
 his own pet subject, and found an eager and delighted 
 listener. 
 
 Across the table Colonel Eraser was expounding 
 at some length to Mrs. Brathwayte the mysteries of 
 Indian cookery, and how she might instruct her cook 
 how to boil rice perfectly, how to make pilaw, and the 
 correct flavouring for kibabs. He waxed enthusiastic 
 over the curry, and narrated how he himself had told 
 Mrs. Greville how it should be made, and had even 
 gone into the kitchen to teach the cook its most 
 recondite mysteries. 
 
 b* Harry Greville recognized too late that in his desire 
 to get Miss Macarthy on his left hand he had placed 
 Mrs. Eraser next to her husband, and had thus doomed 
 himself all through dinner to the sway of that lady's 
 voluble tongue. 
 
 " Confound the woman I " he thought to himself. 
 " She's a regular cross-examiner, she ought to have 
 married Brathwayte." 
 
 Trevenna on the other side of the table saw his 
 discomfiture, and catching a word concerning the 
 Ladies' Theatrical Guild he plunged into the conver-
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 59 
 
 sation, asking Mrs. Fraser who was the president, and 
 passing on from that to numerous theatrical anec- 
 dotes of actors and actresses, living and dead. For 
 a little while he held the table, while Greville contrived 
 to exchange a few words with Miss Macarthy, who knew 
 nothing of English actors, and was grateful for a few 
 hints concerning those about whom Trevenna was 
 discoursing so glibly. 
 
 Hilda Donelly also too late had perceived the unfor- 
 tunate arrangement which had brought Brathwayte 
 also next to his wife. But in a way she was grateful for 
 it, as obliging the great lawyer to devote himself to 
 her all through dinner. She asked him about his 
 poisoning case. 
 
 " An entirely new drug," he said. " The prose- 
 cution knew nothing about it except from books. 
 We won mostly on Sir Alfred Ross's evidence. He 
 knew it practically, and proved to demonstration 
 that the symptoms were totally different and that there 
 was not a grain of it in this country, and never had 
 been. He's a magnificent man. It was he who really 
 convinced me that my man could not have done 
 what he was charged with. I am dining with 
 him in a fortnight, and I am greatly looking forward 
 to it." 
 
 " I don't wonder," she said, " It must be a great 
 privilege to know such a man. By the way of 
 course I am as mum as a mouse about what I told you 
 of Mr. Essendine but if Sir Alfred will, he can tell 
 you more than anyone else of that story. He attended 
 the woman that was said to be Mrs. Essendine at her 
 death." 
 
 " That is interesting," replied Brathwayte, " but 
 I doubt a blind trail. Sir Alfred never was known 
 to speak of patients. To him it is like a secret of the
 
 6o The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 confessional. Look at poor Greville. He is bored 
 stiff with Mrs. Fraser." 
 
 " I'll relieve him," said Hilda, and she signalled to 
 the other end of the table, when the ladies rose and 
 retired. 
 
 In the drawing-room afterwards Hilda played while 
 Miss Macarthy sang some Australian songs, and 
 Trevenna an Italian canzonet, and after some 
 cigarettes and liqueurs the party broke up. The 
 Frasers, who lived near, walked home. 
 
 " Charles," said Mrs. Fraser, as the door closed behind 
 them, " I'm not satisfied." 
 
 " My dear," said the colonel, " you've had a splendid 
 dinner, that curry was worthy of me. Do you want 
 to take a taxi to Romano's for supper ? " 
 
 " Nonsense, Charles ! You know I don't mean 
 food. It's about Eulalie. I'm perfectly certain that 
 Mr. Greville is playing a double game somehow. 
 He wants her out of the way. I believe he's carrying 
 on with that Mrs. Donelly." 
 
 " Stuff and nonsense, Clara. Old Greville is straight 
 as a die. Just a careless beggar, that's all. Don't you 
 go getting these absurd fancies. You're always 
 making up some deadly intrigue for the most innocent 
 people." 
 
 " Nevertheless I hold my own opinion, Charles ; 
 and you'll find I'm right." 
 
 Brathwayte's car throbbed at the door, and Harry 
 Greville carefully packed the ladies into it. 
 
 " What do you make of Mrs. Donelty, Uncle Sidney ? " 
 said Lola. " You seemed wonderfully interested in 
 her all dinner-time." 
 
 " I was. My dear, I'd a deal rather she was with 
 me than against me in any case I had to do 
 with."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 61 
 
 " Really ! She seemed to me a most pleasant woman, 
 soft, and kindly, and not much sense." 
 
 " True enough ! She's all that ; but there's more. 
 She has the most astounding faculty for picking up 
 all sorts of odd scraps of information, and never 
 forgetting them. As a witness she would suddenly 
 bring out the most disconcerting facts, and they would 
 all be true, mark you. That type of woman seems to 
 attract stray bits of evidence without having the 
 sense to know what she's doing. It's just an 
 insatiable curiosity about people. I believe she looks 
 on all the world as a sensational novel written for her 
 sole amusement. I couldn't mention a single person 
 she didn't know something about." 
 
 So the car sped away into the fashionable regions of 
 Belgravia. 
 
 After a final whisky Trevenna strolled off to his 
 bachelor quarters. 
 
 ' I'll see you home, Hilda," said Greville. 
 
 " No, don't bother, Harry. I'm all right, I'll catch 
 the bus at the corner. Look here, try and find the name 
 of those people that Eulalie is with. That Mrs. Fraser 
 is a horrid gossip. She will raise a scandal if she can. 
 She was pumping me, but of course I knew nothing." 
 
 " All right, I'll find it to-morrow. Most likely 
 I shall have a letter in the morning. Old faggot ! 
 does she think I'm my wife's jailer ? I'm not sure I 
 ever had the name. Well, good night, Hilda, if you 
 really won't let me see you to the corner." 
 
 The door closed for the last time, and Harry Greville 
 turned out the light and turned in, well satisfied 
 with the success of his party.
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 THE new Duke of Glenstaffen stood on the terrace 
 at Staffen Castle looking across the wide 
 demesne that was now his. There are few 
 more beautiful or stately places in England than this 
 old mansion of the Warringtons. A long noble 
 Tudor front facing the south had been built on to an 
 older Plantagenet fortalice. Two wide terraces with 
 broad marble steps led down to the flower gardens, 
 and beyond them the park lay basking in sunshine, 
 where the famous Staffen herd of tame red deer were 
 feeding under the huge old oaks that were coeval 
 with the Conquest. The lake lay like a sheet of silver, 
 and beyond it the salmon ladders in the falls of the 
 river were clearly visible. The hills that bounded the 
 view on this side were clothed with their coronal of great 
 game haunted woods. Away to the right the smoke 
 of Dunchester rose almost perpendicularly in the still 
 air. 
 
 Many matters occupied the mind of the new duke, 
 thus unexpectedly come to his heritage. He had passed 
 through strangely varying moods since he was suddenly 
 thrust into his new life, on the platform of the station 
 just below the Terminus Hotel. On the journey 
 down he had been wrathfully indignant at the dis- 
 location of his plans. To be suddenly snatched away 
 from his holiday with Eulalie, planned and looked 
 
 62
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 63 
 
 forward to with boyish eagerness, was unendurable ; 
 but he would not be baffled. To-morrow he would 
 pick up again the broken threads. Ralph would 
 arrange everything. All would be well. Whatever 
 Ralph undertook was as good as done. Then came 
 his interview with the dying duke, and the pathos 
 of it affected him deeply. The old man's implicit 
 trust in his heir to carry on all the grand traditions 
 of the race, while he recognized fully the nature of 
 his nephew, and knew, and was content to know, 
 that those traditions would be maintained in different 
 fashion. 
 
 Still, the Warringtons had always been great in 
 some fashion. He himself had been a diplomatist, 
 attache, and afterwards ambassador, before he suc- 
 ceeded to the title ; then the leader of his party in the 
 House of Lords. Ronny, he knew, was an athlete 
 and a sportsman, but he excelled. He was a true 
 Warrington. Ronny was greatly moved and impressed 
 at the affection the old man showed to him on his 
 death-bed, and the stately kindliness of his parting 
 words, as he committed to the charge of his heir the 
 honour and the traditions of the family, and the care 
 of the old place that had been theirs since Henry 
 Beauclerk ennobled the first Warrington. 
 
 Hitherto, Ronny had thought but little of Staffen, 
 he had always imagined the old duke would have a son 
 to succeed and that he himself would perhaps be the 
 founder of a cadet branch who should carve their 
 own fortunes open-air men of thews and sinews, 
 so he pictured the race to himself but now the 
 property with all its splendid traditions was his. He 
 was lord of all this, and all it implied. Somehow 
 the soul of it seemed to enter into him as he retired to 
 rest in the early hours of the morning, blending oddly
 
 64 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 with the sense of wrath and disappointment that 
 still rankled. 
 
 And yet, he told himself, that farewell of the old 
 duke was a thing he would not have foregone for any- 
 thing the world could offer. This stood as it were at 
 the entrance of his new life, and at the close of the old 
 life was Eulalie. He recalled her beauty, her sweet- 
 ness, her devotion to himself, and how she had looked 
 forward to this fortnight's holiday with him. Well, 
 she should not be disappointed. Every one would be 
 very angry, of course, and things would be said of him. 
 But no matter 1 Eulalie had trusted him. He had 
 promised her this treat, and for good or ill no Warring- 
 ton could break his word. 
 
 He would go to Penzance as soon as he got Ralph's 
 telegram, and for the fortnight he would devote himself 
 wholly to her. He would have to return for the funeral 
 he could not refuse that tribute to the last memory 
 of the grand old man but Ralph would arrange all 
 that, and he would not deprive Eulalie of more than 
 that one day. It would be the third day taken off 
 her fortnight, but she would understand the inevi- 
 tableness of it, and when he came back from his big 
 game shoot there would be other chances, he would 
 make it up to her. 
 
 Still, he could not help wishing that things had 
 fallen out otherwise, that this holiday had not been 
 planned for this precise time. He realized how 
 impossible it was for her to go back to her home now, 
 and unsay all that she had said to make it possible to 
 get away. Yet, if she knew the whole story, she would 
 wish also that the holiday might be at another and more 
 propitious time. 
 
 Ronny was not an immoral man. But for centuries 
 the Warringtons had been accustomed to be a law unto
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 65 
 
 themselves. That which they wished to do they did, 
 irrespective of any law or code of anyone else. But 
 every one of them had his own code to which he 
 adhered pertinaciously even to death. 
 
 So it was that no idea of disappointing Eulalie or 
 breaking his promise to her ever crossed his mind. His 
 only anxiety was that she should not feel the slightest 
 change in him due to his accession to the title, and the 
 new burdens and duties cast upon him. ''She had 
 said that her happiness came from his coming into her 
 life, and she had been the queen to him whose every 
 wish it had been his joy to forestall. So it should be 
 still, cost what it might, and for the judgment of 
 anyone else in the world he cared not one jot. He was 
 a Warrington, and no Warrington had ever heeded the 
 world's opinion. All the same, things might so easily 
 have been otherwise. 
 
 The morning brought countless duties. He found 
 himself consulted and obliged to give an opinion on 
 innumerable details. Though the machinery of the 
 great house went with the smoothness of a perfect 
 engine, though every servant and every official knew 
 his duty thoroughly and did it with the exactest 
 punctuality, yet Ronny realized that he must take the 
 reins, if only to hand them over for the time to capable 
 hands, to conduct in his absence. 
 
 One by one he saw and questioned the chiefs of 
 each department, meantime waiting anxiously for 
 Ralph's telegram, and secretly rejoicing that it did 
 not arrive so early as he expected, giving him more 
 time to get through the absolutely necessary business. 
 He had to go to Penzance. He would go, if possible, 
 with a free mind, having settled all the essential 
 details, so that he could give himself entirely to Eulalie 
 with no thought or arritre-penste 'for the duties of
 
 66 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Staff en. And then, when the fortnight was over, he 
 would still have a few days to put everything in order 
 before his departure into the wilds. 
 
 At last the telegram came, and he tore it open eagerly. 
 There were still several men whom he must interview, 
 but there might yet be time. The urgent business 
 which Ralph was to announce to him would call him 
 away. The solicitors would keep everything in order 
 and give all directions for a few days. It would be 
 nothing very strange for a mad Warrington. He read : 
 
 " Do not come to-day E suddenly obliged to go 
 home says do not call or write till you hear Ralph." 
 
 " Do not come to-day." Almost he breathed a sigh 
 of relief. Then the vision of the days in Fairyland 
 he had so looked forward to came over him. They 
 were not to be. Instead, a hard day of dull mechanical 
 work thoroughly uncongenial to his nature. The 
 dream had faded. He sat staring at the telegram, 
 wondering what had happened. " E. suddenly 
 obliged to go home." Why ? No one could find her 
 at the Terminus Hotel. The only possible solution 
 he could think of was that an acquaintance had met 
 her there, and she had been obliged to make up some 
 story of the motor tour having been suddenly abandoned 
 to account for her presence there, and to wire to Greville 
 and go home. He thought he detected Ralph's 
 fertile imagination in this. How often Ralph had seen 
 a way out of an apparently inextricable difficulty. 
 " Says do not call or write till you hear." That was 
 clearly because the circumstances could not be explained 
 in a telegram, and he might say the wrong thing and 
 pnt his foot in it. 
 
 The explanation all hung together, and satisfied 
 his mind. Now he could settle all the affairs waiting
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiwetion 67 
 
 his decision at Staffen Castle. Possibly, though the 
 fortnight was impossible, a few days' holiday might 
 still be feasible before he started. At all events, now 
 he must wait till he got a letter from Eulalie herself. 
 After all, the fortnight was only postponed, he would be 
 away for six months at the longest. Penzance in 
 the spring with Eulalie would be a dream of Paradise ; 
 that should be immediately on his return, before anyone 
 knew he was back in England ; Ralph would plan it 
 for him. All was well after all, the traditional luck 
 of the Warringtons was still with him. 
 
 He turned back to the old steward, who was patiently 
 waiting his pleasure. 
 
 "Ah, Robson, I beg your pardon. I just got an 
 important telegram. I was afraid for the moment 
 it was to call me away on very urgent business, but 
 I find it is not. There is nothing that cannot wait. 
 Now, if you please, we will go into this matter of the 
 Dunchester rights of way. That seems the most 
 urgent thing at this moment. It must be settled one 
 way or the other without delay. Who else is waiting 
 to see me ? Oh, the agents about my shooting 
 expedition. Very well, I'll see them after luncheon. 
 See that they are taken care of, and fed, and all that, 
 I'll get through the estate business first. Now then, 
 spread out those maps." 
 
 So the day slipped by and Ronny found himself 
 taking an absorbed interest in the affairs of his new 
 position. He won golden opinions from all his depend- 
 ents as a man of keen judgment and fully determined 
 to maintain the traditions of his house, also as a 
 sportsman of a type they understood and sympathized 
 with. The late duke had been aloof. He was the 
 companion of kings, deep in the counsels of the realm ; 
 they reverenced him, but they could not comprehend.
 
 68 The Tragedy of cm Indiscretion 
 
 He seemed partly divine. This one was human : 
 he knew all about dogs and horses, guns and rifles. 
 In a day they found that they loved him, and he 
 understood them at once and loved them in return. 
 
 Day by day went by. The grand funeral cortege, 
 almost a mile in length, wound its slow and solemn 
 way up to the family burial ground among the woods, 
 and the Castle resumed its wonted aspect, but still 
 Ronny waited in vain for news of Eulalie. 
 
 Deep down, under all the new interests and new 
 duties, he found himself longing for her company. 
 Longing to tell her all the strange new experiences 
 that had come to him, sure of sympathy and under- 
 standing. She could bridge over the great gulf 
 between the past and the present, between the Ronny 
 Warrington of old and the Duke of Glenstaffen 
 that was now. 
 
 Meanwhile, all the preparations for his expedition 
 went on, the outfit and ammunition, the engaging of 
 the native bearers who were to meet him. Time 
 was passing all too quickly, the chances of even a day 
 or two with Eulalie were growing more remote, nor 
 had any word yet come from Ralph. He expected 
 Ralph to come to the Castle, and wondered why he had 
 not heard. He knew that Ralph must have his own 
 preparations to make. All their plans had been 
 altered by his sudden accession to the title and property, 
 the only thing was to wait patiently. Ralph would 
 certainly do the right thing. He always did. He had 
 his bachelor quarters in Ryder Street, and a permanent 
 room in Ronny's flat, and to both of these addresses 
 Ronny wrote a line, detailing briefly what he was doing 
 and asking for news. Then came a wire dated from 
 the post office in Kensington from which she had some- 
 times before telegraphed to him :
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 69 
 
 " Cannot write at present perhaps may not be able 
 to see you before you go God bless you Mr. Essendine 
 has arranged everything for me E." 
 
 It was a relief to know. Some things were now 
 clear. Eulalie had gone home, and it was no tragedy 
 or bad news, or she would have told him. This had 
 always been a bargain between them. Also she knew 
 of his accession to the title, and that he was still at 
 the Castle, for the wire was properly addressed. Ralph 
 must have told her this, therefore Ralph must be in 
 communication with her somehow, and the meeting 
 he had thought of must be for some reason impossible, 
 or Ralph would have arranged it. On the whole, 
 he thought it was as well. It would have been a 
 hurried meeting at the best, with both their minds 
 full of the near parting. Best to have the joyous time 
 in the spring to look forward to, anyhow she did not 
 now forbid him to write ; a note addressed as usual 
 to the little dressmaker's would be safe, just to say 
 good-bye. He would say no more than that, lest it 
 fell into wrong hands. 
 
 His disappointment was merging into anticipation, 
 and his mind settled down to a definite programme : 
 the affairs of Staffen Castle were to be put in order, 
 and everything arranged for the next six months ; 
 there was his expedition, eagerly looked forward to ; 
 then his return, and Eulalie and the postponed holiday. 
 After that, he would seriously take up his duties and 
 position as an English nobleman. All had wonder- 
 fully fallen into order. 
 
 These things he reviewed, as he stood on the terrace, 
 watching how the sun gilded the sleeping woods and 
 flashed back from the silver of the lake, and realized 
 that his lines had indeed fallen in pleasant places. 
 
 As had often chanced before, it was Ralph who had
 
 70 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 borne the burden for him. Fifteen years before in 
 their Oxford days, when he was Ralph O'Connor, 
 Ronny Wanington had been his hero, worshipped with 
 a boyish enthusiasm that through all the years had 
 never varied nor faltered. It is natural and inevi- 
 table that Ronny should be always in some mad 
 adventure, some dare-devil frolic, and should just pull 
 through by the skin of his teeth ; and more often than 
 not it was Ralph who pulled him out, and was proud 
 to do it. 
 
 Then Ralph succeeded to his mother's small property, 
 and took her maiden name of Essendine ; Ronny went 
 on wild adventures in distant lands, and Ralph was 
 generally at his side. Together they fought with hill 
 tribes in the Himalayas and with fierce aborigines 
 in the South Seas ; they had tracked lions in African 
 jungles. Once, when Ronny in pure devilment had 
 posed as an Arab chief with an important mission to 
 the French fleet then at Alexandria deceiving the 
 admiral and all his staff, and after being sumptuously 
 ente r tained had departed with rich presents and draft 
 pap TS of international importance, it was Ralph who 
 explained and smoothed over matters, and kept the 
 whole affair quiet. 
 
 Over and over again he had been Ronny's good 
 angel ; but now he saw a worse predicament than ever 
 before him, for all his efforts had brought no clue. 
 He had gone down to Penzance, and had laid 
 Eulalie to her last rest. He had ordered a simple 
 marble cross upon which was to be carved only her 
 name" Eulalie." The burial register recorded " Eulalie, 
 the wife of Ralph Waldo Essendine." there was no 
 avoiding this. It was another point that would 
 have to be told to that unknown husband when he 
 could find him, if he ever could, but that looked more
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 71 
 
 hopeless than ever. He wanted to write to Ronny, 
 but what could he say ? He was not prepared to 
 invent a string of fictions to satisfy his friend, and he 
 could not write and say nothing about Eulalie, and the 
 mission he had taken on himself of explaining matters 
 to her. Moreover, after wiring that she had gone 
 home, how could he write from Penzance ? 
 
 He must leave it for his telegram to keep Ronny 's 
 mind at ease, and trust that all the duties of his new 
 position would occupy his mind. He would think 
 that Ralph was preparing for their expedition, and 
 would trouble his mind very little more about it. He 
 knew he could trust to Ronny's happy-go-lucky nature 
 as far as this, and when he got back to town he would 
 renew his search for Eulalie' s home and belongings. 
 Chance might favour him, for indeed he saw not a 
 single opening by which he could begin investigations. 
 Three days he was at Penzance ; then he returned to 
 London. 
 
 The only clue he had was the post office from which 
 the telegram he had found in Ronny's coat pocket 
 was dated ; and this again proved an absolute blank. 
 The postmistress remembered the telegram perfectly, 
 she remembered the lady, a pretty lady she was, who 
 had sent it ; she had sent two or three telegrams 
 from that office, but she had no idea who the lady was. 
 She was certain she did not live thereabouts, had never 
 seen her except when she came in to send a telegram. 
 If she had lived anywhere in the neighbourhood, the 
 postmistress was sure she would have seen her about, 
 sjie knew so many by sight, and this lady was notice- 
 able. She was always beautifully dressed, but, Ralph 
 would understand, not just like other people, unusual 
 as you might say, something foreign-Uke. The tele- 
 grams she had sent sometimes spoke of the dressmaker,
 
 72 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 but never by name, nor was there ever an address- 
 Had the lady disappeared, had anything happened to. 
 her ? The postmistress would be very sorry if so, 
 she was such a pleasant spoken lady. 
 
 Ralph knew that he had said perhaps more than 
 enough, He hedged judiciously, of course there had 
 been nothing of that kind, but there had been inquiries 
 concerning the telegram. Some forged telegrams had 
 been sent lately. It would be wise at present to say 
 nothing about the matter until it was cleared up. 
 The postmistress quite agreed. Hoped she had not 
 said too much. Ralph replied certainly not, it was he 
 who was making inquiries ; but with regard to other 
 people, well, a still tongue was always wise. And with 
 that he took his leave, no wiser than he had been 
 before. 
 
 The papers were full of the funeral of the late Duke of 
 Glenstaffen and praise of the present duke. Ralph 
 read them all with great interest. Ronny was doing 
 very well, as he had always known he would. It was 
 really a special providence, the luck of the Warringtons 
 perhaps, that had averted the scandal that might have 
 come and spoilt the first impressions of his succeeding 
 to the title. How different it might have been if 
 Ronny had known all that had happened after he left 
 the Terminus Hotel. 
 
 Ralph shuddered as he pictured to himself his impetu- 
 ous, quixotic rush back to town, his taking of all 
 responsibility on himself, his refusal to be held or guided. 
 How the very papers which now acclaimed him would 
 have hinted and chuckled over the dainty morsel of 
 scandal, how it would be magnified at the clubs. And 
 the danger was not yet over. Until they were on the 
 high seas, and out of all possibility of communicating 
 with England, it was impossible to say that Ronny
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 73 
 
 might not do some mad thing that would undo all he 
 had gained. 
 
 It was certain therefore that he must write most 
 guardedly, and on no account must he go down to 
 Staffen Castle or submit himself to any searching 
 cross-questionings. If he could find the unknown 
 husband by himself, well and good ; if not, on no 
 account whatever would he attempt to get any 
 information from Ronny. Fortunately, their projected 
 expedition gave him the opportunity of writing long 
 letters which should contain no information on the 
 subject of Eulalie. He would write therefore and 
 detail all his preparations ; he would account for 
 his inability to go down to Staffen Castle on the 
 score of delays in the preparations. He must meet 
 Ronny at the steamer, not one moment sooner. 
 Then once out on the blue water he would tell him the 
 whole story. 
 
 He might be a fool. He fully admitted this to himself, 
 perhaps he was doing the most stupid thing imaginable. 
 He knew any way that trouble must come. How 
 Ronny would take the disclosure was uncertain, 
 very hardly he thought, from all he had known of 
 him all these years, and still more hardly from the fact 
 that Ralph's action had put it out of his power to do 
 anything. What would chance with the unknown 
 husband when he came to know as he must know 
 eventually and all poor Eulalie' s friends ? The 
 whole future bristled with trouble. But in the other 
 scale was his loyalty to his friend, which had been the 
 guiding star, indeed, the infatuation of his life. And he 
 saw no other way than that which he had chosen. 
 
 It was in somewhat despondent mood that he walked 
 eastward through the Park, idly watching the passing 
 show. A luxurious motor caught his eye, hemmed in
 
 74 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 for a moment in a block of traffic. Two ladies were in 
 it. One glimpse, under a large black hat, of sun- 
 touched hair and the gleam of long dark eyes, and the 
 car moved on. For a breathing space he stood stock 
 still as if paralysed. 
 
 " Lola in London ! " he whispered to himself. All 
 the old Australian days came back to him the wild 
 gallops, the shooting expeditions, her prowess and her 
 frank delight in his. His half-formed hopes of going 
 back to the colony some day, and trying to bring home 
 this Australian flower. His constant regrets that he 
 had not asked her to come with him when he might, 
 the way^that her image had haunted him with ever 
 growing insistence. Now this hope too must be given 
 up. Yet if only things had been otherwise, what a 
 chance ! Lola here, actually here. London took a 
 new aspect, it was a Fairyland, a Garden of Eden, 
 but, alas, an Eden from which he was for ever excluded. 
 A momentary temptation came over him to seek her 
 out it would be easy enough through her uncle 
 and frankly tell her the whole story. She would 
 understand. Her woman's wit would devise some way 
 out. Often enough in after days he wished that he 
 had followed this intuition, but now the one thought 
 dominated all others : it would be treachery to Ronny, 
 it was his secret, and Ralph had no right to give it 
 away, even to the woman he loved. 
 
 Well, there was the letter to write, there were many 
 questions to ask before he could complete the arrange- 
 ments. He walked across to his club and sat down to 
 compose it. Ronny had simply asked him for news. 
 The chief news was what he was doing in the way of 
 preparations. He began : 
 
 " My wire will have told you about E," this must 
 serve till further questions needed to be answered.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 75 
 
 Then he plunged into elaborate details of guns and 
 ammunition and equipment, dates of steamer sailings, 
 and countless other matters. 
 
 But, as he wrote, a thought flashed across him of a 
 simple way to solve the whole business. At the end 
 of his letter he put a simple sentence : " By the way, 
 can you give me Mrs. Greville's address, I have most 
 stupidly lost it, and I have a parcel to send to her ? " 
 It was non-committal : it would rouse no suspicion. 
 Ronny would simply send it, and think no more about 
 it. So the whole matter might be cleared up before 
 the start ; he would face the music, and take whatever 
 the consequences might be, and then the story he had 
 to tell his friend out at sea would be a clear and finished 
 one, and no one else involved. It would lie between 
 those two, there would be no one else to make 
 reparation to, or who needed explanation, so they 
 two would settle it between themselves. 
 
 The letter posted, he lighted a cigar in a much 
 happier frame of mind, confident that now within a 
 few days he should find that unknown husband, and 
 began to consider what he should say to him. It would 
 be a lame story anyhow. He designed it roughly : 
 " I have a confession to make," he would say, "and 
 sad news to give you. I met your wife, not knowing 
 in the least who she was, and fell in love with her. 
 We met many times, I persuaded her to go away 
 with me. Don't blame her. The fault was mine 
 entirely. She did not want to come. She was over- 
 persuaded. She meant no harm. On the very evening 
 we were to start she had an attack of the heart, and 
 died suddenly at the table. Sir Alfred Ross was there 
 and did all that mortal skill could do, and that was 
 nothing. What could I do ? I had no idea who she 
 wa, where the lived or anything, ostensibly I was her
 
 76 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 husband, responsible for her. I must bury her. I 
 did so at Penzance. Since then I have sought all 
 London to try to find you, and have only just 
 succeeded." 
 
 Then he would leave it to the husband to do whatever 
 he thought right. He might administer a thrashing, 
 he would be well within his right. He might suggest 
 a duel on the Belgian coast. If he was a cad, he might 
 ask money damages. Whatever line he took Ralph, 
 as he said to himself, would face the music, as though he 
 had been the offender. Should he try to save poor 
 Eulalie's memory by saying that just before she died 
 she had resolved to go back at once ? It would make 
 no difference, and was not likely to be believed, still 
 he might try. So now there was nothing to be done, 
 but to wait with such patience as he could for Ronny's 
 answer, and then act promptly. 
 
 But, alas, for this scheme also. Ronny got the letter 
 and sat down at once to reply. All the details of arms and 
 ammunition were important and needed close thought. 
 A question as to the numbers and calibre of rifles 
 needed a visit to the gun-room and a long talk with the 
 head-keeper, who himself had shot big game with a 
 former master who had been a mighty hunter. Ronny 
 crammed the letter into his pocket. Noted all the 
 points he had to say in answer, and entirely forgot the 
 postscript. Then finding it two days later, he was 
 fully persuaded he had sent the address, and wrote a 
 little note to Eulalie at the old address that had been 
 used between them, at the dressmaker's. It was a 
 very non-committal note in case it should fall into 
 wrong hands, and bore no address or signature ; it 
 might have been written by an ordinary friend, yet 
 he knew she would read between the lines and under- 
 stand. He just mentioned that R.W.E. had a parcel
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 77 
 
 for her, which he hoped she had duly received by this 
 time. 
 
 So Ralph waited, and when the letter came from 
 Staffen Castle the very information he most wanted was 
 not in it. He wrote again : " You have forgotten to 
 send me Mrs. Greville's address. The parcel I men- 
 tioned must be sent to her before we leave. Please 
 write or wire it at once." This sentence was the begin- 
 ning of his letter. He would not trust a postscript. 
 There would still be time enough if Ronny wrote at 
 once. Two days before their actual sailing he got 
 what he wanted : " Send the parcel to care of Miss 
 Fortescue, 58 North Road, Kilburn. I have written 
 a little note of good-bye." 
 
 Here was new anxiety. In spite of the telegram, 
 Ronny had written. Would he expect an answer ? 
 Ralph must act at once. He made up a dummy 
 parcel, anything would do. It would not be opened. 
 He could get the address from the dressmaker, 
 evidently the dressmaker referred to in the telegrams. 
 He took a taxi and directed the man to stop at the 
 end of North Road, he would not give the number. 
 It was rather a desolate looking street of houses all 
 exactly alike. Ralph walked quickly down it to 
 number 58. There was a brass plate on the door : 
 " Miss Fortescue, Dressmaker." At last he was at the 
 end of his search. As he approached, the door opened 
 and a fashionably dressed woman came out. She 
 looked curiously at Ralph. Somehow her face and 
 figure was familiar, where had he seen her before ? 
 Then memory recalled her, it was the woman he had 
 seen for a moment in the Terminus Hotel. Strange, 
 how the associations all seemed to come together again. 
 The sight of her recalled very vividly every incident 
 of that time.
 
 78 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 But fresh disappointment awaited him. Miss Fortes- 
 cue was away, out of town, and had left no address. 
 No letters were forwarded. She would be back next 
 week. Certainly she would not be longer than that. 
 She had appointments with customers. Would the 
 gentleman leave a message ? Ralph handed in his 
 parcel. For Mrs. Greville. Oh, yes, parcels and letters 
 were often left for her with Miss Fortescue, in fact 
 there was a letter now waiting for her. A letter with 
 the Dunchester postmark. No, the maid did not know 
 Mrs. Greville' s address. What a pity, Mrs. Donelly 
 would know it, she was a friend of Mrs. Greville's. But 
 Mrs. Donelly was gone beyond possibility of recall. 
 The maid did not know her address either. So every 
 clue had failed. There was only this little bit of 
 satisfaction :j Ronny's letter was there, not addressed 
 to her home. Probably therefore he would not expect 
 an answer to it. 
 
 Two days later Ralph and Ronny, with three men 
 whom they were taking with them, some days earlier 
 than they had intended, were on board a great ocean 
 liner, bound for Para en route for the Upper Amazon.
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 THREE days after his dinner-party Harry Greville 
 was luxuriously lounging in a big arm-chair, 
 enjoying an after-breakfast cigar, and wonder- 
 ing whether he should stroll down to his club and look 
 at the morning papers, or try to find a worthy opponent 
 for a round of golf. He was a man of leisure, who 
 enjoyed leisure. Having made a fair fortune in the 
 Colonies, he did not see why he should not now take 
 it easy, and get all the good out of life that he thought 
 he was entitled to. He was still a partner in a firm of 
 woolbrokers in the City, but he seldom troubled the 
 office. Things went on quite well without him, and 
 he was constitutionally an indolent man, though he had 
 done some hard work in his day when necessity drove 
 him to it. His disposition was to leave everything to 
 sort itself, confident that somehow or other it would 
 turn out all right and as, a fact, it generally did so. 
 
 There was a ring at the front door and Hilda Donelly 
 walked in. Harry was not surprised. Hilda was 
 so intimate with them that she turned up at any time. 
 A widow, with a small fortune and no children, she had 
 drifted into terms of close intimacy with the Grevilles. 
 Brathway te had summed up her nature very accurately 
 soft, affectionate, and good-natured, without much 
 intellect but a great deal of charm, which perhaps gave 
 the idea of more beauty than she actually possessed. 
 She had feminine negativity to an extraordinary 
 
 79
 
 8o The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 extent, and the gift of making every man who talked to 
 her believe that, for the time, he was in her eyes the one 
 person in the world. 
 
 To the Grevilles she was a stand-by on all occasions. 
 If a vacant chair had to be filled at a dinner, or a 
 fourth were wanted for bridge, if Mrs. Greville wanted 
 a second opinion on dress, or furniture, or any other 
 matter, or a companion for an expedition, shopping 
 or any other, Hilda was always ready to fill the place. 
 By nature, and without effort, she was acquisitive 
 of friends and facts, and having a remarkable memory 
 she never forgot the one or the other. It was this 
 last quality that had strongly interested Brathwayte, 
 who instinctively looked at every one with somewhat 
 of a professional eye. Moreover, like many women 
 of her nature, she was apt to be careless and unmethod- 
 ical. Harry Greville used to say that the things which 
 Hilda dropped and lost would keep a poor family. 
 
 He chuckled therefore, a little sarcastically, as 
 she said : 
 
 " Good morning, Harry. I've just run round to 
 ask by if any chance Sarah has found my diamond 
 pendant anywhere here. I can't remember if I had 
 it on at your party. I know I couldn't have had it 
 when I got back, for the whole house has been searched 
 and I certainly have not worn it since." 
 
 Sarah was duly summoned and questioned, but knew 
 nothing of the pendant. 
 
 " I must search again then," Hilda said. " You 
 know I only wear it with evening ,dress, only in fact 
 when I am dining out. The last time was at the 
 Goldbergs'. I must go and ask there. That was a 
 week ago, the day I came back from the country. I 
 stayed at the Terminus Hotel that night, because I came 
 back a day sooner than I meant, and the cook was still
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 81 
 
 away. Possibly it may be at the Terminus. They had 
 my address, but they might have lost it. You see I 
 only gave it to the chambermaid, not at the office. 
 I think I'll go there before I trouble the Goldbergs 
 about it. It was there, you know, that " 
 
 She stopped suddenly. She was on the point of 
 saying that it was there that Ralph Essendine's wife 
 had died so suddenly ; then she had remembered how 
 Brathwayte had doubted whether it was Ralph 
 Essendine at all, and that he was anxious for his niece's 
 sake, that the story should not be told. After all, 
 it might be a mistake, she only knew that it was a Mr. 
 Essendine, not necessarily Ralph. 
 
 Harry noted the pause. 
 
 " That what ? " he queried. 
 
 " Oh, nothing 1 I was thinking of something else. 
 By the way, Harry, have you heard from Eulalie 
 yet ? " 
 
 " Not a word." 
 
 " Who is it she is with ? " 
 
 " Ton my word, I haven't a notion. I must have 
 the name somewhere. I'm sure she gave it me, but 
 I can't find it." 
 
 " Do look for it, Harry. You can't have lost it. 
 That Mrs. Fraser is such a frightful gossip. She has 
 been at me two or three times already for Eulalie's 
 address, and she is worrying all over the place to 
 find it. Really, Harry, you are most awfully careless. 
 Fancy losing it." 
 
 " Pot and kettle, my dear Hilda. Who lost that 
 diamond pendant ? " 
 
 " There's no gossiping old woman nosing after my 
 pendant at all events. Seriously, Harry, she'll make 
 trouble if she can. Of course we know you, and we 
 know Eulalie, but other people don't. Most men 
 
 F
 
 82 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 insist on knowing always where their wives are. Stupid 
 and tiresome, and often leads to bad lying. But so 
 it is. People don't understand anyone being so easy- 
 going and incurious as you are." 
 
 " My dear Hilda. Bother people 1 If a woman wants 
 to get into mischief she'll get, however much you 
 watch ; and if she doesn't she won't, and there's an 
 end of it." 
 
 " Perfectly true, Harry, But you are counting with- 
 out Mrs. Fraser. Believe me, that woman will make 
 mischief out of an archangel's tail feather. She's 
 got some cock-and-bull story now that some one has 
 seen Eulalie in London two days ago. Just to keep 
 her quiet you must find those people's names." 
 
 " Confound her I I shall have to invent a name. 
 No, no, I don't mean that. I'll have another hunt, 
 I must have got it somewhere. ' ' 
 
 " Do then, like a good man. Now I must be off. 
 I'll go to the Terminus and if my pendant isn't there 
 I'll go to the Goldbergs'. Then I have to be in Clarges 
 Street to luncheon at half-past one. I may have to 
 go to Scotland Yard in the afternoon if I can't find it." 
 
 She hurried off ; and Harry Greville, somewhat 
 irritated, walked up and down, kicking the footstools. 
 
 "Hang the women!" he muttered. "What a 
 lot of interfering old cats they are. Where the deuce 
 can those people's confounded name be. I'm not sure 
 that I ever had them written. I believe Eulalie just 
 told me, and I meant to write it down, and probably 
 forgot ; anyhow, there was no address, I'm sure of 
 that. She was going to write as soon as she knew. 
 I'll have another hunt. Bother ! Just a morning 
 spoilt. If that Mrs. Fraser bothers me, I shall just 
 go away myself for a bit, and get out of her way." 
 
 Meantime, Hilda Donelly caught a bus and made her
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 83 
 
 way to the Terminus Hotel. Here she took the lift 
 to the third floor where her room had been on that 
 eventful night, and found the chambermaid, who 
 recognized her at once. Indeed, most people recognized 
 Hilda. 
 
 " No, madam, I never saw any pendant. If I 
 had, of course I should have let you know. Oh yes, 
 I have your address. But possibly one of the porters 
 might have found it, or the other chambermaid, on 
 this floor. If so it would be at the office. I should 
 recognize it at once, madam. I remember noticing it 
 the night you were here you wore it with the orange- 
 coloured dress, madam and thinking how well it 
 became you. That was the night poor Mrs. Essendine 
 died. Such a turmoil we were in that night, what with 
 the undertaker's people, and the nurses, and the Lord 
 knows who all. But hardly any of the guests knew 
 much about it. They just heard that a lady had died 
 suddenly, and everything was done very quietly so 
 as not to disturb anyone. It doesn't do to disturb 
 people in a hotel. The coffin was taken down in the 
 service lift, and by the time people had had their 
 breakfast and begun to ask questions, everything was 
 gone ; and the servants didn't know anything of course. 
 We are bound not to know anything, madam." 
 
 Hilda was much interested, especially as this seemed 
 to be private information for herself. The hotel 
 servants didn't tell the guests, but she had been told. 
 This was piquant. Did the chambermaid know any- 
 thing about these Essendines ? No, nothing really 
 at all. They had wired for a suite of rooms, and the 
 best suite in the hotel had been reserved for them. One 
 of the waiters had told her that Mr. Essendine was a 
 great traveller, and that he had only just been married, 
 but how he knew she couldn't say. Probably the
 
 84 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 waiter belonging to the private suite might know 
 more, but he was a very close, reserved man. If he 
 knew, he never let on. 
 
 Hilda became suddenly conscious that time was going, 
 and she wanted to try for her pendant at the Goldbergs' 
 before luncheon. Could the chambermaid tell her 
 the time ? She had left her watch at home. The 
 chambermaid drew out a little gun metal watch from 
 her bosom. It was half-past eleven. Tied on the 
 ring of the watch was a little bow of grey ribbon, 
 with tiny pink flowers on it. It caught Hilda's eye, 
 
 " Where did you get that ribbon ? " she said. 
 
 " How odd you should have noticed that, madam. 
 One of the waiters picked it up in poor Mrs. Essendine's 
 room after the coffin was taken down, and gave it to 
 me. He is a Frenchman from Brittany, madam, and 
 he said there was great luck in wearing something 
 taken from a person dying. Rather ghastly, isn't it ? 
 But I just tied it on my watch to see. It hasn't 
 brought me anything yet." 
 
 " Well, I must go. I'll ask at the office for my 
 pendant, but I expect you would have heard of it 
 if it had been found. Good-bye." 
 
 A small tip changed hands, and Hilda caught the 
 descending lift. 
 
 " Dear me," her thoughts ran, " that is very curious : 
 Mrs. Essendine must have been dressed by Miss 
 Fortescue. I could swear to that ribbon anywhere. 
 She bought up the last remnants of it from a bankrupt 
 French stock. What an odd coincidence." 
 
 The manager was urbane, and a trifle condescending. 
 No, there had been no diamond pendant found in the 
 hotel, where was madam's room ? The third floor. 
 Just so 1 He would just telephone up to that floor 
 and make inquiry, if by any possibility any of the
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 85 
 
 porters had omitted to bring it to him. But it was 
 most unlikely. 
 
 As he went into his inner office to do so, Hilda's eye 
 ranging round the room, caught sight of a pile of 
 luggage, plainly marked " R.W.E." and " E.W.E." 
 
 " I wonder," she said to herself. 
 
 The manager came back, he was very sorry there had 
 been nothing of the kind found. He was quite certain 
 it would have been brought to him, everything found 
 in the hotel was. Would Madam leave her address in 
 case it should turn up ? Things did sometimes after 
 being lost quite a long while. Oh, yes, that was Mr. 
 Essendine's luggage. He had never called or sent for 
 it. Did Madam chance to know him ? If so, perhaps 
 she might remind him. The manager would be rather 
 pleased if he saw his way to taking it away. 
 
 So Hilda's search was fruitless, but in the taxi as she 
 went to the Goldbergs' she was thinking: " ' R.W.E.' 
 that must be Ralph Essendine. Don't know what 
 the W is, but R is clearly Ralph. Sad for that poor 
 Miss Macarthy. Afraid he's no better than most other 
 men. He just played with her in Australia, and then 
 came home and married another woman. Well, 
 her uncle ought to know, Oh, here we are at the 
 Goldbergs.' Now what luck ? " 
 
 Unfortunately, there was no luck there either. No 
 trace of the missing pendant, and Hilda went on to 
 her luncheon-party rather depressed at her want of 
 success, but still hoping something from Scotland 
 Yard. She must go there in the afternoon. 
 
 But this too was futile. St. Anthony, the great 
 finder of lost things, was not befriending Hilda that 
 afternoon. The officials were most urbane. They 
 had several pendants, could she describe the one she 
 had lost ? Certainly she could, there was no mistaking
 
 86 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 it, it was a remarkable design : a star of six points 
 surmounted by a crescent moon, and " H.D. " en- 
 graved on the back, it had a large diamond in the centre 
 of the star, the rest were small brilliants. The official 
 was politely regretful. Nothing of the kind had come 
 to the poh'ce. They would inquire at the pawn- 
 shops, and do their best to trace it. The description 
 should be circulated. They would not fail to let her 
 know if it were heard of. 
 
 As she left the department, a woman emerged from 
 another door in close conversation with a plain clothes 
 officer. Hilda's curiosity was aroused as she recognized 
 Mrs. Fraser, but not desiring a repetition of that lady's 
 volubility shewithdrew into a door-way to let them pass. 
 
 The man was saying "I'm afraid we can do nothing, 
 madam. You see it is not a case for the police. You 
 have given us nothing that we can go upon. Many 
 ladies go away for a time for some reason or other, and 
 I gather this lady is no relation of yours. If her 
 husband were to apply to us and give us any circum- 
 stances of suspicion we might be able to take the matter 
 up. But there seem to be no suspicious circumstances 
 so far as you have told me. Possibly you might 
 employ a private detective. But, candidly, I should 
 advise against any such step. It is very expensive 
 and in my experience, has more often led to serious 
 trouble than to any good result. I should advise you 
 to wait patiently for a little while. No doubt the lady 
 will turn up all right. If you can bring us any good 
 reason for supposing that a crime has been committed 
 of course we will take the matter up. Good morning, 
 madam." 
 
 Hilda, as she walked away from the Yard, was pro- 
 foundly thankful that she had not been seen. There 
 was no doubt that Mrs. Fraser was trying to set the
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 87 
 
 police on to trace Eulalie. What a low down trick 
 to play ! 
 
 Why, if Harry Greville was satisfied, what on earth 
 business was it of that pestilent old cat ? Hilda 
 wondered how on earth Eulalie could have made a 
 friend of such a woman. She and her husband were 
 the most consummate bores she had ever met, but now 
 it seemed she was mischievous also. 
 
 Hilda felt greatly the need of some one to talk to 
 some one who could advise wisely, and keep counsel. 
 Not Harry Greville. No, poor Harry would only be 
 disturbed and troubled to no purpose. It would just 
 make him anxious and he could do nothing. Here a 
 happy thought struck her. She had decided to talk 
 to Mr. Brathwayte about Ralph Essendine. This 
 ought to be done for the sake of his niece. How would 
 it be just incidentally to mention this matter of Eulalie 
 and Mrs. Eraser's strange conduct ? Brathwayte was 
 a friend of the family, he was a man of extraordinarily 
 clear perceptions. He would certainly know the right 
 course, and there could be no harm in telling him. She 
 knew that a lawyer of all people would never gossip. 
 But how to see him ? She was not on calling terms, 
 besides, if she did call at his house, Mrs. Brathwayte 
 would be there, and that would never do. How if 
 she went to his chambers ? There would be time to 
 go at once. She knew very little of the ways of a 
 busy counsel, but she did know that the Courts usually 
 rose at four, of consultations and conferences and such 
 matters she knew nothing whatsoever. 
 
 It was nearly four o'clock. It was worth a try ; 
 she was feeling surrounded by mysteries, and saw no 
 clear way. She needed a strong masculine brain, 
 and Brathwayte had impressed her at Harry's dinner- 
 party.
 
 88 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 For once luck favoured her. Brathwayte had been 
 all day in a big case that had broken down suddenly, 
 and he was sitting in his chambers taking things 
 very easily until his next appointment, which was 
 not till five. His gown was thrown over the back of 
 a chair, his wig lay on the table on the top of a mass of 
 papers, and he himself lay back in a huge arm-chair, 
 lightly touching the tips of his fingers together, and 
 thinking more of the new play at His Majesty's for 
 which he had a box than of any legal case. 
 
 His clerk brought in a card. 
 
 "Oh, yes," he said, " show her in. I won't see 
 anyone else until those people come in the Inland 
 Revenue thing. Five o'clock, isn't it ? Well, I 
 won't see anyone else to-day. A clerk from Stevens, 
 did you say ? Tell him to go away, give him an 
 appointment to-morrow, or the next day. If he's 
 got a brief, he can leave it. I can't have people 
 coming in promiscuously in that way. Ah, Mrs. 
 Donelly, this is indeed a pleasure. How good of you to 
 find your way among these dusty old purlieus of the 
 law. I hope it means that I can do something for 
 you. Do sit down." 
 
 "I do hope you'll forgive me, Mr. Brathwayte, 
 for invading your sanctum. I am sure women have 
 no business here, but I did want to see you and took 
 my courage in both hands, and took my chance of 
 finding you." 
 
 " And chance for once has been kind to me. Usually 
 at this time I am knee-deep in consultations. But 
 now I have actually half an hour free and entirely at 
 your disposal." 
 
 " You remember our talk about Ralph Essendine, 
 and your saying it was impossible that he could have 
 a wife."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 89 
 
 " I remember perfectly. You thought that his wife 
 had died suddenly at some hotel in London. I felt sure 
 it could not have been the Ralph Essendine whom my 
 sister knew well, and who was out on some sporting 
 expeditions with my niece. I wrote to my sister that 
 same evening three days ago now to make sure, 
 but it's a long way to Australia." 
 
 " Well, Mr. Brathwayte, I lost no time in coming to 
 tell you that I fear there can be no doubt that it is the 
 same Mr. Essendine. I was at the Terminus Hotel to-day 
 on some other business, and I could not help seeing a 
 heap of luggage in the office plainly marked ' R.W.E.' ; 
 they told me it belonged to the Mr. Essendine whose 
 wife had died so sadly. They said there that he was a 
 great sportsman, and that he had been recently married. 
 The manager was anxious to get rid of the luggage. 
 He thought I knew Mr. Essendine, and asked me to give 
 him a hint." 
 
 " Indeed, Mrs. Donelly, it looks very much as if 
 you must be right. It is his initials certainly, R.W. 
 Ralph Waldo. He was called after Emerson, I 
 remember my niece telling me that. But I fear the 
 manager will have to wait for some time. Probably 
 you did not see the paragraph in this morning's 
 Times." 
 
 He handed her the paper with his thumb on a 
 paragraph : 
 
 " His Grace the Duke of Glenstaffen left Liverpool 
 this morning by s.s. Pacific, on a sporting expedition to 
 the Upper Amazon, accompanied by his secretary, 
 Mr. Ralph Essendine, who has been associated with 
 him in several former expeditions. The duke's fame 
 as an explorer and sportsman is world-wide, and Mr. 
 Essendine's contributions to science have won for
 
 go The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 him a deserved reputation. Important results are 
 looked for from this expedition, which we understand 
 is to penetrate farther into the unknown regions of 
 this interesting country than has ever been reached 
 before. The party expect to be absent at least six 
 months." 
 
 " In a way I am glad he has gone, Mrs. Donelly," 
 said Brathwayte, after she had read the paragraph. 
 " There is no possibility now of his meeting Lola 
 for a good long while, and in the meantime this story 
 may be cleared up. I may tell you, since this curious 
 story about Ralph Essendine comes through you, and 
 you have met my niece and heard the way that she 
 speaks of him, I have been anxious ever since you told 
 me about the Terminus Hotel, more especially as two 
 days ago my niece thought she saw him in the Park ; 
 and if so they would have been certain to meet and 
 trouble might have come of it. But now he is away, 
 and you will say nothing about this adventure in the 
 meantime." 
 
 " Of course not, Mr. Brathwayte ; but you will let 
 me know when you hear from your sister, won't you ? " 
 
 " I certainly will," he said, adding to himself, " If 
 I'm not much mistaken, you will know the facts long 
 before I shall." 
 
 Hilda was silent for a few moments, thinking how to 
 put her next point. Then she said : 
 
 " Mr. Brathwayte, there is another thing that troubles 
 me. I wonder if I may trouble you with it ? " 
 
 " Speak on, Mrs. Donelly. Nothing is a trouble to 
 me if I can help you." 
 
 " Well, it's about the Grevilles. I wouldn't bother 
 you for worlds, but you are an old friend of theirs, and 
 I know you are clever and all that, and you can see
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 91 
 
 daylight where other people can't, so it seems natural 
 to come to you. You know Eulalie went away on this 
 motoring expedition, and since that time she has never 
 written, and Harry well, you know what Harry is, 
 he simply never bothers his head at all. He has lost 
 or forgotten the name of the people she is with, he just 
 expects that when she is tired and wants to come back 
 she will write and say so. She doesn't write much when 
 she is away, it's not her nature, and he doesn't expect 
 her to. So you see they quite understand each other, 
 Of course you know them both so well, you know all 
 this without my telling you. But now she has been 
 away fully a fortnight. Just the time she said she was 
 going to stay, and there's no word of her. Harry is 
 quite easy. He says no doubt she has been persuaded 
 to stay on a bit, or go somewhere else ; she will come 
 when she's ready. 
 
 " But there's that Mrs. Fraser. You remember 
 you met her the other night at dinner. It seems she 
 and Eulalie were mixed up in some charitable society 
 or other, and Eulalie was the secretary or treasurer or 
 something, and had all the books, and there was some 
 bother because she was away, and Harry couldn't 
 give her address. So Mrs. Fraser has been going round 
 saying all sorts of horrid things, because some of her 
 stupid committees have been upset. I verily believe 
 she thinks poor Harry is keeping Eulalie out of the way. 
 Goodness only knows why. And now she has a cock- 
 and-bull story that somebody or other has seen Eulalie 
 in London. And do you know only to-day I was at 
 Scotland Yard looking for a thing I had lost, and there 
 was Mrs. Fraser in close confab, w^th a man who ought 
 to have been a detective if he wasn't, and from a few 
 words I heard him say as they passed I am convinced 
 she had been asking him to try and trace Eulalie.
 
 92 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Naturally, he told her there was nothing whatever in 
 her silly fancies. But now, seriously, Mr. Brathwayte, 
 what is to be done ? " 
 
 " My dear lady, as a wise Frenchman once said, 
 ' why not do nothing ? ' I am not a detective, my 
 trade is to talk, and explain what other people cleverer 
 than myself have found out. But let us just review 
 the points for a moment. Mrs. Greville has gone away 
 with no address. Nothing remarkable in that. She 
 usually does, as I chance to know, and Greville is 
 used to it and doesn't mind, and really he is the only 
 person concerned. She doesn't write, but then he 
 doesn't expect her to. He has forgotten whom she is 
 with, candidly I should be surprised if he remembered, 
 knowing Harry Greville as well as I do. He generally 
 loses an address. Now you see there is no possibility 
 of finding Mrs. Greville if we wanted to, and, candidly 
 again, I think it would be a gross impertinence to try. 
 As to being a little longer than she intended, that is 
 nothing in a motor tour. I went on one myself last 
 long vacation in the west of Scotland, we started for 
 three weeks, we were nearly two months. The weather 
 was perfect, and we went on and on. There was no 
 time to write. I think I sent my wife two post 
 cards in the time. Now you see Mrs. Greville has gone 
 down into a fascinating country, Devon and Cornwall 
 I think it was. Depend upon it they have been beguiled 
 farther and farther, as we were, and she is bound to 
 go on with her party. Harry Greville understands 
 her, and is perfectly satisfied. She doesn't trouble 
 to come back or to write about Mrs. Eraser's committees, 
 and I don't wonder. I should do the same myself in 
 her place. Mrs. Fraser is annoyed. She would be. 
 It is her nature to fuss, and keep every one round her 
 in a state of irritation ; but really she can't do anything.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 93 
 
 I don't fancy Scotland Yard paying much attention 
 to her. If she ever gets the length of seriously 
 annoying Harry Greville, we can devise some means to 
 keep her quiet. I don't think it will be difficult. 
 It was odd, though, that she should have that story of 
 Mrs. Greville being seen in London, for I fancied 
 myself I saw her the other day, and with one of the 
 worst bounders in London; of course it wasn't she, 
 but it shows how one may be deceived." 
 
 " And do you know," said Hilda, " that I half 
 fancied I saw Mr. Essendine going into my dress- 
 maker's the other day. Of course I don't really 
 know him. He was pointed out to me once at a big 
 gathering. Some scientific meeting I think, I forget 
 what, and I saw his back at the Terminus Hotel. 
 That is, if that were really Ralph Essendine. So I can't 
 say. He isn't a likely man to be at a dressmaker's." 
 
 " About the most unlikely in Europe, I should say. 
 Ah, who is this ? " His clerk quietly entered the room 
 and laid a strip of paper before him without a word. 
 " Oh, the Inland Revenue. Well, Mrs. Donelly, I 
 grieve that business calls me. Please don't let this be 
 your last call at this dusty den, as it is your first. Any- 
 thing I can do is always at your service. Good-bye." 
 
 Hilda caught a motor-bus in the Strand, feeling 
 distinctly relieved. Her great anxiety had been lest 
 Mrs. Eraser should work some serious annoyance for 
 Harry Greville. Now all that was placed on the 
 broad shoulders of Mr. Brathwayte. He was Harry's 
 oldest and best friend, and now that he knew the whole 
 story he would do the right thing. He saw no cause for 
 anxiety at present, so after all there was no need to 
 bother about it. His words had brought a feeling of 
 security. He was eminently a man to trust. So the 
 social universe was not wrecked after all.
 
 PART II
 
 CHAPTER VII 
 
 IN the early days of the voyage of the Pacific, both 
 the Duke of Glenstaffen and his friend and com- 
 panion, Ralph Essendine, were somewhat silent 
 and preoccupied. When they were out on the blue 
 water, and the affairs of Staffen Castle and the estate 
 were behind him, and the excitement of travel and 
 sport in new and wild country had not yet fairly 
 begun, Ronny's thoughts instinctively turned back to 
 Eulalie. He wondered why he had never had a line, 
 even wishing him good-bye and God-speed, nothing 
 but that bare telegram. It was unlike her : was it 
 possible she could have taken up with some one else ? 
 The idea came like a sudden shock of ice to his mind. 
 It was intolerable. Yet why had she not written ? 
 Why was Ralph so reticent ? 
 
 Ralph had really never told him anything about her 
 sudden return home, or the reason for it. Several 
 times he had tried to get the story from him, but always 
 Ralph had merely given him a few general observations 
 meaning nothing, and had turned the conversation to 
 some details of their expedition, something that had 
 yet to be settled, or to some questions regarding Staffen 
 Castle and Ralph's future duties in connection with the 
 estate management. For Ronny had already stated in so 
 many words that he could not do without Ralph. And 
 these matters were always so important and interest- 
 ing, that Ronny's mind was taken up with them, and 
 G 97
 
 g8 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 for the tune he did not notice that he had got no real 
 information about Eulalie. 
 
 But gradually the interest in both these matters 
 flagged, and memory reasserted itself. He thought 
 pertinaciously about her, and wondered more and more 
 about her silence, and Ralph's reluctance to speak of 
 her. Yet at the same time he found himself strangely 
 unwilling to ask Ralph point blank. There was the 
 queer reluctance to invite bad news, coupled with the 
 haunting fear deep down that somehow Eulalie was 
 lost to him, and that Ralph knew it, and shrank from 
 telling him. 
 
 The relations between her and himself had developed 
 insensibly and unintentionally. At first it had been, 
 on Ronny's part, merely a liking for a pretty and 
 gracious woman of rare charm, coupled with a certain 
 pity for her in being yoked to a man of so utterly 
 opposite a temperament as Harry Greville, a man 
 wholly incapable of understanding anything whatever 
 of her nature. She was soothing to Ronny and seemed 
 to bring out the best in his nature. He could not help 
 seeing that he brought a light and joy into her life, 
 and his pity for her made him try his best to give 
 her all the comfort and pleasure that he could. Grad- 
 ually it had dawned on him that he had become to 
 her almost a god. She grew to idolize him with 
 an impassioned devotion. 
 
 To him it was simply amazing. He was by nature 
 wholly different from the ordinary type of man to whom 
 the unattainable in woman is an irresistible incentive. 
 This was the way in which he regarded animals that 
 he hunted, the more difficult to' kill or capture the 
 greater the fascination, but he never could regard 
 woman as a beast of the chase, and Eulalie's worship 
 of him begot a sort of protective love for her. So
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 99 
 
 they drifted into a kind of idyllic love story that had 
 never once been broken by a lover's quarrel ; nor had 
 they ever in the least degree wearied of each other. 
 It was an unusual relationship and often to Ronny had 
 seemed almost unreal. With her he seemed to pass 
 into a dream life that had little to do with the ordinary 
 material world. 
 
 Now, if she had left him, and transferred her devo- 
 tion to some other man, if she had been beguiled by 
 some scoundrel with a glib tongue, what troubles and 
 sorrows would lie in wait for her, and for him the 
 wonderful romance that had gilded his life would have 
 passed out of it. But for himself he could not complain. 
 She had given him great joy, was she not free to with- 
 draw the gift if she would ? and not to any human soul 
 could he show his grief, save perhaps to dear old Ralph. 
 To show anything by the most distant sign would 
 injure her. It is true to say that never in all their 
 acquaintance had he loved her as much as he did now, 
 as he paced the deck of the Pacific. Hitherto he had 
 taken her for granted, now perhaps she was to be lost 
 to him, and he realized what the loss meant. 
 
 Ralph too was uneasy. The disclosure, the con- 
 fession he had to make, weighed on him, and the more 
 so because he was obliged to postpone it. He thought 
 that as long as it was possible to do so it would be 
 Ronny's nature to get back if he could, hail a passing 
 homeward-bound vessel, or do any mad thing, and 
 plunge into the very scandal out of which Ralph had 
 taken such infinite pains to keep him. 
 
 As often happens, it was chance that precipitated 
 the disclosure. Fate takes control sometimes of human 
 affairs, and upsets all man's best calculations. 
 
 A party of men sat at meals at an adjoining table 
 who were peculiarly offensive to Ronny, and in a
 
 ioo The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 slightly less degree to Ralph also. Coarse, heavy men, 
 who ate much and drank much, and did both noisily, 
 who talked loud, and delighted in retailing bits of 
 unsavoury scandal, and chuckling over stories that 
 were neither new nor amusing, but merely coarse, and 
 only just within the limit that could possibly be endured 
 at a public table without vigorous protest, Ronny said 
 they were the human analogues of a certain kind of 
 dog who will always leave wholesome and clean food 
 to batten on garbage. The two sat with their backs 
 to this table, but could not avoid occasionally over- 
 hearing scraps of their conversation. 
 
 It was a week after they left Liverpool, and they 
 were nearly half-way to Para. At dinner the men 
 behind them were noisier and more hilarious than 
 usual. Said one of them suddenly : 
 
 " Do you know Carew ? " 
 
 " What Sir Philip Devil Carew ? Know of him. 
 Have seen him. Don't hanker for more. He's past 
 the limit." 
 
 " Same here ; but he's got a new lady, I'm told." 
 
 " Sorry for her. Carew's ladies have a trick of 
 coming to bad ends. Last one shot herself with his 
 revolver. Better death than Devil Carew, and I 
 don't wonder. Who's this Gaiety chorus, or pewter 
 bar ? ' 
 
 " Neither, he's flying at higher game. Nothing less 
 than Harry Greville's wife. Bermuda Avenue, you 
 know. Awfully pretty little woman." 
 
 The two at the next table started as though a bomb 
 had exploded between them. Ralph turned to look at 
 Ronny. His face had gone absolutely white, and the 
 gleam in his eyes, and the tightening of his lips meant 
 murder. His hands tightened on the edge of the 
 table till the knuckles showed white. He was holding
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 101 
 
 himself in by the sheer force of iron will. Ralph 
 laid a strong hand on his arm. 
 
 " For God's sake, old man, for her sake, hold steady. 
 It's a damned lie. I can prove it. If you make a 
 scene it will ruin her good name. You know that. 
 Don't let anyone notice you. I'll tell you afterwards 
 how I know. Believe me, I do know." 
 
 " Ralph, are you sure can you swear to me that 
 you know it's a lie ? " 
 
 He spoke in a tense whisper. So far no one had 
 observed any particular agitation about either of them. 
 It was tacitly understood that the duke and his com- 
 panion did not want to mix much with the miscellaneous 
 and not always very reputable crowd bound for the 
 South American Republics ; and these, in general, 
 drank, squabbled, and played poker among themselves, 
 taking little notice of Ronny and Ralph. 
 
 Ronny controlled himself by a mighty effort, and the 
 talk behind them went on. 
 
 " Poor little woman ! I met her once at a ball. 
 I'm awfully sorry for her. Sorry for Carew too if 
 one could be sorry for such a vermin if Greville catches 
 him. He's a big man with Colonial ideas, and he'll 
 break Carew's neck for him and chance it. He's not 
 the sort to monkey with Divorce Courts." 
 
 " Best thing that could happen. Carew wants that 
 sort of man. He's been loose too long. I don't 
 mind an immoral man, most of us are that when we get 
 the chance, but he's just a low down dirty blackguard. ' 
 
 " He's all that and more. But say, are you sure it's 
 true ? She was a most unlikely woman to take up 
 with a swine like that." 
 
 " No doubt, I'm afraid. A friend of mine saw them 
 going together into the Closerie in Soho, two days 
 before we sailed."
 
 102 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " That all ! Probably just for dinner, or to meet 
 friends, or something quite simple and innocent." 
 
 " My dear chap ! your innocence is simply verdant. 
 The Closerie is bad enough, its reputation just stinks. 
 But the Closerie and Carew together would damn a 
 saint." 
 
 Ralph rose quietly and silently, and walked across to 
 the next table and laid his hand on the shoulder of the 
 last speaker, to whom he said some words in an 
 undertone. Instantly a hush fell on the table, and the 
 laughing faces became grave. 
 
 " No ! You don't really mean that ! Oh, but, 
 'pon my soul, I apologize. I'm real sorry, sir, that I 
 spoke as I did. I wouldn't for worlds. But of course 
 I couldn't know, don't you know. No, of course I'll 
 never hint any such thing. I'll contradict it if ever I 
 hear it again. Mighty curious though, the man who 
 told me was so positive. Well, sir, I thank you for 
 telling me." 
 
 Ralph turned on his heel and rejoined Ronny. 
 Dinner was over by this time, and Ralph and Ronny 
 retired to their state-room which they used as a private 
 sitting and writing-room. Then Ronny burst out, 
 unable to control himself any longer : 
 
 " Ralph, this is hell ! Fancy her name even for a 
 moment coupled with that beast, that ten-fold hog, 
 and by those bounders, and if it were true, good God ! 
 Better a thousand times she were dead. Yes, though I 
 killed her myself. It would be God's mercy that she 
 should die rather than fall into his hands. You say 
 it was a lie, and I suppose you have some proof of it, 
 for you silenced those brutes and ma'de them apologize. 
 But all the same it might have been true, and if not 
 him, it might be another. God ! Why did I ever go 
 away and leave her alone among all those dangers ?
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 103 
 
 I ought to have known what villains there are in the 
 world. Oh, Ralph, you could never know what she 
 was to me. Yet I would rather now think that she 
 had died as I knew her, all mine, than among brutes 
 like Carew." 
 
 " Have patience, and be calm a moment, Ronny. 
 She is safe from all earthly trouble now, never to be 
 hurt any more." 
 
 " What ? " His voice sank to a whisper, his arms 
 dropped, the clenched fists relaxed, the fingers throbbing 
 as though life ebbed from them, as the meaning of 
 Ralph's solemn words slowly came home to his brain. 
 " Dead ! " He sank on a sofa, groping about with his 
 right hand " Dead 1 Eulalie dead 1 Oh, it can't be. 
 It is some hideous dream." 
 
 Ralph poured out a glass of brandy. 
 
 " Drink this off, old man." 
 
 Slowly Ronny's colour came back. He drew a 
 deep breath, stood up and took two or three turns up 
 and down the room. 
 
 " Tell me," he said simply. 
 
 " I'll tell you everything. But you must promise 
 me something first, without that my lips are sealed. 
 You may shoot me or throw me overboard, but I 
 will not speak one word except on the condition that 
 you will hear me patiently to the end, and that you 
 will do nothing without telling me, consulting me. 
 Ten years now, Ronny, we have been close friends. 
 Have I ever failed you in anything ? Do I not 
 deserve this confidence ! Perhaps the last I shall ask 
 of you." 
 
 " Ralph 1 It may be hard from your tone I 
 expect it will be but, man; I trust you, better than I 
 trust myself. I promise on the word of a Warrington." 
 
 " Well, Ronny, you will blame me for not telling
 
 104 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 you before. Perhaps I should have done so. I don't 
 know, God knows I went through qualms of conscience 
 enough, and tried to see what was the right thing to do. 
 Well, when I left you at the station and you went off 
 to Staffen, I went to the hotel to explain to her, 
 as I promised you I would, and I found her dead. Sir 
 Alfred Ross, called up from dinner in the hotel, 
 was there instantly, but too late, a heart attack 
 directly after you left." 
 
 " Then ! then ! " murmured Ronny, recalling all 
 his thoughts on that journey down. All the time he 
 was thinking of her, and looking forward to a meeting 
 in a day or two, she was lying dead. 
 
 " An awful shock to me, as you may fancy ; but 
 that was not all. Every one took me for you. No one 
 in the hotel had noticed you. You had taken the name 
 of Essendine. I naturally answered when they called 
 me Mr. Essendine. When I realized their mistake, it 
 was too late to explain." 
 
 " Ralph, you should have wired to me at once." 
 
 " Hear me out, dear old man. Blame me as much 
 as you like, but listen. What could you have done ? 
 She was gone. Nothing on earth could bring her back, 
 and your coming would only have made a scandal. 
 It was clear that the Duke of Glenstaffen was not her 
 husband, but I was assumed to be. Don't you see, 
 if you had appeared on the scene then, her name and 
 her memory would be irretrievably smirched. Now 
 not a breath sullies her." 
 
 Ralph would not say how his thoughts had run on 
 saving Ronny himself from scandal. 
 
 " I see 1 I see ! but if I had only known." 
 
 " Dear Ronny, what could you have done ? Any- 
 thing that you could do would have let all the world 
 know that she was with you. For her sake, and her
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 105 
 
 memory, I tried to avoid that. They took me for her 
 husband, and the simplest thing, and the best for her 
 seemed to be to accept the situation." 
 
 " And you did this for me. Ralph I Ralph ! what 
 a position to put yourself into." 
 
 " For you, Ronny, and for the woman you loved, 
 because you loved her. Well, being in that position, I 
 had to see it through. I don't know what I should 
 have done but for Ross. That man is a trump if there 
 ever was one in this world, he took everything off my 
 hands." 
 
 " But still I am in the dark. Of course you com- 
 municated with Harry Greville. How did you explain 
 to him ? " 
 
 " I couldn't communicate with him. You merely 
 told me her name. I hadn't the remotest idea who her 
 real husband was : there was not the slightest clue in 
 her luggage, or in yours." 
 
 " Of course not. I remember now how extraordin- 
 arily careful we were. I thought you knew when I 
 told you the name." 
 
 " I didn't, it was a strange name to me. So, you see, 
 there was nothing for it. I buried her as my wife, as 
 she was supposed to be." 
 
 " Where ? " 
 
 " In Penzance. I had no reason for any other place." 
 
 " The place of our holiday. She would have loved 
 it more than any other. I am glad she lies there." 
 
 " It had to be as the wife of Ralph Waldo Essendine. 
 You see registers have to be filled up. I could not 
 go back on the character that had been forced on me 
 by this strange fate. Then I came back to London 
 and half my time was spent in trying to find some clue 
 to her husband, and her belongings." 
 
 " If you had only asked me, Ralph."
 
 io6 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " I couldn't ask you without telling you the whole 
 story, and candidly, Ronny, I was afraid of what you 
 might do. Suppose you had done some rash impulsive 
 thing, and the story had got wind. How the memory 
 of the dead would have been profaned, she would have 
 been sneered at as your mistress. Think if it would 
 not have been a lifelong reproach and regret to you 
 whenever her name was mentioned, you who were 
 bound in honour to protect her against all scandalous 
 tongues, and all the more when she is dead. Besides, 
 I did ask you for her address, and you gave me the 
 dressmaker." 
 
 " Yes, I remember. You would have got Harry 
 Greville's address from her." 
 
 " I went at once, directly I got your letter. She 
 was away, not coming back for a week. In the mean- 
 time we sailed." 
 
 " Good Lord 1 What a tangle ! And so poor 
 Harry Greville doesn't know even yet." 
 
 " No, but believe me it is better so. He will think 
 she is still motoring, or perhaps think there has been 
 some accident. He will retain his faith in her, and 
 from Para we will send him a telegram, and write 
 fully." 
 
 " Fully ! What do you mean ! The very thing 
 you have been taking all sorts of pains not to divulge. 
 Where will her reputation be then ? " 
 
 " We will write fully that she died unknown and 
 unidentified till now, and was buried under a mistaken 
 name. It will be a nine days' wonder. By the time 
 we come back it will have so far faded that a very 
 partial story will be sufficient. We -can tell just such 
 facts as will satisfy curiosity, and do no harm to 
 her memory." 
 
 He spoke with apparent conviction in order to
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 107 
 
 reassure Ronny with the prospect of doing something, 
 as soon as ever it was possible. This was the only 
 thing that would keep him quiet. But inwardly 
 he was far from feeling the conviction. Even as he 
 spoke, difficulties presented themselves. This Harry 
 Greville, whom he did not know at all, would naturally 
 require to know where his wife was buried, and how to 
 explain that entry in the register : " wife of Ralph 
 Waldo Essendine." To connect the " Eulalie " who 
 lay buried in Penzance with Harry Greville's wife, 
 or even to prove her death at all, the evidence of Sir 
 Alfred Ross would be needed, and then the damning 
 facts must come out. 
 
 He might save Ronny from the scandal, if Ronny 
 would be saved, but the scandal would fall on the name 
 and memory of Eulalie, and that would be a lifelong 
 grief to Ronny. Ralph was willing enough to sacrifice 
 himself for his friend, but it looked as though, whatever 
 he did, the sacrifice would be in vain. Ronny, however, 
 caught the suggestion. He realized, as Ralph spoke, 
 that he had done the only thing that could possibly 
 preserve the reputation of his dead love, for whom he 
 felt now a new and very special tenderness. 
 
 " Ralph, you are right, it is hard to think it, but you 
 are. You have done the only thing. Bear with me, 
 old man, there's a light gone out. I can't realize it. 
 I can't think of my little Eulalie dead. I can't 
 believe I shall never see her again in this world. It 
 seems a bad dream that I want to wake up from. We 
 parted for ten minutes, and it was for eternity. You 
 must have planned it all when you sent that first 
 telegram. " Gone home," you said I little realized 
 then all you meant by that. Well, I can thank 
 God I didn't ! But the second telegram, the one 
 I thought was from her ? "
 
 io8 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " I sent it," said Ralph simply. " Blame me if you 
 will. It was a deliberate deceit, I know. I found a 
 telegram from her in your coat pocket. I thought the 
 office of origin might give me a clue to her husband. 
 So I searched there, and then I sent a wire from there 
 to try and keep your mind at ease, I was so afraid you 
 might do something rash that you would repent ever 
 after, something that would hurt her memory." 
 
 " Ralph, I can't blame you. You have done every- 
 thing. All the same, I think I shall go back from 
 Para. I don't seem to have the heart now to go 
 exploring and amusing myself. No, I promise you I 
 won't do anything rash ; but we will discuss together 
 what is to be done, and how to tell Harry Greville, and 
 to save her from evil tongues." 
 
 Ralph knew well it was worse than useless to oppose 
 Ronny in this mood. But in his secret heart he hoped 
 that before the voyage was over the interest in the sport 
 and adventure they had embarked upon would revive, 
 and that the wild would call him irresistibly, as it 
 had so often done before, and in the excitement of the 
 sport and travel he might forget his grief. 
 
 " I must ask you to leave me for a little now, old man. 
 I must think it out and alone, and try to get used to it." 
 
 Perhaps it was as well for Ronny that fate did not 
 allow him to brood alone over his loss, and all the tangle 
 that had arisen. At that moment there was a knock 
 at the door, and a steward looked in. Would his Grace 
 please come at once ? One of the men they were 
 taking with them had fallen on the deck while playing 
 some game, and had broken his leg.. The doctor was 
 with him. He had been taken to his berth, but he 
 asked to see his Grace at once. 
 
 It was Alan Macpherson, the best of his men, who 
 knew the Amazon like a book. The loss would have
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 109 
 
 been almost irreparable had Ronny not decided to 
 return from Para, and give up the expedition. 
 
 The two friends followed the steward at once, and 
 found the man looking very pale and limp stretched 
 on his bed, and the doctor already busy with his 
 splints and bandages. 
 
 " A simple fracture," said the doctor. " No diffi- 
 culty at all, only it will take six weeks or more before he 
 is fit to walk, and probably longer than that before he 
 can do any hard work. This is worrying him and he 
 is inclined to be feverish. He is troubled about spoiling 
 your expedition. That is why he wanted to see you 
 at once." 
 
 " Don't you worry, Alan," said Ronny kindly. 
 " The fact is that we may have to give up the expedi- 
 tion anyhow. I have almost decided to go back 
 from Para, and not go on to the upper waters this 
 time." 
 
 " Oh, no, sir, don't say that," said the man feebly. 
 " I know your kindness and that you wouldn't want 
 to go on without me ; but really I could never rest, 
 if I thought my stupidity had spoilt your sport." 
 
 " Humour him," whispered the doctor. " Let him 
 think you're going." 
 
 " All right, my man," said Ronny encouragingly, 
 " we won't give it up then. You'll be fit to join us, 
 I hope, before we get very far. We shall need you. 
 Can't do \\ithout you, indeed." 
 
 " Look here, sir," said Alan, " will you do me a 
 favour ? Will you take my brother for the beginning ? 
 He lives in Para, and he knows just as much of the 
 Amazon as I do myself. He'll serve you till I am about 
 again." 
 
 " All right," said Ronny, " I'll take him gladly." 
 
 " Now," said the doctor, " you've got all you wanted.
 
 no The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 You mustn't say another word, and if you don't mind," 
 he added turning to Ronny, " I should be better 
 pleased if you would clear out. You've set my 
 patient's mind at rest, and that was what I wanted. 
 I can do all the rest." 
 
 Ronny and Ralph obeyed the injunction, and 
 departed. 
 
 So it was that for the rest of the voyage Ronny 
 found himself committed to at least pretending that 
 he was going on with the expedition. He and Alan 
 Macpherson had been chums before in sporting expedi- 
 tions, and he was really fond of the man. He found 
 an occupation and diversion for his mind in sitting 
 by the sick man's bedside, talking over old triumphs, 
 and planning new adventures. 
 
 Ralph too was easier in his mind now. The dreaded 
 explanation with Ronny had been precipitated, and 
 had, so to say, arranged itself without his volition, 
 and their friendship was not broken. Rather it appeared 
 that Ronny approved all he had done. The question 
 of Harry Greville remained a vital and important one. 
 But there was time to think how best that could be 
 met. He would talk to Ronny, and get some sort of 
 knowledge of the kind of man that Harry was, and 
 other particulars. In his heart, he hoped that the 
 expedition would not be abandoned. He felt somehow 
 that after the letter of explanation the longer any 
 personal action was deferred the easier it would be. 
 Things would sort themselves. 
 
 Also, there came to him more and more definitely 
 the picture of long dark eyes, with their ever varying 
 expression so resolutely set aside, Jmt now refusing 
 to be set aside, longed for with a fierce tigerish longing. 
 He thought of a story he had once told her, as though 
 it were the story of a comrade, earnestly and entirely
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion in 
 
 loving a woman yet restrained from ever telling her 
 so by reason of long past entanglements. 
 
 He recalled her quick and ready sympathy and under- 
 standing. Would it be so quick, he wondered, if 
 he told her whose story it was ? All the scene rose 
 vividly in his mind, the little camp fire at the edge of 
 the bush, the great cliff behind with the stream falling 
 from the summit spread out like a bridal veil, as it 
 fell from point through a profusion of ferns, the creepers 
 hung from tree to tree in fairy-like garlands. The 
 boiling of the tea, with their game spread out at their 
 feet, and the boys lounging a short distance off, enjoy- 
 ing their smoke before they set off on the long ride for 
 home. That was where he had told her the story, 
 and there seemed to be a barrier broken down between 
 them, and a mutual understanding. 
 
 Then he recalled that one glimpse in the Park. 
 He could tell her the end of that story now, he thought. 
 But he hoped for six months' delay still. He could 
 tell it better then.
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 AS day after day passed by, even Harry Greville's 
 easygoing nature began to be seriously per- 
 turbed by his wife's continued absence and 
 silence. The increasingly frequent inquiries of friends 
 and their politely veiled but nevertheless obvious 
 scepticism of his absolutely true explanation galled 
 and worried him. It was not only Mrs. Fraser though 
 doubtless she had set many others speculating and 
 wondering but hardly anyone now came to the 
 house who did not ply him with questions. The thing 
 began to get on his nerves, though he constantly said 
 to Hilda Donelly, "It is all right, she will come back 
 when she is ready." 
 
 He was anxious and irritated by questions he could 
 not answer, and he had practically decided to go 
 away to escape from the constant nerve strain. It 
 would make no difference if he did. He would leave 
 the servants in the house, all would be ready for her 
 directly she came back, and he would leave his address 
 so that she could communicate with him. Moreover, 
 Hilda would know immediately she returned, and 
 would wire to him ; he would come back at once, and 
 the scandalmongers would be refuted. 
 
 Deep down in his soul, however, there was a growing 
 conviction that, somehow or other, all was not right. 
 He never uttered this to a human being, and fought 
 
 112
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 113 
 
 against it, as his nature was. All the same, the convic- 
 tion was there, and it grew. 
 
 A fortnight had passed since his dinner-party. He 
 did not feel like entertaining again, but the old custom 
 must be maintained. Brathwayte must come, as he 
 came every fortnight. Besides, he wanted Brathwayte. 
 The keen, incisive, legal mind of the famous lawyer 
 would give him just the tonic he needed, and resolve 
 his doubts and questionings. And of course Mrs. 
 Brathwayte and Lola Macarthy must come, and 
 Hilda Donelly and Trevenna to help him out. So 
 the same party would assemble, with the exception 
 of the Erasers. 
 
 Hilda had given him a suggestion, as he wanted to 
 go away, and really seemed as though he needed a 
 rest-change, that he should take a journey himself 
 through the West of England, and see if by chance 
 he could light on tidings of Eulalie and the motoring 
 party. It was fairly certain that they would, to some 
 extent at any rate, follow the well known routes, and 
 anyone who had seen them could not help remembering 
 Eulalie. 
 
 Meantime, Hilda would say to all inquirers that he 
 had gone to meet his wife, and hoped to come back 
 with her when the trip was finished. Hilda would not 
 ostensibly have their address. In fact they would 
 naturally not have an address. They would be moving 
 from place to place. So he would be safe from all 
 impertinent inquiries. 
 
 The idea pleased Greville. It would occupy his 
 mind, and prevent his worrying. It would be some- 
 thing to do. But he wanted to consult Brathwayte 
 about it. He was beginning to feel that toils were 
 closing round him, and he wanted Brathwayte to pull 
 him out.
 
 ii4 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 One of the densest fogs of the season lay over London. 
 The buses had ceased running, save one or two that 
 were carefully feeling their way through the profound 
 gloom, not a taxi was to be seen. Boys with torches 
 were running about, proffering their services to take 
 pedestrians across the road. Harry had had some 
 business at Waterloo Station, and failing to find any 
 sort of conveyance had started to walk over the bridge, 
 hoping to find some cab or taxi in the Strand that 
 might take him home. It was a case of feeling his 
 way along the parapet, a few stragglers through the 
 fog jostled him and apologized, but he took no special 
 heed of them, till he heard a shout behind him, two 
 police whistles blown energetically from different 
 points, and the sound of men running. Then suddenly 
 a policeman gripped his arm, and another came from 
 behind. 
 
 " This is the man who was with her. Now, look 
 here, you just come along quietly." 
 
 " My good man," said Harry, " I don't know what 
 on earth you are talking about. I was with no woman ; 
 I have just come from Waterloo Station, trying to 
 find my way through the fog." 
 
 " Don't you try that on," said the policeman. 
 " You came the other way from the Strand, with a 
 woman, and she's over into the river." 
 
 " Well, if you don't believe me, come to Waterloo 
 Station, and I'll prove it, I am well known there." 
 
 His confident air impressed the constable, who now 
 began to apologize for a hasty mistake owing to the 
 fog. But Harry insisted on returning to the station, 
 questioning the policeman as they went as to what had 
 happened. 
 
 It seemed that a man and woman had been seen 
 coming from the direction of the Strand, there appeared
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 115 
 
 to be some quarrel between the two, and it was supposed 
 that the woman had gone over the bridge into the 
 river, but whether she jumped, or was thrown over 
 there was nothing to show. The man with her was 
 wearing an overcoat much the same as Greville's, 
 the police wanted to secure him ; not that there was 
 at present any charge against him, still his account 
 of the matter might be important. The policeman was 
 very sorry for his mistake in the fog. They had 
 signalled police boats, and other boats also to attempt 
 a rescue, or to recover the body, but owing to the fog, 
 and the strong tide running out, it was almost hopeless. 
 
 No, there was no clue to her identity whatever, 
 except a brocaded scarf which had caught on the 
 parapet, and that was no clue at all. There would be 
 thousands like it, and it wasn't marked. Unless they 
 found the body, it would be just one more of the many 
 mysterious disappearances. But of course if they 
 got the man they might learn something. This was 
 unlikely, however, he could so easily get away in the 
 fog. 
 
 By this time they had arrived at Waterloo Station, 
 and Harry Greville was satisfactorily identified. He 
 had been there only ten minutes before. Just time 
 enough to walk to where the policeman met him. No 
 lady had been with him. He was certainly not the man 
 who came with a woman from the direction of the 
 Strand. 
 
 Fortunately for Harry, he now found a taxi which 
 undertook to convey him to Bermuda Avenue ; but 
 his nerves were on edge, and incapable of seeing things 
 in their true focus. In spite of himself the idea would 
 occur to him suppose it was Eulalie who had gone 
 over, or been thrown over, the bridge. There was no 
 earthly reason why such an idea should enter his head.
 
 n6 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 It was impossible, incredible. Still, what if that 
 cock-and-bull story which of course had been re- 
 peated to him of her having been seen in London were 
 true, what could she have been doing in London ? 
 Could it be possible that she was playing false, and 
 had fallen into evil hands ? Ordinarily no such idea 
 would have crossed his mind. People who did not 
 know him would have said that he had absolute faith 
 in his wife. But as a fact he had neither faith nor 
 unfaith, he simply did not think about it at all. 
 
 She went where she would, and came back when she 
 would. She conduced to his comfort, the house was 
 certainly pleasanter when she was there, and he was 
 vaguely grateful, though many of her friends did not 
 appeal to him, and her music bored him, still un- 
 questionably he missed her, and he was now realizing 
 this more than he had ever done before. His tempera- 
 ment was sluggish, where hers was ardent and vivaci- 
 ous ; he sought for comfort, where she craved love 
 and adventure. Yet in his lymphatic and rather 
 selfish way he was fond of her, and now that, chiefly 
 by the remarks of other people, he had been stung into 
 a feeling of anxiety, he began to think that he had been 
 very fond of her. 
 
 Simple and obvious as his nature was, few people 
 really understood Harry Greville. Mrs. Fraser openly 
 said he was, as she phrased it, " carrying on " with 
 Hilda Donelly. Nothing, in fact, could have been 
 further from his mind. Hilda conduced to his com- 
 fort, she understood him and liked him, and according 
 to his nature whatever conduced to his comfort 
 he accepted gratefully, and never troubled to look 
 beyond the immediate comfort. But others had 
 caught up Mrs. Eraser's ideas and suspicions. It 
 was not natural that a man should take such small
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 117 
 
 account of his wife's continued absence, should not 
 even know, or seemingly want to know, where she was, 
 that of itself was suspicious. He must be carrying on a 
 deep game. And so poor Harry, who was utterly 
 incapable of carrying on any kind of game whatsoever, 
 found undefinable webs of suspicion forming round him. 
 He was conscious that people talked about him, 
 though they said nothing to him, and he didn't 
 like it. 
 
 Sometimes, driven past his patience, he would try 
 to stop questioning by some utterly absurd statement, 
 and, when one lady, not accepting his assertion that 
 he did not know Eulalie's present address, or when she 
 was coming back, persistently cross-examined him, he 
 said : 
 
 " Well don't tell anyone the fact, is I am keeping 
 her shut up in a private asylum." 
 
 Harry's sense of humour was elementary. 
 
 This saying being repeated to Mrs. Fraser, that lady 
 shrewdly observed : 
 
 " My dear ! There's many a true word spoken in 
 jest." 
 
 So it happened that the little dinner to the Brath- 
 waytes resolved itself into a committee to decide what 
 was the best thing for Harry to do. All agreed that 
 something must be done, for Harry was beginning to 
 look ill and worried, the strain was palpably telling on 
 him, and was likely to get worse unless Eulalie returned 
 very shortly. Hilda said that of course she would come 
 back at once if she knew Harry was not well. That was 
 obviously true, for she certainly took most devoted 
 care of him, perhaps to make up for the difference of 
 temperament which she could not help. But how to 
 let her know ? Hilda suggested an advertisement, 
 but the idea did not find favour. As Trevenna said,
 
 n8 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 it would simply set every scandalous tongue wagging 
 tenfold more. 
 
 Brathwayte summed up the points with legal 
 precision. They had some things to go on. It v, r as 
 Canadians she was with. There were not so very many 
 Canadians travelling in England. They were probably 
 wealthy Canadians, for a motor tour lasting for weeks 
 is not a cheap form of entertainment, even if they had 
 brought their own car, and only fairly wealthy people 
 would bring their own car from Canada. That narrowed 
 the field. Then they knew it was the West of England 
 that the party had gone to. So a party of wealthy 
 Canadians on a motor tour through the West was 
 what they were in search of. It was not very likely 
 that such a party would be inclined to rough it very 
 much, or often, in small or out-of-the-way country 
 inns. They would go mainly to the well known 
 tourist centres and stopping places ; and these were 
 limited in number. 
 
 Here Hilda came in with another suggestion. Eulalie 
 had been at Penzance as a child, she had often spoken of 
 the little town with great affection, and as longing to 
 go back there. She loved the country and the people, 
 and the romance, and the Arthurian legends. Beyond 
 doubt she had persuaded her friends to go to Penzance. 
 Hilda was convinced she had written and that the letter 
 had miscarried. Letters did miscarry sometimes. 
 This was a clue certainly. If Eulalie had written, she 
 would be satisfied and feel she had done her duty. 
 She would not be likely to write again, nor would she 
 expect Harry to write, unless there was something 
 vital to say. Neither of them wa's a great corres- 
 pondent. 
 
 Brathwayte continued his suggestions : some quiet 
 inquiries that no one need know anything about,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 119 
 
 among the people who would be most likely to know all 
 the prominent or wealthy Canadians now in this 
 country, also among the well known hotels and show 
 places on the so-called English Riviera, and especially, 
 as Mrs. Donelly had so wisely suggested, about Pen- 
 zance, would almost certainly put them on the track 
 of the motoring party. Then all the spiteful tongues 
 would be silenced at once, and all be well. 
 
 Trevenna volunteered to make the inquiries, and he 
 was eminently well fitted for the task. A bachelor with 
 no special ties, and fairly ample means, possessing a 
 clear logical brain and plenty of tact, accustomed to 
 research of various kinds, and to learning what he 
 wanted, and telling nothing he did not mean to tell, he 
 would quietly and unostentatiously find out anything 
 that was to be found. His offer was unanimously 
 accepted. Then the next question was what should 
 Harry do ? How could he best get the rest of mind and 
 body he needed and his thoughts distracted from 
 the anxieties that preyed on him ? 
 
 Harry himself made the suggestion. Why should 
 he not go to Penzance ? This had been mentioned 
 as the likeliest place to encounter the party. He would 
 not attempt to make inquiries, he would leave all that 
 to Trevenna, who had so nobly offered to undertake it. 
 He knew he would make a mess of it if he attempted 
 anything of the kind, and only get in Trevenna's way. 
 Still, if the party were there, he could not fail to come 
 across them. If not, no harm was done, he would 
 simply rest and vegetate in a delightful place. He had 
 always been told it was delightful. He would be out 
 of the way of Mrs. Fraser and all the scandalmongering 
 crew. This seemed eminently feasible and wise, and 
 the little party were distinctly relieved, as though a 
 pressing weight had been lifted. There was something
 
 120 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 definite to do, and there was no doubt the mystery 
 would soon be solved, and all be well again. 
 
 So the talk drifted into other channels. Brathwayte 
 was still full of the poisoner he had defended a fort- 
 night ago, and of the secret drug the man was accused 
 of using. Sir Alfred Ross had discovered a means of 
 detecting it by the spectroscope, a most marvellously 
 beautiful experiment. The poison itself was a miracle 
 of criminal ingenuity. It was a reptilian poison, 
 drawn from the glands of a particular lizard ; but it 
 was more than this, for after the head was cut off and 
 decomposition had set in a certain alkaloid could be 
 extracted by a very complicated process, which 
 caused death by gradual cumulation, leaving absolutely 
 no discoverable trace in the body that is, until Ross's 
 discovery. The poison itself had been used in 
 Mexico, and the reports of it, exaggerated as such 
 stories always are, had produced some excitement in 
 this country. 
 
 Brathwayte had borrowed Sir Alfred's spectroscope, 
 and was experimenting himself. He had a hobby for 
 chemistry, and besides, as a criminal lawyer he was 
 bound to keep himself abreast of all the scientific side 
 of crime. This experiment was really so beautiful 
 and interesting that he had brought the apparatus 
 with him to show his friends. If Harry could let him 
 have the tiniest fragment of raw meat of any kind he 
 would demonstrate, and they would know what 
 all the country would be talking about in a few 
 weeks. 
 
 It was a new interest. The whole party felt they 
 needed some relief from the anxious discussion they had 
 passed through, and it was eagerly welcomed. Sarah 
 was summoned, and a fragment of raw beef was brought 
 in. Brathwayte brought out the apparatus, and took
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 121 
 
 from his pocket a minute tube, containing a colourless 
 liquid. 
 
 " That's the famous stuff, dissolved in ether. The 
 only specimen of it so Ross assures me in Europe. 
 It is very rare, any way. I think I may say he would 
 not trust it to any other living man. Now, see." 
 
 He dipped the point of a needle in the tube, and 
 touched with it the tiniest crumb of the beef. 
 
 " Now you are to imagine this is from the stomach 
 of a person who has been poisoned, and this other 
 crumb is from one who has not. I take the latter 
 first. I grind it down in a watch glass with this 
 liquid, which is for the present Sir Alfred's secret, 
 until he has perfected his experiments, and I put it 
 into the spectroscope. Look through it at the electric 
 light. You will see a most beautiful arrangement of 
 lines, red and orange mainly, and one blue. Now I 
 add a drop of this acid, which is very powerful. You 
 will see there is no change whatsoever. In fact, those 
 lines are nearly all the characteristics of Ross's liquid, 
 acting on the raw flesh. Now I will repeat the experi- 
 ment, with the poisoned crumb. You see precisely 
 the same series of lines in fact, so far as we can tell, 
 the poison has made no discoverable change at all 
 but I add the acid. Now look, you will see the blue 
 line has entirely disappeared. This is the whole test, 
 an absolutely infallible one if only Sir Alfred's experi- 
 ments all work out successfully." 
 
 " Ton my word, Brathwayte, you are absolutely 
 thrilling," said Harry. " You are as good as a shilling 
 shocker. How on earth did you manage to get Sir 
 Alfred to trust you with this apparatus ? " 
 
 " Simple enough, my dear chap, I was his pupil 
 once when he was lecturing on toxicology at King's 
 College. I worked with him in his laboratory, and
 
 122 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 somehow he got to have confidence in my work. So 
 now when he wanted to have some independent experi- 
 ments to confirm his conclusions he came to me. 
 You see he preferred to have a simple lawyer, rather 
 than a scientist, whose mind might be biased one way 
 or other. He has gone to Scotland for a few days to 
 see the King, and has left his apparatus with me in the 
 meantime." 
 
 " You're a dangerous man, Mr. Brathwayte," said 
 Trevenna. " When I want to do any secret poisoning, 
 I shall come to you for tips." 
 
 " Better come to me to defend you when you're 
 caught. There's very little chance for secret poisoning 
 nowadays. Modern laboratories can detect almost 
 anything. You see this new thing can probably be 
 detected even before it can be procured in this country. 
 I expect the Borgias would have had small chance now." 
 
 Meanwhile Hilda and Miss Macarthy were talking 
 clothes, for the girl needed a replenishment of her 
 colonial wardrobe, and was asking advice. 
 
 " Look here," said Hilda in a sudden burst of con- 
 fidence, " I wouldn't do it for another soul in the world, 
 but I'll take you to my own dressmaker, Miss Fortescue, 
 the one woman in London who can really make things. 
 An artist, and a genius. She has extraordinary luck 
 too in picking up the most wonderful things, remnants 
 and the like, you know, that no one else can ever get. 
 This brocade lining, for instance, isn't it sweet : it was 
 made at Lyons for an experiment, but it was too 
 expensive or something, only a few pieces manufactured, 
 and then never reproduced. All there was was sold in 
 France, except a tiny remnant, just twenty yards, and 
 Miss Fortescue picked it up for a song. Mrs. Greville 
 and I secured the whole of it. Fancy the luck of that I 
 It's absolutely unique. That shows you the sort of
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 123 
 
 woman she is. Well, I'll take you there next week, I 
 haven't been able to go near her myself for a fortnight. 
 I heard she was away for one thing, on a holiday 
 or something. So tiresome when one's dressmaker 
 takes holidays, isn't it. But I must go again. I am 
 positively in rags." 
 
 Miss Macarthy was duly grateful, and duly admired 
 the brocade. Then she caught the name of Essendine. 
 Trevenna was talking to Mrs. Brathwayte. 
 
 " Yes, Mrs. Brathwayte, it is perfectly true that he 
 has promised something remarkable to the Geographical 
 Society. I was at their rooms to-day and the secretary 
 told me they were keeping a special date, in the hope 
 that he might be able to give them the results of his 
 present expedition with the Duke of Glenstaffen to the 
 Upper Amazon. He is said to be on the track of some 
 very curious discoveries, something, I understand, 
 that previous travellers have heard of, but never been 
 able to reach. The Duke, I gather, is simply out for 
 sport, but Essendine has much wider aims. By the 
 way, a man who was there, looking up some references 
 in the library, had a queer story about Essendine's 
 wife. I never knew that he was married. I couldn't 
 make out what the yarn was. He was talking to the 
 librarian." 
 
 Brathwayte looked round suddenly with a certain 
 dismay on his face. Lola and Hilda Donelly dropped 
 the contemplation of Miss Fortescue's brocade. The 
 casual mention of Ralph Essendine's wife struck them 
 all like an electric spark. For several moments no 
 one spoke, and Trevenna felt somehow that he had 
 metaphorically put his foot in it, without in the least 
 knowing how. Then Lola spoke : 
 
 " There have been a lot of wild stories told about 
 Mr. Essendine's marriage. You know he was an
 
 124 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 intimate friend of ours in Australia, and I have been 
 with him in some of his shooting expeditions. I know 
 all the story, but there are very good reasons why Mr. 
 Essendine does not wish it to be known generally. 
 I think you may assume, Mr. Trevenna, that anything 
 you may hear is pure invention, I believe my brother 
 and I are the only two in the world who know the true 
 facts. Even my mother does not know more than the 
 barest outline." 
 
 " Thank you, Miss Macarthy," said Trevenna. 
 " I have always thought that Ralph Essendine's associa- 
 tion with the Duke of Glenstaffen attracted stories. 
 You know the Duke, or Ronny Warrington as we used 
 to know him, is a man round whom legends and myths 
 form naturally. If there isn't a true story at the 
 moment people will invent one. I have heard old yarns 
 of the Regency fathered on him. But I am very glad 
 you have warned me about this story. I shall be very 
 careful not to believe anything I may chance to hear." 
 
 " We must be off, Greville," said Brathwayte. 
 " I hear the car outside. I'm going to walk, I want to 
 go down to the club for an hour the ladies will take 
 the car home. And I say, old chap, let me leave these 
 precious things of Ross's in your safe till to-morrow 
 morning, will you ? I don't care to trust them out of 
 my own keeping, or to carry them all the way to the 
 club and back to my house. They're all packed up, 
 you see, it's only just to turn the key on the parcel, 
 and I'll call round for them on my way to chambers 
 to-morrow, a little before ten. You'll be up then, I 
 dare say. Anyhow, it doesn't matter if you're not, I 
 can get them." 
 
 " How suspicious you are 1 " said Mrs. Brathwayte. 
 4 ' As if Lola and I couldn't take them home perfectly 
 safely, without bothering Mr. Greville."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 125 
 
 " My dear," said Brathwayte, " you are an angel of 
 care and discretion I know ; but these things are not 
 mine. Greville won't mind." 
 
 " Not in the least," said Harry. " You are welcome 
 to the use of my safe. There's nothing in it but the 
 lease of this house, and a few of Eulalie's jewels, which 
 she is rather choice over. When you come in the 
 morning I shall have had time to settle about going to 
 Penzance. I must look through my engagement-book 
 and see how soon I can start. I want to get away as 
 quick as I can." 
 
 " And I'll see about starting my inquiries," said 
 Trevenna. " May I come round to your chambers, 
 Mr. Brathwayte, I should like to get your views as to 
 the best line to take ? " 
 
 " Certainly, my dear fellow. Come at lunch- time 
 to-morrow. I shall be free for half an hour then. 
 Good night." 
 
 Trevenna also took his leave, saying as he did so : 
 
 " Mrs. Donelly, may I see you home ? I think our 
 ways are in the same direction." 
 
 " Thank you, Mr. Trevenna. If you'll put me into 
 my bus I shall be grateful." 
 
 As Brathwayte walked to his club, he was seriously 
 perturbed in mind. He had taken all the care he could 
 to keep the gossip concerning Ralph Essendine's 
 marriage and his wife's death from Lola Macarthy, 
 and suddenly he had become aware that she knew it 
 already. But what did she know, and what was the 
 story ? From what Hilda Donelly had told him, it 
 would seem that Ralph must have married recently, 
 and his wife had died suddenly and tragically at the 
 Terminus Hotel. Lola could not have known this 
 story from Ralph himself, for it was over a year since 
 they had met. What story then did she know, and
 
 126 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 what was the truth ? For her sake and because of 
 her romantic devotion to Essendine it was important 
 to know. Yet there seemed no possibility of getting a 
 clue. What with this, and the peculiar disappearance 
 of Mrs. Greville, it seemed as though a web of mystery 
 were woven round him which he did not like. 
 
 Possibly at the club he might get some light. There 
 must be many men who knew Essendine personally. 
 Possibly Lola herself might tell him what she knew ; 
 though, knowing her nature, he was fain to admit to 
 himself that this was doubtful. Possibly again, if 
 he could show any valid reason for inquiring, Sir Alfred 
 Ross might give some information ; but this was the 
 most unlikely of all. However, the girl must be pro- 
 tected, if indeed Essendine were an unscrupulous 
 adventurer or libertine. This was hardly credible ; 
 still he was in a way responsible for her, and he was 
 perturbed. 
 
 As it chanced, in the club smoking-room the talk 
 was about the Duke of Glenstaffen's expedition. 
 Several learned societies were interested in his pos- 
 sible discoveries, and some popular magazines had 
 devoted quasi-learned articles to its prospects, and to 
 Essendine's former work. 
 
 Brathwayte asked in that careless casual way in 
 which he often put the most crucial question to a 
 witness : 
 
 " By the way, is Essendine married ? " 
 
 " Heavens ! No ! " said the man opposite to him. 
 " Most unlikely man in the world. He has a holy 
 horror of matrimony. I've known Essendine from 
 boyhood. He had some unfortunate experience he will 
 never speak of. Jilted or something, I fancy. Some one 
 spread a yarn that his wife died the other day, but of 
 course it is absurd."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 127 
 
 Brathwayte did not pursue the subject, but he noted 
 the reply in his mind. This unfortunate experience 
 was the story that Essendine had confided to Lola, 
 and it did not tally with the other story which he had 
 heard from Hilda Donelly ; altogether he must wait 
 and let the two stories develop. Fortunately there 
 was time ; Essendine would not be back for six months 
 at least. Much would transpire in that time. So he 
 walked back to his house, still puzzled, but feeling tha 
 a point had been gained.
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 
 BRATHWAYTE had finished a big speech in 
 the Appeal Court ; and left subsequent 
 developments for the time in charge of his 
 Junior, going back, as he most usually did, to his 
 chambers for a scratch picnic luncheon, in preference 
 to the Royal Courts luncheon-room. His tray had 
 just been brought in, when Trevenna was announced. 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Trevenna," he said. " Will 
 you join me in a snack ? No ? Well, you're right. 
 A man who has time to lunch comfortably should 
 always do so. You'll excuse my going on eating 
 while we talk. I saw Greville this morning, break- 
 fasting in his dressing-gown at 10 o'clock. Lucky 
 dog 1 He isn't a slave to Courts and Judges." 
 
 " Oh, yes. You were after that apparatus of Sir 
 Alfred Ross's, weren't you ? " 
 
 " Yes. There's the parcel. Looks as if it had been 
 tied up after dinner, doesn't it. Never could make 
 a neat parcel in my life. Well, it goes into my safe 
 for the time being, Sir Alfred wired to me this morning 
 not to make any more experiments till I heard from him. 
 He has a new idea, and doesn't want to waste the stuff 
 in the meantime. Now to business. Greville starts 
 the day after to-morrow for Penzance. I impressed 
 on him carefully to keep as quiet as possible. Dear old 
 boy, he hasn't much tact, you know, and if he went 
 about asking for a motoring party, some one in London 
 
 128 

 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 129 
 
 would be sure to hear of it and make mischief. If the 
 party are in Penzance, he's quite certain to see them. 
 It's a small place, or he might see the names in an hotel 
 visitors' book. Anything else he had better leave to 
 you. Have you been able to make any start yet ? " 
 
 " Yes. I've done a little this morning. I find there 
 are one or two agencies where Canadians are almost 
 certain to go directly they arrive in this country. 
 Some come for pure business ; some are connected with 
 emigration ; and some come for pleasure or sport. 
 The last are most likely to be the people we want. 
 I've got a friend who is connected with a big motor-car 
 concern trading with Canada and America. So I 
 called on him this morning, and told him I wanted to 
 know all the wealthy Canadians now touring in this 
 country. Told him I had a scheme for starting a 
 reciprocal touring club for Britain and Canada, to take 
 our people through the Rockies, and all the picturesque 
 places in Canada, and show Canadians all we have in 
 this country, saving them all trouble and giving them a 
 fine time, getting them to know each other also. 
 I said I wanted to secure some influential support before 
 I brought it forward, and proposed to interview person- 
 ally the likely Canadians now in this country. He 
 caught on directly, like a fish after a fly, promised me 
 every sort of help, wanted to come in and share the 
 profits, and so forth. He can get details of every 
 one who has brought a car over, also of most, at any 
 rate, of those who have either hired or bought cars in this 
 country. In a couple of days I shall have all this 
 information, and it will go hard if I don't get on the 
 track of this party within a week. You see it's his 
 interest to do so, and gives away nothing." 
 
 " Bravo ! Trevenna. You would have made a 
 splendid lawyer, if fate had not made you such a
 
 130 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 delightful man of leisure. Now I want to tell you this. 
 It may mean something, or it may not probably not. 
 You remember Greville speaking last night about his 
 adventure on Waterloo Bridge, the woman who went 
 over into the river. No ? Well, we were all talking 
 about other things, and poor Greville's little adventure 
 wasn't noticed. However, he did say that a woman 
 went over in the fog, and a blundering policeman wanted 
 to arrest him. Greville, it seems, had to go back 
 to Waterloo Station to be identified. Not much in 
 the story, after all ; but this morning one of my police 
 witnesses, a man I know well he's often been a witness 
 in my cases, either for me or the other side told me 
 about this woman, and showed me the description 
 circulated among the police. Of course it's vague, 
 owing to the fog ; still, one or two policeman seem 
 to have seen the woman, and the man who was with 
 her, fairly clearly, unless they have made up more than 
 they saw. They do sometimes. Now just read that 
 through quietly. Don't say anything till you've finished 
 it, and tell me what impression it makes on you." 
 
 Trevenna took the paper and read it carefully ; 
 rubbed his forehead, wiped his eyeglasses, and read it 
 again ; put it down on his knee and sat silent for a 
 moment. Then he ejaculated : 
 
 " Good God ! " 
 
 " What do you make of it ? " said Brathwayte. 
 
 " I can't say. It's incredible, impossible of course ; 
 but the damned thing suggests nothing but Mrs. 
 Greville. A rough, vague description of course. 
 Still : little touches of the dress, the unusual appearance, 
 rather foreign-looking. Confound it, Brathwayte, 
 what does it mean ? " 
 
 " Now read this. The description of the man with 
 her."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 131 
 
 Trevenna read again, but this time more rapidly, 
 and the document was shorter. 
 
 " Well," he said, " you know after reading the other 
 one that might very well be Harry Greville ; but I 
 don't think I should have thought of him if it hadn't 
 been for that first thing." 
 
 " Well, you've just come to my conclusion, Tre- 
 venna. I wouldn't say a word to bias you. I wanted 
 to see whether it was pure fancy on my part. Now, 
 you see, whatever else we may say, it certainly was not 
 Greville. He was at Waterloo Station, and was 
 identified there. Suppose it was Mrs. Greville with a 
 man superficially like her husband." 
 
 " Good Lord ! You surely don't suggest for a 
 moment " 
 
 " Stop a moment, Trevenna. I suggest nothing 
 But it is a lawyer's business to consider every possible 
 contingency, even those so improbable as to be practi- 
 cally impossible. That is what we are for. The Man 
 in the Street can see what is likely. We know by 
 experience that it is precisely the likely things that 
 don't happen. 
 
 " Now I ask you for one moment to stretch your imagi- 
 nation, and fancy that this was actually Mrs. Greville, 
 and see where we are. In the first place, it certainly 
 was not Harry Greville with her, but a man superficially 
 like him, like enough to deceive a policeman, not a 
 very difficult thing. Also it appears that they were 
 quarrelling, a most unlikely thing for Mrs. Greville, 
 as we know her. She never quarrels with anyone, 
 therefore the man must have been more than ordinarily 
 provoking, in fact a beast. Not therefore one of her 
 friends. How would such a woman come in contact 
 with such a man ? Well, unfortunately, we know 
 many such cases, where a gentle and refined woman
 
 132 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 seems to be obsessed by a brute and a bully. Now 
 suppose mind, I only say ' suppose ' that something 
 of this kind has happened here. Such a man would 
 coerce her to invent all the story of the Canadian friends, 
 and the motor trip, and to join him. With a woman of 
 Mrs. Greville's type a very short acquaintance with such 
 a man would be absolutely unendurable. It might 
 be that the river was the only refuge. It is a wildly 
 impossible story I am imagining, I grant you, but it 
 has happened before, and that within my knowledge, 
 and it may happen again. We are bound to take 
 every possibility into account. 
 
 " Again, assuming, as of course I assume, that this 
 woman was some one entirely different, and that Mrs. 
 Greville is, as we believe, happily motoring in the West 
 Country. It is just possible that the same idea which 
 has struck you and me may strike some one else, who 
 sees this description, some one perhaps not so reticent 
 as we are, and most undesirable stories may be spread, 
 therefore it is most urgent that this motoring party 
 should be found without any delay. I know I need 
 not urge this on you. You have done much already. 
 I wish I could help, but I'm not an investigator, I'm 
 not a detective. I confess I look with wonder and 
 admiration at that sort of marvellous intuition, second- 
 sight what is it ? that makes a man a tracker. 
 But one thing I have that may be of use, and that is a 
 knowledge, laboriously acquired, of the comparative 
 value of evidence. Tell me your facts when you have 
 found them, and I will sift them for you. And see 
 here keep in close touch with Mrs. Donelly. Unless 
 I am greatly mistaken, facts will come to her somehow. 
 It's just her temperament, a thing we can't argue 
 about or explain, but there it is. Now I've done my 
 luncheon, and I've done all the talking, it seems to me,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 133 
 
 and I am wanted in Court. So I fear I must turn you 
 out to get your own luncheon. Good-bye. You are 
 on absolutely the right lines at present. Report to 
 me when you have anything to say." 
 
 They shook hands, and Trevenna walked out into 
 the old winding lanes of the Temple. 
 
 It was already past his luncheon-time, and his club 
 seemed a long way off. On the spur of the moment 
 he turned into the Savoy and looked round for a vacant 
 table. About half-way down the room he caught sight 
 of Hilda Donelly, lunching alone at a small table. 
 He made his way across, for he was in the mood to 
 talk, and Hilda looked very well in a large black hat, 
 and a smartly cut tailor-made costume of navy blue. 
 He foresaw a pleasant luncheon, and so apparently 
 did she, for she half rose to greet him with a welcoming 
 smile that was part of Hilda's own self. 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Trevenna, this is delightful I You are 
 the man of all others in the world that I most wanted 
 to see." 
 
 It was noticeable that whatever man she chanced to 
 meet was generally the man of all others that Hilda 
 most wanted to see. And this was not humbug, 
 hardly indeed could it be called a pose, rather was it a 
 part of her general satisfaction with the scheme of 
 things generally, and especially with the male half 
 of humanity. This time, however, her satisfaction was 
 more than usually genuine. 
 
 " Do you know," she said, as Trevenna sat down 
 opposite to her and began to study the menu, " that 
 horrid Mrs. Fraser has been pestering me this morning 
 until I got so cross and ruffled I couldn't face lunching 
 alone, chez moi, so I sallied forth in quest of somewhere 
 that was bright and social, and drifted in here, and here 
 by the most fortunate chance I am lucky enough to
 
 134 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 meet you. Now order your luncheon, and then we 
 will talk, akeady even seeing you has driven away most 
 of the blue devils left by that woman." 
 
 The ordering of luncheon was soon done. Trevenna, 
 an old traveller, knew just what he wanted, and ordered 
 it in the fewest possible words. 
 
 " Now, Mrs. Donelly, tell me all the trouble. Really 
 I sympathize with you most deeply. I wouldn't be 
 left alone for a morning with Mrs. Fraser for a kingdom. 
 All the same you know we are, in a measure, in the 
 diplomatic service for Greville ; and Mrs. Fraser is, 
 if I may say so, the enemy's secret service bureau. 
 We must carefully supervise, as far as we can, the 
 information that reaches her. Supply it ourselves if we 
 can. All that she knows will go out to all her friends 
 with her own comments and additions. Therefore, 
 if we know her ideas, it is all to the good." 
 
 " Dear me, I wish I had a brain like yours, Mr. 
 Trevenna. It is such a comfort to be able to talk to 
 a clear-headed, clever man. Well, I'll just tell you all 
 the story, and you will be able to put it together. Of 
 course there's really not much new. Just the old story. 
 Where is Mrs. Greville ? Hasn't her husband heard 
 from her yet ? How very extraordinary ! And she 
 hasn't even written to the Theatrical Guild, or to the 
 Musicians' Orphans, and she has all the books and 
 accounts, and her husband says he doesn't in the least 
 know where they are. Probably, he says, in her 
 dispatch box, and she took away the keys, and he 
 wouldn't hear of the box being opened by a locksmith, 
 though that is what she would have wished. Mrs. 
 Fraser was quite sure that Eulalie Would have handed 
 over all her keys and everything to her. Such im- 
 pudence, wasn't it ? Only Harry didn't see it, and she 
 was indignant at that. And all through she talked as
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 135 
 
 if I knew all about it, and where she was, and was 
 keeping it dark. She almost called me a liar once or 
 twice, and I could see she was laying traps for me all 
 the time. Then she talked about that poor woman 
 that jumped over Waterloo Bridge yesterday after- 
 noon. What that had to do with it, I don't know. 
 But she kind of hinted that what had happened to 
 one woman might happen to another, and perhaps 
 that woman had a bad husband. I can't think what 
 she was driving at. Does she think that Harry threw 
 Eulalie into the river, I wonder ? " 
 
 " She's a pernicious gossip," said Trevenna, " but 
 no more than that, I fancy. However, she annoys 
 Greville, and gets on his nerves, a very good reason for 
 getting him away for a bit. What did you say to her, 
 Mrs. Donelly ? You must have had a bad morning 
 of it." 
 
 " Oh, well, I think I silenced her for the time at any 
 rate. I told her that he was going to join his wife, 
 and they would probably come back together very 
 soon. Oh, but she rounded on me then, like a weasel 
 on a rabbit. Then he knows where she is, she said, 
 just as sharp as you please. I said I really didn't 
 know, it was no business of mine what he knew, I 
 understood he was going to join her. " 
 
 " Let's see," said Trevenna. " We musn't let her 
 go and worry Harry with this story. It might have 
 been better to let him get safe away before giving her 
 this bit of information. Never mind ! We will 
 convey to her that he has got some place named for a 
 meeting ; in the meantime there is no address. Of 
 course they are moving about. I think I can manage 
 that, I know some of the Theatrical Ladies' Guild. 
 A secret whispered to one of them is as good an 
 advertisement as you could get."
 
 136 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " Mr. Trevenna, you are splendid I I am so glad I 
 met you. I could never have seen the way out of 
 this tangle by myself." 
 
 " You will be seeing Harry, I dare say, Mrs. Donelly." 
 
 " Yes, he's taking me to see Tree to-night. He's 
 got a box. Do come and join us, he will be so 
 pleased." 
 
 " I will if I can. But, look here, telephone to him 
 to take you out to dinner also, and tell him quietly 
 not to be at home on any account, except to sleep, 
 till he goes away. That will keep him out of Mrs. 
 Eraser's clutches till he gets away. He can be at his 
 club, she can't get at him there." 
 
 " Capital, Mr. Trevenna, you are indeed a tower of 
 strength. You think of everything. I'll go and 
 telephone at once. I know he will be at his club now. 
 I should love to see Mrs. Eraser's face when she fails 
 to get at him. Sarah has no love for her, and won't 
 let her in, or give her any information. I can telephone 
 from here, I believe. Good-bye, for the present. 
 Do come to-night, won't you ? " 
 
 " Certainly, if I can. I think I can manage it. I 
 haven't seen Tree in this new thing. It's well spoken 
 of." 
 
 So these two went their several ways. Trevenna 
 set out to see his friend in the motoring interest, and 
 get any information that he might have collected since 
 the morning, and Hilda Donelly, after ringing up 
 Harry Greville, and arranging to dine with him before 
 the theatre, and cautioning him against going home, 
 went home herself to rest before going,out for the even- 
 ing. Calling in, on the way, at Bermuda Avenue to 
 give an extra caution to Sarah not to be over com- 
 municative to Mrs. Fraser if that lady should chance to 
 call, she heard that Harry had already acted on her
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 137 
 
 suggestion, for he had rung up to say that he was 
 sending a man from the club for his evening clothes, 
 and would dress at the club, and not be home till 
 late. So she went home, on the whole well satisfied. 
 
 And Mrs. Fraser did call at Bermuda Avenue, only 
 about half an hour after Hilda had been there, and was 
 confronted by the well-coached Sarah, who rather 
 appreciated her role. 
 
 " No, Mr. Greville is not in at present." 
 
 " But I want most particularly to see him. When 
 will he be in ? " 
 
 " I couldn't say." 
 
 " Will he be in to dinner ? " 
 
 " No, he is dining out." 
 
 " To dress then." 
 
 " No, he is dressing at his club. Probably he will 
 be late, after twelve possibly." 
 
 " Have you any news of Mrs. Greville ? " 
 
 " No, m'm, not at present. She may be home any 
 day now." 
 
 " Well, do you chance to have seen two books any- 
 where about, one a small red account book, and the 
 other rather larger bound in rough leather with a 
 clasp, both labelled " Theatrical Ladies' Guild, Bays- 
 water Branch." 
 
 " No, I have not seen them, they are not about the 
 house. All Mrs. Greville' s papers are locked up, and 
 she has the keys away with her." 
 
 " Can I come in and look round, I should know them 
 in a moment, they may have escaped your eyes." 
 
 " No, m'm, my orders are positive, I am to admit 
 no one while Mr. Greville is out." 
 
 Mrs. Fraser sniffed. 
 
 " Not even Mrs. Donelly." 
 
 " No, not even Mrs. Donelly."
 
 138 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Sarah invented this statement on her own responsi- 
 bility, for as a fact Mrs. Donelly had been in the house 
 only half an hour before. 
 
 Mrs. Fraser shrugged her shoulders and departed, 
 with her nose in the air and a more pronounced sniff. 
 
 " Don't believe a word of it," she said to herself as 
 she slammed the gate behind her, " that girl is just in 
 the plot." 
 
 Arrived at her own home, she peeped into the 
 colonel's dressing-room where he was busy shaving. 
 
 " Charles, I am not at all satisfied about Eulalie 
 Greville." 
 
 " My dear Clara, you must leave people to manage 
 their own business. It's her husband's look-out." 
 
 " Nonsense, Charles, I tell you that man's capable 
 of anything. Eulalie is my friend, and I am going to 
 stick to her, and I shall help her if she's in trouble, 
 and if you think I'm going to sit still and see her 
 husband carry on with another woman under my very 
 nose, why you're mistaken." 
 
 " Much better keep still, Clara. You'll get into 
 trouble some day if you will go meddling in other 
 people's affairs. Look here, did you give the cook that 
 new curry-paste I brought home ? " 
 
 " No, I didn't, but " 
 
 " Never mind the but. Run along and give it 
 her I specially want that curry to-night for dinner." 
 
 Mrs. Fraser managed the colonel in a general way 
 most completely, but she knew the length of her string 
 to an inch, and being well aware that an explosion was 
 not far off she thought it wise to retreat and provide 
 his favourite delicacy without more words. Wise in 
 her generation was Mrs. Fraser. 
 
 A couple of hours later, Trevenna walked into 
 Harry Greville's box at His Majesty's, and just
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 139 
 
 succeeded in finding and shaking hands with him and 
 Hilda Donelly in the darkened house, as the great 
 piece was beginning. During a pause, as the scene was 
 changed in utter darkness, he contrived to whisper to 
 Hilda : 
 
 "I've seen my lady of the Theatrical Guild thing 
 and put that all in order." 
 
 " Splendid," she whispered back, " and I've primed 
 Sarah. We've done well." 
 
 Then the lights gradually shone out and the new 
 scene came into view, and both said together " How 
 beautiful I " and settled themselves to the enjoyment 
 of the piece. 
 
 When the curtain went down, and the house blazed 
 into light again, Harry and Trevenna exchanged 
 greetings. 
 
 " So glad you could come, Trevenna. Fine thing 
 this, isn't it ? " 
 
 " Superbly mounted as usual. Not sure that I care 
 so very much for Tree in it." 
 
 " Well, he's never done anything equal to Svengali, 
 that was unique." 
 
 " I don't quite agree. In ' A Woman of No Im- 
 portance,' for instance, he was magnificent, and there 
 have been other things. By the way, Greville, you 
 got my message ? " 
 
 " Yes, a thousand thanks, I'm acting on it. We 
 shall sup at the Gambrinus. You'll join us, I hope, so I 
 shan't be home till past twelve. Mrs. F. will be safe 
 tucked up by that time, and I'm going out to breakfast 
 to-morrow. The day after there's a Board meeting 
 of my firm, I must be at that. But as soon as that is 
 well over I'm off." 
 
 " All right ! You won't be plagued any more, old 
 chap, and you'll come back safe with your wandering
 
 140 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 . _j 
 
 wife, whom we shall all welcome, for her own sake as 
 well as yours, and confound the scandalmongers." 
 
 " Look down there, Trevenna. Isn't that Brath- 
 wayte in the stalls, standing up with an opera- 
 glass ? " 
 
 " Of course it is, and Mrs. Brathwayte and Miss 
 Macarthy. He's looking this way. He sees you. 
 Beckon him to come up." 
 
 A waved hand of greeting from below was answered 
 by an inviting hand from the glittering horseshoe 
 above, and Brathwayte and Miss Macarthy picked 
 careful way between the rows of stalls and presented 
 themselves at Greville's box. 
 
 " Extravagant dog you are, Greville, going for boxes 
 in this way. Well, the thing's worth it. I was here the 
 first night, and here I am again a stalled ox, as you see. 
 Lola there is only just beginning to realize what we 
 can do in England in the theatrical way. You're 
 right too, you wanted a bit of bucking up. You were 
 getting a worried look that wasn't right." 
 
 " He's going to be all right now, Mr. Brathwayte," 
 said Trevenna. " He's out to all comers, which 
 especially means Mrs. Fraser, until he goes away in 
 three days' time, to come back triumphant with Mrs. 
 Greville." 
 
 " Bravo ! You've all done wonders, and he looks 
 better already." 
 
 " I feel it," said Harry. " That woman was a 
 nightmare on my chest." 
 
 Hilda was talking to Lola Macarthy at the back of 
 the box. 
 
 " I have so wanted to meet you again, Mrs. Donelly, 
 I couldn't speak last night, there were so many people. 
 But you remember that Mr. Trevenna spoke about 
 some queer story he had heard of Mr Essendine's wife.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 141 
 
 You know Mr. Trevenna, and I don't, I do wish you 
 could find out from him what that story is. You see, 
 I knew him so well in the Colonies, and he trusted me 
 with the real story, and it may be that some one has got 
 hold of something that might do him harm, some silly 
 invention. He's away now, and not able to speak for 
 himself. I can tell you something of the true story, 
 just the outlines, as much as my mother knows. Some 
 things I cannot say, because it is another man's secret ; 
 but I do want you to help me to keep his name from the 
 gossips if we can. You would understand if you knew 
 him, there's not a man in the world who is more the 
 soul of honour and chivalry than Ralph Essendine." 
 
 Hilda pressed the girl's hand. 
 
 " Come to lunch with me to-morrow," she said. 
 " Tell me as much or as little as you like, I'll help you 
 as much as ever I can." 
 
 Things were looking a little tangled to her. She was 
 pledged to Mr. Brathwayte not to say anything about 
 the death of Ralph Essendine's wife at the Terminus 
 Hotel ; but she was to hear from Lola another story, 
 or perhaps another chapter of the same story. Any- 
 how, all she could do was to listen and be sympathetic, 
 and hold her tongue ; and this was a role that suited 
 Hilda precisely. As Brathwayte had said of her, she 
 liked to look upon life as an interesting story written 
 for her amusement, and to let the facts develop 
 themselves according to the author's design, without 
 interfering. 
 
 So Brathwayte and his niece returned to their stalls, 
 and the gorgeous drama wound itself on to a satis- 
 factory finale. 
 
 Harry Greville and Hilda looked in vain for a taxi 
 at the door, and at last in desperation hailed a hansom, 
 Trevenna electing to walk to the Gambrinus. They
 
 142 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 did not chance to notice a taxi that passed them coming 
 from the Haymarket, but the occupants of it were 
 Colonel and Mrs. Eraser, and the lady saw, and 
 took very special note of the occupants of that 
 hansom.
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 DURING the next week nothing very noticeable 
 happened. Brathwayte, from long profes- 
 sional experience of the queer ways of fate, 
 spoke to Trevenna of the calm before a crisis. Harry 
 Greville had departed for Penzance, but he was going 
 to stay a day or two at Exeter en route. Trevenna 
 had advised this. He merely said it was a pleasant 
 and interesting place, and he asked Harry to go and 
 look at some underground passages for him, to which 
 access could be had through a chemist's shop. 
 
 His real reason was that among the names of motoring 
 parties that he had got, the most likely one was actually 
 stopping at Exeter. If Harry chanced to see them, 
 and Mrs. Greville were with them, the whole matter 
 would be solved. Meantime, he was getting inform- 
 ation in London, and did not want to go on the quest 
 himself till his facts were complete. Another party, 
 not so likely but possible, were bound for Land's End, 
 but had not arrived there yet. If the first proved a 
 blank, Harry would encounter the second three or 
 four days later. 
 
 Then there was a meeting of the Theatrical Ladies' 
 Guild. Very few turned up, for it was pretty clear 
 that no business could be done. Mrs. Eraser talked 
 volubly as usual to a bosom friend. 
 
 " Of course we can do nothing whatever without 
 dear Mrs. Greville. She has all the accounts, and the
 
 144 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 minutes, and the suggested cases, and everything. 
 I haven't an idea what subscriptions have been paid, 
 or how much money we have to remit to head-quarters 
 or anything, and the remittances should have been 
 made last week. Really, it is most tiresome. She was 
 always so punctual, and so business-like." 
 
 " You don't know where she is then ? " 
 
 " Not in the very least. Do you know, my dear, 
 it's very queer. I've been to the house over and over 
 again. You know I'm the last woman in the world 
 to be suspicious, or to gossip. In fact I'm too much the 
 other way, too inclined to believe in every one. But 
 poor dear Eulalie's husband ! There I I warned her 
 against marrying him, but she would. And now 
 Well, you know he actually says, and sticks to it, 
 that he has no idea where she is. Never thought of 
 inquiring. What do you make of that ? It simply 
 isn't natural. Why I know, every moment of the 
 day, where the colonel is, and what he is doing, I 
 shouldn't know a moment's peace if I didn't." 
 
 It may be said, in passing, that the colonel's intimate 
 chums at his club could, if they would, have told a 
 rather different story, when certain little games that 
 perhaps had better not have been played were dexter- 
 ously covered by sympathizing friends. 
 
 " You knew her before she was married then ? " 
 queried the friend. 
 
 " Oh, yes. Poor girl I Eulalie Lomax she was then. 
 She got a broken leg out hunting, a daring rider she 
 was in those days. But she had a weak heart, and 
 after she got well the doctor warned her never to hunt 
 again. I was with her through that time, and nursed 
 her. She had hardly any friends in this country. I 
 don't know ; there had been some very unfortunate 
 experiences, some tragedy in her life I think, and she
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 145 
 
 clung to me in a way, and then she married that man 
 Greville, in spite of all I could say. You see she was 
 like a lost soul, craving for some love and sympathy." 
 " And so you brought her into our Guild." 
 " Well, no ; in a sense, I suppose, she brought me in. 
 She has always been most extraordinarily sympathetic 
 to anyone in distress, and particularly interested in all 
 theatrical people, and especially in the seamy side of 
 the profession, and she wanted to help. You see 
 she is always wanting to be doing something for some 
 one else, and then we heard of the Guild, and we both 
 joined. It gives her something to do, and to think 
 about. And then that man 1 Of course he's carrying 
 on with another woman, that Mrs. Donelly, you know. 
 Oh, it's quite open, my dear. There's no doubt about 
 it at all. And he's a man who's capable of anything. 
 In fact, when a man is carrying on with another woman, 
 we know what to expect. And she's so pretty, and so 
 gentle, and so soft, she never really looked after him. 
 My goodness 1 if I were to catch the colonel but there 
 it is you see. He wants her out of the way naturally, 
 and it's my belief he's keeping her out of the way. 
 Do you know the last thing ? He's gone away out of 
 town, and no address, of course not. I caught that 
 Mrs. Donelly finely too. She said he was going to meet 
 his wife. ' Oh, then/ 1 said, ' he knows her address,' and 
 with that she backed out, and said she knew nothing. 
 Of course the woman was lying, a child could see that. 
 I expect she's gone with him, I saw them together in a 
 hansom the other night about half-past eleven in the 
 Haymarket. So you see the sort of life our dear friend 
 has to put up with. And you won't wonder that I 
 do all I can to protect her, and take care of her. I'm 
 never a half friend, as you know, and I'm going to 
 fight for her, and I don't care what anyone says."
 
 146 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Here another woman chimed in : 
 
 " You are splendidly loyal, Mrs. Fraser, but perhaps 
 it may not be as bad as we think. I know an intimate 
 friend of the Grevilles, and he tells me that Mr. Greville 
 isn't at all a bad sort, only I gather, rather stupid and 
 selfish, as most men are, but really fond of his wife. 
 And he has truly gone to meet her and her friends, 
 who are motoring about. They have fixed a rendez- 
 vous somewhere in Devon, I believe. And I know that 
 Mrs. Donelly is still in London, for I chanced to see 
 her this morning at the Army and Navy Stores. I 
 only know her by sight, but there was no doubt it was 
 her. She was in the shoe department, and that can 
 be ascertained at once." 
 
 " H'm ! Well, I sincerely hope it may be so. But 
 you know Mrs. Greville has been seen in London since 
 she was supposed to have gone away. Of course my 
 informant may have been mistaken, but it's not 
 likely. You see Eulalie is rather noticeable. She is 
 so pretty for one thing, and she doesn't dress like 
 other people exactly, always a style of her own. I 
 often wonder who her dressmaker is. It is a thing 
 she never will tell me. She is so afraid of being imitated. 
 Not that I should ever dream of wearing the sort of 
 things she has. They suit her, but they wouldn't 
 suit any other woman in the world. Well, ladies, 
 I suppose we can't do any business. We must just 
 make a minute on a sheet of paper that we met accord- 
 ing to rule, but in the absence of our secretary we could 
 do nothing ; and adjourn till this day fortnight." 
 
 This was carried ncm. con. ; and the meeting broke 
 up. 
 
 It remains to be recorded that Lola Macarthy went 
 to luncheon as before arranged with Mrs. Donelly, 
 and on the following day went for a drive with her to
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 147 
 
 Richmond, and they had many talks, and bit by 
 bit a certain part of the story of Ralph Essendine 
 was confided to Hilda, for Hilda had a way of attracting 
 confidences, without ever asking for or seeming to 
 desire them. And Lola hesitated long between her 
 wish to clear Ralph's name from the whispers that were 
 heard in various quarters, and which were clearly 
 growing, and her wish jealously to guard the secret 
 of his life, confided to her. 
 
 Hilda was a sympathetic and understanding listener, 
 but she never pressed for information, she never 
 volunteered advice or suggestions, only made them very 
 tentatively, and apologetically, when besought to 
 advise. As Brathwayte had said, facts came to her 
 without her effort like steel filings to a magnet. 
 So the outline of the story came. Ralph had told it as 
 of a friend who had been married years ago, secretly, 
 and his wife had separated from him. Well, it was 
 a mistake from the beginning. His mistake and his 
 fault, he said ; but Lola couldn't think that. She 
 guessed it was Ralph's own story. He was very young 
 at the time, and he married on impulse and suddenly 
 without telling anyone. Then the wife heard stories 
 he couldn't explain without betraying a friend. In 
 fact, said Lola, it was Ralph himself and he shouldered 
 some one else's burden, as he was always doing, and 
 because he couldn't explain he had to bear the 
 consequences. 
 
 Had there been a divorce ? Well, Lola had asked 
 that, but he merely replied : ' I am a Catholic, we 
 don't recognize divorce. The marriage tie cannot be 
 dissolved.' His wife had separated from him and took 
 care that he should never be able to trace her, so he 
 had no means of knowing whether she were living or 
 dead.
 
 148 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " But mind you," said Lola," he never told me the 
 story as if it were his own. It was after one of our 
 hunting expeditions, beside the camp fire at the edge of 
 the bush, in the hush of the evening, just before 
 we started to ride home. He was staying with us 
 then, and I suppose the time and the scene were 
 conducive to story-telling. You don't know in this 
 country how lovely the bush can be. And he just 
 told me the story as though it were about a friend of 
 his that he wanted me to sympathize with. He had 
 not got out a dozen sentences when I knew it was 
 his own story he was telling me. And somehow I knew 
 there was another story he wanted to tell me, and just 
 because of that he wouldn't. And he said that this 
 friend of his had come to love a woman very dearly 
 and he couldn't say a word. And, oh, Mrs. Donelly, 
 I just longed to put my arms round him there and then 
 and tell him I understood all about it and that it was 
 himself he was telling me about there's no man like 
 him in all the world but of course I couldn't say that, 
 and he never guessed that I knew. And so we rode 
 home under the first pale stars. 
 
 " There, now I've told you more than I ever told any- 
 one. Mother doesn't know it all, she only knows he had 
 a wife who left him because of a misunderstanding, 
 she doesn't know what it was or that he was shielding 
 a friend, because of his loyalty, or why he couldn't 
 explain, and she rather blamed him to me for not 
 explaining. Of course she never had the story from 
 himself, and he never knew that she knew even that 
 much. Dear old mother, she hoped he would propose 
 to me, I know. A gentle, old-wqrld, old-fashioned 
 mother she is, and my brother Jack and I are like 
 ducklings reared under a hen. She lives in constant 
 tenor of what we shall do next. He could get a divorce
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 149 
 
 at once if his wife has run away, she has said over and 
 over again ; and the dear old thing could never under- 
 stand that he would die before he would ask for a 
 divorce. Do you see now, Mrs. Donelly, why I am 
 certain there was some mistake about that story of 
 his being newly married, and his wife dying suddenly ? 
 It might of course be possible that he had traced his 
 wife, and become reconciled to her. He would take 
 her back, whatever she had done, at any cost to himself, 
 he is that sort of man ; but newly-married he could not 
 have been, nor would he have stayed at the Terminus 
 Hotel. He would have gone away to some quiet country 
 place, perhaps he might have taken her out to Australia, 
 and let his friends gradually get used to the idea of his 
 being married before he came to London. He thinks 
 of everything that will make things easy for others." 
 
 Hilda recalled the pile of Ralph Essendine's luggage 
 at the hotel, and what she had heard from the gossiping 
 chambermaid, and mentally agreed that this was not 
 the Ralph Essendine whom Lola described. But, on 
 the other hand, Lola was very plainly in love, and her 
 description might be a long way from the truth. She 
 mentally revised and corrected Brathwayte's estimate 
 of his niece. She would not love readily, but when she 
 did there was nothing on earth that would make 
 the smallest difference. Hilda meditated. She knew 
 nothing of this Ralph Essendine, except that he seemed 
 to be generally well-spoken of ; but so were many men 
 who didn't deserve it. Suppose he had been playing 
 on this girl's romantic admiration of him. Suppose he 
 had in fact come home and married suddenly, or suppose 
 the lady of the Terminus Hotel was not his wife at 
 all, except in name. It would be no sort of use to 
 put any of these suppositions to Lola. She simply 
 would not believe them, and even though they were
 
 150 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 proved to the hilt it would make no difference. Hers 
 was the love of the heroine of the Irish ballad : 
 
 " I know not, I ask not, if guilt's in that heart, 
 I but know that I love thee whatever thou art." 
 
 Wrong, indefensible, dangerous perhaps, but it was 
 Lola's temperament, and as such Hilda, who had much 
 intuition as to her own sex, recognized and allowed 
 for it. She was of a very unusual type. Her exuberant 
 vitality, and physical strength and daring, fostered 
 and developed by her colonial upbringing, had pro- 
 duced the love of sport and adventure, grafted on an 
 essentially feminine nature derived from her mother 
 and the clear logical brain of all her mother's family, 
 while from her Irish father she drew the romantic 
 enthusiasm of the Celt, and these physical qualities 
 were reflected in her mind and disposition. 
 
 Hence she had grown up the wholesome, open-air 
 girl that she was. Straight and honourable as a man, 
 yet with all the feminine charm, with an absolute and 
 utter contempt and disregard for all conventions as 
 conventions, but the most punctilious regard for the 
 rights and the feelings of others, and for all rules and 
 ordinances that could be logically justified. Hilda 
 could not help thinking, if only Essendine were what 
 she deemed him, and what was generally said of him, 
 they would make an ideal couple, and that he was 
 perhaps the only man who could well mate with a girl 
 of Lola's type. So it chanced that these two became 
 great friends, well understanding each other. 
 
 It was about this time, some ten days or so after 
 Harry Greville had left London, that a new sensation 
 began to appear in the papers, which had of late been 
 very dull. An unknown body had been recovered 
 from the Thames, somewhere down in the neighbour-
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 151 
 
 hood of Rotherhithe. Owing to long immersion and 
 drifting about among barges and other craft, the face 
 was entirely unrecognizable ; but it was the body of a 
 woman apparently of the better classes, well nourished 
 and well dressed. The police, it was asserted, had some 
 clues, but what these were was not divulged. Foul 
 play was hinted at, but there was nothing, so far as 
 the public were informed, to prove it. Then there 
 were obscure suggestions of poison, but the police were 
 reticent. Some letters or papers had been found on 
 the body, but it was said that these were so sodden 
 with water as to be undecipherable. Then again it 
 appeared that there were experts who said that these 
 papers could be so chemically treated by certain 
 processes that they could be easily read. In fact 
 the writing could be photographed, but it would take 
 time. 
 
 All these various items appeared one by one in 
 various editions of the evening papers during several 
 days, and served to keep the public curiosity on edge, 
 though, taken altogether, they amounted to very 
 little. Then came the suggestion that the body was 
 that of a woman who had jumped or been thrown over 
 Waterloo Bridge on the afternoon before Harry 
 Greville's last dinner-party. There was no proof of 
 this, but some details of dress seemed to correspond 
 with the description in the hands of the police. 
 
 The inquest had been postponed from day to day, 
 in the hope of fresh evidence turning up, but seemingly 
 the much talked of clues had not come to anything so 
 far, and the coroner had decided that no useful 
 purpose could be served by postponing it any longer. 
 In fact, he thought that the publication of evidence, 
 so far as obtained, would probably lead to identification 
 and to discovery of the criminal, if indeed a crime had
 
 152 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 been committed. The public generally seemed to be 
 convinced that there had been a crime, and were 
 growing impatient with the delay in disclosing the facts. 
 This appeared from many indignant letters in the 
 papers. 
 
 Trevenna had now perfected his inquiries. He had a 
 complete list of all the parties of wealthy Canadians 
 touring in the West of England in motor cars, and of 
 these he had selected three as being at least probable. 
 He was about to start on a planned route, by which 
 he calculated he should meet all three at definite 
 stopping-places, and he would join Harry at Penzance, 
 where the third and most likely would then be staying 
 for a week. 
 
 It was at this juncture that he called at Brathwayte's 
 chambers. 
 
 The papers that morning had been full of the story, 
 and the supposed identification. The account of the 
 scene on Waterloo Bridge in the fog was repeated 
 with many fresh details, probably supplied by the 
 imagination of policemen working vividly after the 
 event. Of the arrest and instant release of Harry 
 Greville nothing was said. It did not reflect much 
 credit on the acumen of the force. 
 
 Brathwayte was anxious. 
 
 " Look here, Trevenna," he said, " you remember 
 that police description and what we both thought when 
 we read it. Now that will all be revived and published 
 far and wide. Not one person in ten thousand has 
 taken the trouble, or had the opportunity, to read it 
 as a police bill people don't read those things as a 
 rule but every one will read it now. Every one will 
 be agog to guess who this mysterious person found 
 drowned is, and you may be quite certain that some one 
 if not a number of people, will come to the same con-
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 153 
 
 elusion that we did. Within a couple of days after the 
 inquest half London will be guessing that it is Mrs. 
 Greville's body that was found. It is more than urgent 
 that not a moment should be lost in finding that 
 motoring party. It's probable they don't see papers 
 much. I didn't when I was on a motoring tour. They 
 will get news two or three days late, and they will see 
 it all in print about a week after the inquest. It will 
 be a terrible shock to Mrs. Greville. Of course it 
 will be a dramatic denouement that she should reappear 
 to confute all the false statements ; but the trouble 
 that will be caused in the meantime to poor Greville 
 and to all her friends will be incalculable." 
 
 " Shall I start at once, Brathwayte ? Look here, 
 I have the details of the three parties I am looking for. 
 The first will be at Exeter the day after to-morrow ; 
 but I don't know the route they go by. They have 
 their car from my friend's works, and they are to have 
 some refitments, new tyres, I fancy, and other things 
 at Exeter. That's how I know." 
 
 " No sense in going before they get there then, and it 
 may be useful for you to be at the inquest. It's to- 
 morrow. I shall be there. I returned a brief on 
 purpose to be able to go. I confess I don't under- 
 stand those hints of poison, there seems nothing on 
 earth to go upon. I asked my friend the police 
 witness he was in Court this morning in another case 
 that I wasn't in and he told me it was an idea of some 
 doctor who is a crank, and wants to advertise himself. 
 Well, I think you should hear all there is to be said ; 
 for one thing, you will see Greville at Penzance. I 
 hope you will see him before he reads about it in the 
 papers, at all events you must calm his mind." 
 
 " All right, I'll go to-morrow night, or the next 
 morning at latest. But, I say, Brathwayte, what you
 
 154 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 said the other day has been on my mind ever since, 
 and bothered me more than I can say. Suppose this 
 was actually to be poor Mrs. Greville. It's absurd, 
 ridiculous, I know, but since you put the notion into 
 my head I can't get it out." 
 
 " Look here, Trevenna, there's an old Spanish 
 proverb, which I have found invaluable in my practice, 
 ' Don't jump till you come to the hedge.' A lawyer is 
 bound to look at every possibility, and not to be taken 
 by surprise ; but it is sheer waste of time to consider 
 what you will do in possible circumstances that haven't 
 arisen. You and I have plenty to do in considering 
 what to do in the circumstances we know. We'll see 
 what turns up at the inquest to-morrow. I'll have a 
 quiet talk with the inspector who has charge of this 
 case, and see if it is possible to keep the police descrip- 
 tion out of the papers. Oh, and by the way, before 
 you start, go and see Mrs. Donelly. It is just possible 
 that there may be some news of Mrs. Greville." 
 
 " Right, I'll call on her now. She will probably be 
 in about tea-time." 
 
 " Do. Good-bye. Wire me if there's anything. 
 If not we meet at the inquest. Here is a note of the 
 place and time." 
 
 Trevenna picked up a taxi in the Strand and drove 
 straight to Mrs. Donelly's little house, which was in one 
 of the backwaters of Kensington. Hilda was in. 
 It was his first call, and he looked round with some 
 interest and appreciation at the dainty drawing- 
 room, which was furnished in excellent taste. There 
 were few things in it, but every one was good of its kind, 
 and the fastidious eye of the rbnnoisseur approved. 
 Hilda came in, radiantly welcoming., 
 
 " This is really delightful, Mr. Trevenna. You have 
 the royal gift of turning up just when you are most
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 155 
 
 wanted. Now you'll have some tea, and tell me all 
 I want to know. First of all, do you know the 
 Alhambra ? " 
 
 Trevenna was amazed and looked it. He had come, 
 full of the business of Harry Greville and his search 
 for his wife, and the finding of the unknown woman's 
 body in the Thames, and the coming inquest, and to be 
 suddenly whisked off to the Alhambra, apropos of 
 nothing, jarred his thoughts. 
 
 " I know two," he replied, " Leicester Square and 
 Grenada. Which is it ? " 
 
 " Oh, Grenada, of course, I mean. How silly of me 1 
 I'll tell you why I ask in a moment." 
 
 " Yes, I know Alhambra please don't say ' the ' 
 very well, every inch of it. I've sketched and photo- 
 graphed it, and studied every detail. It is a veritable 
 fairy palace. What about it ? Are you going to 
 Spain? I can tell you anything you want to 
 know." 
 
 " No, I'm not going, though I should love to. And I 
 wish I could have you for a guide. But what I want 
 to know just now is do you know the Court of the 
 Lions ? I think that's the name." 
 
 " As well as I know my own sitting-room." 
 
 " Can you give me a rough idea of the scheme of 
 decoration ? " 
 
 " Instantly. See here." He took a pencil from his 
 pocket, tore a sheet of paper out of a note-book and 
 rapidly sketched a design. " That's the general idea 
 on the walls. You find the same theme repeated with 
 variations of line and colour. You see it is all founded 
 on certain Arabic letters meaning " 
 
 " Stop one moment, you are going too fast for me. 
 I want to show you something, and then you'll know 
 why I asked."
 
 156 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 She left the room, and returned immediately with a 
 dainty evening cloak. 
 
 " Look at the brocade lining of this. Is that any- 
 thing like it ? " 
 
 " The identical design. Where in the world did 
 you get it ? " 
 
 " I will tell you, but first read this cutting. It's 
 about the poor woman who jumped over Waterloo 
 Bridge, and who is supposed to be the same as the 
 one whose body was found, the one that there has been 
 all the stir in the papers about." 
 
 Trevenna read : 
 
 " The only real clue in the possession of the police 
 is a scarf dropped by the woman when she jumped from 
 Waterloo Bridge ; it is a piece of silk brocade evidently 
 worked from the design of the decorations of the Court 
 of the Lions in the Alhambra. It is the ordinary type 
 of scarf worn now by ladies, and cannot be said to be a 
 clue of any real value." 
 
 " Now, Mr. Trevenna, it strikes me that this may be a 
 very valuable clue, because, if this scarf is really the 
 same pattern as my lining, I know that there were only 
 about twenty yards of it left, and they were all bought 
 as a remnant by my dressmaker. Doesn't it seem to 
 follow that this poor woman must have got her dresses 
 from the same dressmaker, or at least have got this 
 scarf from her ? " 
 
 Trevenna 's mind ran rapidly back to Harry Greville's 
 dinner-party. He half remembered having heard, 
 without much attending to it, a conversation between 
 Hilda and Lola Macarthy about a piece of brocade 
 which Hilda and Mrs. Greville had entirely bought up. 
 
 He gasped, and stood silent a moment, his thoughts
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 157 
 
 racing. If this brocade had been entirely bought by 
 these two ladies, Hilda was here alive, and the only 
 other wearer of that brocade must be Mrs. Greville. 
 But this must not be breathed or hinted, barely 
 even thought He pulled himself together. 
 
 " It certainly looks like it, Mrs. Donelly." 
 
 " And, do you know, it is a curious thing, but this 
 is the second time lately that I have found a trace of 
 some one who must have been dressed by Miss Fortescue. 
 You remember that queer episode at the Terminus 
 Hotel, when a woman died suddenly, who was supposed 
 to be the wife of Mr. Ralph Essendine ? " 
 
 " I remember you told me something about it, and 
 then you asked me not to mention it, because it was very 
 doubtful whether it was the Ralph Essendine. I had 
 almost forgotten it." 
 
 " Well, it made a considerable impression on me any- 
 how. But the last time I was at the hotel the chamber- 
 maid was wearing a little bit of ribbon, given her by 
 a waiter, that was picked up in the room of this 
 woman who died, and she wore it for luck, as they said, 
 a ghastly idea, isn't it ? Well, that ribbon was another 
 of the remnants that Miss Fortescue had picked up, 
 and which no one else had. She has a gift for getting 
 remnants like that, and I concluded at once that this 
 poor woman who died there so suddenly must also 
 have been dressed by Miss Fortescue." 
 
 " Very curious indeed. Curious, I mean, that you 
 should have met with the two cases so close together. 
 But of course the woman who died at the Terminus 
 Hotel could not have jumped over "Waterloo Bridge 
 af terwards. ' ' He could think of nothing but a platitude 
 to say. 
 
 " I shall hear, however, I hope. I have an appoint- 
 ment to see Miss Fortescue to-morrow. I am going to
 
 158 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 take Miss Macarthy to her, and I dare say she will 
 tell me something about the people who have had these 
 two things, though indeed Miss Fortescue is most 
 discreet, she never gossips about her customers. I 
 think that is why we who know her value her so much. 
 You know women hate having the details of their 
 dressmaking given away to other women." 
 
 " Human nature is always the same, Mrs. Donelly. 
 The Princess Maria d'Este, wife of II Moro, specially 
 enjoined Leonardo da Vinci, who designed a dress for 
 her, not to allow the Duchess of Paris to see the pattern." 
 
 Trevenna stayed a short time longer, admiring a 
 lacquer cabinet, and some fine water-colour sketches 
 of his beloved Italy, and took his leave, more disturbed 
 than he would admit even to himself at this bit of 
 extra evidence of the brocade ; but Hilda merely said 
 to herself : 
 
 " I'll give Miss Fortescue a good talking to, if she 
 has sold any of that brocade to anyone else. It's too 
 bad. Eulalie and I bought the whole of it. However, 
 I can make her account for every yard."
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 A" CROWNER'S QUEST " must always be rather 
 a squalid and sordid affair at best, and a small 
 public-house in Rotherhithe is far from exhilara- 
 ting. Owing to constant blocks in the traffic, both 
 Brathwayte and Trevenna arrived rather late, after the 
 proceedings had begun. The newspaper publicity 
 given to this case had attracted a considerable number 
 of the public, and a good sprinkling of journalists, to 
 the disgust of the coroner, a busy doctor, who desired 
 to get through his work with as little fuss or delay as 
 possible. 
 
 The jury were mainly men connected with the Thames 
 and looked it, The little room was uncomfortably 
 crowded, and redolent of riverside humanity, which 
 has a peculiar savour of its own. The coroner was just 
 saying : 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, to shorten the proceedings, you 
 may assume that this body you have just viewed is the 
 same as that of the woman who jumped over Waterloo 
 Bridge some ten days or a fortnight ago. The cor- 
 respondence of the scarf, in the hands of the police, 
 with some articles of clothing on the body you have 
 seen, proves this, as the inspector pointed out in his 
 evidence. The woman who went over the bridge is 
 still unidentified, but very important clues are in the 
 hands of the police, and as it is quite possible that a
 
 i6o The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 crime has been committed it is most important that 
 no more should be published than is necessary." 
 
 " Idiot ! " whispered Brathwayte, " The inquest 
 itself will warn the criminal, if there is one. But he'll 
 keep the description out of the papers." 
 
 The foreman of the jury interposed : 
 
 " Those clothes are noticeable," he said. " Hasn't 
 anyone seen a woman dressed like that walking about ? " 
 
 " You have heard from the inspector," said the 
 coroner, " that up to now the police have made all 
 possible inquiries, but have failed to identify this 
 woman. They have some important clues, however, 
 but the evidence is not yet complete. Any premature 
 disclosure might seriously embarrass their proceedings, 
 and even defeat the ends of justice." 
 
 " Never knew a case yet where the police had not 
 important clues," whispered Brathwayte. 
 
 " May we see that scarf ? " said the foreman. 
 
 "I see no objection to that," said the coroner, 
 " if the inspector will produce it." 
 
 The inspector had no objection, and took a parcel 
 from his pocket. The scarf was handed round the 
 jury box. 
 
 " Never saw a piece like that," said one of the jury. 
 "I'm a draper myself, and I know. That's Lyons 
 silk, and I say it's unique. I go over the wholesale 
 houses every year to get my stock in. That's never 
 been sold in the English market. That should identify 
 the body." 
 
 The inspector said that this also had formed a part 
 of the police inquiries. 
 
 " Don't believe a word of it," whispered Brathwayte. 
 " He's just heard of it for the first time ; but he'll 
 bag the idea." 
 
 Trevenna craned forward to see the scarf.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 161 
 
 " Brathwayte," he whispered, " it's the identical 
 pattern." 
 
 A short thickset man with sandy hair and gold 
 spectacles pushed his way into the room. 
 
 " Dr. Veldoff," said the coroner. " We were 
 waiting for you, doctor." 
 
 " Can you take me at once ? " said the doctor. " My 
 time is valuable." 
 
 " Certainly, so is ours, and I believe your evidence 
 is valuable." 
 
 Though the doctor's time, as he said, was valuable, 
 he was prolix in his evidence, which may, however, 
 be summarized. He had examined the body with 
 very great care. The face was considerably battered, 
 and not recognizable ; that he considered was due to 
 washing about among the steamers and other craft 
 on the river, not to violence during life, also long 
 immersion would tend to make recognition difficult. 
 There were marks of blows on the body, but whether 
 inflicted in life was impossible to say, none of them 
 would cause death. The organs were all healthy. 
 He had particularly examined the heart. There might 
 have been advanced heart disease, but from causes he 
 would explain it was impossible to pronounce definitely 
 on this. 
 
 Brathwayte and Trevenna looked at each other. 
 Mrs. Greville was known to have heart disease. The 
 same idea was in both their minds, the formless dread 
 of a possibility, almost taking a shape. 
 
 " Was the cause of death then drowning ? " The 
 question was put to the doctor. 
 
 He paused impressively, and replied solemnly and 
 slowly : 
 
 " No, it was not ; in my belief, the cause of death 
 was poison."
 
 162 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 A sensation ran through the room ; the newspaper 
 men scribbled vehemently. 
 
 The doctor was asked for his reasons. He proceeded 
 to lecture, as though he were instructing a class. 
 The cause of death, he said, was an extremely subtle 
 poison from Mexico of which they might have heard. 
 
 " Every drop of which, in Europe, is in my safe," 
 whispered Brathwayte. 
 
 " Offer yourself as a witness," murmured Trevenna. 
 
 " Not I. I'm not a doctor. Besides it is Ross's 
 game, not mine. He can come forward later on if 
 he's wanted." 
 
 " Silence," called the clerk loudly. 
 
 The doctor proceeded. He had studied that poison 
 very particularly, in fact he had made a speciality 
 of poisons. He had not actually seen the effect of 
 this particular poison ; but the general effect of 
 Mexican viper virus he knew very well, and there was 
 no difference, or very little, among various kinds, 
 only this one was more subtle and hard to detect 
 than others. He would like to read the account in a 
 German medical review. 
 
 The coroner however thought a German review was 
 not strictly speaking evidence. He would like to 
 know how the doctor arrived at his conclusion. Had 
 he found any trace of the poison in the body. The 
 doctor had not, that was the peculiarity of this poison, 
 it was absorbed at once into the tissues. There was no 
 known test by which it could be distinguished ; but 
 there was a peculiar post-mortem appearance by which 
 he judged that this virus had been administered. 
 
 The coroner and jury were growing weary of the 
 lecture. The coroner began to interrupt with more or 
 less pertinent questions. 
 
 The doctor said that there was no sign of asphyxia,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 163 
 
 none of the ordinary signs of death by drowning. 
 He thought the woman was probably dead at the time 
 she touched the water, or soon after. The post- 
 mortem appearances were precisely consistent with 
 those described in the German review he had wanted 
 to read about this Mexican poison. 
 
 " Well, then," said the coroner, " it comes to this, that 
 you believe on the authority of this German periodical 
 that the woman was poisoned by this Mexican virus ? " 
 
 " Such is my opinion," said Dr. Veldoff, with all 
 the pomposity of a Pope delivering an infallible 
 dictum. He added a rider, " There is no other sane 
 conclusion from the facts." 
 
 " But does this necessarily point to a crime ? " 
 
 " It certainly does. The poison could only have been 
 self-administered, or administered by another person 
 with criminal intent. Now, she could not within any 
 bounds of probability have procured the poison herself. 
 It is extremely rare. Therefore it must have been 
 administered by some other person ; and, if so admin- 
 istered, then with criminal intent. I conclude therefore 
 that this Mexican poison was criminally administered 
 and that this was the cause of death." 
 
 " Have you any idea where this poison can be 
 procured in England ? " said the coroner. " That would 
 help in identifying the criminal." 
 
 " I have not the very least idea," said the doctor. 
 " It is, as I have said, very rare. Probably the criminal 
 got it from the laboratories in Berlin. They must have 
 had it there for the experiments on which that article 
 was founded." 
 
 " Could this be ascertained ? " 
 
 " Certainly it could. I have friends in Berlin. I 
 can get all the information by post." 
 
 " Kindly do so then, Dr. Veldoff. You have made
 
 164 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 a written statement, I presume, of the appearances of 
 the body, and the result of your investigations." 
 
 " Of course I have. Here it is." 
 
 He handed in a bulky document. 
 
 " Thank you, Dr. Veldoff. We need not trouble you 
 any further now. We shall, I fear, have to ask your 
 attendance again later, when you will have your 
 replies from Berlin." 
 
 Notwithstanding his time being " valuable," the 
 doctor sat down among the public to listen to the 
 remainder of the inquest. A few more witnesses were 
 examined who had nothing particular to say. The 
 coroner said : 
 
 " Well, gentlemen, I fear there is nothing for it 
 but to adjourn this inquiry. There is more police 
 evidence without which we cannot come to any con- 
 clusion, and assuming, as Dr. Veldoff says, that this 
 woman was poisoned by the Mexican poison concern- 
 ing which I must humbly confess myself to be an 
 utter ignoramus it is a very important point where 
 any person in London could have procured it. 
 This evidence Dr. Veldoff has promised to procure. 
 Probably it will be evident that only one of a very few 
 persons could have possibly got it, and this will narrow 
 the inquiry considerably. The inquiry will stand 
 adjourned to this day week, when I must again 
 request your attendance." 
 
 44 Pardon me, sir," said one of the jury, " but are we 
 to express our verdict ' Found drowned, but no means 
 of ascertaining the cause of death,' or are we to say 
 4 Found poisoned, but no means of knowing how she 
 got into the water ? ' 
 
 The coroner looked at him sternly. 
 
 41 You are to find no verdict at all till I tell you, and 
 in the meantime you will be well advised not to gossip
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 165 
 
 about this case among your friends ; the less said 
 the better. I wish you good day, gentlemen." 
 
 The small room cleared rapidly : every one was 
 anxious to get into the fresh air, or at least the nearest 
 approach to it that could be had in Rotherhithe. 
 
 Brathwayte and Trevenna walked away together, 
 picking their way with difficulty among the crowded 
 narrow streets. 
 
 " That doctor is a colossal ass," said Brathwayte. 
 " He wants to advertise himself. If he had only read 
 Ross's evidence in my case, he would have known 
 something about it. We had that precious German 
 review. It's worthless, the thing has no standing at all, 
 and the whole article is a tissue of mistakes from begin- 
 ning to end, written by a German quack who never 
 even saw the stuff. Produced it out of his inner 
 consciousness, as they say. There'll be some fun when 
 that doctor tries to get the poison from Berlin. They 
 never had a drop there. They are awfully keen to 
 get some. The little tube in my safe is all there is in 
 Europe." 
 
 " By Jove, Brathwayte, it might be awkward for 
 you if that was discovered I " 
 
 " It might, but it won't ; besides, Ross would explain. 
 I don't think even a Coroner's jury would charge him 
 and me with poisoning an unknown woman without 
 a motive." 
 
 " Was the doctor's description anything like the 
 truth ? " 
 
 " Nothing whatsoever. He'd got all the appear- 
 ances wrong. There are no post-mortem appearances 
 with that stuff everything is absolutely normal. 
 The appearances he wanted to talk about when the 
 coroner stopped him came from the body being in the 
 water for some time close to the tan-works. It was
 
 1 66 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 partially tanned in fact. If he'd had any sense he 
 might have said something about cadaveric alkaloids. 
 There is something to be said on those lines. Hello ! 
 I beg your pardon." 
 
 He had bumped against a man, looking like a labourer 
 in Sunday clothes, who was hurrying in the opposite 
 direction. 
 
 "It is granted, sir. Can you tell me if there's a 
 inquest being held in this neighbourhood to-day, and 
 where it is ? " 
 
 " Yes, my man. It was held at a small public-house 
 in the third street to the right from here, but it's over." 
 
 " Perhaps I could still see the coroner, sir, do you 
 think ? " 
 
 " You might if you look very smart ; but he won't 
 stay a moment longer than he can help." 
 
 " Thank you, sir." 
 
 The man hurried on to the public-house, arriving 
 just as the coroner was putting on his overcoat, with 
 his clerk's assistance. 
 
 " I beg your pardon, sir, but is the inquest con- 
 cluded ? " 
 
 " No, it's adjourned to this day week. Why ? " 
 
 " And the body, sir, is it buried ? " 
 
 " No, it lies in the mortuary, in the next street. 
 The jury have viewed it this morning. Who are you, 
 and what are you asking these questions for ? Do 
 you know anything of the matter ? If so, why didn't 
 you come and give evidence this morning ? " 
 
 " I'm James Hewson, sir, gardener to Colonel 
 Eraser, of 6 Prospect Villas, Bayswater, and I have 
 some reason to think that I may know the deceased, 
 if I might be allowed to see the body. , I endeavoured, 
 sir, to come before, but I am a stranger to this part of 
 London. I think, sir, I have inquired my way some
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 167 
 
 thirty-six times. I have walked the greater part of 
 the way, sir." 
 
 " Were you told to come ? " 
 
 " No, sir, I was not. I just come on my own account, 
 having read the story in the Sunday Times and in 
 Lloyd's. I thought I knew who the deceased might 
 be/' 
 
 It must be noted here, in the interest of veracity, 
 that James Hewson was not telling the truth. For it 
 was Mrs. Fraser who had sent him, under the strictest 
 orders that he was not to disclose that fact, but to 
 assert boldly that he went on his own initiative. 
 
 " Well, it's irregular. Never mind. I'm always 
 doing irregular things, and they're mostly right. The 
 poor woman will be buried to-morrow, and this may be 
 a last chance to identify her. Come along." 
 
 James Hewson looked long and carefully at the 
 body, as laid out for the view of the jury, and then 
 looked carefully at the clothes. 
 
 " No, sir, I couldn't make no sort of guess from the 
 face, it is too disfigured, as you might say ; but I 
 suppose you might call her height about five and a 
 half ? " 
 
 " Five feet, four inches is the exact measurement." 
 
 " That's about it, sir, as near as may be. Well, I 
 know those clothes about as well as I knows my own 
 sweet-peas. Might I be so bold, sir, as to ask if there 
 was any mark on the underlinen." 
 
 The coroner consulted his note-book. 
 
 " No decipherable mark on underlinen. Some 
 stitches supposed to be laundry marks. Stockings 
 same colour as dress, embroidered initials, ' E.G.' " 
 
 " Must be something wrong there, sir. If it is the 
 lady as I think it is, she had a queer foreign-like name 
 I can't mind, but I know it began with a ' U.' "
 
 168 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " I can't remember any woman's name beginning 
 with a ' U,' " said the coroner, " but there are lots of 
 names I don't know. Knew a baby once baptized 
 Jezebel. One grandmother was Jessie and the other 
 Isabel, so they mixed 'em. Well, get on, my man. 
 Can you identify the body ? " 
 
 " I can, sir, specially what you say about the stockings, 
 for she would always have everything to match it 
 was a fad of hers hat and stockings and everything, 
 even shoes." 
 
 " Well, who is it then ? " 
 
 " That body, what lies there, sir, is the remains of 
 Mrs. Greville who used to live at 25 Bermuda Avenue. 
 Often have I seen her walking in the garden at Colonel 
 Fraser's, sir, and in that very dress. Heliotrope I 
 mind they called it, though I never grew a heliotrope 
 that colour. A pleasant spoken lady she was, and 
 often she begged me for a flower that would go with 
 the dress she was wearing at the time." 
 
 The coroner made some rapid notes. 
 
 " This is very important, if you are correct, my man. 
 Now I suppose Colonel and Mrs. Fraser knew this Mrs. 
 Greville pretty intimately. I wonder if either of them 
 would come and see the body." 
 
 " Couldn't say, sir. The colonel might. Being a 
 military gentleman, he will have seen plenty of dead 
 bodies, I suppose ; but Mrs. Fraser, she has a horror of 
 such things. She wouldn't even come to look at my 
 little boy when he lay in his coffin, just like a little angel 
 in wax, sir, begging your pardon." 
 
 " Well, I must communicate with them, somehow, 
 and put off the burial, I suppose, for another day. 
 In the meantime, I'll just take down what you have 
 told me, and you'll kindly attend here this day week. 
 Colonel Fraser's gardener I think you said."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 169 
 
 " So I calls myself, sir, but maybe general utility 
 would be more exact. I look after the pony, and clean 
 the boots and shoes, polish the knives, carry up the 
 coals, and wait at dinner when there's a party." 
 
 " I see," said the coroner, entering " Odd job man," 
 which would have annoyed James Hewson. " Well, 
 you knew this lady, having often seen her at Colonel 
 Fraser's, and you have no doubt whatever that it is the 
 body of Mrs. Greville who lived at where did you say ? 
 Oh yes, I have it 25 Bermuda Avenue. That's 
 Bayswater too, isn't it ? " 
 
 " That's all quite right, sir." 
 
 " And you recognize her mostly by her clothes, 
 especially by their all matching, and you know that 
 particular costume very well." 
 
 " That's right, sir. Must I kiss the Book, sir ? " 
 
 " No, no I you're not on oath now, merely telling 
 me what you will have to swear to presently. Now, 
 good day, my man. I have a lot to do." 
 
 As he stepped briskly westward the coroner muttered 
 to himself : " Confound all these fresh facts, this is 
 going to be a devil of a job. Why can't we always have 
 a ' found drowned, no evidence,' etc, so much simpler, 
 and one can get away to one's work ? Must go through 
 with it, though. Wonder who poisoned this poor woman, 
 if that doctor's right. Strange thing that she should 
 be poisoned, and jump over the Bridge ; or was she 
 thrown over the Bridge to hide the traces of poison. 
 Gad 1 that's an idea. If that turns out to be the fact, 
 that doctor chap will make his fortune. Might well 
 have been thrown over in that fog. Some lover sick 
 of her perhaps. Mrs. Greville, eh ! well-known woman 
 in her own set too, I understand. Now where the deuce 
 did I hear that she was mixed up with Sir Philip Carew ? 
 There's not much he would stick at. But hang it all !
 
 170 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 poisoning and drowning is a trifle stiff even for him. 
 It's getting deucedly interesting, after all." 
 
 Brathwayte and Trevenna had reached the parting 
 of their ways. 
 
 " Well," said the latter, " then I shall go down to 
 Exeter to-night, and on to Penzance as soon as I've 
 seen my first motoring party. There's nothing in the 
 inquest to alarm anyone, nothing, I mean, to connect 
 it with Mrs. Greville, so that will be all right in the 
 meantime. I should like to know more about that 
 scarf, though." 
 
 " We shall get that all right. My niece is going with 
 Mrs. Donelly to see the dressmaker to-morrow. I'll 
 get the facts from her, and let you know at once. If 
 necessary, I'll call on Mrs. Donelly myself. Keep 
 Greville's mind calm, that's all." 
 
 Exeter was drawn blank. Trevenna wandered about 
 that quaint old-world city, duly admired all the relics 
 of the past that were to be admired, interviewed the 
 agents of his friend of the motor-car works, ascertained 
 that the party he was looking for were coming in that 
 day, and that all their refitments were ready ; then he 
 strolled back to his hotel. About luncheon-time they 
 came in, a typical wealthy colonial party : a father 
 and mother, large, expansive, breezy, and full of good 
 spirits, and delight at everything ; a son and daughter, 
 modern, critical, and aesthetic, disposed to gush over 
 the wrong things ; and a young foreign lady, companion 
 or friend of the daughter, and flirting rather obviously 
 with the son. Trevenna had assumed this fifth person 
 might have been Mrs. Greville. They also put up at 
 the Rougemont Hotel, and one glance showed him 
 that so far his quest had failed. 
 
 Nevertheless, he maintained his , ostensible object.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 171 
 
 He made acquaintance with the party over the luncheon 
 table, mentioned his friend of the motor works as an 
 introduction, and broached the project of an inter- 
 colonial touring club. 
 
 The party were interested, cordially approved, gave 
 him their names, and told him of another party very 
 likely to join, very influential Canadians, at this very 
 moment in Penzance, doing all the old remains about 
 there. Evidently, fortune was playing into his hands. 
 They had an English lady with them, an old friend 
 whom they were taking round. Trevenna said he 
 would lose no time, he would go on at once to Penzance. 
 So he took introductions with him to this party also, 
 and departed full of confidence that he would find Mrs. 
 Greville at last, in all probability with Harry, when 
 complications would be at an end. 
 
 Penzance was basking in the autumn sunshine ; 
 the sea was blue as the Mediterranean ; the cliffs 
 towards Newlyn glowed with every colour ; and the 
 sub-tropical vegetation justified the name of the 
 "English Riviera." 
 
 Trevenna put up at the Marine and inquired for 
 Greville. He was told that Mr. Greville was there, 
 he had come two days ago, but was not in at present. 
 He had gone out for a walk after luncheon and might 
 be back to tea, but it was uncertain. He had gone in 
 the Newlyn direction ; possibly he might be on the 
 parade. Trevenna decided to walk out this way and 
 try to meet him, before asking after his motoring party. 
 If Harry had not encountered them already, they 
 would go together. 
 
 The band was playing, and the parade crowded. 
 Twice Trevenna walked up and down without seeing 
 a sign of the man he was in search of. At last he 
 caught sight of him sitting on a bench some distance
 
 172 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 back, and away from the moving throng. He looked 
 dejected and unhappy, Trevenna thought. So far, 
 his rest and holiday had apparently not done him much 
 good. Trevenna hurried up to him. 
 
 " How are you, Greville ? " he said. " At last, as 
 you see, I have managed to get here. Well, what news ? 
 Have you sighted the tourists yet ? " 
 
 " No ; but come with me, Trevenna, I want to show 
 you something. I am mystified, and more anxious 
 than I can tell you. I won't tell you till you have 
 seen. I want you to form your own conclusion, 
 unbiassed." 
 
 His manner was so earnest and perturbed that 
 Trevenna decided to ascertain what troubled him before 
 saying anything of his own hopes and proceedings. 
 In ordinary circumstances, Harry would have eagerly 
 asked for all his news, and what he had done. Some- 
 thing serious therefore must have transpired. Had 
 any communication from London reached him as 
 to the possible identification of the body found in the 
 Thames as that of his wife. Other people besides 
 himself and Brathwayte might have thought of it, 
 and some one might have written. Not likely, but 
 possible. But then Greville was taking him somewhere 
 to show him something. That was not news from 
 London. Altogether, he was puzzled and walked 
 along revolving one idea after another in his mind, 
 and coming to no conclusion, though he tried hard to 
 focus the situation. 
 
 Thus it was that they walked side by side in silence, 
 each occupied by his own thoughts, and very unlike 
 two friends just met after some days of absence, and 
 with so many happenings to discuss. It was at the 
 pretty little cemetery that Greville paused and turned 
 in, and Trevenna he knew not why felt a cold shock
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 173 
 
 of apprehension. Harry led the way among the green 
 mounds and the pathetic memorials of the dead. 
 
 " I came here by accident this morning," leading his 
 companion up to a simple and graceful cross of white 
 marble newly placed in position, " Or perhaps it was 
 the hand of Providence that led me. Look there ! " 
 
 The cross bore the single word " Eulalie," cut in 
 old English letters. Trevenna was startled, the cold 
 shock gripped his heart for a moment ; then he pulled 
 himself together. He was glad he had withheld his 
 news. 
 
 "A curious coincidence it's an unusual name 
 but of course that's all." They were walking away, 
 and his words came detached with pauses between. 
 " Of course that's all. Anything else would be utterly 
 impossible. Besides well, I'll tell you directly. But 
 we can settle it in a moment, and find out who this is. 
 The church is open, there's been some choir practice 
 or something. Now, if we have the luck to find the 
 parson, we will ask to see the burial register, or I dare 
 say he knows all about it himself." 
 
 The parson was there, just hurrying home to his 
 tea. They greeted him and introduced themselves. 
 
 He remembered that burial very well, only a few 
 weeks ago, he wasn't sure of the exact date without 
 looking. The body was brought down from London. 
 The coffin rested in the church. It was his friend 
 Dr. Giles, one of his churchwardens, who made all the 
 arrangements. Only the poor lady's husband came 
 with the coffin. He seemed very much upset, and no 
 wonder, she had died very suddenly and tragically, 
 he understood ; but Giles knew about it. Here was 
 the entry in the register : " Eulalie, wife of Ralph Waldo 
 Essendine." 
 
 "Good heavens!" exclaimed Trevenna. "That's
 
 174 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 the story then that has been whispered and hinted 
 about London these last few weeks. Fancy our 
 fluking on it here. Well, at all events, Greville, you 
 may make your mind easy now ; Essendine's wife 
 could not be your wife." 
 
 " No ! No ! Well, I am glad we came." 
 
 They took their leave of the parson with many 
 grateful thanks and apologies for troubling him, and 
 walked back towards the parade. 
 
 " Now I'll tell you," said Trevenna. " This evening, 
 or to-morrow morning, I'm in hopes to bring you to 
 your wife, and end all this suspense and trouble. 
 I'm practically certain that I have found the identical 
 party of Canadians she is with, and they should be 
 here now at this moment. Some wealthy people on a 
 motor tour, taking an English lady with them for a 
 pleasure trip from London, and doing all the out-of- 
 the-way places in the extreme west country. They 
 are, if I mistake not, stopping at the Riviera Palace 
 Hotel." 
 
 Greville gripped his hand hard. 
 
 " Trevenna, you are indeed a friend sent straight 
 by Providence. Just before you came I was utterly 
 miserable, a prey to every kind of silly fancy, thinking 
 that the end of everything had come. Now I'm jolly, 
 the world is bright ; everything is good. Come on, let 
 us go to the Riviera Palace at once." 
 
 At the bureau of that very comfortable hostelry, 
 they inquired. 
 
 " Barton Mackinnon," said the clerk " Oh, yes, they 
 were here three days. Left this morning, going to 
 Launceston and Tintagel, I understand." 
 
 " Canadians ? " asked Trevenna. 
 
 " Yes, Canadians. They had a whole suite of 
 rooms for their party. A splendid car they had too.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 175 
 
 Mr. and Mrs. Barton Mackinnon, and his sister, and a 
 lady from London, a friend, a very pretty lady she was, 
 and very pleasant spoken." 
 
 " Rather foreign looking ? " said Greville. 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Did you ever hear her name ? " " No, and she 
 never had any letters, I noticed that, for the Mackinnons 
 had a great lot." 
 
 " That must be they," said Greville. " Now I 
 think of it, I'm almost sure I remember the name. 
 Yes, I'm certain now that I do. Stupid of me to 
 forget. All this trouble might have been saved. 
 Come on, Trevenna, let's go down to the station and 
 find out when the first train leaves for Launceston. 
 Lord, what a weight you've taken off my mind 1 "
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 THERE was no possibility of reaching Launceston 
 that night ; but the general aspect of things 
 was now so hopeful that the two friends returned 
 to the Marine to dinner in a mood of great cheerfulness. 
 Afterwards, they went out to smoke on the parade, 
 while the moon floated like a silver lamp over the water, 
 and the ripple of the little waves made a pleasant 
 accompaniment to their talk. They anticipated the 
 chaff they would have when they came up with the 
 run-away wife, and how they would dwell on and 
 exaggerate all the difficulties and troubles that had 
 come from her prolonged silence. 
 
 " It will be a lesson to her to write occasionally 
 when she goes away," said Greville. " She is really 
 perfectly hopeless as a correspondent." 
 
 " You're not much better yourself, my dear chap," 
 said Trevenna. " When I think of the times that I 
 have had to write to you a dozen times for some bit 
 of information, and at long last you have forgotten to 
 put in the very thing you were writing about. You 
 know you are really the most casual old boy I ever 
 encountered. You'll get yourself into some serious 
 trouble one of these days, if you don't get more 
 methodical." 
 
 " I'm afraid it's a true bill, Trevenna, but it's 
 such a deuce of a fag 1 I suppose if I'd done what I 
 ought I should have kept a careful note of where 
 
 176
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 177 
 
 Eulalie was going to, and the names of these people, 
 Barton Mackinnon. I ought to have remembered it 
 without a note, I knew all about them, though I 
 don't think I ever met them. Eulalie knew them well. 
 I say, Trevenna, what a queer thing about that cross 
 in the cemetery, and Mr. Essendine's wife having the 
 same name. There must have been something odd 
 about that. He'd only recently come back from 
 abroad. It looks as if he must have made some secret 
 marriage, a man of his notoriety would naturally have 
 his picture in the papers when he got married, and a 
 big flare up. But there was nothing about it, and then 
 coming down here alone to bury her, and almost 
 immediately going off again with the Duke of Glen- 
 staff en. He must be an odd sort of chap." 
 
 " I expect he is. If we come back this way after 
 we've joined your wife, we'll try and see that Dr. Giles. 
 I confess I should like to hear the story at first hand. 
 The doctor must be a friend, as he arranged all the 
 business." 
 
 " We will. It's a pity Hilda isn't here. It's just 
 the sort of bit of romance she would love ; and you 
 may bet your life every one concerned would come and 
 tell her all about it. They always do. Queer thing 
 that about Hilda : she's not a bit of a gossip, but things 
 come to her. Now Mrs. Fraser is a born gossip, and 
 she always gets hold of the wrong end of the stick 
 somehow. Good Lord I how that woman bored me." 
 
 " She's worse than a bore, Greville, she's actively 
 dangerous. She'll get hold of some cock-and-bull 
 story, and freeze on to it, and circulate it among her 
 friends till she gets it believed, and do some incalculable 
 harm. Women like that ought to be shut up." 
 
 " She ought to have a dozen children to keep her 
 activities in order. Well, thank goodness, we are out 
 
 M
 
 178 The Tragedy oj an Indiscretion 
 
 of her way for a little bit. I look forward to seeing her 
 face when I go back with Eulalie. Let's turn in, 
 Trevenna, I'm utterly sleepy. Just a tiny whisky and 
 soda, and to bed." 
 
 " All right, old man, I'm with you. I shan't be 
 sorry for a sleep myself. Been very busy lately." 
 
 It is a long and tiresome journey from Penzance to 
 Launceston, and here again disappointment awaited 
 them. The Mackinnons had been there, and were 
 coming back they had left the bulk of their luggage 
 there but they were specially anxious to see Dart- 
 moor, and had left that morning for Okehampton, 
 and thence they were going to make their way over the 
 moor. They were not at all sure which way they 
 would go after Okehampton. They had spent all the 
 evening before studying maps, and asking all manner 
 of questions about roads, and inns, and such-like ; 
 there seemed to be about half a dozen different routes 
 they might take. They thought they should be 
 away three or four days. 
 
 " Are they certain to come back then ? " asked 
 Greville. 
 
 " Oh, yes, they are sure to come back, for there is 
 their luggage, they wouldn't leave that." 
 
 "Is that one of their trunks ? " said Trevenna. 
 
 " Yes, that is the foreign lady's trunk ; at least, no, 
 she wasn't foreign, but she looks a little well, not 
 English, and she was much more friendly spoken, 
 not shy-like, as most of the English ladies are." 
 
 " That's Eulalie all over," said Harry, " and I'd bet 
 my bottom dollar that's her trunk. I know she was 
 buying new ones, for I got the bill. And there's no 
 label on it. That's like her too, she has a holy horror 
 of labels. Can't tell why ; they 're' useful things, rather
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 179 
 
 like 'em myself. Well, Trevenna, there's no doubt 
 about it now, we've found them right enough ; and 
 this seems rather a nice place, we'll just sit down here 
 and wait till they come back and see the country a bit. 
 It's all new to me." 
 
 " And to me also. Strange, isn't it ? how one knows 
 parts of the Continent by heart, and neglects one's 
 own country. If they are more than three or four days, 
 we might take a car ourselves and go in search. I've 
 never seen Dartmoor, and it seems an ideal chance. 
 We couldn't miss them, a party like that are bound to 
 leave a good trail. We will go to Okehampton, and we 
 shall hear there what route they took." 
 
 " That will be prime. A game of hide and seek 
 played in motor cars over Dartmoor. Mediaeval and 
 up-to-date at the same time ; but we'll do this place 
 thoroughly first. Let's walk up Windmill Hill, they 
 tell me that's the first thing to see, and I want 
 to stretch my legs after that beastly tedious train. 
 We can see the castle, and all that to-morrow." 
 
 The next morning brought Trevenna a letter from 
 Brathwayte, forwarded from Penzance ; but there was 
 very little news in it. He said that Lola had gone 
 with Hilda to see the dressmaker, but unfortunately 
 she was still away, so the mystery of the Lyons brocade 
 was still to solve, as also was that of the scrap of ribbon 
 worn by the chambermaid at the Terminus Hotel. 
 But this was only deferred. They had made another 
 appointment with Miss Fortescue, when she would 
 certainly be at home. Trevenna felt an increasing 
 interest in this since the discovery of the burial of 
 Ralph Essendine's wife at Penzance. He had an 
 instinct that the two things were connected, somehow. 
 
 The only other point of interest in the letter was 
 that Sir Alfred Ross had now perfected his theory
 
 180 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 about his test for the Mexican poison, and was going 
 to resume his experiments immediately, and Brath- 
 wayte was to work with him. He had invented another 
 and improved re-agent, which would be ready in a week 
 or less, when an exhaustive spectroscopic test was to 
 be made, which would set the whole thing absolutely 
 beyond a doubt, and chen woe betide any criminal 
 who tried poisoning with this stuff. He thought the 
 Mexican chemists had sent another consignment of 
 the poison to Europe, but could not be sure. And he 
 asked for Trevenna's news, and whether he had yet 
 come up with the party he was in search of. 
 
 Trevenna wrote a short reply, merely saying that 
 they knew now where the party were, but had not yet 
 actually met them, and promising fuller details in his 
 next letter. 
 
 He tore up Brathwayte's epistle, and threw the 
 fragments into the waste-paper-basket ; then they set 
 forth to examine the castle and the beautiful grounds. 
 
 Launceston is a pleasant enough place to stay in for 
 those who know how to be pleasantly idle, and what 
 with walks, drives, exploring the neighbourhood and 
 a casual skimming of the daily papers the time slipped 
 away. " The Thames Mystery," as it had now got to 
 be called, was a godsend to the papers at a time when 
 no news of any public importance was stirring. It 
 appeared in big letters in every issue. As Trevenna 
 said, the Daily Mail was foaming at the head-lines. 
 There was a rumoured identification of the body, which 
 was again contradicted. The report of Dr. Veldoff's 
 evidence as to the Mexican poison roused a thrill of 
 popular interest, and recalled the recent case in which 
 Brathwayte had secured a verdict for the accused. 
 
 Many letters were published from persons who pro- 
 fessed to have exclusive knowledge of this poison ; but,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 181 
 
 as they contradicted each other flatly, the public 
 preserved an open mind. The adjourned inquest was 
 awaited with eager curiosity, for it was reported that 
 the police had absolute evidence not only as to the 
 identity of the body but as to the fact that she 
 had been murdered, and were only waiting the con- 
 clusion of certain investigations to put their hands on 
 the criminal, who was known, and would be arrested 
 immediately. However, whether this would be 
 obtained in time to produce at the inquest, and enable 
 the jury to find a verdict of murder against some 
 definite person, seemed doubtful. 
 
 Trevenna read all these reports with great interest, 
 though the personal element was now taken away by 
 the knowledge that, whoever the body was, it certainly 
 was not that of Mrs. Greville, who was touring on 
 Dartmoor with the Mackinnons. This anxiety gone, 
 he read the various sensational scraps with the enjoy- 
 ment of one who has seen a little bit of a story, and 
 reads the development. Harry Greville found " The 
 Thames Mystery " frankly a bore. The whole thing 
 to him was squalid, a common accident, or a vulgar 
 crime. If it were the woman who had gone over 
 Waterloo Bridge in the fog, when the policeman arrested 
 him, and promptly let him go again, it was an un- 
 pleasant incident that he wished to forget. Trevenna, 
 seeing his mood, did not press this news upon him. 
 
 Brathwayte wrote again, giving the gossip of the 
 clubs. Fortunately, as he said, not a breath pointed 
 at Mrs. Greville. No one seemed to have thought 
 of her ; whence we may suppose that James Hewson 
 had taken the coroner's advice and kept his own 
 counsel strictly. And either Colonel Eraser had failed 
 to identify the body or he and his wife were preparing 
 a dramatic surprise but of this of course Brathwayte
 
 182 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 knew nothing. Rumour and gossip did, however, 
 hint rather strongly at Sir Philip Carew, especially 
 as he had had sudden business in Paris, and was 
 reported to have gone farther with an unknown 
 address. Several men asserted roundly at the clubs 
 that they had seen him with a woman, with much the 
 sort of dress described, in various questionable haunts ; 
 but they were unable to specify dates, and on the whole 
 these stories were vague. Carew was a man whose 
 acquaintance no one was eager to claim, and his 
 friends were mostly among a certain fast sporting set. 
 
 Altogether, the conclusion seemed to be that prob- 
 ably some woman who chanced to dress rather like 
 Mrs. Greville, possibly employed the same dressmaker, 
 had been one of Carew's victims, and had jumped 
 over the bridge in despair. The clubs confidently 
 expected that when the police evidence was produced 
 at the adjourned inquest the verdict would be one of 
 murder against Carew, and the sequel would be a 
 dramatic chase after him, and that he would assuredly 
 be caught, for the set he was associated with would 
 certainly turn against him to save their own skins. 
 There was not one of the lot who would not betray 
 his own brother if it were to his advantage. 
 
 The poison theory found few supporters, for the 
 simple reason that it seemed impossible that either 
 Carew or the woman could have obtained it. The 
 idea was that they had quarrelled and that Carew had 
 pushed her over into the water, and made off in the 
 fog, the most favourable theory being that she had 
 jumped to avoid him, and that the verdict might be 
 reduced to manslaughter. 
 
 So the days passed and still no news came of the 
 Mackinnons ; but a car had gone over to Okehampton 
 for the day, and the chauffeur brought back word that,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 183 
 
 after long consultations with various people who knew 
 the moor thoroughly, they had determined their route. 
 It was a wild rough track, and it might well be that 
 their car had foundered, and would need repairs before 
 proceeding. They would send to some big town for 
 these, not to Launceston. If this were the case, it 
 might be a week or ten days before they were heard of, 
 but the route could be mapped out and followed from 
 Okehampton quite easily, it was only a question of 
 paying. A good strong car with a capable driver 
 knowing the country could be had at either place. 
 
 This determined them. They would start at once. 
 On the morning of their departure Trevenna had 
 another letter from Brathwayte written in considerable 
 agitation : 
 
 " Here's a kettle of fish ! Ross came down here to 
 get his spectroscope and things. You remember I 
 showed you the parcel. Well, there was everything 
 all safe as he had left it with me, except the most 
 precious of all, the invaluable little tube of the poison. 
 How it came not to be in the parcel is impossible to 
 say. I packed it up, and as you know it never left 
 my possession, I was most awfully careful about that. 
 It went straight into my safe, and lay there till Ross 
 came, and we opened the safe together and unpacked 
 the parcel. The only possible theory and that's 
 impossible, or almost so is that some one opened my 
 safe with a false key, for there was no sign of any 
 violence or tampering with the lock. I never heard of 
 a Chubb lock being so opened. Then there are some 
 valuable things there which were not touched : some 
 old family jewelry, both of my wife's and my sister's, 
 and other things put there for safe custody. An 
 ordinary burglar might have gone for those, but no,
 
 184 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 nothing was missing but that little tube. The whole 
 safe was emptied and turned out, lest the thing should 
 have tumbled out of the parcel, though this was 
 practically impossible. Therefore, some most accom- 
 plished burglar must have opened my safe with 
 incredible ingenuity, for the sake of getting that tube ; 
 and this must have been either for some crime or 
 possibly some scientific investigator wanting to get in 
 before Ross. I honestly believe the Berlin people are 
 quite capable of employing a master thief for the job, 
 but then again, how did they know where it was ? I 
 don't connect it with what they call ' The Thames 
 Mystery.' All the people concerned in that, if I judge 
 rightly, are quite ordinary, rather squalid and un- 
 imaginative criminals if indeed it is a crime at all 
 this is a master-stroke, whatever was the motive. 
 I wanted to inform the police at once, but Ross wouldn't 
 let me. He said there was too much excitement about 
 this poison already. He will have it that we must 
 wait until the adjourned inquest is over it is to- 
 morrow and see what evidence is brought and what 
 is wanted. Then we will decide what to do. It is 
 against my judgment, but the stuff is his, and he must 
 decide. He is annoyed naturally, but wholly acquits 
 me of any blame in the matter." 
 
 Trevenna did not mention this letter to Harry 
 Greville, and that afternoon they started for their 
 trip to Dartmoor, certain now that they must come up 
 with the object of their search. 
 
 At Okehampton, as the chauffeur had said, they 
 learnt all the particulars of the route that the Mac- 
 kinnons proposed to take. They got large-scale maps 
 of the moor and traced the track in red ink, marking 
 the places where they were told the roads were so bad
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 185 
 
 that the car was not unlike to founder, the places 
 where they intended to put up remote villages and 
 little inns far away from civilization and places where 
 they planned to walk over the hills and meet the car 
 again. 
 
 Harry said they would just follow exactly the same 
 track. The driver, a native of the moor, guaranteed 
 to take them safely ; furthermore, he said, if by any 
 chance they had deviated from their track he would 
 know exactly what route they must take, and he would 
 bring them with absolute certainty to the other car, 
 if it was on the moor at all. 
 
 Letters came for them after they left Launceston, 
 among others one from Hilda enclosing a note from 
 Sarah, the parlour-maid at Bermuda Avenue. Hilda 
 said that Sarah had come to her in a terrible state of 
 mind, because the police had been to Bermuda Avenue 
 and had searched the whole house. Sarah had no notion 
 what they came for, but they had what they called a 
 warrant, and they wanted Mr. Greville's address, but 
 this of course she had not got, and she declared she 
 didn't know anyone who had. She didn't like the 
 police at all, and she wasn't going to tell them that Mrs. 
 Donelly knew. Hilda said she was going round herself 
 to Bermuda Avenue to see what had happened, for 
 Sarah's story was incoherent. She strongly suspected 
 Mrs. Fraser was at the bottom of it. The adjourned 
 inquest had been held that day, but the papers with 
 the full report were not out, and she didn't know what 
 had happened. She was just writing at once to save 
 the post, and would get the paper as she came back. 
 She would wire, if necessary. 
 
 Sarah's letter reported that several policemen had 
 come to the house, who inquired for Mr. Greville. 
 When they were told he was away from home, one of
 
 i86 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 them said, " Ah, just as might be expected." Then 
 they asked for his address, and when Sarah said she 
 hadn't got it the same man said, " No, I suppose not," 
 and another told him to hold his tongue ; they were 
 there to inquire, not to talk. 
 
 Then they said they must come in, for they had orders 
 to search the house, and Sarah said she had orders to 
 let no one in ; but, as she naively remarked, it was not 
 much use to tell them that, for there were several of 
 them, and they said they had a warrant. They 
 produced a paper, she didn't know what it was, but 
 anyhow they came in, there was no preventing them, 
 they just pushed her aside and came, and they went 
 over every thing, even Mrs. Greville's clothes, and her 
 very underclothing. Most indelicate, Sarah thought, 
 but they wouldn't listen to her ; and they found Mr. 
 Greville's keys that he had left behind, and opened all 
 the drawers, and his safe, and they turned all the safe 
 out. But, to do them justice, they put everything 
 back most carefully and tidily, and they chaffed her 
 in the rude way that policemen do, and told her she 
 wouldn't know anyone had been there. Only when 
 they had finished the safe, one of them said, " That's 
 what we wanted. That's enough to hang a dozen." 
 
 What they meant she didn't know, but they didn't 
 take anything away. Then they went into the garden, 
 and they looked all about and poked and prodded, 
 and at last said, " Nothing there." Then one said, 
 " We'd better look at the cellar while we are here," 
 and another said " What f or ? " and the first said 
 " Remember Crippen," and the other said, " Bosh, 
 it isn't here, you ass." But they looked all the same, 
 and prodded, and tapped about in the cellar, and then 
 they took their departure, and Sarah hoped she wouldn't 
 be blamed, she had done her duty, but one weak woman
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 187 
 
 could not fight six big policemen, otherwise she would 
 have barred the door with her own body. But the 
 gardener who came in to tidy up the walks said it was 
 to do with what they call " The Thames Mystery." 
 But Sarah could not see what. But perhaps she might 
 see something come Sunday, when she got Lloyd's, 
 and had time to read it, and with her respectful duty 
 she begged to remain Mr. Greville's very obedient 
 servant. 
 
 That letter Greville did not see till long afterwards, 
 but it comes in place here, so I have inserted it, and it 
 certainly throws a light on some other matters. 
 
 Also, because they had now gone up on to the wild 
 parts of the moor far from civilized life, they saw no 
 papers ; and thus missed the great sensation that made 
 the evening papers sell edition after edition as fast 
 as the sheets could be thrown off. Nor were they in the 
 least aware that any news in the papers could possibly 
 affect either of them. 
 
 Wise enough in their generation, the evening press 
 doled out its sensation by fragments at a time, and the 
 head-lines gradually increased in intensity. Sorr^ 
 persons were known to buy as many as six editions of 
 the Evening News. They began with a thrill : ' ' Thames 
 Mystery, Adjourned Inquest, Sensational Evidence, 
 Identification of the Body." Then an hour or so later, 
 came the head-line " Identification of Body. Well- 
 known Society Lady, Suspected Crime." Then later 
 on again was " Warrant Applied for, The Deadly 
 Mexican Poison again, Dr. Veldoffs Evidence, Full 
 Particulars." Then just as London had finished 
 dining, and the theatres were beginning to fill, news-boys 
 rushed through every street, and carts dashed along 
 with galloping ponies, racing against light cars full of 
 papers with flaring bills, "Thames Mystery. Dis-
 
 i88 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 covery of the Poison. Warrant for Arrest of Husband. 
 Escape of Criminal. Police Pursuit." 
 
 All of which, translated into the sober type and 
 guarded statements of the accounts next morning, 
 resolved itself into this : that at the adjourned inquest 
 Colonel Fraser had been called as a witness, and had 
 stated that he had seen the body in the mortuary, and 
 had no doubt whatever that it was the body of Mrs. 
 Greville, of 25 Bermuda Avenue, who had been missing 
 for some weeks. Then James Hewson had appeared 
 also and told of his identification, and that he had gone 
 home and told his master. The coroner inquired 
 whether there was not some one connected with the 
 deceased who could give evidence. But it seemed no 
 one could be got, Mr. Greville had been asked for but 
 he was out of town, and his address at present unknown. 
 Mrs. Greville had no near relatives, so far as was known. 
 Colonel and Mrs. Fraser were her nearest friends. 
 But there were one or two others who had seen the 
 body, and were also able to identify Mrs. Greville, 
 having met her at the Frasers. 
 
 The coroner commented on the fact that the only 
 evidence of identification was through the Frasers. 
 He would have liked some independent testimony, 
 but apparently none was forthcoming. Then Mrs. 
 Fraser, with much reluctance, went into the witness 
 box, and told all the story of her long friendslu'p with 
 Mrs. Greville, and what she termed the latter' s 
 unhappy marriage. She told about the dinner-party 
 and how she wanted to get Mrs. Greville's address, 
 and how the husband fenced and prevaricated and 
 would not give it, and her suspicions concerning him, 
 but this the coroner very sternly checked. He said 
 they were there to inquire who the woman was, and how 
 she came by her death, and he could not permit
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 189 
 
 irrelevant evidence to be given on other issues. In 
 his soul, be it said, the coroner was exceedingly glad 
 that these particulars had not transpired before, and 
 that the inquiry was not complicated by the presence 
 of counsel watching the proceedings in behalf of one 
 person or another, who might be supposed to be 
 involved. Diverted from this, however, Mrs. Eraser 
 described how her suspicions were aroused by the 
 continual prevarications of the husband and his friends, 
 and the absolute lies that had been told. How on that 
 day, a fortnight after the dinner-party, this very 
 woman went over Waterloo Bridge. How did she go 
 over and why ? Who was her companion then ? 
 Mrs. Fraser asked impressively her association with 
 the Theatrical Ladies' Guild had given her certain 
 dramatic instincts. 
 
 The coroner felt that this was wrong. It was not 
 evidence, but Mrs. Fraser was started and difficult to 
 check, and he didn't know exactly what to say. The 
 jury were absorbing it all eagerly. That same night 
 he was entertaining friends again. Meantime, Mrs. 
 Greville was greatly wanted by various associations 
 she was connected with, and Mrs. Fraser was anxious 
 for her address. She was told that Mr. Greville was 
 going to meet her, and that they had an appointed 
 place to meet, she was told that Mrs. Greville was 
 motoring with friends in Cornwall, and all the time, 
 she said impressively, the poor woman was lying 
 drowned in the river. 
 
 " No evidence that he knew that," said the coroner. 
 
 " At all events he knew she wasn't in Cornwall," 
 Mrs. Fraser snapped back at him. 
 
 He was beginning to be afraid of her, so she detailed 
 one by one the lies that had been told, and dwelt on 
 the utter absurdity of the original story that Harry
 
 igo The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 did not know where his wife was. The jury were 
 impressed. Family men most of them, of the most 
 respectable lower middle-class, they knew every day 
 where their wives were, and they would have been 
 very unhappy and suspicious otherwise. Mrs. Fraser 
 gave her evidence with an obvious bias and prejudice 
 that had a reactive effect on the coroner, and made 
 him doubt her conclusions ; but it carried the jury 
 along, till they were prepared to believe anything 
 she might assert. 
 
 Then one or two witnesses who knew Harry Greville 
 heard the police description of the man who was with 
 the woman who had jumped over Waterloo Bridge, 
 and they all said it was an exact description of Greville 
 could not be anyone else. 
 
 The evidence of the interview at Waterloo Station, 
 on the strength of which he had been released, was 
 read again and discounted. He might well have 
 had a woman with him, and in that fog no one would 
 have known. He might have come from the Strand, 
 and gone into the station and come back. There 
 was nothing really inconsistent. That evidence was 
 worth nothing. So the inspector said now. 
 
 Then Dr. Veldoff was examined again. He was 
 positive the Mexican poison could be got from Berlin. 
 The chemists there said it could not be got anywhere 
 else. He gave the exact inscription that would be 
 on the tube when it came from Mexico. The poisoner 
 in this case, if he had friends in Berlin, no doubt got a 
 tube from there. He had only to say he wanted it 
 for experimental purposes. He had not got any, but 
 he had no doubt he could get it. He had not experi- 
 mented himself, he relied so much more on the accuracy 
 of German work. 
 
 The coroner referred to Mrs. Donelly, whose name had
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 191 
 
 been mentioned as a close friend of the Grevilles, and 
 asked why had she not been called. The police had 
 not heard of her till that morning, in Mrs. Eraser's 
 evidence. They thought they had seen all Mrs. 
 Greville's intimate friends. The fact was, though they 
 didn't say so, that they knew only just what Mrs. 
 Fraser had told them, and Mrs. Fraser did not choose 
 that Mrs. Donelly should be called. 
 
 The coroner addressed the jury. It was to be taken 
 as proved that this body was that of the woman who 
 had jumped from Waterloo Bridge. She was identified 
 by various independent witnesses with Mrs. Greville. 
 It might be taken that these persons were one and the 
 same. If Dr. Veldoff's evidence were correct it would 
 seem that she had been poisoned, and that the poison 
 must have been administered with criminal intent. 
 There seemed to be some evidence that her husband 
 was with her when she jumped into the water. There 
 was nothing however to connect him with the Mexican 
 virus, even assuming this was the cause of death, and 
 the evidence that he in any sense desired her death 
 was of the very shadowiest description, depending 
 solely on the evidence of Mrs. Fraser, which he asked 
 them to notice was clearly very strongly prejudiced. 
 All the same, the jury had been impressed, hypnotized 
 by Mrs. Fraser, and they had to every one's surprise 
 returned a verdict of murder against the husband. 
 
 Then the police had at once applied for a search 
 warrant, and had proceeded to search 25 Bermuda 
 Avenue, where they had found an unmistakable 
 tube of the poison in Greville's safe. The chain of 
 evidence seemed to be complete, a warrant for the arrest 
 of Harry Greville was granted, and the hue and cry 
 was up.
 
 PART III
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 BRATHWAYTE was not at the adjourned 
 inquest. He had an important House of 
 Lords case ; and, as they had come to the 
 certain conclusion that there was nothing to involve 
 the Grevilles, he did not see any necessity for being 
 there. The evening papers therefore came to him with 
 a shock. Instantly he jumped into a taxi, and drove 
 to Scotland Yard, where he was well known, and had 
 little difficulty in learning of the search warrant and 
 its result, and the issue of the warrant for the arrest 
 of Harry Greville. 
 
 He found himself now confronted with problems as 
 serious as he had ever faced on behalf of a client. 
 Unquestionably the tube of Mexican poison found in 
 Greville's safe was that which had been lent to him by 
 Ross. It had fallen out of the parcel owing to his 
 untidy tying up, and had never been missed until 
 Ross had come for his spectroscope ; but how could 
 this be explained ? He felt that no jury in the world 
 would believe the story ; and, even though they did, 
 it would make no difference. The damning fact 
 remained that at the critical time, according to Dr. 
 Veldoff's evidence, namely, when the woman, whoever 
 she was, was drowned, the poison was in Greville's 
 possession, and had been so for a fortnight. 
 
 He still did not feel at all confident that the woman 
 was Mrs. Greville. The evidence of identity was not 
 
 195
 
 196 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 satisfactory to him, but in the absence of contradictory 
 evidence he was sure that it would be accepted as 
 conclusive. He was absolutely certain that even 
 supposing the body was hers, and that she had been 
 poisoned, the criminal was not her husband. His 
 whole knowledge of Harry Greville, extending over a 
 period of a good many years since they had been at 
 college together negatived the idea ; and Brathwayte 
 had an extensive knowledge of crime and criminals 
 that almost at times seemed to amount to an uncanny 
 intuition. 
 
 He had also a wide knowledge of judges and juries, 
 and he was well aware that his knowledge of Greville's 
 character was simply worth nothing whatsoever in 
 the face of the chain of circumstantial evidence that 
 had wound itself round him. Yet if Harry was 
 innocent, as Brathwayte was certain must be the case, 
 there must be somewhere some strong counter-evidence 
 that would neutralize all that seemed so convincing 
 against him. What then was the real story. If 
 only this could be ascertained, Brathwayte had no 
 doubt it could be proved. 
 
 However, as he reluctantly admitted to himself, 
 he had not the gifts of a detective. He could marshal 
 the facts when some one else had collected them, 
 he could estimate the value of each fact as a piece of 
 evidence, and present them in the most convincing 
 form 7 ; but he had always looked with a certain wonder- 
 ing admiration at the human sleuth-hound, who 
 can patiently track out a mystery, and discover, one 
 after another, the most obscure clues, and deduce facts 
 from the minutest indications. 
 
 Then his mind naturally turned on Mrs. Donelly. 
 Over and over again he had said that she attracted 
 facts, as a magnet attracts steel filings'. It was almost
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 197 
 
 certain that she would know something, of the value of 
 which she would probably be entirely ignorant ; but 
 that would be his business, if she could but supply 
 him with material. 
 
 He resolved to ring her up at once, and if she were 
 at home he would go and see her without delay. The 
 answer came back directly : 
 
 " Yes, I am Mrs. Donelly. Who is speaking ? " 
 
 " Brathwayte. Can I see you at once ? " 
 
 " Oh, Mr. Brathwayte, I am more than relieved, 
 I was just wondering how I could possibly communicate 
 with you. Where are you ? " 
 
 " In my chambers in the Temple." 
 
 " Not gone home yet. I am so glad. You've seen 
 the awful news in the paper. I've only just got it. 
 I've just been round to Bermuda Avenue. Sarah came 
 to me in a desperate state about the police search." 
 
 " We must discuss this matter calmly and seriously, 
 Mrs. Donelly. You and I must act together, for there 
 is no one else in London who knows the facts, and I 
 feel that a great deal depends on our taking the right 
 course now. When can I see you ? " 
 
 " Can you come round after dinner ? I should 
 like to ask you to come and take pot-luck with me, 
 but my cook's out this evening, and pot-luck is only 
 a chop." 
 
 " All right, say half-past eight. Don't say a word 
 to any human soul till we've talked. Oh, and look 
 here, most likely Mrs. Fraser will call to see you ; 
 for any sake be out, be ill, be dead, be anything but 
 don't see her. Good-bye." 
 
 He rang off, and went home to dinner himself, glad 
 that his wife had no dinner-party that night, and he 
 could go off after dinner as he often did without 
 any trouble.
 
 198 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 The Brathwaytes when alone usually dined at half- 
 past seven. He liked a long evening, in which he could 
 read his briefs if he wanted or could go to his club. 
 Lola had spent most of the day in the Natural History 
 Museum, and was full of it. 
 
 " Do you know, Uncle Sidney, they've got several 
 things from Australia that I never even heard 
 of?" 
 
 " Well, my dear, I suppose even such a mighty 
 huntress as you are isn't quite omniscient ! " 
 
 " Don't chaff, Uncle Sidney. But really I thought I 
 knew the birds and beasts of my own country fairly 
 well by this time. It's a magnificent collection. 
 They've got two splendid specimens of Mr. Essendine's 
 sloth, and such a capital account of him and his work. 
 By the way, did you see that he has promised a series 
 of articles in the Wide World Magazine about the Upper 
 Amazon and all they are going to do there ? It makes 
 one awfully envious. They expect to find some of the 
 prehistoric saurians in those virgin forests. Our 
 Australian hunts will seem very tame to him. Fancy 
 getting a shot at an ichthyosaurus." 
 
 " Fancy an ichthyosaurus getting a snap at you ! 
 There wouldn't be much left worth picking up." 
 
 " I'd risk that to have a snap at him with my camera. 
 The first time in history that he sat for his photograph. 
 Seriously, though, I'm awfully glad it's Mr. Essendine 
 has got the luck. He's the one man who could make 
 the best use of such a chance. I shall always be proud 
 that I have actually hunted with him. But I do 
 wish it had been on the Amazon." 
 
 " Well, I must be off," said Brathwayte. " I've 
 got some important business to see about." 
 
 " A case ? " said his wife, who a ways took a wifely 
 interest in his work and his successes.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 199 
 
 " Possibly a future case, my dear. I don't know yet. 
 At present I can't say anything about it." 
 
 Mrs. Brathwayte was well used to his reticence over 
 important cases, and asked no questions. Lola said : 
 
 " You'll have to lend me some money, Uncle Sidney. 
 That tiresome dressmaker of Mrs. Donelly's is still 
 away, and I positively must get something ready made 
 for immediate needs. My money comes next week, 
 you know, but I must have something at once." 
 
 " All right, little girl, you shall have a cheque 
 to-morrow. Don't be too extravagant." Then, as the 
 door closed behind him, " That dressmaker again, 
 she is always cropping up somehow whenever I have 
 Harry Greville's affairs to think of. Wonder if there's 
 anything in it." 
 
 He swung himself on to a motor-bus, and in a very 
 short time he was in Hilda's dainty drawing-room. 
 
 She looked worried and anxious. 
 
 " Mr. Brathwayte, I've been racking my brains 
 all the evening. What can be done ? What can we do ? 
 Is there any way he can escape ? He's on Dartmoor. 
 Convicts do escape on the moor sometimes; I've been 
 thinking over all sorts of ways." 
 
 " Put all that out of your head entirely, Mrs. Donelly. 
 It is quite certain that Harry Greville will be arrested 
 unless, as I hope, he is already with his wife, in which 
 case he will only have to go to the nearest magistrate. 
 He is innocent, we know, but to try and escape would 
 simply convince the whole British public that he was 
 guilty ; and he couldn't escape. At most, he could 
 elude the police for a short time." 
 
 " Then, what's to be done ! We can't sit idle and 
 let him be taken and hanged," Hilda was growing 
 rather hysterical in her anxiety. 
 
 " No, we can't, and we are not going to. We know
 
 200 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 he is innocent, and we are going to prove it." His 
 calmly confident tone impressed and calmed her. 
 "jFirst of all, we are going to put together all the facts 
 we know bearing on the matter, whether they seem 
 relevant or not, and see what conclusions they point 
 to, and then we are going to seek for the links that are 
 missing. And it's just here that I want your help. 
 You see I am accustomed to have all my facts put clear 
 for me by other people ; but here you and I between 
 us know practically all there is to be known, so we must 
 just fit the story together." 
 
 " I don't think I know anything, Mr. Brathwayte, 
 but I'll tell you anything I know. Just ask me any 
 questions you can think of." 
 
 " Well, in the first place, about that brocade ? 
 You will have seen it was made a great point of in the 
 identification." 
 
 " Oh, that ! Here's the stuff. It was said to be a 
 design from the Alhambra and Mr. Trevenna confirmed 
 it. In the summer Miss Fortescue said that the 
 Lyons firm who made it had only twenty yards left 
 it had never been sold in this country and she bought 
 the remnant. I saw the correspondence with the Lyons 
 firm, and that was certainly what they said. Eulalie 
 and I bought up the whole lot, and she undertook to 
 make it all up for us, and for no one else." 
 
 ' So then, if this woman who went over Waterloo 
 Bridge was not Mrs. Greville, this Miss Fortescue must 
 have played false and made it up for some one else. 
 Now, can we possibly ascertain who that some one else 
 was ? " 
 
 " I think we can. I know precisely how much I had 
 and how much Eulalie had, and there can only be a 
 few yards left. I can challenge her to produce the 
 remaining piece and threaten her with fraud if she can't.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 201 
 
 She will confess then. This case will have scared her 
 considerably, I expect." 
 
 " The woman who went over the Bridge was a 
 customer of Miss Fortescue's then? " 
 
 "No, that doesn't quite follow. A customer of 
 hers might have given away some costume, or part of 
 a costume. By the way, it was only a scarf. It might 
 easily have been given away." 
 
 " But if we know the customer who bought it we 
 shall be in a fair way to find out who got it. Now 
 there's another thing. I remember your mentioning once, 
 quite incidentally, about that story you told me of 
 the death of Ralph Essendine's wife, that she must 
 have been dressed by your dressmaker. What made 
 you think so, some bit of ribbon wasn't it ? " 
 
 " Yes, the chambermaid was wearing it for a charm. 
 That also was a piece of a remnant that Miss Fortescue 
 had bought, and of which there was no more to be 
 had. See, here's that ribbon too : French grey with 
 pink flowers. I can't say so much about that, for we 
 didn't buy it all, as we did the brocade ; still, I know 
 Miss Fortescue had all there was. So I concluded Mr. 
 Essendine's wife who died must have been a customer 
 of Miss Fortescue also. This ribbon is the very com- 
 bination of colours that Eulalie was going to have a 
 costume made of. I don't know if she ever did. Miss 
 Fortescue was very busy working for her, I know, a 
 month or six weeks ago, but I was out of town, and I 
 didn't see the things, I expect they were made for this 
 motoring tour. You know she was very particular 
 about her clothes." 
 
 " Ah, well, I see. Now about this lady who died, 
 Essendine's wife. You were in the hotel I think when 
 it happened ? " 
 
 " No, I wasn't precisely in the hotel. I was dining
 
 202 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 out that night, and I came in late, and it was the night 
 chambermaid who attended to me, a silent sort of 
 girl, who said nothing ; but my own chambermaid 
 told me about it in the morning. It seemed that Mr. 
 Essendine had just gone out for ten minutes, down to 
 the station I believe, and he came back and found her 
 dead, and Sir Alfred Ross there. Then, as chance would 
 have it, I couldn't get a taxi next morning, and the 
 motor that Mr. Essendine had engaged, the one that 
 brought them there the night before, took me away. Of 
 course, you see, the man wasn't wanted ; and he told me 
 all about it. Mr. Essendine had engaged him, and they 
 had driven to some back street he didn't tell me 
 what street and picked up Mrs. Essendine and her 
 luggage. No ! I'm wrong, first they went to the Army 
 and Navy Stores, and picked up Mr. Essendine's 
 luggage, that was it, and then went on for Mrs. 
 Essendine, all new luggage, he said." 
 
 "H'ml Now that's odd. A man doesn't usually 
 pick up his wife and her luggage in a small back street, 
 when he's starting on a trip, or whatever he is starting 
 for a man like Essendine, who is certainly well off, 
 and going to stay at an expensi v e hotel. I think you 
 said they had a suite ? " 
 
 " The best suite in the hotel." 
 
 " Confound it ! There's mystery there, and where 
 there's mystery there's usually more evidence. What 
 did he do it for? A well-off and well-known man 
 doesn't take his wife out in that way, as a rule. But, 
 by Gadl he might take some one else's wife. No, 
 that won't do either. For he gave his own name and 
 never attempted any disguise. I don't fancy Ralph 
 Essendine is a man to run away with another man's 
 wife, but you never can tell. At all events he wouldn't 
 start with elaborate precautions of secrecy, and then
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 203 
 
 go openly to an hotel under his own name, challenging 
 observation. Besides oh, I didn't tell you that he 
 had a wife already. It turns out that my niece knew 
 all the story, or at least the bones of it." 
 
 " Yes, I knew that," said Hilda. " Miss Macarthy 
 told me about it." 
 
 " Oh, well, that's all right then, we needn't go into 
 that since we both know that much. Do you know what 
 her name was ? " 
 
 " No, I never heard." 
 
 "It was the same as Mrs. Greville's 'Eulalie' 
 and he took the body down, and buried her at Penzance. 
 Trevenna saw the cross over her grave, and saw the 
 register. Do you know, Mrs. Donelly, I feel certain, 
 but I can't tell you why, that these cases are somehow 
 connected. It's just one of those intuitions that we 
 lawyers sometimes get ; often wrong, but now and 
 again right. And I feel also that your dress- 
 maker is the connecting link." 
 
 " Well, it's possible, Mr. Brathwayte, though the 
 only connection I see at present is that probably Miss 
 Fortescue dressed both the woman who went over the 
 bridge and Mr. Essendine's wife, as well as Eulalie and 
 me. By the way, were you at all satisfied with the 
 identification ? Of course we know it was not Eulalie, 
 but was there justification for saying it was ? They 
 seemed to me to go entirely by clothes. I suppose a 
 man mostly recognizes a woman by her clothes." 
 
 " Candidly, I wasn't satisfied. It wasn't entirely 
 by clothes, though. I read the evidence in the Evening 
 Standard. That's the fullest report. Of course the 
 chief witnesses for identification were Colonel Eraser 
 and his gardener. But there were others, some of the 
 Theatrical Ladies, who spoke of the colour of the hair, 
 and some other things. But, after all, we find a number
 
 204 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 of persons who identified this body as that of Mrs. 
 Greville with great positiveness, and there was no other 
 suggestion, and there was no one who saw the body 
 and knew Mrs. Greville who failed to identify it. Now 
 we must get some countervailing evidence if we are to 
 break that down. By the way, I wonder if it is possible 
 to see that Miss Fortescue ? " 
 
 " Do you mean now, at once ? Well, it's late 
 it's past nine o'clock still they wouldn't have gone to 
 bed. Of course I don't know whether she's at home 
 even yet, but I fancy so. At any rate, if you think 
 there's anything in it, we might try. Tiresome little 
 person ! She hasn't a telephone. Says people give 
 orders over the telephone and then repudiate them. 
 I dare say it's true. There's nothing quite so immoral 
 as a smart woman, especially about clothes. But it's 
 not far, we could do it in a taxi in under ten minutes." 
 
 " Let's try then, if you don't mind, Mrs. Donelly. 
 This is a case where we should leave no stone unturned, 
 for at present, candidly, there is much against us." 
 
 A quarter of an hour later they were at Miss 
 Fortescue's door. 
 
 " No, Miss Fortescue has not returned yet, but her 
 assistant, Miss Oliver, is in. She told me Mrs. Donelly 
 was to be sure to come in if she called," the servant 
 said. 
 
 They were ushered into the little parlour. Mrs. 
 Donelly knew Miss Oliver well and introduced Mr. 
 Brathwayte. 
 
 " I'm afraid it's a most inconvenient hour to disturb 
 you, Miss Oliver, but my friend, Mr. Brathwayte, was 
 really most anxious to see Miss Fortescue on a very 
 important matter, connected indeed with ' The Thames 
 Mystery,' of which we have heard so much." 
 
 "Oh, indeed, Mrs. Donelly, I've been expecting every
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 205 
 
 day that we should be somehow mixed up in that. 
 You see that brocade scarf it was our special stuff, 
 no one else had it. But luckily, no one thought of 
 coming to us about it. And, Miss Fortescue being 
 away, I didn't know exactly what to say, and was 
 very thankful to say nothing." 
 
 " Can you tell us anything about Miss Fortescue ? " 
 said Brathwayte. " Where she is, and when she is 
 coming back ? " 
 
 " Yes, I think I can. I had a letter from her only 
 yesterday, from Paris." Miss Oliver pulled a letter 
 from her pocket and handed it to Mrs. Donelly. " You 
 can see what she says there," she said. 
 
 Brathwayte looked over her shoulder as she read. 
 
 " H'm ! only business matters, what to do for 
 various customers. Oh, yes, she says, ' I expect to be 
 home in a very few days now. You can make positive 
 appointments for me the latter part of next week.' 
 Let's see, when was this written. Oh, no date, no 
 address." 
 
 " No," said Mrs. Donelly. " That's the artistic 
 temperament, I suppose. Miss Fortescue never puts 
 a date or an address, unless she writes on her printed 
 paper." 
 
 " No matter," he said. ;t The postmark will show. 
 Here we are : Paris XVIe. That's the western 
 division, out Auteuil way, and the date is the day 
 before yesterday." 
 
 " That is always the postmark when she goes to 
 Paris," said Miss Oliver. " She always stays at the 
 same pension." 
 
 "So. Well now about that scarf . I see how anxious 
 you must be. It would be very bad for your business 
 to be mixed up in a case like ' The Thames Mystery,' 
 wouldn't it ? "
 
 206 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " It would be just ruination, sir." 
 
 " Well, I think we may manage to keep you 
 clear of it, if you will tell us all you know about 
 it." 
 
 " Mr. Brathwayte is one of the foremost lawyers 
 in London," said Mrs. Donelly, " and is taking a great 
 interest in this case." 
 
 " Indeed, I'll tell you all I know, sir, but it's very 
 little." 
 
 " Well, you know, of course, that they say this body 
 was that of Mrs. Greville. You must have read that 
 in the papers. We are sure it wasn't." 
 
 " Indeed, sir, I am thankful to hear you say so, for 
 Mrs. Greville was a great favourite wherever she went ; 
 and of course she was a very good customer of ours, 
 as Mrs. Donelly knows." 
 
 " Well, now, do you think that this scarf there has 
 been so much talk about was hers ? " 
 
 " Humanly speaking, sir, I'm certain that it wasn't. 
 I know all about that scarf, the fact being that we made 
 a mistake in the measurement, and there was just two 
 yards over from what you, madam, and Mrs. Greville 
 bought. But we had undertaken never to sell any 
 of it to any person but yourselves ; and Miss Fortescue 
 she always kept her promises. But she did say once 
 to me, ' I'm going to make up those two yards into a 
 scarf, and I shouldn't think the ladies would mind if I 
 kept it for myself, of course I can't sell it.' Well, I 
 didn't say anything, and who she meant to give it to 
 I have no idea ; but she took it away with her when 
 she went." 
 
 " That will give a clue," said Brathwayte. " The 
 woman she gave it to was the one who went over the 
 bridge, and who was found at Rotherhithe. Now we 
 must wait for Miss Fortescue' s return to work that
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 207 
 
 out. Now one more thing, please, Miss Oliver. Can 
 you tell us anything about that ribbon ? " 
 
 " You know," said Hilda, " the grey ribbon with 
 pink flowers." 
 
 " Oh, yes," said Miss Oliver. " Well, less than about 
 the brocade. Miss Fortescue had a monoply of that 
 ribbon too, it was a remnant, and she bought it all. 
 That was French. It came from a Paris house, and 
 had never been sold in this country. But of course 
 you didn't buy the whole of that, as you did the brocade. 
 Still, there was very little of it sold. Mrs. Greville 
 had a dress made up of those colours, just before she 
 went away, and there was a lot of that ribbon used in 
 the trimming. I remember too she took away a 
 quantity of it, in case the trimming should want 
 renewing." 
 
 " Do you remember Mrs. Greville' s going away ? " 
 
 " No, I was out at the time. I know she sent her 
 trunk here to be packed, because the dresses were not 
 finished in time to be sent to Bermuda Avenue. I 
 think the trunk was to be called for, but I'm not sure. 
 Miss Fortescue attended to all that herself." 
 
 " Well," said Brathwayte, " I don't think we need 
 trouble Miss Oliver further. You will be sure to let 
 Mrs. Donelly know directly you hear of Miss 
 Fortescue's movements, won't you ? And we will 
 certainly do our best to keep you out of being involved 
 in this case." 
 
 " Thank you very much, sir. Your taxi is waiting, 
 I think. Good-bye, Mrs. Donelly. Anything you 
 want, I think I can undertake to get done at once for 
 you. Miss Fortescue was most particular that your 
 orders, or Mrs. Greville's, were to be attended to 
 punctually." 
 
 " An industrious little soul," said Hilda, when they
 
 208 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 were in the taxi again, " and she does her best, but 
 she isn't Miss Fortescue. There's no one else in London 
 who has her taste and positive genius for clothes." 
 
 " There's one more speculation gone," said Brath- 
 wayte. " Do you know, for one mad moment, I 
 thought I had got a clue : I really thought the woman 
 who was drowned might be Miss Fortescue." 
 
 " How odd," said Hilda. " The very same thought 
 struck me. Because Eulalie used often to give her 
 dresses to Miss Fortescue, when she got tired of them, 
 and she often did after she had worn them only once 
 or twice. Miss Fortescue is very much her size and 
 figure, and something the same style, generally. 
 So frequently Miss Fortescue was dressed very like 
 Eulalie. Harry used to grumble sometimes : he said 
 he had to dress his wife, but he was damned if he could 
 see why he should dress her dressmaker too." 
 
 " Well, it was a plausible idea more plausible than 
 I knew but it's gone by the board. Miss Fortescue 
 was in Paris the day before yesterday, so she clearly 
 wasn't in the Thames a fortnight ago. Glad I saw that 
 envelope. I might have been hunting on a false trail. 
 Here we are at your house again. Yes, thanks, I'll 
 come in for a whisky and soda before I go home." 
 
 " Now," he said as he sipped his whisky medita- 
 tively, " the next trail to follow is the chauffeur who 
 took Essendine and his wife to the Terminus Hotel. 
 I admit this looks utterly irrelevant to Harry Greville, 
 but we must follow everything we can get at, and I 
 have a queer feeling about that story. Partly, I own, 
 for the sake of my niece, but also because I feel that the 
 two stories are mixed up, and a clue in one will put us 
 on the track of something in the other. You have 
 that man's address, haven't you ? " 
 
 " Yes, fortunately I kept it. I rather liked the man,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 209 
 
 and I thought, if ever I wanted to be extravagant 
 and do the grand, I would lure that car it was a 
 most sumptuous car and get him to drive. He always 
 drives the same car, he told me. Do you really think 
 he will be any use ? " 
 
 " Possibly very great use ; possibly none at all. 
 One can't say, but we must neglect no possibilities." 
 
 " Mr. Brathwayte, do you really think poor Harry 
 will be taken by the police ? Isn't there a chance of 
 their not finding him ? " 
 
 " Not the very smallest, Mrs. Donelly. You see 
 he went quite openly down to Exeter and to Penzance. 
 I expect he left his address there for Launceston. 
 In fact, I hope he did : I hope there was nothing about 
 him that could be in any way construed into running 
 away. Tell me now, have you the least idea what 
 makes Mrs. Fraser so virulent ? I have no doubt 
 it was she who set the police on to this hunt, and stirred 
 up all the trouble. 
 
 " It's difficult to say. With your experience, Mr. 
 Brathwayte, you should know how obscure a woman's 
 motives often are. Mrs. Fraser was an old friend of 
 Eulalie's before her marriage, and she bitterly opposed 
 and resented that marriage, I know ; and perhaps 
 for that reason she was always very critical of poor 
 Harry : she always suspected him. She openly said 
 he wasn't to be trusted, and, as you know, he is the 
 simplest soul in the world ; only he's very careless, 
 and very lazy. I think she was jealous because he 
 had taken her friend away, or so she thought ; that 
 is her nature, if I understand my own sex. So, you see, 
 she would put the very worst construction on every- 
 thing he said or did. I told you how I saw her at 
 Scotland Yard. I am certain she was trying then to 
 find out something against him."
 
 210 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " I see, I see. You have given me the woman in a 
 nutshell. Now I must say good-night, Mrs. Donelly, 
 and thank you very much for your assistance. I shall 
 come to you again very soon, and if you don't mind 
 we will see that chauffeur." 
 
 " Certainly ! Depend on me, Mr. Brathwayte. 
 Anything I can do to help poor Harry I will most 
 gladly do. But I do hope he is with Eulalie now, and 
 all this trouble will melt into thin air. You have 
 given me the strength and courage that I was sadly 
 needing. 
 
 "Oh, by the way," she said, as Brathwayte was 
 putting on his coat, " I was forgetting one thing. 
 I told you I went round to Bermuda Avenue after the 
 police raid. Everything was quite in order, but 
 there was a telegram that had just come for Harry, 
 after the police had left. I picked it up and I was 
 going to post it to him to-night. Do you think we 
 should open it ? " 
 
 " I certainly think we should. At all events, we 
 must certainly not forward it. You see we know he 
 isn't in Okehampton. He's somewhere on Dartmoor. 
 So it's only common sense to keep it till we know his 
 address, and in the meantime to see if it's anything 
 very urgent that may need a reply. Oh, yes, we are 
 quite justified in opening it." 
 
 " Here it is then. You open it and see." 
 
 The telegram read thus : 
 
 "Para 
 
 " Important details about your wife in letter posted 
 to-day do nothing till you receive it did not know your 
 address or would have written sooner. R. W. Essen- 
 dine."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 211 
 
 Brathwayte stood for some minutes in silent and 
 intense thought. 
 
 " This may be enormously important," he said. 
 " Have you the papers for the last week ? Oh, the 
 Times splendid ! Yes, here we are, the Pacific 
 ai rived at Para three days ago. Essendine wired 
 as soon as he arrived. No ; the next day. That 
 cable was held up somewhere. Essendine knew 
 something about Mrs. Greville. It was not in conse- 
 quence of this case. It may have been cabled to Para 
 to-day, I don't know. I believe some of these out-of-the- 
 way towns are very enterprising, but there was no 
 hint of Mrs. Greville till to-day. Also Essendine must 
 have known whatever he knows before he started, for 
 the Pacific has no wireless. Did not know his address, 
 but it is easily found, only to look in a directory ; 
 besides the Duke of Glenstaffen knows it well enough. 
 He has been at Bermuda Avenue. Do you see this 
 confirms my intuition. This man Essendine buries 
 an unknown wife, in very curious circumstances, and 
 at the very same time he knows something that no one 
 else knows about Mrs. Greville. Probably he, if any- 
 one, could prove that the body found at Rotherhithe 
 was not hers. Now we must wait a day or two : 
 by that time either Greville will have found his wife 
 or will be arrested. If he is arrested, I will cable the 
 fact to Essendine ; that will bring out the facts that 
 he knows, and perhaps bring him home at once. He 
 will be an essential witness. Well, good-bye again, 
 Mrs. Donelly, I'm most thankful you found this tele- 
 gram." 
 
 Brathwayte's forecast was absolutely correct : 
 the police had no difficulty in locating Harry Greville, 
 though Mrs. Fraser, going again to Scotland Yard,
 
 212 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 had positively asserted that he was certainly hiding, 
 and probably by this time en route for the Argentine, 
 or some other equally out-of-the-way place, where he 
 would never be found. It was a great disappoint- 
 ment to her to find that Mrs. Donelly was still in town ; 
 but she was positive that they had arranged to meet 
 in some foreign place. 
 
 But all unsuspicious for they saw no papers Harry 
 and Trevenna chartered a strong serviceable car from 
 Okehampton, and started for Dartmoor, following the 
 track of the Mackinnons, of whom they heard at short 
 intervals, in remote villages and picturesque inns, 
 among some of the loveliest parts of the moor. 
 
 Then they heard that, as was expected, their car 
 had foundered in a wild and lonely place, and they had 
 had to send for repairers, for it was beyond their own 
 chauffeur ; but all had been satisfactorily accomplished, 
 and they were coming back along a road not far from 
 where Harry and Trevenna then were. At a point 
 where two roads joined the car must pass, and here 
 they would halt and wait for it. A long stretch of 
 road lay before them, winding round a hill, and through 
 a deep gorge, splendid with the bloom of heath and 
 gorse and a thousand wild flowers such a scene as 
 Dartmoor at its best only could produce. Far away 
 round the hill a motor-car swung in sight. 
 
 " There they are ! " cried Trevenna, levelling his 
 field-glasses. The buzz of a car sounded behind them, 
 and stopped, but they never noticed it. 
 
 Greville seized the glasses from Trevenna 's hand. 
 
 " Yes, that's them right enough. Thank goodness ! 
 and there's Eulalie, beside the man. I suppose that's 
 Barton Mackinnon. Little wretch, she looks as jolly 
 as if she hadn't given us all this hunt. By Jove, 
 though, it's worth it to see this glorious country !
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 213 
 
 She often told me about Dartmoor, but I had no idea 
 it was so splendid as this." 
 
 There was a rustle, and a rush behind them, and two 
 men simultaneously laid their hands on his shoulders. 
 He turned his head in indignant challenge. 
 
 " Mr. Harry Greville ? " said one of them sternly. 
 
 " That's my name. Who are you ? What do you 
 want ? " 
 
 " I arrest you, in the name of the King, for the mur- 
 der of your wife, Eulalie Greville, and I have to caution 
 you that anything you say " 
 
 " Stop 1 I know all that rigmarole. You silly 
 goat ! I'm just meeting my wife, she is in that motor 
 car coming down the hill. In less than two minutes 
 you will see her very much alive." 
 
 " For your sake, I hope so," replied the man. " Keep 
 still, all the same. No attempt to bolt you know, 
 it's no good." 
 
 " Nonsense ! I'm not going to bolt. As if anyone 
 could here. Take your hands off. I don't want my 
 wife to come up and see me in the hands of the 
 police." 
 
 " All right, sir. We've got to do our duty, but we 
 don't want to do anything disagreeable. You will 
 have to come before a magistrate with Mrs. Greville 
 and be identified." 
 
 " Oh, we'll do that easy enough. I say, Trevenna, 
 this will be a fine yarn, with a dramatic finish, won't 
 it ! Here comes the car, signal them to stop." 
 
 The car slowed down, and Greville made a step 
 forward. The police evidently thought the car was 
 a ruse for a rescue, for two others came up from behind 
 and surrounded him." 
 
 " Eulalie I " he called out. " At last I've come up 
 with you, what a chase you have led me."
 
 214 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 The lady on the back seat looked up in surprise. 
 It was the face of a total stranger. 
 
 " A mistake," he said, " I was convinced she was in 
 that car. Lead on, I'll come with you all right. It 
 will soon be explained." 
 
 A wire that night to his solicitors in London requested 
 them to come at once, and to retain Brathwayte at 
 all costs.
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE composition of that telegram had given much 
 anxiety to both Ralph and Ronny. They had 
 decided to wait a week in Para, first, to bestow 
 Alan Macpherson in hospital, and ascertain definitely 
 the prospects of his recovery in time to join their 
 expedition to the upper waters of the Amazon, and then 
 to make such modifications in their arrangements as 
 were necessitated by their change of plans. There was 
 much of absorbing interest to be done, and excellent 
 sport to be had on the lower Amazon and its tribu- 
 taries that might well occupy them for a few weeks ; 
 and even if their expedition were to last two or even 
 three months longer than they at first proposed, they 
 would not greatly regret it. 
 
 The fact was that the country had already begun to 
 cast its spell over them, they longed now to see and to 
 know more of it. And when that telegram was dis- 
 patched and the letter of explanation written, so that 
 Harry Greville would know definitely of his wife's death, 
 there was no reason for their return. In fact, Ralph 
 maintained that the more the story had become a half- 
 forgotten tale when they got back the better. But 
 what to say in the telegram was very difficult to decide. 
 It would not do to tell him baldly of her death, without 
 explanation at the same time ; he must be told that 
 what had become of her was known, and who knew it, 
 and that the full story would be told. He might cable 
 
 215
 
 216 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 in reply. If so, they would get his wire before 
 they started, and could then decide their future 
 course. 
 
 At length, after some twenty or more attempts, 
 the cable took the form we have seen and was sent off 
 on the second day after their arrival. A long letter of 
 explanation was also written, which ingeniously stated 
 only those facts which were necessary to inform 
 Greville of his wife's death, under circumstances 
 which precluded any knowledge of who she was, and 
 cast no slur on her reputation. 
 
 Neither of them liked writing that letter. It was 
 a deliberate paltering with truth, it looked a mean and 
 unworthy thing. But Ralph said : 
 
 " This is a case when one has to do a mean thing 
 somehow or other. Either we must lie, or we must 
 cast an indelible stain on the memory of a woman who 
 can no longer defend herself. You know quite well, 
 Ronny, that if she were alive, and some one had sus- 
 pected your relations, you would have lied like Satan 
 himself in her defence. I'm saying nothing about your 
 relations, they are your own affair, and I am no preacher 
 of morality to cast stones at my betters. But there it 
 is, this thing has found us, and we've got to see it out 
 somehow or other." 
 
 " Ralph, you can't and you mustn't shoulder this 
 thing for me. I must bear my own burden, and dree 
 my own weird." 
 
 " No use. You simply can't without involving 
 her memory in all the scandal. You would do just 
 what we have agreed must be avoided at all costs. 
 My own share, whether I was wise or unwise, is done and 
 fixed. It you were to intervene now you would add 
 a new story without altering what has been done, and a 
 story that would cause more distress to every one
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 217 
 
 concerned, and no good to any single soul. No, 
 let it be ; believe me, it is far best so." 
 
 " You're right. You're always right. But, con- 
 found it, how can I ever repay all the mountain of 
 debt I owe you ? " 
 
 " Never mind that, Ronny. You and I are chums, 
 and we stand by each other. Some day perhaps you'll 
 do as much or more for me. Meantime we have the 
 Amazon before us, and at least a month in the Fairy- 
 land of the lower waters, before we definitely plunge 
 into the unknown. Look there. Is there any other 
 place in all the world where you could see a compar- 
 atively civilized street, with buildings that might be 
 in almost any tropical town, simply ending in an 
 impenetrable forest. Walk straight along there where 
 we are walking now, and what do you come to ? God 
 only knows. Civilization, post office, telegrams, and 
 all the rest of it, and then one step, and you are in the 
 primitive wild, as it was perhaps before Adam. We are 
 on the very edge of our world, as we know it, and we 
 are going to step off. We will get Alan's brother, and 
 one or two men. He told me this morning he could 
 get all we needed in a couple of days, we will carry 
 provisions for about ten days, after that we trust 
 to our guns. We will push as far as we an up some 
 creeks that he has partly explored, but it will be largely 
 unknown ground even to him. I propose we take a 
 month. By that time Alan will be well, they tell me, 
 and we start for the real expedition ; we shall have a 
 lot of experience to help us. And before we start 
 there will be time to get a reply to our telegram if there 
 is one, and by the time we are back there will be a 
 reply to our letter. Come now, Ronny, is it agreed ? " 
 
 " Agreed, Ralph, with all my heart. The wild 
 calls I long to be in the forest."
 
 218 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 But they had reckoned without counting the delays 
 that seem almost inevitable in all connected with South 
 America. The cable was somehow held up en route 
 as we have seen, and after the receipt of it Brathwayte 
 had decided to wait a couple of days before wiring the 
 reply. This he did directly he knew that Harry Greville 
 had been arrested, and that Eulalie had not been found. 
 Ralph had put no address beyond Para on his cable. 
 He did not expect any reply wire ; in fact, so far as 
 he thought about it, he did not want one. His motive 
 was simply to calm Greville's mind for the time with the 
 knowledge that there was some one who knew about his 
 wife, and that a letter was coming. That letter gave 
 full particulars of how to address the reply. Brath- 
 wayte therefore, after some consideration, addressed 
 his reply cable to Essendine, care of the British Consul 
 at Para. Whether such a functionary existed he did 
 not know, but he was informed that a cable so addressed 
 for any well known Englishman would be certain to 
 be delivered. He cabled therefore : 
 
 " Greville arrested for murder of his wife cable 
 instantly any information and where to find you all 
 cost will be refunded Brathwayte K.C. Temple." 
 
 But the four days' delay just cut off the communi- 
 cation, and the cable arrived when Ralph and Ronny 
 with their men had disappeared into the trackless forest. 
 There was no chance whatever of reaching them, 
 Alan Macpherson, being appealed to, said that there 
 were a dozen different routes his brother might have 
 taken, they had no distinct plan after the first or second 
 day out. Two days before he might have told a quick 
 and clever native runner how to find them, but now 
 it was impossible. There was nothing for it, the 
 telegram must lie there until their -return. The forest
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 219 
 
 had swallowed them, and hence also it was that they 
 never heard that the mail steamer Paraguay had caught 
 fire in mid-ocean, and though no lives were lost the 
 whole of the mails, including the letter written with so 
 much care and anxiety, were utterly lost. 
 
 Brathwayte waited in vain for the cable he expected 
 in reply to his telegram. He calculated the chances of 
 their having left Para, and though it seemed improbable 
 that for so long an expedition as they were planning 
 they could have left so soon, still it was possible. 
 There remained the letter. It was posted, the cable 
 said, on the very same day. It was fifteen days to 
 Para. It would be in time. 
 
 This letter was clearly vital for the defence : 
 obviously this man Essendine was the one person 
 in the world who knew something about Mrs. Greville. 
 A hundred wild theories flashed through his brain, 
 born of other cases he had been engaged in, or had read. 
 She might have eloped with some one else. There were 
 those stories of her having been seen with Carew, 
 utterly vague, and unconfirmed, and unlikely almost 
 to the point of impossibility ; still, to be considered. 
 But Carew had disappeared also, and these stories would 
 be quite worthless for defence, unless there were 
 something to support them. She might have been 
 suddenly called to Canada, where she had friends, 
 and not written, or the letter might have gone astray. 
 Again such a story with no evidence in support was 
 worthless. She might have been kidnapped such 
 things happened sometimes or there might have been 
 a sudden loss of memory, there were cases of that too. 
 
 But, after all, the crushing fact remained that the 
 Crown had a definite theory, supported by a body of 
 evidence, circumstantial, it is true, still fairly complete, 
 and it was little use to say that something else might
 
 220 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 have happened, which was profoundly unlikely, and 
 of which there was no evidence whatsoever. There 
 were points certainly where the evidence might be 
 attacked, points which were inconclusive, perhaps a 
 strong jury speech, such as Brathwayte could make 
 better than any other man at the bar, might sway a 
 sentimental jury, and make them hesitate to convict. 
 It was possible and must be tried, but he recognized 
 that all the sentiment of the jury would be against him, 
 unless he could turn it round. The woman said to be 
 murdered was beautiful and charming : everything to 
 excite interest and sympathy for her would be nibbed 
 in. 
 
 Poor Harry's casual indolence, and his carelessness 
 about his wife's movements, would be dwelt on, and 
 exaggerated. It would appear unnatural to every man 
 on the jury. It would be made to appear a callous 
 neglect that in itself was almost criminal. A man who 
 could so treat his wife must be tired of her and therefore 
 most probably in love with some other woman ; there 
 was an inherent probability of his wanting to get rid 
 of her. The sympathy of the jury for the beautiful 
 neglected wife would readily breed a virtuous indig- 
 nation against the brutal husband who left her to come 
 and go as she would, without a care or question, so 
 that he might be free to pursue his low amours ; and 
 finally murdered her when she was a little more than 
 usual in his way. 
 
 This would be the foundation, the emotional basis 
 so to say, of the Crown case, and the jury would accept 
 readily all the evidence in support of the husband's 
 guilt, and pat themselves on the back as virtuous 
 British citizens, bringing to justice a hardened villain 
 who had so destroyed the sanctity of hearth and 
 home. This he guessed would be the prejudice he
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 221 
 
 would have to meet, and to break down, and well he 
 knew the difficulty of it. He had tackled the virtue 
 of the British juryman before, and knew that there is 
 nothing in the world so inveterate. 
 
 Well, there were still chances. In spite of all likeli- 
 hood to the contrary, Eulalie might yet turn up. 
 Though, as day after day went by, this hope dwindled 
 almost to nothing. Wherever she was, if in the 
 British Islands at all, she must have seen the 
 newspapers, and have read the account of her supposed 
 death, and of her husband's arrest. Even suppose 
 she had been taken ill, and was unable to write, the 
 people she was with knew all about her belongings, 
 and would have telegraphed at once. There remained 
 the letter from Ralph Essendine. This would surely 
 give some clue, on which at worst he could apply 
 for a stay of proceedings, to enable him to bring such 
 fresh evidence as might be indicated. 
 
 Meanwhile, the usual inquiry before magistrates 
 took place, and the proceedings were little more than 
 formal. Brathwayte saw from the first that it would 
 be absolutely useless to resist a committal for trial, 
 and was unwilling to weaken the force of his defence 
 by anticipating it. He contented himself with criti- 
 cizing the evidence of the prosecution in its most open 
 points, alleging that there was no real evidence of 
 identity, that even if identity were proved there was 
 nothing to connect the husband with the murder, if 
 it were a murder, which again was not proved, and 
 submitting that there was no case to go to the jury. 
 Otherwise he reserved his defence. These arguments 
 were brushed aside, as he knew they would be, and 
 Harry Greville was committed to take his trial before 
 the Central Criminal Court. 
 
 The time at which the letter from Para should have
 
 222 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 come was now past ; and no letter had arrived. In- 
 quiry at the post office showed that the mails of the 
 date of the cable would probably be on board the 
 Paraguay, and have been lost. Brathwayte grew 
 daily more anxious. Never had he been engaged in a 
 case that troubled him as this did. On every side the 
 network of circumstantial evidence seemed to close 
 round him, and bar every avenue. 
 
 His old impression of Mrs. Donelly as the reservoir 
 of facts and information grew stronger as days went by, 
 and the steady conviction was borne on his mind that 
 somehow or other the whole tangled story would come 
 to light through her. He wondered if he should call 
 her as a witness, but on consideration he dismissed the 
 idea. After all what could she prove ? Her value 
 lay in the clues that had come to her by sheer luck. 
 He tried to put himself in the position of the prosecu- 
 tion. Had he been leading on the other side he would 
 have sought first for the motive of the crime, and in an 
 entanglement with another woman would have been 
 the most likely solution. There was not the slightest 
 scrap of evidence that Harry was, or ever had been, 
 in love with Hilda, yet Brathwayte well knew how the 
 story of their intimate friendship, as drawn from her 
 by a clever cross-examiner, would rouse half-formed 
 suspicions and prejudices in the minds of the jury. 
 He would not call her himself, had he been on the other 
 side, but he would have liked her to be called against 
 him. Therefore he would not call her. 
 
 But he discussed the case with her, and was surprised 
 to find how true his intuition had been. 
 
 " I am convinced, Mr. Brathwayte," she said, as they 
 sat in her little drawing-room, " that if we could only 
 get Mr. Essendine we should have the whole story. 
 Just look at that telegram : ' Details about your wife.'
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 223 
 
 He certainly knew something before he sailed, and that 
 was a fortnight at least after Eulalie left home. Then 
 there was his mysterious marriage, and his wife's death. 
 Queer, too, that she had the same name. Could it 
 have been possible that he had run away with Eulalie, 
 and killed her ? " 
 
 " I had thought of that," he said. " We lawyers 
 try to think of everything, you know, however un- 
 likely ; but that would be an incredible story. Suppose 
 he had run away with her, he would not do it openly 
 in his own name. He would not do it on the very eve of 
 going off for six months or more into the wilds ; and 
 even supposing all that, there was no motive whatso- 
 ever for killing her. The only one point in favour of 
 such a story would be the chance similarity of name, 
 othenvise there is nothing on earth to connect him 
 with this case. There is no evidence that he ever 
 knew her, certainly Greville never knew him, and that 
 telegram is quite useless as evidence. ' Details about 
 your wife.' Don't you see that might mean anything. 
 I quite agree if we could get him here, and hear what 
 he had to say, it might make all the difference ; but 
 where is he ? " 
 
 " All the same, I can't help thinking there is some 
 connection. You see he picked up this Mrs. Essendine 
 in a strange way, in a by-street somewhere I shall 
 get the address from the chauffeur to-morrow with 
 a lot of new luggage, and went to the Terminus Hotel ; 
 a couple of hours later she was dead ; he took her down 
 to Penzance and buried her there without a single 
 friend, or mourner, or anyone, and almost immediately 
 he rushed off to the Amazon, and disappeared. Now 
 we know he had a wife, and a strong motive to get rid 
 of her." 
 
 " How ? " said Brathwayte. " What do you mean ?
 
 224 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " Why, can't you see ? He was desperately in love 
 with your niece. She told me all the story. He told 
 her as though it were some friend of his, but she knew 
 all the time it was his own story he was telling, and he 
 would not tell her that he loved her, because of this 
 wife. I gathered that there had been a divorce, but 
 he was a Catholic, and of course they don't recognize 
 divorce. So you see he had every reason to wish her 
 out of the way." 
 
 " Good Lord ! There may be something in that. 
 What an escape for Lola if that is so. We may see 
 Ralph Essendine in the dock yet ; but, after all, there 
 is nothing in all that to connect him or his wife with 
 Harry Greville. Say that he murdered this woman, 
 and that she was his wife, she couldn't have 
 been Harry Greville's wife. It is just an accidental 
 coincidence." 
 
 " True ! I can't follow things out as you do, Mr. 
 Brathwayte. But keep in mind two things : Mr. 
 Essendine knew something about Eulalie ; and his 
 wife, whoever she was, was also a customer of Miss 
 Fortescue. That scrap of ribbon I got from the 
 chambermaid proves that much." 
 
 " I know, and that may be a valuable bit of evidence. 
 The prosecution have cited Miss Fortescue as a witness. 
 I shall ask her about that ribbon, and I shall call the 
 chambermaid. It will weaken the evidence of identity 
 considerably, so far as it depends on clothes." 
 
 " You will call Sir Alfred Ross, of course." 
 
 " Unfortunately, I may not be able. He has gone 
 abroad. I understand it is at the King's personal 
 request, to attend some foreign royalty. I wanted him 
 badly to contradict Dr. Veldoff, and even more to 
 coach me as to the cross-examination, but it can't be 
 helped, and after all there is very little he could say.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 225 
 
 He never saw the body, and he can't see it now, unless 
 I can get an exhumation, and there's no decent reason 
 to ask for that, unless I can make out one in cross- 
 examination. If I could, it would give time for Ross 
 to get back, and he might apply his test." 
 
 " Can't you ask leave for him to apply it ? " 
 
 " I fear not. You see it isn't announced yet, and 
 Veldoff's evidence will be accepted. No, unfortunately, 
 I have hardly a witness worth calling such, and all 
 the feeling of the country is against me. You can see 
 it in every paper. You can hear it wherever a few 
 people are chattering. There's a universal belief that 
 Greville is guilty." 
 
 " Mr. Brathwayte, you must succeed. We know 
 poor Harry is as innocent as the day. Everything 
 rests on you." 
 
 " I know it, my dear Mrs. Donelly, and all that man 
 can do I will ; but you see what a thin foundation I 
 have. Nothing indeed but breaking down the prose- 
 cution in cross-examination, and my jury speech. 
 Well, well, we shall see the chauffeur to-morrow. 
 Good-bye. I am going over the whole facts once more 
 to-night." 
 
 The chauffeur was full of importance at being 
 connected with such a celebrated case, and recounted 
 the whole story at great length. It was at 58 North 
 Road, Kilburn, that they had picked up Mrs. Essendine 
 and her luggage. Brathwayte and Mrs. Donelly 
 started and looked at each other Miss Fortescue's. 
 Brathwayte made rapid notes, while the man was 
 talking, for the cross-examination of Miss Fortescue. 
 Mrs. Donelly recalled the friendly terms on which Mrs. 
 Greville had been with the dressmaker, even to the 
 extent of calling there for letters, having tea with her,
 
 226 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 and giving her quantities of half-worn, or hardly worn, 
 dresses. Why ? In the minds of both the same 
 thought occurred. If there was anyone who could 
 prove that the woman found in the Thames was not 
 Eulalie Greville, that person was Miss Fortescue. She 
 was called for the prosecution, but she was going to be 
 the principal witness for the defence, of that Brathwayte 
 felt certain. There was nothing else new in the 
 chauffeur's story ; but Brathwayte noted him as a 
 man to be called if need be. 
 
 Meantime cables had been sent both to the civil and 
 military authorities in Para, and to the leading bankers, 
 asking for any information concerning Ralph Essendine, 
 eliciting always the same answer : he had gone with the 
 Duke of Glenstaffen on a sporting and exploring 
 expedition up the Amazon ; it was utterly impossible 
 to follow or trace them, or to say when they would 
 return, a month was named, but with no certainty ; 
 the country was very dangerous, they might never 
 return. 
 
 These inquiries of course leaked out, and club gossip 
 asserted positively that Ralph was an essential witness, 
 that he was Mrs. Greville's lover, that Greville had 
 found it out, and therefore had killed her. Then by 
 one of those extraordinary brain-waves that come from 
 we know not where, a rumour began to be whispered 
 that Essendine himself had killed his wife in some 
 mysterious way. The stories as to this were very 
 vague, and all very wide of the truth. The Terminus 
 Hotel people were greatly perturbed, and the staff 
 were adjured to the most rigid secrecy. The guests, 
 with the exception of Mrs. Donelly, had barely heard 
 of the incident, and had forgotten it. So the name of 
 the hotel was never mentioned ; but London, as well 
 as, later on, the Provinces, was quite certain that
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 227 
 
 Ralph was a murderer who had taken the easy way of 
 disappearing into the trackless wilds of the Amazon 
 forests, and would assuredly never be heard of again. 
 Such was the story that reached Lola Macarthy, 
 despite all Brathwayte's efforts to keep it from her. So 
 as she knew so much there was nothing for it but to 
 tell her the whole matter as far as it had come to him, 
 including Mrs. Donelly's experience at the Terminus 
 Hotel. 
 
 " Uncle Sidney," she said, " I neither know nor care 
 whether it is true or not. It is a most extraordinary 
 story, but there's one thing certain. Ralph is in 
 trouble and I'm going to him. Yes, out to Para, or 
 wherever it is ! Oh, I knew all about his wife. If 
 she's dead, I shall marry him, whatever he has done. 
 If she's not dead well, never mind, I'm going all the 
 same. He wants me. Never mind how I know. I 
 do know." 
 
 " But, my dear, this is stark madness. No, don't 
 interrupt, I'm not going to preach convention or 
 propriety. You'll do what you think right, but just 
 listen a moment. If he is in the jungle, neither you 
 nor anyone else can find him. If he has come back to 
 Para, then our cables will bring him back as fast as a 
 ship can come. Just look what will happen : he will 
 start for home ; you will go out ; your ship will pass 
 his in mid-ocean, and neither of you will know." 
 
 " You are right, Uncle Sidney. That would never 
 do. But isn't there some one in Para who knows about 
 this expedition, some guide, or something, or some one 
 who supplied their equipment ? " 
 
 " Yes, there was a man, Alan Macpherson, mentioned, 
 who ought to have gone with them, but was laid up 
 in hospital." 
 
 " That will do. Now, Uncle Sidney, just cable for
 
 228 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 me to this man, these words : ' Say to Ralph Essendine, 
 the brown owl calls by night/ It was a little private 
 joke between us that will bring him from the other 
 end of the world, also it will let him know that what- 
 ever happens there is one who will stick to him through 
 everything." 
 
 " Lola, you're a queer girl. I ought to read you a 
 lecture full of moral advice and wise caution, but by 
 the Lord I admire you. You're a trump. If there 
 were more like you it would be a better old world than 
 it is."
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE Court was crowded to suffocation ; for years 
 there had not been a case that had so excited 
 public interest. Every one was craning for- 
 ward to see the prisoner. Harry Greville appeared 
 dazed, and hardly to realize what was going on. He 
 had had many interviews with Brathwayte, he could 
 account precisely for every moment of his time, and 
 every action, yet an extraordinary combination of 
 circumstances had spun a web around him from which 
 there seemed no escape. 
 
 Brathwayte had been chiefly concerned about the 
 discovery of the Mexican poison in Harry's safe ; and 
 had spent all the evening before in consultation with 
 the veteran Sir John Seymour, his own teacher in the 
 law, and in his time the most famous leader of the 
 criminal bar. Should he throw up his brief and tender 
 himself as a witness to prove how the little tube got 
 into Harry's possession ? 
 
 " Cui bono ? " said the old lawyer. " The point is 
 not how it got there, but the fact that it was there. 
 However Greville got it, the fact is indisputable that 
 at the crucial time he had it. He might easily have 
 abstracted it from your parcel the night you left it 
 there, or, say it slipped out by accident ; the mere 
 fact that it was in his safe might have suggested the 
 crime. I look on it as wholly irrelevant how he got 
 
 229
 
 230 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 it ; and so will the jury. By doing as you suggest 
 you would merely deprive him of your assistance, 
 without doing any good to any human soul. 
 
 " I don't want to flatter you, Brathwayte.. you have 
 been my pupil, and I have watched your career with 
 much satisfaction, and I say deliberately a man who 
 has you to defend him is fortunate. You have no 
 right to deprive him of this chance. No, my dear boy, 
 the thing has got a bit on your nerves, or you wouldn't 
 think of it. The point you can make is that if he had 
 made a guilty use of this poison he would naturally 
 have destroyed the incriminating tube at once 
 murderers almost always do so the fact of his leaving 
 it in his safe for anyone to find is a strong point in 
 favour of innocence. Make the most of it. The 
 prosecution will have no idea how he came by it. 
 Let them remain in ignorance." 
 
 So it was that, in spite of these final qualms, Brath- 
 wayte appeared as the prisoner's counsel, looking as 
 calm and self-confident as usual, with a smiling greeting 
 to his friends, as though he had before him the simplest 
 task in the world, instead of one of the most difficult 
 and anxious cases that he had ever undertaken. 
 
 The Attorney-General himself led for the prosecu- 
 tion. 
 
 Knowing well from experience the effect of Brath- 
 wayte's eloquence, his opening was studiously dry and 
 unemotional. Fact after fact was remorselessly fitted 
 into its place, the conclusions barely indicated the 
 jury could draw these for themselves. He asked the 
 jury gravely to set aside all prejudice, well knowing that 
 it was impossible they should do so, and that every 
 fact he adduced, being in confirmation of their pre- 
 judices against the prisoner, would be eagerly welcomed, 
 and that any gaps or inconsistencies in the plain tale
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 231 
 
 he meant to tell would be made good by their imagina- 
 tions. 
 
 He told them how on that foggy afternoon a woman 
 had gone over Waterloo Bridge into the river. A 
 man was with her. Who was that man ? There was 
 only one suggestion : it was the prisoner at the bar, 
 arrested then by the police, and let go again, for most 
 insufficient reasons ; but they had the right man then, 
 as he would show them presently. At that time the 
 woman was unknown, but nearly a month later the 
 body was recovered from the Thames. Fortunately, 
 there could be no possible doubt that it was the body 
 of the woman who had gone over the bridge. The 
 police had an article of clothing that corresponded 
 precisely with what was upon the body when found, 
 an article, moreover, of a pattern and make so rare 
 as to negative the conclusion of a chance similarity 
 in the dress of two different women. 
 
 Then he went on to tell them who this body was that 
 had been so recovered from the water. Fortunately 
 again, there could be no doubt about it : it was Mrs. 
 Greville, the wife of the prisoner at the bar. Many 
 witnesses who knew the deceased well had identified 
 the body ; not one who had seen it had failed to re- 
 cognize the unfortunate lady. An attempt would no 
 doubt be made by the defence to prove that it was 
 only by her clothes that the body was identified. 
 That was not so, the evidence was far more convincing 
 than in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred of identifi- 
 cation ; specially cogent in this case, because some 
 of those who had seen and identified the body were 
 ladies belonging to the theatrical profession. These 
 ladies were accustomed continually to see every kind of 
 costume, and to disregard clothes, and see the real 
 person however dressed ; their evidence was of very
 
 232 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 peculiar value, and they took special note of the de- 
 ceased lady, because one of her many gracious and 
 kindly acts in life was that she had been the energetic 
 secretary of a theatrical charity. Who then was with 
 her on that fatal afternoon ? They had heard that 
 it was her husband. Was it a mere chance that he 
 was on the bridge as it is admitted he was at the 
 very moment when his wife went over the parapet 
 to her death ? 
 
 Then he raised the question of the cause of death. 
 It might have been by drowning ; but Dr. Veldoff , 
 the well-known expert, would tell them it was probably 
 the Mexican poison of which so much had been heard 
 lately, and he would explain the nature and effects of 
 this drug. It was an extremely rare drug indeed it 
 was said there was none of it in this country at all 
 but there was one tube at all events, and that was in 
 the possession of the prisoner at the bar at the time of 
 his wife's death. How he got it, or with what inten- 
 tion, mattered not. In many cases it was an important 
 matter to trace how the accused became possessed of 
 the poison ; here it was not so. It was proved to the 
 hilt that he had it, and naturally it was asked why ? 
 The prisoner was not a doctor, he was not a scientific 
 investigator, or an experimental chemist. There was 
 one thing, and only one, for which he could have 
 obtained this drug, and that was for the purpose of 
 the crime which he committed. 
 
 He proceeded to expound that an attempt would 
 doubtless be made to account for all these things on the 
 supposition of innocence. It might be quite possible 
 to frame an imaginary state of matters in which all 
 these suspicious circumstances might have occurred 
 consistently with the innocence of the prisoner ; as an 
 exercise of fancy it was ingenious, and everything that
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 233 
 
 could be urged on behalf of the prisoner should of 
 course be considered and interpreted as favourably 
 as possible towards him, but there was one vital point. 
 No man lied without a motive, he would show them 
 how the prisoner ever since the disappearance of his 
 wife had consistently lied. Even assuming that his 
 statement was true, and that he really did not know his 
 wife's whereabouts, he had continually said things 
 which he knew to be false, but for which, on the theory 
 of the prosecution, there was very strong incentive 
 on the theory of innocence none at all. He invited 
 their closest attention to the evidence that would 
 be laid before them, and asked them to give the benefit 
 of any doubt that might be left, if any there were, 
 to the prisoner. It was true the evidence was cir- 
 cumstantial only, but this was the case with certainly 
 ninety per cent of the crimes brought to trial, it was 
 very rare indeed that direct evidence could be brought 
 of any crime. He concluded as quietly and unemo- 
 tionally as he had begun, without the least attempt at 
 a peroration, or at oratory of any kind ; but his 
 appearance of confidence, and of close reasoning, 
 evidently impressed the jury powerfully. 
 
 The first police witnesses described the scene when 
 the woman went over Waterloo Bridge, the arrest and 
 release of Harry Greville. Brathwayte, in cross- 
 examination, merely elicited that owing to the fog 
 they could not tell how she went over, whether she 
 jumped, or was thrown over, nor whether the man they 
 alleged to have been with her was close to her at the 
 time, nor did they see his face. Harry Greville was 
 walking away, he looked like the man who had been 
 with her, certainly another man might have disappeared 
 in the fog, Greville made no attempt to escape, his 
 demeanour was not that of a guilty man. They let
 
 234 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 him go because they were convinced at the time. 
 The scarf had caught on the parapet. It \vas kept 
 with a view to identification. 
 
 Then Miss Oliver was called. She was Miss Fortes- 
 cue's assistant, she explained ; she remembered 
 the scarf and could speak to the purchase. The 
 judge inquired if Miss Fortescue was to be called. 
 Unfortunately, said the Attorney-General, though the 
 prosecution had made every effort, they had failed to 
 procure Miss Fortescue's attendance. She had gone to 
 Paris, and had been heard of from there, but was not 
 at the address given. He would put in a letter received 
 from her by Miss Oliver, also the report received 
 from the police authorities in Paris that Miss Fortescue 
 had not been at that address this year, though she 
 usually stayed there. Miss Oliver, however, could 
 state all important facts. 
 
 Miss Oliver told, accordingly, of the purchase of the 
 brocade, and how it had all been bought up by Mrs. 
 Greville and Mrs. Donelly. Mrs. Greville had various 
 articles made up with it. She did not think there 
 was anyone else in London except Mrs. Donelly who 
 would wear that particular brocade. In reply to 
 Brathwayte, she said it was certainly possible that 
 Mrs. Greville might have given away a dress made up 
 with it, but it was most unlikely : Mrs. Greville had a 
 great objection to anyone copying her dresses. She 
 had certainly given Miss Fortescue some of her dresses, 
 when she had done with them, but Miss Fortescue had 
 never given any of these away. She would not risk 
 losing so good a customer. Miss Fortescue had a 
 scarf like the one produced. It was a piece left over 
 of the brocade. She might possibly have given this 
 away, but it was very unlikely. 
 
 Miss Oliver remembered also the 'French grey and
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 235 
 
 pink ribbon, Mrs. Greville had a large quantity of 
 that ribbon, and took several yards of it away with her 
 when she left. Miss Oliver produced a piece, which 
 Brathwayte put in evidence. The judge inquired if 
 this was relevant. Brathwayte replied it was very 
 important to his case, as he would show presently. 
 
 Then James Hewson, the gardener, was examined ; 
 and Colonel Fraser. Both swore that the body they 
 had seen was that of Mrs. Greville, both admitted in 
 cross-examination that they were at first chiefly 
 impressed by the dress which they knew well, but 
 afterwards they recognized the hair and other details, 
 and had no possible doubt that it could be anyone 
 else. 
 
 Several actresses then came forward one after another, 
 and swore to having recognized the body. They knew 
 Mrs. Greville perfectly well, they were not in the least 
 influenced by clothes ; but there was a remarkable 
 similarity in their language. The last was a pretty, 
 self-conscious looking girl, who seemed rather pleased 
 with her prominence in the Court, and disposed to 
 talk. Brathwayte did not seem inclined to cross- 
 examine her. He had seen her act in a problem play, 
 and he asked her about her experience, and her life 
 on the stage. He recalled how she had taken a part 
 at very short notice, and observed that she must 
 have a great faculty for learning her words. She said 
 she had, and owed much of her success to that ; she 
 could learn an ordinary part, not a lead, in an after- 
 noon. He queried what was the length of an ordinary 
 part, she tried to explain. 
 
 " For instance," he said, in his ordinary chatty 
 tones, " how long would you take to learn the state- 
 ment you have just made to my friend ? " 
 
 " Oh, about a couple of hours."
 
 236 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Then she realized her slip, and tried to hedge ; 
 but it was no use Brathwayte wanted no more. 
 
 " And the others about the same, I suppose. I have 
 no more questions." 
 
 In vain the Attorney-General tried to rehabilitate 
 his witness : the jury realized that the evidence had 
 been written out for these witnesses, and learned by 
 them. 
 
 Mrs. Fraser was the next witness ; and the interest, 
 which had been flagging slightly, grew keen again. 
 She spoke of her long and intimate friendship with Mrs. 
 Greville. She had not seen the body she could not 
 bear the sight of a dead body but she was sure from 
 what her husband and the gardener had told her that 
 it was no other. She had known Mrs. Greville before 
 her marriage ; had nursed her when she had a broken 
 leg from a fall out hunting. Brathwayte here made a 
 rapid note on his brief. She knew the prisoner too as 
 Mrs. Greville's husband. She would not say they 
 got on well together, though Mrs. Greville was 
 always extraordinarily forbearing and forgiving. He 
 neglected her shamefully. He was always about with 
 other women. He openly said she was in his way. 
 At his own table and before her he had said he wished 
 he had never married. Mrs. Fraser wanted to give 
 names and particulars of women that he went about 
 with, and was in love with. Brathwayte made a 
 slight movement as though to object ; but the judge 
 interposed, and said this evidence could not be admitted, 
 at that stage at all events. 
 
 The Attorney-General was somewhat stern in his 
 examination of Mrs. Fraser, and skilfully left the 
 impression that Mrs. Greville had been very unhappily 
 married to a loose disreputable type of man, who would 
 be only too glad to be rid of her, and might be
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 237 
 
 unscrupulous as to the means. He allowed her to say 
 very little, but conveyed the idea that there was an 
 enormous amount behind, if only the judge would 
 allow it to be brought forward. 
 
 When Brathwayte rose, he was bland and courteous. 
 They were there to ascertain the truth, and Mrs. Fraser 
 knew more of the facts than almost any one. He 
 encouraged her to talk, to tell them all she knew. He 
 was gently sympathetic and quite accepted her estimate 
 of Harry Grenville. No wonder she mistook the 
 position, and thought that Brathwayte was on her side. 
 She told how earnestly she had opposed the marriage, 
 how she had told poor Eulalie that her life would not 
 be safe if she married that man. She had always 
 expected a tragedy. She was not in the least surprised. 
 Directly she heard of the finding of the body in the 
 Thames she felt sure it was her poor friend, and she 
 knew that her husband had murdered her, as she always 
 knew he would. She had sent the gardener to see the 
 body, she had told him whose body it was. Of course 
 she had. Women's intuitions are far more reliable 
 than man's reasonings. Besides, she knew the prisoner, 
 and here she grew eloquent. Brathwayte listened with 
 little murmurs and gestures of acquiescence and 
 interest, only now and then checking her gently, with 
 the remark that the judge could not allow this or that 
 to be said. The jury smiled one to another at this 
 harangue, and Brathwayte smiled to them but so that 
 she saw nothing. Then he asked about the broken 
 leg. It was a very bad fracture of the right leg, just 
 below the knee, and took a long time to heal. Finally 
 and quietly as ever, he said : 
 
 " Perhaps you may be a little prejudiced, Mrs. 
 Fraser." 
 
 Then the flood-gates were opened and a torrent of
 
 238 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 indignant disclaimer burst from the lady. She forgot 
 herself, and the Court and everything in the rush of 
 words. At length she stopped, rather from exhaustion 
 than anything else. The Attorney-General did not 
 re-examine. Brathwayte's expressive face had tele- 
 graphed many signs to the jury, and before Mrs. 
 Fraser left the box there was clearly the dawning of 
 a certain sympathy for the prisoner. 
 
 Police evidence was then given of the finding of the 
 little tube in Greville's safe. In answer to Brathwayte, 
 they said it was lying there quite openly with no 
 attempt at concealment ; it was not even wrapped up. 
 They saw it directly they opened the safe. Greville 
 was away, but there was no effort to hide anything or 
 to prevent their searching. In their experience this 
 was unusual in poisoning cases : there was always some 
 attempt to get rid of the poison. 
 
 Dr. Veldoff then stated that he had made a special 
 study of poisons generally, and in particular of this 
 Mexican virus. There was no doubt that this tube 
 was the actual drug ; but how it got to this country 
 he could not say, probably from Berlin. There was 
 no doubt it could be got from there. He had written 
 articles about it in the British Medical Journal, the 
 Lancet and other periodicals. He did not think any 
 other medical man had made a serious study of it, 
 certainly no one else had gone into the matter with 
 the same thoroughness that he had. Undoubtedly 
 the chief source of knowledge was Germany. The 
 drug was completely known in Berlin. He was himself 
 now engaged in translating a German work on toxi- 
 cology, in which one whole chapter was devoted to this 
 poison. He was therefore well acquainted with its 
 effects, and with the post-mortem appearances which 
 were peculiar. There was no test that could discover
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 239 
 
 the presence of the poison in the tissues ; in this way, 
 it was absolutely a secret poison of the most dangerous 
 nature. Fortunately, however, there were post-mortem 
 appearances which to the expert eye left no doubt. 
 He had examined the body in question, and certified 
 on soul and conscience that it had all the marks of 
 poisoning by Mexican virus. 
 
 It was one of the peculiarities of this drug that 
 almost immediately after it was either swallowed or 
 injected it paralysed the will, rendering the subject 
 extraordinarily susceptible to suggestion : for instance, 
 if a man and a woman were walking together on Water- 
 loo Bridge, and the man should with a sudden move- 
 ment prick the woman with a needle dipped in the 
 virus, and a few minutes later tell her to jump over 
 into th ewater, she would do so. Dr. Krause, of Berlin, 
 had recorded some cases nearly similar. Considering 
 the great rarity of the virus in this country, he thought 
 it almost certain that the deceased must have been 
 poisoned from this identical tube ; and considering 
 the story of her going over the bridge into the river, 
 and the post-mortem appearances indicating this 
 poison, he could have no doubt that this was the way 
 the crime must have been committed. 
 
 In reply to Brathwayte, he admitted that his know- 
 ledge was almost entirely derived from German sources. 
 He had not been to Berlin lately, nor had he seen any 
 of the experiments conducted there. But every one 
 knew the marvellous accuracy of the German schools. 
 They were miles ahead of us in every department. 
 Every doctor who wanted to be abreast of medical 
 science must follow the work in Berlin. It was not 
 necessary to go there, every discovery was exhaustively 
 set forth in their periodicals. He had read Sir Alfred 
 Ross's evidence in the former poisoning case, but that
 
 240 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 was given before the latest German discoveries. Sir 
 Alfred would take a different view now. He did not 
 think any good purpose could be served by calling Sir 
 Alfred even if it were possible for him to reach Eng- 
 land in time he could say nothing more than was 
 embodied in the German scientific journals. He 
 certainly did not think that an adjournment should be 
 granted for the attendance of a man, however eminent, 
 who was not a specialist in this particular subject. 
 The judge here intimated that he had no intention of 
 granting any such adjournment, but it had not been 
 asked for. 
 
 Then Brathwayte inquired whether Dr. Veldoff 
 had made an examination of the body. He replied 
 that he had so far as was necessary to ascertain the 
 cause of death, as to which he had no doubt whatso- 
 ever. He was asked whether he could say that the 
 right leg had ever been broken. He answered that he 
 could not, as this did not come within the scope of the 
 questions on which he was instructed to certify. Brath- 
 wayte had no more questions, but he now made a 
 formal application for an adjournment in order that 
 he might obtain an order for exhumation. They had 
 heard definitely from Mrs. Fraser that Mrs. Greville 
 had had a bad fracture of the right leg. Such a fracture 
 left unmistakable traces. The evidence as to identity 
 was, he submitted, far from satisfactory, this would 
 settle it absolutely. 
 
 " It would not do so, Mr. Brathwayte," said the 
 judge. " True, if I granted your request, and you got 
 an order for exhumation which it is not at all certain 
 you would get and if there were no trace of a fracture, 
 it would amount to a presumption that this body was 
 not that of Mrs. Greville. I say presumption, not 
 proof, for I should require to have it proved that
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 241 
 
 such fracture as she sustained would leave an indelible 
 trace. Again, if there were the mark of a fracture, 
 it would by no means follow that the body was that of 
 Mrs. Greville. Many women have broken the right 
 leg. No, I must refuse an adjournment. You had 
 plenty of time to ask for your exhumation, if it would 
 have done you any good, before this case came on for 
 trial. I look on the application now as frivolous, and 
 merely wasting the time of the Court." 
 
 The Attorney-General interposed. 
 
 " I should have strongly opposed my learned friend's 
 motion, had it been necessary ; but I may tell him that 
 I am now in a position to prove the identity of the body 
 beyond all possibility of doubt. The letters found on 
 the body have been chemically treated by experts, and 
 the writing has been brought out, and photographed. 
 It will be impossible to finish to-day ; between now 
 and to-morrow my friend is at perfect liberty to 
 examine these letters and papers which will be put in 
 evidence, and to bring any rebutting evidence he may 
 wish. But I think he will agree with me that on this 
 part of the case, at any rate, the evidence is complete 
 and irrefutable." 
 
 The Court rose for the day, and none of his friends 
 saw Brathwayte that night. He was occupied in the 
 most minute and exhaustive examination of the 
 letters, and afterwards with a long interview with 
 Harry Greville in his cell. 
 
 When the Court met again the next morning, the 
 judge addressed the jury. 
 
 " Gentlemen," he said, " the letters of which we 
 heard yesterday, found on the person of the deceased, 
 have been carefully examined by the leading Counsel
 
 242 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 on each side, and by their joint agreement were laid 
 before me for my opinion. These letters contain 
 names not relevant to this trial, and which certainly 
 ought not to be made public. The function of this 
 Court is simply to decide whether the deceased woman 
 was the wife of the prisoner at the bar, and whether 
 she met her death at his hands. These letters may or 
 may not form the subject of future proceedings. But 
 at present all your concern with them is in so far as 
 they tend to identify the deceased. They are beyond 
 all question addressed to the wife of the prisoner at 
 the bar, and to that extent they form evidence most 
 properly laid before you. I hold therefore that these 
 letters should not be read in Court, but should be 
 submitted to you ; and I will ask you, gentlemen, to 
 observe always hereafter a strict silence as to their 
 contents. The addresses on the envelopes are really 
 the important evidence, but I am of opinion that you 
 should read the whole letters." 
 
 The chemical expert was then examined, and identi- 
 fied the letters as those handed to him by the police, 
 and described the process by which they had been 
 deciphered and photographed. The letters and 
 envelopes were handed to the jury, with the announce- 
 ment that the addresses were to Mrs. Greville, care of 
 Miss Fortescue, 58 North Road, Kilburn. 
 
 Miss Oliver, recalled, said that Mrs. Greville fre- 
 quently had letters so addressed ; she called for them 
 herself. Miss Fortescue always took charge of these 
 letters. She produced one that had come after Miss 
 Fortescue left, which had never been called for. This 
 was also handed to the judge, and passed on to the 
 jury. The handwriting and the address on the envelope 
 were similar. 
 
 Brathwayte, keenly watching ,the faces of the jury,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 243 
 
 guessed that any lingering doubt they might have had 
 as to identity was now dispersed ; his quick ear 
 caught the whispered remark of one juryman to 
 another : " Who is Ronny ? Here is another, this 
 is signed P. C., quite a different style. She must have 
 had several men. Well, it's no business of ours." 
 
 Brathwayte had little evidence to bring. He put 
 Trevenna in the box to speak to the pleasant domestic 
 relations of the Grevilles, and to remove the effect of 
 Mrs. Fraser's violently prejudiced statements, also to 
 describe Harry Greville's demeanour on arrest, as 
 certainly not that of a man consciously guilty. He 
 spoke also of Harry's well-known indolent carelessness, 
 and all the efforts that had been made to find the 
 missing lady. The chambermaid from the Terminus 
 Hotel produced the scrap of ribbon, identical with 
 that produced by Miss Oliver, and taken from the lady 
 who had died suddenly at the hotel. A few other 
 unimportant witnesses closed his case. 
 
 The Attorney-General claimed that the identity of 
 the body found with that of the woman who went over 
 Waterloo Bridge, and of both with the wife of the 
 prisoner, had been absolutely established, that she had 
 died from the effects of the Mexican poison, and that 
 this could not have been administered by any man 
 except the prisoner. It was undoubtedly their duty 
 to give the prisoner the benefit of any doubt there was 
 in their minds, but he submitted there could be no 
 possible doubt. 
 
 Brathwayte, in serious and solemn tones, reminded 
 them of the great responsibility that lay on them, with 
 the life of a man and possibly, notwithstanding all 
 appearances, an innocent man at stake. Was the 
 identity so fully established ? Was it so certain that Mrs. 
 Greville was dead. Look at the evidence of the wit-
 
 244 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 nesses. The gardener, who was the first witness, had been 
 told what he was to see, arid he saw it. They might 
 assume that Colonel Fraser went with the same pre- 
 disposition. All these witnesses, in fact, identified the 
 deceased by her clothes ; and they had heard that 
 clothes she had worn were given by her to Miss Fortescue 
 and no doubt passed on to others. What more easy than 
 that an innocent and natural mistake should have 
 occurred ? The theatrical ladies had had their evidence 
 carefully prepared for them, and had learned it by 
 heart. He would not say by whom it was prepared, 
 but they had heard Mrs. Fraser's evidence, and they 
 could have little doubt as to the very strong 
 prejudice animating that lady, which alone ought to 
 be sufficient to lead them to disregard much of what she 
 had told them. 
 
 Then as to the letters. No doubt when letters were 
 found in a person's pocket there was a strong pre- 
 sumption that they were addressed to that person, 
 but a presumption was not a certainty. Doubtless 
 the jury had noticed in the expert's report that one 
 at least of the letters addressed to Mrs. Greville was 
 unopened when it came into his hands. Now, was it 
 likely that Mrs. Greville, assuming that it was she, would 
 carry an unopened letter addressed to herself in her 
 pocket? There were other assumptions. The dress 
 might have been originally Mrs. Greville's, and given 
 to Miss Fortescue, and by her given or sold to some one 
 else, with the letters still left in the pocket. 
 
 He submitted it was not proved that the body was 
 that of Mrs. Greville, or that Mrs. Greville was dead. 
 With regard to the dress also, he had certainly proved 
 that there was at least one other woman who wore 
 something which was unique, and the sole property 
 of Miss Fortescue, who was not Mrs. Greville ; and
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 245 
 
 this of itself should raise a doubt. Then, as to the 
 tube of poison, they had no evidence whatsoever 
 how it came into the possession of the prisoner. Let 
 them ask themselves then, as they would certainly 
 be asked at that great day when they must give an 
 account of their actions, could they dare to say positively 
 that the prisoner had procured it for the purpose of the 
 commission of this hideous crime ? Every circumstance 
 was against this theory. His was not the behaviour of 
 a man who has the evidence of his crime in his 
 possession. 
 
 On the whole, the circumstantial evidence looked 
 exceedingly convincing, almost to the point of proof, 
 as it had been presented by the rare skill of his learned 
 friend ; but when examined in detail each link in the 
 chain showed intrinsic weakness. He submitted that 
 no proof had been made, only at most a strong sus- 
 picion. But it would be far better that a hundred 
 criminals should escape than that one innocent man, at 
 their hands, should suffer the extreme penalty of the 
 law; and the criminal would not escape. After all, 
 it was theirs to give the verdict according to their 
 sincerest convictions, but it was before a higher tribunal 
 that the accused must truly stand, and their horror of 
 a dastardly crime must not lead them to think that 
 the responsibility of its punishment was with them : 
 " Vengeance is mine, I will repay, saith the Lord." 
 
 With these solemn words and a voice shaking with 
 emotion, Brathwayte sat down. 
 
 The judge's summing up was short, but it restored 
 critical and unemotional atmosphere. Notwith- 
 standing the eloquent and learned argument they had 
 listened to, he thought there could be little doubt in 
 their minds as to the identity of the deceased, certainly 
 there was no doubt that she had died from the Mexican
 
 246 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 poison, the prisoner had in his possession a tube of that 
 poison at the time of her death, which was unaccounted 
 for. It had been opened, and some of its contents 
 used. It was probably the only tube in this country. 
 was there then any other person who could have 
 administered this poison ? This was the question to 
 which they were to address themselves. 
 
 Half an hour the jury were absent, and the tense 
 silence in Court showed the strained emotion and the 
 interest that had been aroused. 
 
 Slowly they filed back and took their places. 
 
 " Gentlemen, are you agreed on your verdict ? " 
 
 The foreman rose and said : 
 
 " Unanimously we find the prisoner guilty ; but we 
 desire to couple this with a recommendation to 
 mercy." 
 
 A square of black cloth lay on the judge's desk. 
 He adjusted this over his wig. 
 
 " Harry Greville," he said, " you have had a most 
 careful and patient trial by your peers on a charge of 
 the most atrocious crime it is possible to conceive. 
 You have had the advantage of the advocacy of one 
 of the most able Counsel at the bar, and every possible 
 circumstance in your favour has been presented and 
 received its full weight. Yet you have been found 
 guilty, and I confess I am unable to see how any other 
 verdict could have been arrived at. I shall take care 
 that the jury's recommendation to mercy is forwarded 
 to the proper quarter, but it is my duty to warn you not 
 to trust to this, but to occupy the short time that 
 remains to you in preparations to meet the Great Judge, 
 to whose mercy I commit you. The sentence of Court 
 is that you be taken back to the place whence you 
 came, and there, at such time as shall be hereafter 
 decided, you be hanged by the jieck till you be
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 247 
 
 dead, and may the Lord have mercy on your 
 soul." 
 
 A moment of intense silence followed, broken by the 
 removal of the prisoner. Then the Bar rose as the 
 judge took his departure, and the Court slowly cleared.
 
 CHAPTER XVI 
 
 ALAN Macpherson, recovering in the hospital far 
 more rapidly than the surgeons expected, 
 thanks to a magnificent constitution, had been 
 greatly troubled by the various messages and inquiries 
 that came to him concerning his brother and the Duke 
 of Glenstaffen's expedition. There seemed to be a 
 most amazing stir and interest at home about them, 
 impossible to account for. In all their former expedi- 
 tions no notice whatever had been taken of them till they 
 returned, and then there were ovations and welcome. 
 But now the civil and military authorities had made 
 most pressing inquiries, telegrams had come for both 
 of them ; and finally an enigmatical telegram to himself, 
 " Say to Ralph Essendine that the brown owl calls 
 by night." 
 
 It was all most mysterious, and Alan was helpless. 
 He knew that Ralph and the duke had gone away into 
 the forest with his brother and two or three natives. 
 It was a dangerous expedition, but he had the fullest 
 confidence in his brother's knowledge of the country 
 and his care and judgment. No better man, save per- 
 haps himself, could have been chosen. All three were 
 men of magnificent strength, cool, daring, and splendid 
 shots, well used also to all the exigencies of rough 
 life in the jungle. He had no fear for their safety, but 
 as to where they were, or when they might be expected 
 to return, he had not the faintest idea. 
 
 248
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 249 
 
 Meantime, he had so far recovered that he was able 
 to walk a little with the aid of a stick, and to sit 
 outside and sun himself in the delicious climate. A 
 batch of English papers had come in from a recently 
 arrived steamer, and Alan read the sensational accounts 
 of " The Thames Mystery," but without in any way 
 connecting it with the duke or Ralph. Some of their 
 fellow passengers on the Pacific also came from time 
 to time and gossiped with him, among others the men 
 who had so excited the disgust of Ralph and Ronny 
 at the dinner table, and whose coarse gossip had 
 precipitated Ralph's confession of his actions in regard 
 to the death of Eulalie. 
 
 Exceedingly shady characters themselves, they 
 were eloquent as to the disreputable persons who left 
 their country for their country's good, and sought a 
 safe haven from the attentions of the police of various 
 nations in the South American Republics. The very 
 last steamer had brought a most undesirable black- 
 guard, well known to two at least of the party, who had 
 been a sort of jackal to Sir Philip Carew. He was 
 wanted on various charges and the Para police had had 
 an eye on him ever since his landing ; but had no 
 definite instructions at present. He had taken his 
 passage in a false name, and had travelled in the 
 dress of a Methodist minister, keeping nis cabin 
 throughout the voyage under the pretence of acute 
 sea-sickness. It was noticed that he took a most 
 absorbing interest in all the accounts of " The Thames 
 Mystery." 
 
 This worthy, commonly known as " Chicago Sam," 
 but whose real name had disappeared under a cloud of 
 aliases, was reputed to be son of an Irish father and a 
 Levantine Greek mother, brought up in America, and 
 was a choice product of the criminality of various
 
 250 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 races. He too sought out Alan Macpherson much to 
 the latter' s annoyance as he sat sunning himself 
 in front of the hospital. 
 
 " See here, mate," he said, "it's worth your while 
 to hear something I can tell you. Your boss is Mr. 
 Essendine, isn't that so ? " 
 
 " Mr. Essendine is one of the party I am engaged to 
 travel with," said Alan somewhat stiffly. 
 
 " Just so. Well, they're saying things about him 
 in London, about his marrying a wife and killing her 
 just before he started on this shooting game, and 
 mixing him up with ' The Thames Mystery.' I tell 
 you it may be awkward for him when he goes back. 
 It will be worth more than a bit to you if you can warn 
 him. I can tell you the real facts, and no one else 
 can, and you and I can make a rare market. He'll 
 have to pay to save his neck." 
 
 " Do you take me for a blackmailer ? " cried Alan in 
 high indignation. " Get out of this, or I'll smash your 
 ugly head for you." 
 
 " Gently, gently, sonny ! If you don't want to make 
 your pile you needn't, but I guess you don't want to 
 see your man strung up ; and I tell you things will 
 look devilish awkward for him." 
 
 " W^U, look here, why the deuce do you come to 
 me witn this yarn ? Not for any love of me, or of 
 Mr. Essendine, that I'll be bound." 
 
 " You're smarter than I thought you were, sonny. 
 I reckon there's no flies on you. You're quite right, 
 it's my own circus I'm running. Fact is the police 
 here are a darned sight too inquisitive. I calculated 
 to slip over without being spotted, but they've got 
 an eye on me, and I've got to keep my precious skin 
 whole somehow, and your boss can help me, and I can 
 help him, see ? So if you stand in just to help your
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 251 
 
 boss, and get nothing out of it for yourself, it's your 
 funeral and none of my business." 
 
 " You'll have to speak plain if you've got anything to 
 say," said Alan, " and if there's anything that it 
 concerns Mr. Essendine to know I shall tell him." 
 
 " Well, see now, sonny, don't get your shirt out. 
 You shall hear the story and judge for yourself. You've 
 read the story of ' The Thames Mystery,' as they call 
 it, and that they made up their minds in London that 
 it was a Mrs. Greville. Well, it wasn't, and the man 
 they arrested had nothing to do with it. The woman 
 they found was a Miss Fortescue, a dressmaker, and 
 the man who drove her to death was Sir Philip Carew. 
 I knew all about it. He wanted people to think it 
 was Mrs. Greville, and she used to wear Mrs. Greville's 
 dresses, and was mistaken for her sometimes. She was 
 infatuated with Carew. God knows why. Then he got 
 sick of her, and she worried him for money, and was 
 jealous, and one thing and another, and there was a 
 scene between them on the Bridge in the fog, and she 
 swore she'd jump over and got on the parapet, I 
 believe only to frighten him, and he gave a push, and she 
 went over. I helped him to get away then, and the 
 police never saw him, and arrested the wrong man. 
 He had a letter she had given him to post, and I carried 
 it for him to Paris and posted it there. I had a hold 
 on Carew. I knew more about him than he wished the 
 world to know, so I could always touch him for a 
 handy little cheque. People thought this Miss Fortes- 
 cue was alive because of that letter posted in Paris, 
 so he had time to get away. But then he had a row 
 with me, though I could have sent him to the gallows 
 God forsaken fool I I've done with him." 
 
 " I see," said Alan. " The fact is you've black- 
 mailed him till he could stand it no longer, and now
 
 252 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 you're ready to give him away to anyone who will 
 pay. But I don't see where we come in." 
 
 " Stop a minute, sonny, you haven't got the hang 
 of it yet. I've done a lot of blackguard things in my 
 time. But I'm sick of it. I've got brain enough to 
 run straight, and I mean to make a clean breast of it, 
 and start fair, and it's damned difficult to do ; but 
 your boss can help me to do it and I can help him." 
 
 " In other words, you want to save your own precious 
 skin by turning King's evidence, and betraying your 
 associates when you can't blackmail them any longer, 
 and you think you've got some information valuable 
 enough to Mr. Essendine to induce him to help you in 
 your pretty scheme. I like to call things by their 
 plain English names. It lets us see where we are." 
 
 " You have a deucedly unpleasant way of putting 
 things, sonny. Never mind, I'm not here to quarrel 
 with words. You want to know where you and your 
 boss come in. I'll tell you, for I knew all Carew's 
 little game. He let some people think it was Mrs. 
 Greville that was about with him, so that no one should 
 suspect it was poor Miss Fortescue. When they 
 arrested her husband, it just played into his hands. 
 Now I happen to know another thing : there was a 
 lady died suddenly at a hotel in London, and your 
 boss, Mr. Essendine, was with her, and he took her 
 away and buried her in the country as his wife. If it 
 is proved, as it very likely will be, that this woman 
 they found in the Thames was not Mrs. Greville, it 
 will be said that the real Mrs. Greville was the woman 
 who died in the hotel, and that Mr. Essendine killed 
 her. So you see, if the husband gets off, it will be Mr. 
 Essendine who will take his place in the dock on the 
 charge of murdering Mrs. Greville. I'm the only 
 man who has the facts.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 253 
 
 " Now, see, I want to cut all this and live straight, 
 as I told you, but unless your boss will help me I can't. 
 I should just be arrested and get a lifer, even if I 
 managed to cheat the gallows. So there's just this 
 to it, either you help me or I must light out of this 
 damned hole and disappear and, mind you, I can do 
 it, in spite of all the police in South America and 
 once I'm gone there'll be no one to prevent your boss 
 being tried for his life. I'm not asking you to do any- 
 thing you need have any scruples about, merely to help 
 a man who is tired of crooked ways to get a chance to 
 go straight. Surely that's a good deed, and in return 
 I can and will bring out the truth, and save your boss 
 from a mighty lot of inconvenience, if no worse." 
 
 He was a specious rascal, with a persuasive tongue 
 which had stood him in good stead in many a tight 
 place, and Alan Macpherson was a simple-minded, 
 straight, and honest man. The story was full of flaws. 
 Chicago Sam had got hold of certain facts, and had 
 imagined or invented others, and Alan had not the 
 legal acumen to see the fallacies and inconsistencies. 
 That the man had the slightest intention of reforming, 
 or of doing anything but getting himself out of a tight 
 place by any dirty trick he could compass, Alan never 
 for one moment believed. The story about the woman 
 who died at the London hotel was not at all clear to 
 him, nor did he see how this was necessarily connected 
 with " The Thames Mystery," but on the whole he 
 was content to assume that his own slowness of brain 
 was to blame, and he was reluctant to confess that he 
 could not understand. 
 
 Moreover, in a way, while hypnotized by Chicago 
 Sam's talk, he half thought he did understand. He 
 dimly grasped that there was some danger hanging 
 over Ralph Essendine, which perhaps this rascal might
 
 254 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 be of assistance in clearing away. Anyhow, it had 
 better be referred to Essendine himself, and for this 
 purpose he must not lose sight of the informant, while 
 he must also not allow him to think himself of any 
 value. 
 
 " Well," he said at length, " it's a queer yarn ; and, 
 anyhow, you are nearer a halter than I should care to 
 be. I will speak to Mr. Essendine when he comes 
 back, and if he cares to help you to go back to an honest 
 life perhaps he may do something. At any rate, I 
 can't. You can talk to me again when Mr. Essendine 
 is back. Good day." 
 
 So dismissed, Chicago Sam could only melt away 
 apologetically. Alan did not encourage any further 
 conversations, and for some days, at all events, he 
 made no move to disappear, nor did the police seem 
 inclined to interfere with his movements. It may be 
 inferred that they had no definite charge, and were 
 waiting for further instructions. Alan's ankle grew 
 daily stronger, and it seemed he was now fit to conduct 
 the expedition to the Upper Waters as soon as the duke 
 and Ralph should return, and be ready for a start. 
 
 Then suddenly, and with no previous warning, 
 one fine morning the two explorers, with Alan's 
 brother and their native carriers, walked out of 
 the forest into the main street of Para, bronzed, 
 ragged, dirty, and thoroughly happy and content 
 with themselves and the world. They had done 
 wonderful things, and their carriers were loaded with 
 spoils of the chase, and specimens of every kind. 
 Many looked with admiration on the two big hand- 
 some Englishmen, who presented such a vivid contrast 
 to the ordinary type of Para citizen. 
 
 Out in the solitudes of the primaeval forest, beside 
 their watch-fire, they had held many heart to heart
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 255 
 
 talks ; and, in closest touch with nature at her wildest, 
 things fell somehow into perspective. Even poor 
 Eulalie's death was not such a tragedy as it had 
 appeared on board the Pacific. 
 
 " You see, Ralph," said Ronny, " it was bound to 
 happen. We both knew it ; with that heart she was 
 sure to die, and die suddenly, and two or three years 
 at the outside was all the most sanguine doctor would 
 give, and I'm not sure that it wasn't happiest for her 
 to die then as she did. I suppose it was all very wrong, 
 but at any rate I brought some brightness into her life 
 at the last. If she had lived she might have come to 
 dire grief. You see there had been other men. There 
 was some tragedy before, I never knew what exactly, 
 and Greville was never in the least suited to her. 
 Poor old Greville, our letter has told him as much of 
 the truth now as it's any good for him to know. I 
 wonder how he has taken it. He wouldn't care much, 
 it was not in his nature to care. The thing I was most 
 grieved about was that the burden and the trouble 
 should have fallen on you." 
 
 " Don't heed that, Ronny. It was really just a 
 special providence that things fell out as they did. 
 If you had been there all the world would have known 
 it, and gloated over a tit-bit of scandal. Now you may 
 be sure the whole thing has become ancient history. 
 From what you tell me of Greville, he will just accept 
 our letter, and take no more trouble ; all his friends 
 will be told that his wife is dead, and there's an 
 end." 
 
 " Poor little Eulalie," said Ronny after a long pause, 
 " so pretty and so sweet, and forgotten so soon. There 
 are some women that trouble seems to come to 
 inevitably, and I think she was one. A frail boat on a 
 rough sea, and no ballast to speak of."
 
 256 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " You never heard her former history did you, 
 Ronny ? You said something about a tragedy." 
 
 " No. I knew there was something. She spoke of 
 a first husband and said he was good but that it had 
 been a ghastly mistake. She said she had drawn two 
 blanks in the lottery of life, but she never explained, 
 and I never liked to ask her whether he died or what 
 I never knew I could see that it was a painful subject. 
 I only met her first after she married Greville." 
 
 " Well, I suppose we shall get letters when we get 
 back to Para, and we shall hear how things have gone. 
 It will be a fortnight or so before we can start on our 
 big expedition, after we get back there. Lots of time 
 to get answers from London." 
 
 In such mood was it that they came back to Para, 
 full of eagerness for the big shoot, so keenly looked 
 forward to, and now all the more for its postponement, 
 and the few weeks of preliminary sport they had had, 
 which were in the nature of a foretaste giving them a 
 mighty hunger for the unknown depths of the great 
 forests, and all the sport and adventure awaiting them 
 there. 
 
 In the great square, under the shadow of the Cathe- 
 dral, they came on Alan Macpherson, and greeted him 
 with shouts of joy. 
 
 " Sound as ever now, Alan, and fit for a record time 
 away up there. Man ! What a time we'll have. 
 We've got enough down here to set up ordinary 
 explorers for the rest of their lives. Fancy what it will 
 be when we get up where no white man has been since 
 those great cities were built that Raleigh and all the 
 others were hunting for. We may come on El Dorado 
 God knows what we may not come on." 
 
 " How soon can we be ready to start, Alan ? " said 
 Ralph.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 257 
 
 " I can have everything ready in a fortnight, Mr. 
 Essendine. But if you'll pardon me, sir, there's a 
 scallawag here that I think you should see as soon as 
 possible." 
 
 " What sort of a scallawag, Alan ? I don't want to 
 see any scallawags, I only want to see people about 
 our equipment. Who is this rascal anyhow ? What's 
 his infernal name, and how does he know anything 
 about me." 
 
 " He calls himself Chicago Sam, sir. The Lord only 
 knows what his name is if he's got one. But he's got a 
 queer yarn about ' The Thames Mystery ' you know. 
 Oh no ! I was forgetting, the newspapers hadn't come 
 when you left. Well, it seems there was the body of a 
 woman found in the Thames, and it was identified 
 as the body of a Mrs. Greville, and her husband was 
 arrested for murdering her." 
 
 " Good Lord in heaven 1 " ejaculated the duke. 
 " But that's absurd, impossible ! WTiat cock-and- 
 bull-story has he got hold of ? " 
 
 " He says, sir, that he is the only man who knows the 
 truth that it is not Mrs. Greville. He knows who it 
 is, and who killed her. And he's got some other yarn 
 about some woman who died at a London hotel when 
 she was with you, Mr. Essendine, just before we left 
 England. To tell you the truth, sir, I couldn't make 
 head or tail of what he said ; but he said he was the 
 only man in the world who could prove the facts, and 
 the police were after him, and he wanted to turn over a 
 new leaf and live straight, and you could help him." 
 
 " Great Scot, Ralph ! Here's a tangle. Well, it's 
 good night to the Upper Amazon for the present at 
 any rate. We shall have to get home as fast as ever 
 we can and do what we can to straighten it out." 
 
 " I beg pardon, Mr. Essendine," said Alan, " there^s
 
 258 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 one thing more. I had a telegram with no signature, 
 no address, but only this : ' Say to Ralph Essendine 
 the brown owl calls by night.' I have the telegram in 
 my room, sir, I'll show you." 
 
 For a moment Ralph stood as if dazed. Then a light 
 broke over his face, broadening into a smile that was 
 almost a laugh. He turned impulsively and wrung 
 Ronny's hand. 
 
 " At last 1 At last ! " he said. " Ronny, old man, 
 the message I have waited for, and longed for, and 
 despaired of. It has come some day I'll tell you, 
 but I can't yet and, whatever chances, I'm happy. 
 Now let us go in, and get our letters, and see what we 
 have to do about all this tangle. We must see this 
 scallawag, as Alan calls him, too. I've a shrewd 
 notion his game is blackmail, but we'll soon see. Where 
 can we find him, Alan ? " 
 
 " Go away and get your letters, sir; I'll have him 
 here when you get back. He's mighty anxious to see 
 you. He says he can slip away in spite of the police, 
 and under their noses, so to say, but I think that's 
 just bluff, sir. It's my belief they are just waiting 
 orders to arrest him under extradition, and it's only 
 by your help, and turning King's evidence, that he can 
 save his own neck." 
 
 " Likely enough. Well, we'll see what he is worth. 
 He may be some use. Anyhow we will put the fear of 
 God on him. Come on, Ronny." 
 
 A mass of correspondence was waiting for them : 
 telegrams, letters, newspapers, every sort of message 
 that could be thought of. These were rapidly sorted 
 out, and everything that had no bearing on the matter 
 of "|The Thames Mystery," as they learned to call it, 
 was thrown on one side to wait. The brief outline that 
 Alan had given them, picked up from Chicago Sam,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 259 
 
 guided them in arranging the rest in clear and logical 
 order. 
 
 "I've got it now pretty well at last," said Ralph. 
 " Good God, it's a bad business ! Who could ever 
 have dreamed it would turn out this way ? Let's 
 see now, it is Brathwayte who is wiring mostly. He 
 must be defending Greville. Can we make out when 
 the trial would be ? Oh yes, here we are. It was 
 fixed for the day before yesterday. Oh, well, he would 
 get a postponement of course. You see the letter we 
 wrote to Greville would show clearly that the body 
 was not Mrs. Greville, and then of course that letter 
 would be produced, and we should be summoned as 
 witnesses, and the whole story would be clear. Let's 
 see, now, when would that letter get to London ? 
 Three weeks ago at least, unless there were some 
 very bad delays. Let us go round to the office and find 
 out exactly when that mail would be delivered." 
 
 The inquiry at the office elicited the fact of the loss 
 of the mails carried by the Paraguay, and the strong 
 probability that their letter had been destroyed and 
 never reached its destination. 
 
 Ralph and Ronny looked at each other in blank 
 consternation. For a moment words failed them 
 utterly, as they slowly realized the possibilities. 
 
 " Well," said Ralph at last, " thank God we are 
 probably still in time to save the worst. We must 
 send a cable at once, and follow by the first boat. I 
 don't know how these things are done. But the Home 
 Secretary does something, and even if the trial is over, 
 there is still an opening for bringing fresh evidence. 
 We'll cable to Brathwayte, this very moment before 
 we do anything else." 
 
 He scribbled rapidly ; then handed the form to 
 Ronny :
 
 260 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 "To Brathwayte K.C. Temple London. 
 
 " Thames Mystery Trial of Greville Body was wrongly 
 identified I can prove that Mrs. Greville died at the 
 Terminus Hotel on the I2th August was attended by 
 Sir Alfred Ross and was buried at Penzance 
 Glenstaffen and I leave here for England by steamer 
 to-morrow to give evidence Ralph Essendine." 
 
 " I'll send a confirmatory telegram," said Ronny. 
 
 " No, you won't." said Ralph. " That would just 
 complicate the whole issue. Don't you see the Home 
 Office or whoever it is will most likely see Ross. He'll 
 confirm the story of attending my wife. He'll con- 
 firm the burial at Penzance, the register at Penzance 
 will be an additional proof. If you chip in, it will 
 make unexplained complications. Send a telegram 
 if you like to say you know my story to be true, and 
 you are coming home to say so." 
 
 This was accordingly done, and the two messages 
 flashed under the ocean to Brathwayte's chambers. 
 
 " Now," said Ralph, " we've got to see Alan's 
 scallawag." 
 
 They walked back to where they had left Alan, and 
 found him talking with Chicago Sam. 
 
 " This is the man," said Alan. " He will tell you 
 his story himself. When he's done, I have a word to 
 say." 
 
 The man's story was in all essential details the same 
 as that which he had told to Alan. 
 
 " Very good," said Ralph when he had done. " You 
 know, and you can prove that the body found in the 
 Thames was that of Miss Fortescue, the dressmaker, 
 and she was pushed over the Bridge and murdered by 
 Sir Philip Carew, with your connivance and assistance. 
 You are prepared to turn King's evidence, and give
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 261 
 
 sufficient proof to bring Sir Philip Carew to 
 justice." 
 
 " I can do all that. I've got letters and papers that 
 will damn him to the bottom of Hell, where he deserves 
 to be ; but no one else can prove it." 
 
 " I won't ask how you got them. Whether you will 
 get the King's pardon for betraying your accomplice, 
 and the victim of your blackmailing, when you can get 
 no more out of him, is no affair of mine. But it is 
 my desire that the truth should come out, and that an 
 innocent man should not suffer. Therefore I will do 
 what I can to secure that your story should be told. 
 As to what you have said about myself, you know as 
 well as I do that it has no connection whatever with 
 this matter that we are discussing. It is an impudent 
 attempt to extort blackmail from me." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Mr. Essendine, you may bluff, 
 but you know well enough that you were with Mrs. 
 Greville when she died at the Terminus Hotel, and I 
 know it. No matter how I know it. The body in 
 the Thames was not Mrs. Greville. Very well then, 
 where is Mrs. Greville ? I can make it deuced hot 
 for you, Mr. Essendine. It will be to your advantage 
 to keep friends with me." 
 
 Ralph's blood was boiling with indignation, a moment 
 more and he would have felled the cringing rascal with a 
 blow of his fist ; but Alan, turning round, beckoned, 
 and a man jumped forward out of the shadow. Pouncing 
 on Chicago Sam, he dexterously twisted his arm and 
 snapped a pair of handcuffs on his wrists. 
 
 " I arrest you as accessory before the fact to the 
 murder of Emily Fortescue, dressmaker, by throwing 
 her over Waterloo Bridge, in the Town and County of 
 London in England."
 
 CHAPTER XVII 
 
 IN Brathwayte's career, he had failed before now 
 in his defence of an alleged murderer. It is 
 always an experience extraordinarily trying 
 to a conscientious counsel. No matter how thoroughly 
 he has worked up the case, or how hard he has laboured 
 to secure a verdict, there must always come certain 
 haunting doubts whether he has really brought out 
 every circumstance in favour of his client, whether 
 any mistake or omission on his part has cost a man's 
 life. Whether in fact the man is not really innocent, 
 and condemned through some default of his own. 
 
 This feeling, as a rule, passes away in a short time, 
 as the conviction establishes itself that nothing could 
 have been said that was not said, and that the man 
 was righteously condemned, after having his story 
 told in the best possible way, and that justice had 
 been done. But in this case Brathwayte felt, as never 
 before, that a gross injustice had been done. He was 
 certain in his own mind that Harry Greville was 
 absolutely innocent, and that he himself, being charged 
 with the task of establishing his innocence, had failed, 
 and had permitted a great judicial crime to be per- 
 petrated. 
 
 But what to do ? He had no hopes of the recom- 
 mendation to mercy. There were no grounds other 
 than mere sentiment for it. True, there would be, 
 
 262
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 263 
 
 as there always is, a largely signed petition. There 
 are always a great number of persons who would sign 
 such a petition, either because they disapprove of 
 capital punishment altogether or because the notoriety 
 of the case excited varying feelings, or because from 
 mere thrawn-ness they set themselves against the 
 general current of opinion, or even because they 
 derived a sense of importance from signing anything 
 whatsoever. But the Home Secretary was accustomed 
 to petitions of this kind, and would disregard it 
 entirely. 
 
 He looked again and again at the paper which had 
 been handed to Harry in his cell after the verdict and 
 sentence, a form asking that the case should be reheard 
 by the Court of Criminal Appeal. Was there anything 
 that he could urge to justify such an appeal ? Even 
 an exhumation, and proof that the body found had no 
 mark of a broken leg would not, as the judge had 
 pointed out, prove or disprove anything. Moreover, 
 he could not get an order of exhumation in time. 
 Even if he got the exhumation, and cited Sir Alfred 
 Ross to say that the woman did not die of poisoning, 
 it would be but one doctor against another, and Ross's 
 discoveries were not officially accepted yet. No I 
 there was no chance in that direction. No appeal 
 would be successful on those lines. The damning 
 fact that the poison had been in Harry's possession, 
 and that the woman was said to have died from it, 
 and that no other tube of it could be shown to exist 
 in Great Britain, stood in his way at every turn, 
 and by no means could he displace that fact. 
 
 If this woman was not Mrs. Greville and he was 
 quite certain in his own mind that she was not then 
 where was Mrs. Greville ? This was the sole fact he 
 could think of that would give him ground for appeal.
 
 264 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 If Mrs. Greville could only walk into Court alive and 
 well, it would be a dramatic conclusion that would 
 satisfy his sense of the fitness of things ; but this seemed 
 past praying for. And if she were not alive and well 
 what had become of her ? How did she die, if she 
 were dead ? Where was she buried ? True, there 
 was that strange story that Trevenna had told him of 
 the Eulalie buried at Penzance, but there was only the 
 similarity of name, not the faintest evidence of identity, 
 and every probability against it. Suppose he were to 
 appeal on the ground that Mrs, Greville was buried at 
 Penzance. He would be rejected at the very first 
 go off, with some very severe remarks from the Court in 
 all probability and all chance of success would be gone. 
 No ! He must only fill up that form if he had something 
 tangible to go on, and there were only seven days. 
 True again, if fresh evidence did really turn up, the 
 Home Secretary might extend the time. 
 
 Well, the only thing obviously was for every friend 
 of poor Greville's to strain every nerve to get some 
 evidence of some kind which should justify an appeal. 
 The verdict was in accordance with the evidence, and 
 no mere argument would displace it. 
 
 Brathwayte also was much surprised at the interest 
 his niece Lola had taken in this case, for as a rule she 
 regarded all legal matters, and especially criminal 
 cases, with supreme aversion, as being squalid and 
 unpleasant revelations of a degenerate type of humanity 
 with whom she desired no closer acquaintance ; but 
 she had read every report of " The Thames Mystery," 
 and had asked him for the minutest details, constantly 
 expressing the strongest conviction of Harry Greville's 
 innocence. 
 
 Mrs. Donelly also was nonplussed. She held to her 
 conviction that the woman who had died at the Ter-
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 265 
 
 minus Hotel had something to do with the case, but 
 what she could not say. The connection between the 
 two cases brought these two women into intimate 
 relations ; Hilda Donelly was intent on establishing 
 Harry Greville's innocence, and the strange association 
 of Ralph Essendine with the tragedy at the Terminus 
 Hotel and the weird lonely burial at Penzance roused 
 all Lola Macarthy's keenest interest. 
 
 " I feel," she said to Hilda one morning, " I can't 
 tell how, but I do feel that you are right, and that you 
 and I are on the same quest. And you see how awfully 
 it matters to me, don't you ? Just look at that 
 register we heard of at Penzance, that Mr. Trevenna 
 saw, l Wife of Ralph Waldo Essendine.' You know 
 it was his wife that was the barrier. Oh, I shouldn't 
 have minded, if he wanted me, I should have just 
 gone to him ; but Ralph wasn't like that, and as long 
 as his wife lived he wouldn't speak. And so you see 
 I'm quite sure somehow or other that he just found her 
 by accident, and she died. I can't a bit make out how 
 it was, but I knew he was free, and that was why I got 
 my uncle to send him that telegram. He would 
 understand, and know that I was waiting for him." 
 
 " Well, but Lola, who was she ? If she was Mr. 
 Essendine's wife, she wasn't Harry Greville's wife, 
 that's certain." 
 
 ** Well, I can't tell ; but one thing's clear : you and 
 I have got to do all we can to help these two men, 
 for there's not a moment of time to spare. Ralph 
 could tell all the story, but he isn't here, and perhaps 
 it will be months before he gets my cable, or hears 
 anything about it, and Mr. Greville is in prison, 
 and besides he doesn't know anything. Now look 
 here, we must go together to the Terminus Hotel, 
 and get all the information we can. I have an instinct
 
 266 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 that we shall unravel the mystery there, with what you 
 know already, and what I know about Ralph. I tell 
 you, Mrs. Donelly, I'm dead certain. We know that 
 Mr. Greville is innocent as the day, and we are going to 
 prove it. We are going to give Uncle Sidney just the 
 facts he wants, and he will know how to use them. 
 He told me last night that he was only wanting the 
 least bit of evidence that he could bring forward to 
 appeal. Come on, Mrs. Donelly, don't let's lose a 
 moment." 
 
 Hilda was as impatient as Lola. Her anxiety about 
 Harry Greville had fretted her and played on her nerves 
 till only in constant action could she find any rest, 
 and every avenue of inquiry save this one seemed to be 
 hopelessly blocked. 
 
 They sent out for a taxi, and within a quarter of an 
 hour they were standing in the entrance hall of the 
 Terminus Hotel. 
 
 The huge hall porter came up inquiringly, but Hilda 
 waved him aside, and made her way straight for the 
 lift. 
 
 " Third floor," she said, and they sped upwards. 
 "With luck we'll catch my chambermaid. She is 
 always ready to gossip to me at any rate, I know they 
 have all been told they were to know nothing about 
 Mrs. Essendine's death. All the same that girl will 
 tell me. She has told me a lot already." 
 
 Fortune favoured them, and as they emerged from 
 the lift they caught sight of the chambermaid coming 
 along the corridor. She recognized Hilda at once, and 
 was obviously glad to see her again. Hilda always 
 contrived to make herself liked wherever she went. 
 
 " You haven't forgotten me," she said. 
 
 " Indeed no, madam, I hope you found your pendant. 
 We had a great hunt for it, the manager was very
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 267 
 
 concerned about it, and had every room turned out, 
 and every possible search made, but we couldn't find 
 a trace of it." 
 
 " No, I never found it, but it doesn't matter. Tell 
 me has Mr. Essendine called for his luggage 
 yet ? " 
 
 " No, madam, we've never heard a word or a whisper 
 about him from that day to this. I did hear as he'd 
 gone away abroad with the Duke of Glenstaffen. A 
 terribly sad affair that was, madam. It all came so 
 sudden like, and there was something very mysterious 
 about it. Of course we were all told not to speak about 
 it at all, and no more we did, not to customers, that is, 
 but naturally we spoke about it among ourselves. 
 From what I can make out, Mr. Essendine came here 
 with the lady, and the waiters thought they was a 
 newly married couple, at least they were very affection- 
 ate, and they had all new luggage, as you might see 
 for yourself, madam. And then after dinner Mr. 
 Essendine went out for ten minutes, down to the Station 
 I understand, and he hadn't been gone out two minutes, 
 when the waiter belonging to that suite came running 
 out to ask if there was a doctor in the hotel, for a lady 
 was taken ill. Well, it happened that Sir Alfred Ross 
 was dining here there was a big dinner that night of 
 some society or other and he was called, and the 
 next thing we heard was that Mr. Essendine had come 
 back, and the lady was dead before he arrived. Well 
 then it was all the staff were told that they were 
 to know nothing. But there was undertakers' men 
 and nurses and what not coming and going all night, 
 but they went up and down by the service lift, and never 
 came in contact with any of the guests, and so no one 
 knew much about it. But it's my belief, madam, that 
 if there's anyone as does know anything about it, it's
 
 268 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 the waiter belonging to that suite. He's a very reserved 
 man, and he's never opened his lips about it ; but 
 sometimes when we are talking together about the 
 story he looks very wise, as if he could say a lot if 
 he wanted to." 
 
 " Well," said Hilda, " I could tell a good deal about 
 that story too. I have heard many things since that 
 night that I was here ; but now I want your help." 
 
 " Anything I can do, madam, I am sure I shall be 
 only too delighted." 
 
 " Well, you are quite right about Mr. Essendine. 
 He has gone abroad, and no one knows where he is. 
 He and the duke, as perhaps you heard it was in 
 all the papers have gone off into a wild country 
 shooting, and it may be months before they come back, 
 and in the meantime some people have been setting 
 about all sorts of the most cruel stories about his wife's 
 death, and there will be terrible trouble if we can't 
 get the truth brought out. You see he isn't here to 
 defend himself, so his friends are anxious that the true 
 facts should be known as soon as possible. Of course 
 I can quite see that the management want to keep it 
 all as quiet as they can, but if the true story is not 
 known there will be false stories set about, and it 
 will be far worse." 
 
 " You will help me, I know," said Lola, " I am engaged 
 to Mr. Essendine." 
 
 She spoke on the spur of the moment, on a sudden 
 impulse, and as often happens it was precisely the right 
 impulse, for the chambermaid, scenting a romance, 
 was instantly all sympathy, and forgot entirely the 
 professional instinct of the trained hotel servant to 
 hush up any incident that the management thought 
 might injure business. 
 
 " If only you can get that waiter to talk, madam,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 269 
 
 he can tell you more than anyone. I wouldn't say 
 anything to the manager. I believe I can persuade the 
 waiter to tell you all he knows. If he talks to anyone 
 it is to me, and I have a bit of influence with him. 
 Come in here, madam, in this private sitting-room. 
 If you'll excuse me a moment I'll call him. He's off 
 duty just now. You see, madam, him and me we 
 might be setting up for ourselves some time." 
 
 Then, as though feeling she had said too much, 
 the girl blushed slightly and fled down the stairs. 
 
 " It's all very strange," said Lola. " I feel I under- 
 stand less than I thought I did. I imagined Ralph having 
 somehow met his wife, and trying to get her back to him. 
 He would do that from pure loyalty and then her 
 sudden death ! But Ralph newly married is impossible ; 
 and newly married when he was just starting away on 
 that expedition. Even if his wife were dead, it's 
 impossible." 
 
 " I'm afraid perhaps he may not be all you think," 
 said Hilda gently. 
 
 Vague suspicions about Ralph Essendine floated in 
 her mind, which she earnestly hoped were without 
 foundation. Lola turned on her fiercely. 
 
 " No one shall dare to say a word against Ralph. 
 Besides, what matters ? Even though it were all 
 true, if he had a dozen wives, it wouldn't matter. 
 He would need me all the more, I don't care what he 
 may have done. I stick to him, if no one else 
 does." 
 
 " I know, I know," said Hilda. " I don't mean 
 to say one word to persuade you otherwise ; but we 
 must face whatever facts turn up, and the more we 
 know the truth, the better we shall be able to help 
 him." 
 
 " Oh, that's right, as long as you understand. Let's
 
 270 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 hear what the waiter has to say, if only he will talk. 
 Perhaps that will clear matters a bit." 
 
 The chambermaid returned with the waiter, who 
 entered somewhat shamefacedly, carefully closing the 
 door behind him, and standing respectfully beside it. 
 
 " These are the ladies, James," said the chambermaid. 
 " Mrs. Donelly is an old friend of mine, and the other 
 lady is engaged to be married to Mr. Essendine. You 
 can speak quite freely to them, though you have never 
 even told me the story. I am certain you know it." 
 
 " That which I know, madam, I promised Mr. 
 Essendine I would never reveal ; and I have kept my 
 word up to this moment." 
 
 " Quite right," said Lola, " and in an ordinary way 
 I would never persuade you to break it. Though 
 I am engaged to Mr. Essendine, his secrets are his own, 
 and I would never be so dishonourable as to try to 
 pry into them ; but some people have been raking up 
 this old story, and saying cruel and malicious things 
 about Mr. Essendine. He isn't here to defend himself, 
 and it is naturally my place to do all I can to defend 
 him. And, you know, circumstances look rather 
 bad when they say he came here with a young wife, 
 and that she died within a couple of hours after they 
 came." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, miss, but that is just what was 
 not the case. Mr. Essendine never came here with a 
 young wife and indeed he never saw her alive at all." 
 
 " Oh, do explain everything clearly. My head is 
 just bewildered. Every story seems to contradict 
 the last." 
 
 " Well, miss, you see I was the waiter in that suite, 
 and Mr. and Mrs. Essendine took the suite, and they 
 dined there, and I waited on them, you see, and very 
 pleasant and happy they seemed to be. Then after
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 271 
 
 dinner Mr. Essendine went out just for ten minutes, 
 he said and I came in with coffee as ordered, and 
 Mrs. Essendine was staring before her fixed like, 
 and gripping the edge of the table, and I said ' Are 
 you not feeling well, madam ? ' She tried to speak 
 and then she began to struggle, and I saw it was some 
 kind of a fit, so I ran out and called for a doctor, and 
 Sir Alfred Ross came running up he was dining in the 
 big private saloon, with a congress or something but 
 when he got in the poor lady was laying all in a heap 
 on the floor. He wouldn't allow anyone else in the 
 room. Then Mr. Essendine came back, but it wasn't 
 the Mr. Essendine as went out, though in general 
 appearance he was much like him. But no one except 
 me had taken any particular note of him. Well, 
 miss, I thought it was queer, so I made bold when I 
 got an opportunity to ask him, and then he told me. 
 How far I may say what he told me, I'm not sure." 
 
 " James," said Lola, " you know the things that are 
 being said. It is your duty to protect an innocent man. 
 You know some people are even going so far as to say 
 that he murdered his wife." 
 
 " I've heard that story too, miss, and it's certain 
 sure that's a lie, for he didn't set eyes on her till she was 
 dead ; but I see what you mean and I'll tell you all he 
 told me. If he blames me I must bear it, for I believe 
 it's for the best. What he said, miss, was this : that his 
 wife had fallen in love with his cousin, and they had 
 gone away together, that he had hoped to persuade 
 her to go back with him, and had come just in time to 
 find her dead, and his cousin summoned away suddenly 
 and every one except me taking him for her husband, 
 which indeed he was, though not the man who had 
 passed as such. Well, you see, miss, it was quite clear 
 he couldn't do anything but what he did. He got his
 
 272 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 wife back by a miracle so to speak, or at least her dead 
 body, and without any scandal or trouble, and the 
 only thing to do was to bury her as quietly as possible, 
 and Sir Alfred Ross helped him in every way. An 
 extraordinarily kind man, miss. But Mr. Essendine, 
 that is Mr. Ralph Essendine, you understand, for I 
 suppose the other Mr. Essendine had some other Chris- 
 tian name, he charged me that I should tell no one, and 
 I never have, not till this moment." 
 
 " You have done quite right, James, and I will see 
 that Mr. Essendine understands. He will not blame 
 you in the very least." 
 
 A liberal tip made James happy, and the chamber- 
 maid's assurance that he had done quite right to tell 
 the story as he had done quieted his conscience. 
 
 Meanwhile Hilda and Lola were speeding back 
 in a taxi to Hilda's little house. 
 
 " Thank Heaven, that's cleared 1 " said Lola. 
 " It's all perfectly plain now. I was sure that Ralph 
 had somehow or other found his wife again. I suppose 
 it was that cousin who caused all the trouble, and 
 perhaps that was why he was so very reticent. He 
 never said a word about a cousin. I never knew he 
 had one. Of course he wouldn't say anything. But 
 you see, Mrs. Donelly, this quite disposes of the idea 
 that she could have been the same as Mrs. Greville. 
 If she was Ralph's wife, and ran away with his cousin, 
 it is plain they were two different women, and the name 
 was nothing but a coincidence. We shall have to 
 go on searching for the right clue. I am as certain 
 as you are that Mr. Greville is utterly innocent, and I 
 don't for a moment believe that the woman who was 
 found in the Thames was Mrs. Greville, and you and I 
 are going to prove it. Oh, how I wish Ralph were 
 back ; there's nothing can come between us now that
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 273 
 
 his wife is dead, and he would unravel this tangle, if 
 any man alive could. You have no idea how wonderful 
 he is." 
 
 Brathwayte was sitting in the drawing-room when 
 they got back, waiting for them. 
 
 " Here's a solution at last," he said as they entered, 
 " a telegram I got only half a hour ago. I came to 
 tell you first, Mrs. Donelly, before I did anything else. 
 Lola, my dear, I would have kept you out of this business 
 if I could, but you wouldn't be kept out, so now you've 
 got to hear it too. Well, this telegram came for me 
 from Para : 
 
 " ' Thames Mystery Trial of Greville Body wrongly 
 identified I can prove that Mrs. Greville died at the 
 Terminus Hotel on the I2th August was attended 
 by Sir Alfred Ross and was buried at Penzance Glen- 
 staffen and I leave here for England to-morrow to give 
 evidence Ralph Essendine.' 
 
 " Now you see I have fullest ground for appeal it 
 will be lodged to-morrow and your intuition was right 
 after all, Mrs. Donelly ; but it still leaves the whole 
 story most extraordinarily mysterious. How in the 
 world our poor friend Mrs. Greville came to die at the 
 Terminus Hotel, and how or why Ralph Essendine 
 should have buried her at Penzance as his wife is 
 more than I can fathom." 
 
 " And more than I can fathom, Uncle Sidney," 
 said Lola. " Only I am perfectly certain that what- 
 ever Ralph Essendine did was noble and honourable. 
 We can throw a little light on it, for we have been to 
 the Terminus Hotel this afternoon, and found out a 
 few things. Ralph found her there dead. They took 
 him for her husband, and he took all the responsibility
 
 274 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 on his own shoulders, and accepted the position and 
 buried her. So whatever had happened before, there 
 was no scandal, and no one had anything to 
 say." 
 
 " My dear Lola, you are a most devoted champion, 
 but it still leaves a lot to explain. A man does not 
 naturally take the position of the husband of a woman 
 whom he chances to find dead at a hotel, and carry 
 the body away and bury it without telling anyone. 
 I take it that being Harry Greville's wife she wasn't 
 Ralph Essendine's wife. Then why did he call her so ? 
 I might have seen some light if she had eloped with 
 Essendine, but this story makes it darker than before. 
 I wish to goodness I knew what the facts were, so that 
 I might avoid stirring up fresh complications. One 
 thing is clear, if the story in Essendine's wire can be 
 proved, I can get the conviction quashed, for if Mrs. 
 Greville died at the Terminus she was certainly not 
 murdered by her husband. All the same, it is a case 
 where one will need to proceed very warily. Now will 
 you please tell me your story as exactly as you 
 can." 
 
 The story was accordingly recounted, while Brath- 
 wayte sat in silence, only smoking one cigarette after 
 another as he listened, not moving a muscle save to 
 light his cigarettes and throw away the stumps. 
 
 " A most curious story," he said at last. " Who was 
 this mysterious cousin ? Who was the other Essendine 
 who came with her and was like enough to Ralph to 
 be mistaken for him ? Ralph had a wife, you say ? 
 why in the world then should he have assumed to him- 
 self another? " 
 
 " I think, Uncle Sidney, he was just taking some one 
 else's trouble on his own shoulders. I knew Ralph well 
 when he was out in Australia, and that was what he
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 275 
 
 was always doing. I used to tell him it was his pet 
 hobby." 
 
 " Well, my dear, if we assume that, we have still 
 to make out why on earth he didn't communicate 
 with Mrs. Greville's people. If he had sent to Harry 
 that would have been the natural thing to do. You 
 see, I am just mentally trying to put down the points 
 that will have to be ascertained if possible ; for your 
 sake, Lola, I must avoid any mistake. We must get 
 Ralph Essendine out of this without any unpleasant 
 reflections." He spoke lightly and carelessly, but to 
 himself he said, " without being put in the dock on a 
 murder charge. It's more than likely if we don't go 
 deucedly warily." He went on, " You say whatever 
 he did was noble and honourable, and I believe you, 
 but we must make all the world see it. Mind you, the 
 story will be in every one's mouth, in the English 
 speaking world, in less than a month's time. As it 
 stands, it would be simple ruin for him if it were told 
 without more. We must have the full and true story, 
 but how are we going to get it." 
 
 " Isn't it obvious, Uncle Sidney ? Wait till he gets 
 home, and get it from himself." 
 
 " Natural to think of, my dear, but won't do here. 
 I must appeal at once. I'm near the end of my time 
 now. The date of hearing before the Court of Criminal 
 Appeal will be fixed, and so far as I know the lists it will 
 leave very little time after his steamer gets in. Mean- 
 time, we shall have to get all the pleadings, and the 
 fresh evidence in order, and see what witnesses to call. 
 One thing there is, by the way, I must get hold of Ross 
 at once. Do you mind if I use your telephone, Mrs. 
 Donelly ? I hope to goodness he's back." 
 
 Almost at once he got on to the number, and heard 
 Sir Alfred's voice :
 
 276 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " Hello, who is it ? ... Oh, you, Brathwayte, 
 that's splendid. Yes, I'm just back. Had a royal 
 time in Berlin, brought out my discoveries about the 
 Mexican poison, and upset all the German professors. 
 They'd got on the wrong track altogether, hadn't got 
 the right stuff for one thing. They've got it now 
 though. I demonstrated my discovery, and had a 
 magnificent reception. I'm bound to say they were most 
 splendid, they behaved grandly, withdrew everything 
 they had printed, admitted their mistakes, adopted 
 my conclusions, and gave me all sorts of honours. The 
 medical papers are simply full of it ; never was such a 
 retraction. . . . What's that ? The death of Mrs. 
 Essendine at the Terminus Hotel. Yes, I attended 
 her. What do you want to know ? . . . Afraid I 
 can't tell you anything without her husband's per- 
 mission. . . What do you say ? A murder case. 
 No one murdered the poor lady. I was there when she 
 died. . . . You're going to subpoena me to give 
 evidence. Oh, that's another matter. She never 
 was murdered. I gave the certificate. You can look 
 that up angina pectoris. Not an atom of doubt 
 about it. I did most of the arrangements for the 
 funeral too, Mr. Essendine was too cut up, and near 
 collapse himself. Such a sudden shock. . . . Yes, 
 I'll come round to your chambers and give you all the 
 information you need. Good-bye." 
 
 " Thank you, Mrs. Donelly, now I'll just ring up 
 my clerk, and tell him to make the appointment with 
 Ross. By Jove," he said as he turned away and hung 
 up the receiver, " this is developing. My clerk tells 
 me that word has just come in that the police have 
 caught one of the men who were concerned in the 
 murder of the woman found in the Thames, and he has 
 offered to turn King's evidence. They say they know
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 277 
 
 now who the woman was, and who murdered her. I 
 must be off as quick as I can. It looks as if I had a 
 whole night's work before me. Good-bye, Mrs. 
 Donelly. I shall see you at dinner, my dear, but tell 
 your aunt not to wait. I may be kept late." 
 He snatched his hat and was gone.
 
 PART IV
 
 CHAPTER XVIII 
 
 FOR the next fortnight Brathwayte was very 
 busy, and not a little anxious. As he had 
 foreseen, the day for hearing the appeal to 
 the Court of Criminal Appeal was fixed at an earlier 
 date than usual ; the ship bringing the Duke of Glen- 
 staffen and Ralph Essendine was delayed. Time was 
 running on. He set aside all other business and refused 
 important cases in order to devote himself to this one. 
 He marshalled his evidence with the minutest care. 
 The urgent question was should he apply for a post- 
 ponement. Even without the attendance of Ralph 
 Essendine he could now prove that the body found in 
 the Thames was not that of Mrs. Greville, and secure 
 the quashing of the conviction, but he felt he had only 
 half the story. 
 
 The appeal would be successful, as far as Harry 
 Greville was concerned, but would leave a cloud of 
 suspicion hanging over Ralph ; and this for Lola's 
 sake he wished above all to avoid. Also Chicago Sam, 
 who had turned King's evidence, and could prove who 
 was the woman whose body had been found, was 
 coming in charge of the police by the same ship and 
 would not be available unless the ship arrived in time, 
 Still, neither of these was really essential to the 
 success of the appeal. There seemed to be no real 
 ground for asking for a postponement. The only 
 alternative would be another trial of some at present 
 
 281
 
 282 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 unknown person for the murder of the woman whose 
 body was found in the Thames ; and the clearing of 
 Ralph in the eyes of the public would become almost 
 impossible, unless some definite charge was formulated 
 against him. 
 
 On the whole, the only thing seemed to be to wait 
 in the hope that the ship might yet arrive in time, and 
 Brathwayte watched wich deep anxiety her progress 
 as recorded in the shipping news. At length, on the 
 very day before that fixed for the hearing of the appeal 
 she was noted to arrive the following morning. The 
 solicitors took the night train to Liverpool to meet her 
 and get the statements of Ralph and the duke, and the 
 police report of the evidence of Chicago Sam ; and 
 Brathwayte took his place in Court to all outward 
 appearance as cool and confident as ever. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice presided, supported by 
 Masterman and Popham. The Court was crowded 
 to suffocation, and the entrance of the judges produced 
 a distinct thrill. It was years since a case had so 
 vitally aroused the emotional and dramatic interest 
 of the public. 
 
 Masterman's antagonism to Brathwayte was well 
 known. At the bar they had been constant rivals. 
 Masterman was a sound, if somewhat dull, lawyer ; 
 and acutely resented the easy victories of Brathwayte's 
 brilliant eloquence. Being now raised to the Bench, 
 more by virtue of being on the right side of politics 
 than any intrinsic fitness, he lost no opportunity of 
 revenging himself on his old adversary, by carping 
 criticism. In every case where Brathwayte was for 
 the defence, if Masterman was on the Bench it was 
 commonly said that the judge was an extra counsel 
 for the prosecution, and the duel between the two was 
 looked forward to with great interest.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 283 
 
 The case was called. 
 
 " I understand, Mr. Brathwayte, that you appeal 
 on the ground of fresh evidence, which has come to 
 light since the trial and was not then available." 
 
 " That is so, my lord." 
 
 " Well, you will have to show a very clear case to 
 displace what seemed to me to be very convincing 
 evidence of the guilt of the prisoner. Go on, Mr. 
 Brathwayte." 
 
 " Evidence had come to light, my lords," said Brath- 
 wayte, " happily in time to prevent a very terrible 
 miscarriage of justice : the conviction and the death 
 of an absolutely innocent man. I shall be able to 
 prove to you without a shadow of doubt that the woman 
 whose body was found in the Thames was not Mrs. 
 Greville ; I shall be able to account for every move- 
 ment of Mrs. Greville from the time when she left her 
 home on the I2th of August. Moreover, I shall be 
 able to show you who was the woman whose body was 
 found, and by whose hand she met her death, and thus 
 not merely to prove the entire innocence of the prisoner 
 at the bar, but to fix the guilt on the guilty party. I 
 do not intend at this stage to trouble your lordships 
 with any farther statement. The whole story in 
 logical sequence will be told by my witnesses, and will 
 need no comment from me. I call Sarah Stubbins, 
 parlour-maid at number 25 Bermuda Avenue, the house 
 occupied by Mr. and Mrs. Greville." 
 
 He spoke with confident assurance, which, in fact, 
 he was far from feeling. A telegram had told him 
 that Ralph and the duke had arrived and were actually 
 in Liverpool, but what was the nature of Ralph's 
 evidence he had not a notion, and he avoided any 
 preliminary statement lest he should make some 
 untoward slip.
 
 284 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " You have a difficult task, Mr. Brathwayte," said Mr. 
 Justice Masterman, " I trust you may accomplish it." 
 
 And he leant back in his chair with an elaborately 
 assumed air of patient resignation. 
 
 Sarah was very clear in her evidence. She 
 remembered perfectly the I2th of August, the day on 
 which Mrs. Greville left home. She was going on a 
 holiday and seemed very happy about it, but she could 
 not get away in the morning as she wanted to. Mr. 
 Greville was fussy that morning, and wanted many 
 things done for him. He was that way sometimes, and 
 Mrs. Greville was very considerate of him. She was 
 arranging that he should have everything comfortable 
 while she was away. She expected to be gone a fort- 
 night. She left no address she said she would write 
 it as soon as she knew but she left many directions 
 for taking care of Mr. Greville. She remembered 
 quite well the dress Mrs. Greville was wearing, it was 
 a heliotrope costume that she had worn before, but 
 the underlinen was all new. In fact, it had never been 
 worn, and had not even been marked. Sarah had 
 offered to mark the things, but Mrs. Greville had said 
 there was no time. She took a cabin trunk with her 
 and a hat box, very little luggage for a fortnight, but 
 Mrs. Greville never took much. Two pieces of luggage 
 were in the well of the Court. Sarah recognized them 
 at once, those were the things Mrs. Greville took with 
 her. A dress was produced from one of them. Yes, 
 that was the dress she wore when she left. 
 
 " If all this is relevant," said Masterman, " why was 
 it not produced at the trial ? " 
 
 " Because the evidence that makes it relevant was 
 not then available," said Brathwayte coldly. " If 
 your lordship will have a little patience, it will be all 
 quite clear."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 285 
 
 Masterman leant back again, with an ostentatious 
 shrug. 
 
 Sarah remembered getting Mrs. Greville a cup of 
 tea before she left. She was like a child going for a 
 holiday. Full of spirits. Mr. Greville was out at the 
 time. She also remembered that Mrs. Greville had 
 suffered from her heart, but not for over a year, she 
 had had bad attacks then ; always before an attack 
 she had been particularly well angina, the doctors 
 said it was, but they said she had grown out of it. 
 After tea Sarah had called a taxi, she did not hear the 
 direction, did not know where the man had driven to, 
 but she had taken the number of the taxi. She always 
 did that. Mr. Greville was rather particular about it. 
 She had read the accounts of " The Thames Mystery." 
 She never could believe it was Mrs. Greville. "The 
 witness's belief is irrelevant," muttered Masterman. 
 She was surprised she was not called on to identify 
 the body, but did not suppose she would have known 
 any more than others. 
 
 " Where does that luggage come from ? " said Mr. 
 Justice Masterman. " It seems to have arrived here 
 out of nowhere. We have heard nothing about it." 
 
 " The witness has identified it, my lord," said 
 Brathwayte, " and it is now in evidence. I shall 
 show presently where it came from." 
 
 The next witness was the taxi-driver. He remem- 
 bered quite well taking up a lady at 25 Bermuda 
 Avenue, about 5 o'clock on the I2th of August. He 
 drove to 58 North Road, Kilburn. There he set the 
 lady down ; it was a house in a row. He had helped 
 to carry the luggage in. He was discharged there. 
 He could not say whether the lady stayed there, or 
 how long. He drove out of North Road, and he got 
 another fare almost at once.
 
 286 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 The Attorney-General did not cross-examine either 
 of these witnesses. 
 
 Miss Oliver came next. She remembered a big 
 order for new dresses from Mrs. Greville in July, they 
 had to put aside various other orders to get this 
 finished, but Mrs. Greville was a very good customer. 
 The order was only just finished on the I2th of August, 
 Mrs. Greville was going away, that was the reason for 
 the hurry. In fact, the dresses were not sent home, 
 they were not finished in time. Mrs. Greville sent 
 things to pack them in, a large trunk and a hat-box. 
 There was a quantity of linen also, sent from the Stores. 
 She had helped Miss Fortescue to pack these things. 
 
 One costume was left out, Mrs. Greville proposed to 
 wear that. It was her fancy to have everything new. 
 She was like that. It was her idea always to wear 
 new things as far as she could, and another idea was 
 to have everything to match, hat and gloves and 
 stockings, even to the shoes. The costume left out 
 was a French grey and pink. She remembered Mrs. 
 Greville coming to the house on the I2th of August. 
 It would be about a quarter past five, they had just 
 finished tea. Miss Fortescue had sent her out 
 immediately after Mrs. Greville arrived to take some 
 delayed order to a customer. So she knew nothing 
 after this. 
 
 Miss Fortescue had gone away soon after and she 
 had not seen her since. She had heard from her from 
 Paris. It was Miss Fortescue's usual practice to go to 
 Paris once or twice in the year to get fresh patterns 
 and stuffs. Mrs. Greville used to give Miss Fortescue 
 many of her dresses sometimes after they had been 
 worn only a few times they were of much the same 
 height and figure. 
 
 Mary Anne Mawsou, general servant at 58 North
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 287 
 
 Road, followed. She had helped to bring Mrs. Greville's 
 luggage in from the taxi on the I2th of August. Mrs. 
 Greville had changed there, and the dress she came in 
 was packed up in the luggage she brought. Shown 
 the heliotrope dress, she said that was the dress Mrs. 
 Greville came in. It was packed in the luggage she 
 brought with her, and was left in Miss Fortescue's 
 charge. Shown the luggage in the well of the Court, 
 she identified it as that which had been left. It had 
 been at Miss Fortescue's until it was taken by some 
 official, she didn't know who. 
 
 " Well, I suppose that accounts for those things," 
 said Masterman, " but you've got some more there, 
 what's that ? " 
 
 " That is the luggage that Mrs. Greville took away 
 with her, my lord." 
 
 Mary Anne, being asked, identified this too to the 
 best of her knowledge ; but, being new luggage, she 
 could not be positive. 
 
 " It comes to this," said Masterman, " that Mrs. 
 Greville left some old things behind her under Miss 
 Fortescue's charge, and took away some new ones for 
 her trip or holiday or whatever it was. I fail entirely to 
 see the relevance of all this." 
 
 Mary Anne continued. Mrs. Greville was barely 
 half an hour at Miss Fortescue's. A motor car came 
 and she had her new luggage put into it, and drove 
 away. There was a man in the car, she did not see 
 his face, he was a big man. She did not hear any 
 direction given. That was the last she saw of Mrs. 
 Greville. 
 
 " Do you cross-examine, Mr. Attorney ? " said 
 Masterman. 
 
 " No, my lord. I am willing to admit all the evi- 
 dence we have heard. I do not think it is relevant."
 
 288 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " Nor do I. We know that Mrs. Greville left her 
 home somewhere about that time, and what on earth 
 is the purpose of telling us at great length the manner 
 of her going I cannot see. However, you must con- 
 duct your case as you think fit, Mr. Brathwayte." 
 
 Brathwayte merely bowed and called his next 
 witness : William Simpson, motor car driver from 
 Milven's garage. He said that on the I2th of August 
 a Mr. Essendine came to the garage and wanted to hire 
 the best car they had. This chanced to be car No. 
 2058, which he drove. This car was engaged for that 
 afternoon and the following morning, the charge was 
 to be two guineas inclusive. He remembered Mr. 
 Essendine, a big handsome man. He said he was 
 going to pick up his wife, but first he wanted to go 
 to the Army and Navy Stores to get his luggage. 
 They picked up some new luggage there, and he 
 remembered there was one old portmanteau covered 
 with labels, many of them foreign ones. Then they 
 went across the Park to Kilburn, to 58 North Road ; 
 he remembered the address perfectly. There Mrs. 
 Essendine got in, and he helped to bring her luggage 
 also out to the car. It was all new like Mr. Essendine's. 
 The new luggage made him think they were newly 
 married, but it was singular that a newly married 
 man should be calling for his wife and her luggage at 
 such a place as North Road, Kilburn, especially a man 
 like Mr. Essendine, who seemed to be wealthy, and what 
 he might call a society gentleman. However, it was no 
 business of his, and, if he speculated about the affairs 
 of all the ladies and gentlemen he drove, he would have 
 enough to do. From North Road they went to the 
 Terminus Hotel. 
 
 At this point a distinct thrill passed through the 
 crowded court. The public were beginning to grow
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 289 
 
 apathetic perhaps they shared Masterman's view 
 that the story of Mrs. Greville's doings on the I2th of 
 August didn't matter but the story of Ralph Essen- 
 dine's wife, and her mysterious death at the Terminus 
 Hotel had passed from mouth to mouth in vague 
 hints and rumours, never finding its way into the 
 public press, except in the form of carefully veiled 
 paragraphs in the more obscure and scandalous of the 
 Society papers. Now there was the opening of a new 
 chapter in which all the story was to be revealed, and 
 the veil of the mystery to be lifted. 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice, as was his wont, sat im- 
 mobile and sphynx-like ; Mr. Justice Popham took 
 voluminous notes, but said nothing ; only Masterman 
 had hitherto spoken. 
 
 William Simpson was asked to look at the prisoner 
 at the bar. Was that the Mr. Essendine who had come 
 to the garage and whom he had driven to the Terminus 
 Hotel. No, certainly not. He remembered Mrs. 
 Essendine's dress. It was striking and very becoming, 
 he thought, it was all grey and pink. 
 
 The Attorney-General did not cross-examine. 
 Masterman looked at his watch. 
 
 "It is about lunch-time," he said. " Mr. Brath- 
 wayte, you have brought the lady to the Terminus 
 Hotel in company with a man who was not her hus- 
 band. If I remember right, the possibility of some- 
 thing of the kind was assumed at the trial. You have 
 occupied the morning in giving us the events of about 
 an hour. At this rate I suppose you will show us how 
 she got into the water some time next year. We 
 resume at two o'clock." 
 
 The Bar rose and bowed ; the Bench bowed and 
 walked out ; and the Court rapidly cleared. 
 
 When they reassembled after the luncheon interval,
 
 290 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Brathwayte was carrying a new bundle of papers to 
 which he devoted himself eagerly as soon as he had 
 seated himself. His junior took up the examination 
 of witnesses. 
 
 The manager of the Terminus Hotel came first. 
 He produced a letter signed " R. W. Essendine," 
 ordering the best suite of rooms in the hotel. This was 
 endorsed Nos. 27, 28 and 29. The visitors' book was 
 also produced, with the signature in a delicate feminine 
 hand " E. Essendine." The manager explained that it 
 was Madam who registered. He had seen Madam as 
 she came in, a pretty, frail-looking lady, rather small, 
 dressed in grey and pink, rather noticeable. She 
 spoke very pleasantly. He had not noticed Mr. 
 Essendine ; could not recognize him again. He had 
 been told of Mrs. Essendine's death, but could say no- 
 thing of his own knowledge. 
 
 Mr. Essendine and Sir Alfred Ross undertook every 
 arrangement. Of course his staff would have been 
 most willing to render any assistance in such a sad 
 event, but there was no need. Sir Alfred had com- 
 municated with the undertakers and the nurses. 
 Everything was done with the greatest expedition, 
 and with every consideration for the hotel and the other 
 guests. Of course he had been anxious that the other 
 guests should not be disturbed. The funeral had been 
 the following day. He recognized the luggage in the 
 well of the Court. It was that which had been brought 
 by Mr. and Mrs. Essendine. He identified it by the 
 seals. Naturally new luggage is all more or less alike, 
 but before giving it into his charge Mr. Essendine had 
 sealed it up, and the seals or portions of them were 
 still remaining. It had been in his office all the time 
 and he saw it every day. There was no possible doubt. 
 
 Sir Alfred Ross was the next called, and a rustle of
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 291 
 
 expectation and curiosity passed over the crowd as 
 the famous doctor stepped into the witness-box. It 
 was thought that Brathwayte would surely himself 
 examine so important a witness, but he made no sign, 
 only steadily studied the papers in his hand, just 
 passing a scrap of paper to the junior on which was 
 scribbled : " Ask as few questions as you can. Let 
 him tell his own story." 
 
 After a few preliminary questions, Sir Alfred pro- 
 ceeded to do so in brief and concise style. He was 
 dining at the Terminus Hotel a few London doctors 
 were entertaining some French colleagues. He was 
 hurriedly summoned, a lady had been taken ill very 
 suddenly. He went to No. 27 and found the lady 
 at the point of death. There was no possible doubt of 
 the cause, it was a violent attack of angina pectoris 
 with an already weakened heart. He made no post- 
 mortem examination. It was not necessary. He with 
 two of the waiters removed the body to the bedroom, 
 and laid her on the bed. Nothing whatever could be 
 done. They had scarcely finished composing the 
 body when Mr. Essendine returned. He had been 
 out when she died. He was very greatly shocked. 
 A strong powerful man physically, but highly strung 
 and very sensitive, the shock brought him very near 
 collapse. 
 
 He, Sir Alfred, had done all he could to take all 
 responsibility off him, for at the time he was not fit 
 to undertake it. He had made the arrangements 
 for the funeral, and had administered simple restoratives 
 to Mr. Essendine, who had practically recovered by 
 the following morning when the body was removed. 
 He had himself at Mr. Essendine's request arranged 
 with the undertakers, and all necessary parties, for the 
 funeral at Penzance, the following day. He had seen
 
 292 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 the body in the coffin, and he had been present when the 
 hearse left the hotel door for Paddington Station. 
 Mr. Essendine was the only mourner. He understood 
 that others were to meet him at Paddington. Since 
 that time he had not seen or heard anything of Mr. 
 Essendine. He had been a good deal away, in attend- 
 ance on the King in Scotland, and later on in Germany, 
 from whence he had only lately returned. 
 
 While Sir Alfred was giving his evidence, two big 
 men in tweed travelling suits entered the Court quietly 
 and sat down in chance vacant seats. A note was 
 handed to Brathwayte, who looked up and nodded and 
 resumed the study of his papers. 
 
 Rather to his surprise, the Attorney-General rose 
 to cross-examine. Brathwayte had thought that 
 Ross's evidence would pass unchallenged, and he 
 listened with some curiosity to ascertain what was the 
 Attorney's line. He inquired if Sir Alfred were not 
 an expert in the Mexican poison. Yes, certainly, he 
 had devoted much attention to it, and made some 
 demonstrations in Berlin. Was it at all possible that 
 Mrs. Greville had died of this poison ? Absolutely 
 impossible. There was not a symptom to suggest it. 
 Were the symptoms then so unmistakable ? No, they 
 were not that. In fact they were very obscure, but 
 the whole effect of the poison was the direct contrary 
 of the well-recognized symptoms of angina. The 
 effect of the poison might be confused with many 
 things, but not with angina, or any form of nervous 
 paroxysm. Then was there any kind of poison that 
 might give symptoms similar to those of angina 
 pectoris ? Yes, superficially similar, but not sufficiently 
 to deceive a trained medical man. Was it possible 
 in a patient liable to attacks of angina artificially to 
 induce such an attack ? It might be done. It was
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 293 
 
 well known that with certain patients certain things 
 would bring on an attack. For example, an emotional 
 stimulus, depending on the patient's emotional idio- 
 syncrasies. Music might have that effect in some 
 cases. 
 
 " What in the world is he getting at ? " said Brath- 
 wayte to himself. 
 
 " You had an opportunity," said the Attorney- 
 General, " of observing Mr. Essendine very closely 
 when he first realized his wife's death, and subsequently 
 when he was under your care for the shock. Did it 
 strike you that possibly he expected it, and that his 
 surprise and shock were simulated ? " 
 
 " Absolutely impossible. The shock was beyond all 
 question genuine." 
 
 " Did it occur to you that at any time he regarded 
 his wife's death with a feeling of relief, as though a 
 burden were taken off him ? " 
 
 " Nothing could be more contrary to his whole 
 demeanour. I am certain his grief was entirely 
 genuine, and the occurrence was utterly unexpected." 
 
 " Good Lord ! " muttered Brathwayte. " He's 
 shifted his ground. He'll try for a case against Essen- 
 dine for the murder of Mrs. Greville. But what will 
 he do about Harry ? This seems irrelevant at present, 
 but Masterman is swallowing it all." 
 
 " Did you not think there should have been a post- 
 mortem examination in the case of so sudden and 
 mysterious a death ? " 
 
 " I did not. It was sudden but not in the least 
 mysterious. I had no doubt whatsoever about the 
 cause." 
 
 " Nevertheless, had it been a case of Mexican virus 
 poisoning, would a post-mortem have proved or 
 disproved the cause of death ? "
 
 294 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " It would do so ; but, as I said, the symptoms were 
 wholly contradictory to that theory." 
 
 " You have read the reports of what is known as 
 * The Thames Mystery ' and the trial from the judg- 
 ment at which this is an appeal ? " 
 
 " I have." 
 
 " Very well. Do you agree with the evidence of 
 Dr. Veldoff ? " 
 
 " I do not ; neither would Dr. Veldoff himself now. 
 He founded his evidence entirely on the German 
 scientific papers, and they have wholly recon- 
 structed their theories in the light of recent 
 discoveries." 
 
 " You know that a tube of the poison now in the 
 possession of the police was in the possession of the 
 prisoner for an unknown time. Might that poison 
 have been administered to his wife before her 
 departure ? " 
 
 " It might not. That tube of poison was mine, the 
 only one in this country. It was not in the prisoner's 
 possession until a fortnight after Mrs. Greville's death. 
 It was lent by me to a friend who left it in the prisoner's 
 safe." 
 
 " But, Sir Alfred, this is not direct evidence, and it 
 is very important. I should like to hear it directly 
 from this friend." 
 
 A rapid exchange of notes passed between Brath- 
 wayte and his junior ; the Attorney-General finished 
 his cross-examination ; and the junior called Sidney 
 Brathwayte, K.C. 
 
 At that moment a pin might have been heard to 
 drop in the Court, the silence and the tensity of nerves 
 were such as are rarely attained even in the most 
 thrilling drama on the stage. Brathwayte rapidly 
 divested himself of his wig and gown, and in the usual
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 295 
 
 frogged coat of the King's Counsel entered the witness- 
 box. 
 
 " I can speak personally to that, my lords/' he said. 
 " The tube of poison was lent to me by Sir Alfred Ross 
 for experiment. I placed it in the prisoner's safe 
 along with some other scientific instruments on the 
 24th day of August. The parcel was carelessly tied 
 up and the tube fell out. Its loss was not noticed till 
 long afterwards. I can prove by the state of the seal 
 that it has not been opened from that day to this." 
 
 Bowing to the Court, he resumed his place and his 
 robes. 
 
 " Most unusual, and I may say melodramatic," said 
 Masterman. " It doesn't impress me." 
 
 Brathwayte, rising from his seat, now called Ralph 
 Waldo Essendine.
 
 CHAPTER XIX 
 
 THE sensation in Court was intense : every head 
 was turned, and every eye was strained to see 
 the man on whose evidence it was now realized 
 the solution of the mystery would depend, the man 
 whose life seemed to have been a romance. Known 
 hitherto as a daring hunter and distinguished scientist, 
 and member of scientific societies, now the hero of 
 strange stories of a sudden marriage, the tragic death 
 of a wife, a hurried and secret burial, obscurely hinted 
 at in a dozen contradictory forms, at length emerging 
 in connection with the mystery that had engrossed 
 so much public attention and monopolized the news- 
 papers for weeks. Calm and self-possessed he stood 
 in the witness-box awaiting Brathwayte's questions. 
 
 Brathwayte himself was more anxious and nervous 
 than he ever remembered to have been in any case he 
 had been concerned in. He had Essendine's depositions 
 in his hand, but he had had no time to formulate a 
 plan. His instructions were to keep the duke's name 
 out of the matter if possible, that Ralph was to take 
 the whole responsibility. Yet for Lola's sake he must 
 clear Ralph himself of all scandal, and also in the 
 interest of truth he must show Ralph to be as blameless 
 as he actually was. After the usual questions identi- 
 fying Ralph he proceeded. 
 
 " Mr. Essendine, you were in the Terminus Hotel 
 on the I2th of August ? " 
 
 296
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 297 
 
 " I was." 
 
 " And you found there Sir Alfred Ross, attending a 
 lady whom we now know to be Mrs. Greville ? " 
 
 Brathwayte was playing for time. He was for the 
 moment absolutely at a loss how to open his examina- 
 tion, how to bring out the essential facts without 
 opening the door to a flood of evidence which he desired 
 not to make public. He was trusting that he would 
 see light as he went on. Ralph bowed and assented. 
 But here Masterman intervened : 
 
 " Stop one moment, Mr. Essendine. I want to get 
 this quite clear. Mr. Brathwayte has spoken of Mrs. 
 Greville, but we have just heard from Sir Alfred Ross 
 that you called her your wife. Is this correct ? " 
 
 " I never called her so, my lord." 
 
 " Tut ! tut ! Don't prevaricate, Mr. Essendine. 
 Whether you called her so or not, you allowed Sir 
 Alfred Ross to assume that such was the case. Now, 
 I ask you why you did so ? " 
 
 " Because, my lord, it was the fact." 
 
 " But you just now said that she was Mrs. Greville. 
 Please be careful, Mr. Essendine." 
 
 "It is perfectly true, my lord. I was married to 
 this lady many years ago, when I had just left College. 
 She brought an action for divorce against me, which 
 I did not defend. She got a decree, and subsequently, 
 so I am told, she married or assumed to marry, Mr. 
 Greville." 
 
 " Then, Mr. Essendine, she was not your wife. I 
 do wish you would stick to plain statements." 
 
 " Pardon me, my lord, I am a Catholic, and your 
 lordship may be aware we do not recognize divorce." 
 
 " In other words, you do not recognize the law of the 
 land, Mr. Essendine. But we are here to administer 
 that law, and in spite of your ideas which I must
 
 298 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 humbly consider to be fantastic we must take it 
 that she was the wife of Mr. Greville, the prisoner at 
 the bar, and not your wife." 
 
 " As your lordship pleases." 
 
 " Can you account, Mr. Essendine, for her taking 
 the name, which you say was her rightful name, of 
 Essendine ? For as far as I can make out from Mr. 
 Brathwayte's rather confused evidence she was called 
 Mrs. Essendine at the hotel. Did she share your 
 curious views on the subject of divorce ? " 
 
 " It was not her rightful name, my lord. When she 
 married me, my name was O'Connor, and this was my 
 name at the time of the divorce. I have no reason to 
 suppose she ever knew me by the name of Essendine. 
 I took that name some time afterwards with a small 
 property belonging to my mother." 
 
 " Really ! really ! this matter is the most hopelessly 
 complicated story I ever had pain of listening to. Go 
 on, Mr. Brathwayte, perhaps you can disentangle the 
 extraordinary skein you have brought into this Court 
 to unravel." 
 
 Brathwayte rose again, to all appearance cool as 
 ever. He was not going to appear to be in the least 
 put out by Master-man's interruptions. 
 
 " Did you take your wife to the Terminus Hotel, 
 Mr. Essendine ? " 
 
 " I did not. I never saw her alive after the day on 
 which she got the decree of divorce. She disappeared 
 then, and I tried in vain to trace her." 
 
 Brathwayte was nonplussed : the rapid notes he had 
 got went only from the death of Eulalie to the burial 
 at Penzance. Ralph had hoped that it might be 
 assumed that it was he who had brought Eulalie to the 
 Terminus Hotel, had gone out for ten minutes and 
 returned to find her dead. He would have taken the
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 299 
 
 whole onus of being an immoral seducer if necessary, 
 or he would have told the story of his former marriage 
 and left it to be inferred that he had made an attempt 
 to win her back. His ideas of evidence were a little 
 shadowy, and he reckoned without Masterman. 
 
 The judge having elicited that she never knew him 
 by his name of Essendine necessitated Brathwayte's 
 question. He was like a man feeling his way in a fog 
 and expecting pitfalls at every step. 
 
 " Can you tell us then with whom she came to the 
 hotel ? ' 
 
 " I have been told that it was " 
 
 " Stop, stop, Mr. Essendine," said Masterman. 
 " We cannot accept hearsay evidence. Really it 
 seems as if we had to conduct this case, I never met 
 with anything quite so badly got up. Tell us what you 
 know of your own knowledge. We have arrived at 
 this : Mrs. Greville went to the Terminus Hotel on the 
 1 2th of August with an unknown man who called 
 himself Essendine, he left her for ten minutes and 
 mysteriously disappeared ; then the real Simon Pure 
 arrived from nowhere in particular, and discovered 
 that she was his wife and was dead. I am bound to 
 say that I never heard a more ridiculous and incredible 
 story told in a Court of Justice in my life. Up to this 
 point, Mr Brathwayte, your story has been merely 
 dull and irrelevant ; now you suddenly launch us into 
 the wildest fairy-tale. Well, go on. I am anxious to 
 see how you get out of the absurdities you are floun- 
 dering in, but remember we can only listen to what Mr. 
 Essendine knows of himself. I presume this is your 
 new evidence. So far it doesn't impress me." 
 
 " You have only arrived in England very recently, 
 Mr. Essendine ? " said Brathwayte. 
 
 " Only this morning, from Para."
 
 300 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " And you did not know of this trial, or the accusa- 
 tion against the prisoner at the bar ? " 
 
 " Only by a telegram at Para to which I at once 
 cabled a reply, and wrote a long letter of explanation, 
 which was destroyed with the mails on the Paraguay ; 
 this I did not know of for over a month. I was shooting 
 on the Lower Amazon and heard no news. As soon 
 as I understood the facts I returned to this country by 
 the first steamer." 
 
 " Very well. Now let me take you back to the 
 Terminus Hotel. You found this lady there under the 
 name of Mrs. Essendine, though you say she did not 
 know that this was your name. You still regarded her 
 as your wife, and you would naturally have thought 
 of her by that name. Have you any idea why she 
 took that name ? " 
 
 " I have none." 
 
 " Presumably the man she came with, whoever it 
 might be, was also called Essendine, or took that 
 name." 
 
 " I have no knowledge." 
 
 Masterman had unconsciously played into Ralph's 
 hands. If he might say nothing of hearsay, he could 
 say nothing about Ronny. 
 
 " So then you were taken for her husband, and as 
 you still considered yourself to be such you did not 
 contradict the statement." 
 
 " That is so." 
 
 " But you knew she had been married again since 
 the divorce. Why did you not communicate with 
 the second husband ? " 
 
 Brathwayte, feeling his way, was anxious to get 
 Ralph to tell his own story in his own way. He was 
 perfectly certain that every word he said would be the 
 strictest truth, and that the truth, if only he could
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 301 
 
 arrive at it, would entirely exonerate him. But 
 there was something behind which he did not under- 
 stand, and he felt, without quite knowing how, that 
 it was that something which would tell heavily 
 against Ralph unless it could all be clearly brought 
 out. 
 
 Ralph paused for a moment ; then he said : 
 
 " I did not know whom she had married. As I 
 said I entirely lost sight of her after the divorce. I 
 tried in vain to find her. Then I was much abroad. 
 After her death I tried every means I could think of 
 to discover the second husband, or any friend or 
 acquaintance, but without success. I searched all the 
 luggage, but not in any of it was there the slightest 
 clue. There was nothing for it but to bury my wife 
 as my wife in Penzance, a place she had always loved, 
 and where I thought she would like to rest at 
 last." 
 
 " How did you come to know who she was ? " 
 
 " By the telegrams I got at Para, and by the 
 reports in the English papers of ' The Thames 
 Mystery.' ' 
 
 " Well, tell us what you did after finding the body 
 of your wife at the Terminus Hotel ? " 
 
 It was fairly plain sailing now, and Ralph recounted 
 the story of the funeral, as arranged for him by Sir 
 Alfred Ross, and how he had taken the body down to 
 Penzance and buried her there as " Eulalie, wife of 
 Ralph Waldo Essendine," and how shortly after he 
 had sailed for Para on a long-projected shooting and 
 scientific exploring expedition. 
 
 Masterman again intervened : 
 
 " We have two stories now, both given in what 
 appears to me unnecessary detail, but fairly straight- 
 forward. I assume that Mr. Essendine's evidence
 
 302 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 will be confirmed by other parties, the undertakers for 
 example, and the authorities at Penzance. The burial 
 certificates will require to be produced, and the clergy- 
 man who performed the burial service should be 
 called. But assuming that this is done, there is a 
 hiatus in the evidence that may be fatal to this appeal. 
 We have seen that Mrs. Greville left her home on the 
 I2th of August, and we have traced her to the Terminus 
 Hotel. Then we hear that Mr. Essendine going into 
 the hotel on the same day we are not told why 
 found his wife there dead, and we are then told again, 
 with abundance of detail, that he took the body to 
 Penzance and buried it there, saying nothing to any 
 human soul, and immediately went to Para and dis- 
 appeared for a month or six weeks, then he suddenly 
 appears here to tell us this very remarkable story. 
 There may be some connection between the two stories, 
 but at present it does not appear. Do you cross- 
 examine, Mr. Attorney ? " 
 
 "I do not, my lord. I think your lordship has 
 brought out the weakness and irrelevance of the evi- 
 dence far better than I could. I hope presently to 
 show your lordships that Mrs. Greville may have gone 
 to the Terminus Hotel, but she did not die there. 
 In fact, her visit there may well have been one of the 
 reasons for the crime of which the prisoner at the bar 
 is accused. So far I am willing to admit all the facts 
 brought out." 
 
 The Attorney-General recognized that Masterman 
 was on his side from his inveterate hostility to Brath- 
 wayte, and by flattering the judge hoped to secure the 
 dismissal of the appeal. 
 
 At this point a note was handed to Brathwayte. 
 He looked up and shook his head, and spoke hurriedly 
 to the solicitor, and to his junior ; but a big handsome
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 303 
 
 man in tweeds was already pushing his way through 
 the crowded court towards the witness-box. There 
 was no alternative. It was directly against his 
 instructions, and what this new impetuous witness 
 might say no man could predict. 
 
 It was an embarrassing position. His instructions 
 were definite to keep the duke's name out of it at all 
 costs. Mr. Essendine could prove everything that was 
 necessary had proved everything to the compre- 
 hension of any reasonable man, in spite of the absurd 
 difficulty raised by Masterman. Brathwayte had no 
 doubt that the Lord Chief Justice and Mr. Justice 
 Popham at all events would find that Mrs. Greville was 
 the same as the Mrs. Essendine who died at the Ter- 
 minus Hotel, and was buried at Penzance, and this being 
 the case it was clear that Harry Greville did not murder 
 his wife, and the conviction must be quashed. 
 
 But here was the duke insisting on giving evidence, 
 making his way to the witness-box, and what on earth 
 was he going to say ? The situation must be faced, 
 and that frankly and at once, for the suspicion would 
 arise beyond question that some important evidence 
 was being kept back. There was nothing for it but to 
 trust to luck, and deal as best he might with such 
 further facts as came to light. It is to the credit of 
 Brathwayte's self-control and power of acting that he 
 allowed no trace of surprise or embarrassment to 
 escape him. He said in ordinary tones as if he were 
 calling the witness he were prepared for : 
 
 " His Grace the Duke of Glenstaffen." 
 
 Ronny stepped into the box and took the oath. 
 
 " You have just returned with Mr. Essendine, the 
 last witness, from Para, I understand." 
 
 " We went together to Para on a shooting expedition 
 on the Amazon, and arrived at Liverpool this morning."
 
 304 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " You heard Mr. Essendine's evidence, I think. 
 Have you any personal knowledge of the events he 
 spoke of ? " 
 
 " I have that is the reason I wish to give evidence 
 I can supply the information that his lordship was 
 asking for just now." 
 
 " This is very satisfactory," said Masterman, 
 " though why Mr. Brathwayte cannot bring his evidence 
 in some sort of logical sequence that one can follow 
 passes my comprehension." 
 
 " Will you tell us in your own words exactly what 
 you know ? " 
 
 Brathwayte did not venture to ask a question, lest 
 he should blunder, until he knew what the duke was 
 going to say. 
 
 " His lordship asked how Mrs. Greville came to be at 
 the Terminus Hotel under the name of Mrs. Essendine. 
 It is simple. I took her there and I took the name of 
 Essendine." 
 
 The whole Court thrilled. Here was a crowning 
 sensation. Meanwhile Ronny stood calm, almost 
 boyish-looking, making this startling statement with 
 as matter-of-fact an air as though he had been a 
 schoolboy owning up to taking a bird's-nest, or robbing 
 an orchard. It did not seem to him to need explana- 
 tion or apology ; it was a fact, that was all. 
 
 Brathwayte continued as if this were just the reply 
 he expected, though he was probably one of the most 
 surprised and startled in the Court. 
 
 " Then you were the Mr. Essendine who engaged the 
 car from Milven's garage ? " 
 
 " I was, and I drove to Miss Fortescue's, the dress- 
 maker in North Street, and picked up Mrs. Greville 
 she became Mrs. Essendine then and took her to the 
 Terminus Hotel."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretian 305 
 
 " Really, my lord duke," said Masterman, " I know 
 very little of the habits of what we sometimes call 
 ' the upper classes ' ; but it seems to me that you 
 treat what we ordinary folk would consider an act of the 
 most glaring, and I trust exceptional, immorality as 
 though it were an ordinary incident of everyday life. 
 You assume another name, the name of your friend, 
 Heaven only knows why, and under that name you take 
 another man's wife and pass her off as your own wife, 
 at a crowded London hotel, and you tell the story as 
 if you had been out to dinner." 
 
 " Pardon me, my lord, I am here to state facts, not 
 to justify my conduct. I may have done very wrong. 
 Certainly I have unwittingly brought great trouble on 
 innocent people. I am prepared to bear the conse- 
 quences whatever they may be, and to do my best to 
 redress the wrong I have done. I conceive I can do 
 this best by a frank statement of the facts, which 
 I neither desire to extenuate nor to defend." 
 
 The sympathy of all in the Court was going out to 
 Ronny. His manly, straight-forward attitude won the 
 British public, in spite of its traditional respectability. 
 They would have been against him to a man had he 
 attempted to excuse or gloss over his actions. 
 
 " Had you any motive for assuming the name of 
 Essendine ? " 
 
 " None whatever. It was simply the first that came 
 into my head, the name of my secretary and lifelong 
 friend. Had I gone in my own name every one would 
 have known we were not married the name of Ronald 
 Warrington was pretty well known. I was fond of 
 Mrs. Greville, and I was sorry for her. She did not 
 seem happy. I fancy I brought some joy into her 
 life. She wanted a holiday and I wanted to give 
 it her."
 
 306 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " I see. Then after dinner you went out. What 
 became of you ? " 
 
 " I went down to the station platform to get an 
 evening paper, and arrange for going down to Penzance 
 next day. On the platform I met my secretary, Mr. 
 Essendine, who informed me that my unde was dying 
 and had sent for me. The train was just starting, the 
 last train that night. I had no alternative but to jump 
 into it. Mr. Essendine undertook to go to the hotel, 
 and see Mrs. Greville, and explain the circumstances. 
 I went to Staffen Castle. When there, after my 
 uncle's death I got a telegram from Mr. Essendine that 
 Mrs. Greville he used the initial ' E ' had gone home. 
 I concluded he meant to Bermuda Avenue, and I 
 wrote to her ; but of course I got no answer." 
 
 " And shortly after that you went abroad ? ' 
 
 " I did. The shooting expedition had long been 
 arranged, and there was no reason that I knew of to 
 give it up. Mr. Essendine and I started as soon as 
 ever I could get things arranged at Staffen Castle." 
 
 " When did you first hear the facts about Mrs. 
 Greville's death ? " 
 
 " On board the steamer, when we were about half- 
 way across. Mr. Essendine told me the full story then. " 
 
 " Have you any idea why he did not tell you at once ?" 
 
 " I can explain that : Mr. Essendine has always 
 had a romantic idea of shielding me from the con- 
 sequences of my own follies it is entirely against my 
 will, but he has frequently done so he thought this 
 story would be very detrimental to me, and took this 
 means to make it impossible for me to come forward and 
 tell the story, and take the responsibility on myself, 
 as naturally I should have wished to do. His idea was, 
 as it has always been, to shoulder all the blame and 
 responsibility himself no man ever had a truer or
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 307 
 
 more loyal friend but I need not say it was utterly 
 without my concurrence." 
 
 " Your voluntarily coming forward to give evidence 
 shows that, your Grace. I presume I may take it 
 that nothing wrong actually took place between you 
 and Mrs. Greville ? " 
 
 " Nothing." 
 
 The British public is a curious mass of contradiction. 
 This simple statement confirmed, as Brathwayte knew 
 it would, the tide of popular feeling in favour of Ronny ; 
 and the tale of the quixotic devotion of Ralph to his 
 friend had elevated him to a popular hero. 
 
 The Attorney-General rose to cross-examine. 
 
 " You say that you wrote to Mrs. Greville from 
 Staffen Castle. Did you address your letter to 
 Bermuda Avenue ? " 
 
 " No. It was by Mrs. Greville' s wish that I addressed 
 always to the care of Miss Fortescue. She always 
 feared the curiosity of servants." 
 
 " So I should imagine. Divorce cases make people 
 careful in these circumstances. How did you sign 
 your letter ? " 
 
 " I always signed my letters in the same way, 
 ' Ronny.' "It is the name by which I am known to 
 all my intimates." 
 
 " All the ladies with whom you are on the same 
 terms as with Mrs. Greville ? " 
 
 Ronny was determined not to lose his temper, though 
 the cross-examination was obviously intended to pro- 
 duce that result. 
 
 " Pardon me, when I said intimates, I meant all 
 my friends. I was not on the same terms with any 
 other lady." 
 
 " Was there no other lady to whom you signed 
 yourself in the same way ? "
 
 308 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 " None, except relatives, for many years past." 
 
 " And at the time of your departure for Para there 
 was no other lady with whom you were on the same 
 terms as you were, or shall we say hoped to be, with 
 Mrs. Greville ? " 
 
 " No ! " 
 
 " Then we may take it that any letter written by 
 you to a woman and signed ' Ronny,' unless to a 
 relative, was written to Mrs. Greville ? " 
 
 " That is so." 
 
 " Will you kindly look at this letter ? The original 
 has been treated by chemicals, you will probably 
 recognize it better from the photograph. Is that your 
 letter ? " 
 
 " It unquestionably is." 
 
 " It was written to Mrs. Greville, I presume, as it 
 is signed ' Ronny ' 
 
 " It certainly was." 
 
 " That letter was taken from the pocket of the woman 
 who was found in the Thames, who was dressed in 
 clothes identified as Mrs. Greville' s, and the body was 
 identified by several independent witnesses. Now 
 another question : you say there was no other woman 
 with whom you were on the same terms as you were 
 with Mrs. Greville, are you aware of any other man with 
 whom she was on the same terms as she was with you ? " 
 
 " I can confidently say there was none." 
 
 " Oh, you can I Many men would be glad to have 
 your confidence in the sex. Well, do you know anyone 
 among her acquaintance who would sign himself 
 ' P.C. ' ? " 
 
 " I do not, and I feel sure I should know if there were 
 any such man." 
 
 " Well, look at this letter, also taken from the same 
 pocket as your letter. You will see it is signed ' P.C.'
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 309 
 
 and if you will read it you will see that it is such a 
 letter as an abandoned and gross man would write to his 
 mistress. I ask you if you can explain this ? " 
 
 " I cannot, but of one thing I am certain. That 
 letter was never written to Mrs. Greville." 
 
 " Well, the jury at the trial did not share your con- 
 fidence. Now be very careful about your answer to 
 this question, your Grace, and remember that you are 
 on your oath. Will you positively swear that this 
 woman, whom Mr. Essendine found dying or dead 
 at the hotel, was the same Mrs. Greville whom you 
 left in good health there shortly before." 
 
 " I cannot swear that. I was in the train and miles 
 away when he entered the hotel." 
 
 " Of course you cannot. Now suppose you were told 
 on absolute evidence that Mrs. Greville was seen alive 
 in London at a date subsequent to this escapade of 
 yours, will you swear that she did not leave the hotel 
 after you went out ? " 
 
 " In the face of Mr. Essendine's evidence I should 
 say it was so unlikely as to be practically impossible." 
 
 " We have nothing to do with what is likely. Your 
 own story, as his lordship has pointed out, is as unlikely 
 as ever was told in a Court of Justice. It is sufficient 
 that you cannot swear it was not so. I may be able 
 to convince you that it was so. I have no more ques- 
 tions." 
 
 The Lord Chief Justice now looked up, for the first 
 time. 
 
 " There is some more essential evidence to be pro- 
 duced," he said. " To identify Mrs. Greville with the 
 wife of Mr. Essendine, we require evidence of the 
 divorce and of Mr. Greville's marriage, also, as Mr. 
 Justice Masterman has pointed out, evidence of the 
 funeral of Mrs. Essendine or Greville at Penzance.
 
 310 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 It was a part of Mr. Brathwayte's case for appeal that 
 he was to prove to us the identity of the woman whose 
 body was found in the Thames. We have heard 
 nothing of that yet. Owing to arrangements in other 
 Courts we cannot again sit this week. Adjourn 
 till this day week." 
 
 The Bar rose and bowed to the Bench, and the Bench 
 filed out.
 
 CHAPTER XX 
 
 RALPH and the duke did not stay in London. 
 As soon as the Court rose, the same idea took 
 possession of both of them simultaneously : 
 they must go to Penzance and visit the grave of the 
 woman who had so vitally entered into both their lives. 
 
 A pencil note from Brathwayte was handed to Ralph : 
 " Come round to my chambers. Important I should 
 see you at once." Ralph handed it to Ronny ; the 
 latter shook his head. 
 
 " No, Ralph, you and I must talk things over first. 
 Nothing more will be done for a week. We will see 
 him when we come back. We shall not be more than 
 a day down there." 
 
 It was Ralph's idea also. Events had rushed so 
 rapidly since their landing that he felt he must have 
 some time to focus his outlook before he did anything 
 further. While Brathwayte was arranging his papers, 
 he scribbled a note : " Sorry, but it's really impossible 
 now. We are going to Penzance at once. Will see 
 you directly we return ; to-morrow or the next day at 
 latest, R. W. Essendine." This he handed to the 
 usher and the two slipped out unnoticed. 
 
 Brathwayte was angry and perturbed. This was 
 not the way to treat an important case. This new 
 evidence would require to be carefully handled. He 
 was still in a fog about many points. He looked at 
 the time-tables : there was no train for about five hours. 
 
 311
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Therefore clearly these two big inconsequent men 
 had made up their minds not to be interviewed at 
 present, and what they determined that they would do. 
 He had no notion where to find them in the wilderness 
 of London. There was nothing for it then but to 
 devote all his attention to the other evidence that was 
 required, and wait with such patience as he might till 
 they chose to present themselves. 
 
 He went to see Harry Greville in his cell, to cheer him 
 with the assurance that the quashing of the con- 
 viction was a certainty ; also to get information as to 
 the place and date of his marriage. Harry could tell 
 him little about Eulalie. He had met her in the hunt- 
 ing-field. She was then Eulalie Lomax, and was 
 staying with an old aunt who had since died. He never 
 heard that she had been married before. She had cer- 
 tainly never mentioned it, nor had the aunt. She had 
 very few friends some acquaintances, that was all. 
 She had never told him anything about her former life, 
 nor had he ever asked. He was not curious. She was 
 very good to him, and they had been quite happy. 
 That was enough. 
 
 This attitude was so characteristic of Harry Greville 
 that its sincerity was obvious, and Brathwayte knew 
 there was no use in inquiring further. True to his 
 nature, Harry did not seem even greatly perturbed 
 about his present position. Brathwayte said after- 
 wards that if he had been hanged he would have taken 
 it as ail in the day's work. Mrs. Donelly helped him 
 somewhat by recalling again the stories of the chamber- 
 maid and the waiter. The waiter would go far to- 
 wards supplying the missing link. Hilda, however, 
 could tell him nothing about Eulalie's previous marriage. 
 She had never heard the name of O'Connor in connection 
 with the Grevilles. But she suggested from her
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 313 
 
 knowledge of Eulalie that she would most probably 
 have resumed her maiden name, and would not have 
 told Harry anything about the former marriage unless 
 he had asked, and that not from any secretiveness, 
 or wish of concealment, but simply from a sort of shy 
 reluctance to talk about herself. In a way she was the 
 complement of Harry. It was not his nature to be 
 curious, it was not her nature to be communicative. 
 They just accepted each other as they were. 
 
 He sent the solicitor to see Mrs. Eraser, but this also 
 was useless. She had known Mrs. Greville as Miss 
 Lomax. It had come as an absolute surprise to her 
 that she had ever been married before. The aunt that 
 she had stayed with was dead long since, and Mrs. 
 Fraser knew of no other relatives. She was still very 
 bitter about Harry Greville. 
 
 Meanwhile, clearly the duke and Ralph had done 
 unintentionally a most diplomatic thing in leaving 
 London without seeing anyone. Multitudes of friends 
 and relations were anxious to see them, and to talk over 
 the case, and false impressions would inevitably have 
 been produced. As it was they were reduced to talking 
 about them, with the result that they became heroes in 
 the popular estimation. It is generally supposed that 
 the British public is severely respectable and matter-of- 
 fact, but this is only partially true. In some moods the 
 British public whole-heartedly loves a romance, and 
 here were all the elements of such a story as delighted 
 the hearts of thousands of newspaper readers. An 
 unhappy marriage for they took Mrs. Eraser's version 
 without much inquiry ; it had a dramatic fitness and 
 the chivalrous love of the duke for the injured lady. 
 The duke himself, too, was a popular figure, from his 
 rank, his good looks, his career of sport and adventure. 
 Then Essendine's dramatic reunion with his wife at the
 
 314 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 moment of her death, the tale of his fidelity refusing 
 in spite of everything to regard her in any light but 
 that of his wife and the solitary burial at Penzance, 
 made up a series of thrills better than any fiction 
 of the most popular author. Probably, had poor Eulalie 
 lived, the respectability of the public would have 
 asserted itself in strong condemnation, but the lonely 
 grave at Penzance silenced all disapproving tongues : it 
 was felt that disapprobation of her would be a false note 
 in the romance. Even the sympathy extended 
 itself to Harry Greville. True, it had been an unhappy 
 marriage, but it was from incompatible temperaments, 
 and the public revelled in a certain crude psychology 
 over its breakfast tables. 
 
 Ralph and the duke had slipped out of the Court and 
 betaken themselves, unseen and unknown, to a small 
 quiet hotel just off the Strand, where they dined and 
 caught the night train to Penzance. 
 
 By common consent they had spoken hardly any- 
 thing of the subject that engrossed the thoughts of 
 both ; but by the simple cross of white marble bearing 
 the one word " Eulalie " both men with a single 
 impulse knelt on the soft turf, in a brief prayer for her 
 who had been so dear to them both, and in the end 
 belonged to neither. 
 
 They rose a little shamefaced, as Englishmen are 
 wont to be after any display of emotion, and stood, 
 still bare-headed, beside the cross. 
 
 " How did it happen, Ralph ? " said the duke. 
 
 " I can hardly tell myself. It was just after I left 
 college. You had gone to Canada after moose. A 
 friend wrote to me introducing her and saying that she 
 was in some trouble about some small property, and a 
 fraudulent trustee, and no money to pay lawyers, and 
 asked me to go and see if I could help her. I went.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 315 
 
 In two days I was madly infatuated. So I think was 
 she. In three weeks we were married, but I told no 
 one. You remember that my relations with my people 
 were rather strained at that time. I was an impetuous 
 young ass, and I quarrelled with the best of parents, 
 but all the same I could not bear the thought of a 
 final breach. You remember my father, a peppery 
 old Irishman, and proud as Lucifer. Over and over 
 again we abused each other roundly and were not on 
 speaking terms for a month, then made it up on sudden 
 impulse, and quarrelled again. Still, I loved him, 
 and whatever you may think of me, I simply dared 
 not tell him. Well, for a month I was in Heaven, 
 simply. I worshipped the ground she trod on. For a 
 month do I say I For a year ! but there were rifts. 
 She was restive at the secrecy, and then people oh, 
 damn people 1 came and told her stories about me. 
 
 " So of course there were quarrels. I was young and 
 impetuous, and she, poor soul, when she was excited, 
 talked, she had an amazing eloquence sometimes, 
 a gift of words, but she made herself ill. She would 
 reprove me, exhort, advise, argue, sometimes for an 
 hour at a time, and then fall into one of her heart 
 attacks, and I was conscience-smitten, though indeed I 
 had done no wrong, and the making up of those quarrels 
 was one of the sweetest experiences of that time. 
 And always I could explain and refute the malicious 
 stories, until there came one that I could not refute, 
 though it was utterly untrue but I was bound to 
 another, I had to be silent and there came a breach. 
 I had long foreseen that it must be so eventually. 
 The position was growing impossible for us both. 
 
 "Then, without any warning, I had a petition for 
 divorce served on me. I wrote a long letter, for she 
 wouldn't see me, trying to explain and put things
 
 316 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 right. You know my principles, Ronny, I never 
 recognized divorce at all, and I said whatever chanced 
 she was to me my wife as long as we both lived. That 
 letter was never answered. That was just before we 
 went to India after tigers. I left instructions with my 
 solicitors that the action was not to be defended, but I 
 would be responsible for all her expenses. To this day 
 I don't know what were the grounds on which she 
 claimed divorce. And the main charge she brought 
 against me I could not answer without involving 
 others." 
 
 " So, to make a long story short, when we came back 
 from India, I found the decree had been made absolute, 
 and she had wholly disappeared. I tried every way I 
 could think of to find her, but to no purpose. I still 
 hoped by some means to induce her to return, or at all 
 events to disregard that decree even as I did. I could 
 only hear that her aunt had left the house where she 
 lived, and left no address, and that ' Miss Lomax ' 
 had gone with her. So it is clear that she resumed her 
 maiden name, and determined to wipe me off the slate. 
 The agents for the little colonial property I spoke of 
 had orders to pay the money into her bank, and knew 
 no more about her than anyone else. After that, as 
 you know, you asked me to go with you to Australia, 
 and never was an expedition more welcome : it brought 
 me to myself, and braced me to face the world again." 
 Softly to himself he murmured, " The brown owl calls 
 by night." 
 
 Ronny turned and wrung his friend's hand. 
 
 ** And you bore all this alone, Ralph. You never 
 told me a word." 
 
 " Why should I, old man ? I must bear my own 
 burdens. It would be too ghastly selfish to throw them 
 on you."
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 317 
 
 * ' Ralph, Ralph, you shame me. For how many years 
 have I been casting every burden on you ? And all 
 the time you had your own to bear that I never knew 
 of. Look ! Who is that man just coming in, I seem 
 to know him somehow, but I can't place him." 
 
 " You saw him yesterday at the trial. He's the 
 solicitor's clerk, he must have come down by the 
 early train, wonder what he's after, not us, I trust." 
 
 " Well, we can't avoid him now anyhow, and he has 
 recognized us." 
 
 " Good morning, Mr. Essendine. Good morning, 
 your Grace," said the man taking off his hat, " I'm 
 glad to have met you, you can probably help me. I 
 have to get a certified copy of the burial register of 
 Mrs. Essendine, and to take the depositions of the 
 clergyman who performed the burial service. Can 
 you direct me to him ? I won't trouble you further 
 than this." 
 
 " I'll go with you," said Ralph. " I was the only 
 person present at my wife's burial, except the clerk 
 and the grave-diggers. I may be able to supply any 
 details that he may have forgotten." 
 
 " We will go together," said Ronny. 
 
 They soon found the clergyman, and Ralph briefly 
 explained the strange confusion of identity that had 
 arisen, and also how, notwithstanding the divorce, 
 and Eulalie's subsequent marriage, he still regarded 
 her as his wife, and so named her in the register. In 
 this he was pleased to find a warm sympathizer in the 
 clergyman, who after Ralph's introduction gave his 
 deposition with friendly cordiality. 
 
 " I think the evidence is complete enough now to 
 satisfy even Mr. Justice Masterman," said the clerk, 
 as they walked away. " I was at the Terminus Hotel 
 last night, and there can be no possible doubt that Mrs.
 
 3i8 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 Greville and Mrs. Essendine were one and the same 
 person. Another clerk has gone to get the register of 
 Mr. Greville's marriage, though for the life of me I 
 can't see what that matters ; but Masterman wanted 
 it, so he's got to have it. I got the papers on your 
 divorce, Mr. Essendine. and read them in the train. 
 Why on earth you didn't defend beats me. I never 
 read a thinner case. Only two papers reported it, 
 and those only about two lines. I suppose you had 
 your own motives." 
 
 " Precisely," said Ralph. " There is nothing more 
 you want, is there ? Good morning. Why should one 
 be irritated with a vulgar little beast like that ? " he 
 went on after they left the clerk. " He does his work, 
 and I suppose he's as necessary in the scheme of the 
 universe as you or I, but he seems to jar every nerve. 
 Poor little devil, he can't help it. Come and sit in the 
 Morrab Gardens, Ronny, I want to tell you a story. 
 We can catch a train back to town after luncheon, and 
 see Brathwayte to-morrow." 
 
 " All right ! And then if we are not wanted any 
 more at present, I ought to go down to Staffen, and 
 you should come with me. We could put in two 
 or three days very usefully before the adjourned 
 trial." 
 
 It was under a cabbage palm in the Morrab Gardens 
 the very place where poor Eulalie had promised to 
 tell Ronny the story of her life that another story was 
 to be told him. Eulalie's life tragedy he knew now, 
 and he understood the vague hints she had dropped 
 that had puzzled him much before. He understood 
 her too now better than ever before : the sunny, 
 pleasure-loving, butterfly nature with its curious 
 undercurrent of an emotional religion, the sensitive- 
 ness, finding expression in her music, which made her
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 319 
 
 suffer as keenly as she enjoyed and often in both 
 cases from purely imaginary joys and griefs the 
 fanatical devotion to mere physical strength and 
 prowess that had attracted her to both Ralph and him- 
 self. " Better as it is," he thought to himself. " It 
 could never have lasted, and would have ended in 
 tragedy for one or both of us. If only she could 
 have met with some wise true friend to whom she 
 was not physically attracted it would have saved 
 her." 
 
 Ralph was tracing strange figures with his stick on 
 the gravel. 
 
 " Do you remember, Ronny," he said, " when we 
 went to Australia? You wanted to go up into the 
 interior, to see some of those impossible places that 
 nothing can live in, and to see what a gold mining 
 camp was like. I wanted to complete my collections. 
 So we parted for a time, and I went hunting in the 
 bush. Well, it was there that I fell in with some 
 people of the name of Macarthy. Charming people 
 they were, insisted on taking me in, with all the won- 
 derful colonial hospitality that we have forgotten in 
 the old country. Mrs. Macarthy, by the way, was a 
 sister of Bratliwayte, and I heard a lot about him. 
 There were two children wild, out-of-door, primitive 
 creatures the boy Jack was away, gold mining in 
 Alaska, I think. He had done most things, been 
 through wild adventures, and always came up smiling 
 somehow, made fortunes and lost them. Ought 
 to have been a mediaeval knight, adventurer, or 
 something of that sort, he didn't belong to this century. 
 And the girl, Lola, was his feminine counterpart, only 
 very feminine, if you can understand, devoted to 
 sport of every kind, full of pluck, and keen for ad- 
 venture, she had done some wild things with her
 
 320 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 brother, but at home in the evening, when she sang old 
 Irish songs, she seemed the most daintily gentle 
 creature you can fancy. 
 
 " Well, she was as keen for collecting as I was, and 
 knew a lot more than I did about the birds and beasts 
 of Australia, so naturally it fell out that we went 
 shooting together, and out in the bush it was like being 
 with a strong handsome boy. One forgot somehow 
 that she was a woman, she had the instinct of camar- 
 aderie so developed. And I don't know how, but 
 somehow I got to telling her of my troubles as 
 though it were some one else. Then it was I came 
 to know that if anywhere in the world there was a 
 woman who would absolutely be the mate for me, that 
 woman was Lola Macarthy, and I think she knew that 
 it was my own story I had told her, and she wanted to 
 let me know without saying that she too thought 
 that I was the mate she needed. But all she would 
 say was that some day she might want me, and when 
 she did she would send just that message, " The brown 
 owl calls by night." 
 
 " It was when we were coming back by twilight from 
 a shooting expedition, and I think we were both just a 
 little sentimental, and the brown owls were calling 
 their courting cry which is very different from the 
 hunting-cry and she told me about their nature and 
 habits, with such knowledge and sympathy that I 
 said she must have been a brown owl herself some 
 long ago time. Then it was she gave me that sign, 
 and it came to me by telegram as you know the day 
 that we came back from the Amazon. I haven't an 
 idea where she is. But I shall call on Brathwayte and 
 find out. Well, Ronny, that's the story, and that's 
 the romance." 
 
 " Dear old Ralph, I trust there are many years of
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 321 
 
 happiness before you. A man whose wife can share 
 his hobbies need ask no more of the gods." 
 
 " Well, time's getting on. Shall we lunch and catch 
 the train for town ? There's just about time now to 
 do it comfortably." 
 
 On the way back they discussed every point of the 
 case. The one bit of evidence that was wanting, 
 connecting the Eulalie who had divorced Ralph with 
 her who had married Harry Greville, would be supplied 
 by her bank books, and a perfect case to quash the 
 conviction would be presented. That should be told 
 to Brathwayte. 
 
 They stayed that night at the Great Western Hotel. 
 Next morning they telephoned to Brathwayte, and 
 presented themselves at his chambers about n o'clock. 
 The clerk took in their names. Mrs. Donelly was there, 
 but they were admitted at once. Brathwayte was 
 still rather sore about their disappearance after the 
 rising of the Court. 
 
 " Too bad," he said, " you really might have come 
 round. Look here, you have sprung a lot of most 
 important evidence on me, and there's little enough 
 time to get it focused and arranged." 
 
 " It was really impossible," replied the duke. " This 
 is the very first moment we could manage." 
 
 He would not say, what was the absolute truth, 
 that neither of them felt able to tackle anything 
 more after that day in Court, knowing that to the 
 iron-nerved lawyer this would look the paltriest 
 excuse. 
 
 " Well, at all events you are here now, and I'll tell 
 you how far we have got. I have the divorce papers, 
 and I have Harry Greville's marriage certificate. It 
 isn't easy to connect the two. I want to show beyond 
 doubt that when you said that she was your wife you
 
 322 The Tragedy of an Indis&'eti&n 
 
 were saying what, according to your view of divorce, 
 was the absolute fact." 
 
 " I think that is easy enough, Mr. Brathwayte," 
 said Ralph. " My wife had d small property in Canada, 
 the revenue of which was paid by her agents to her 
 account in the London and County Bank. She would 
 have drawn her cheque regularly, and they would of 
 course have notice of her change of name." 
 
 " Splendid 1 Mr. Essendine, you have solved one 
 difficulty straight off. I'll just 'phone at once to the 
 solicitors to go and see the Bank. Now, where were 
 you married ? " 
 
 " At the little Catholic church in Cambridge. You'll 
 find it in the register." 
 
 " Excellent 1 We shall get the names there, then ? " 
 
 " Yes : Ralph Waldo O'Connor to Eulalie, only 
 daughter of the late Montague Lomax, of Liverpool 
 and Toronto." 
 
 " Perfect again ! It was the very same description 
 in her marriage to Harry Greville. The identity is 
 complete so far. Now, thanks to Mrs. Donelly, we 
 have the waiter who attended on you that evening at 
 the Terminus." 
 
 " I had almost forgotten him," said Ralph. 
 
 " A most important witness. By the way, pardon 
 my forgetfulness, let me introduce the Duke of Glen- 
 staffen, Mr. Essendine Mrs. Donelly. Mrs. Donelly 
 has been of priceless service to us in getting up the 
 evidence, and I can assure you it has been no joke." 
 
 " I was once in the same room with you, Mr. Essen- 
 dine, I think at a Geographical meeting. I know you 
 gave me a wholly new view of geography. I had always 
 hated it before, from the memory of a dry-as-dust 
 governess ; but you made me love it. I could see the 
 places you described as if I had been there. I have heard
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 323 
 
 quite a lot about you lately from Miss Macarthy. 
 A most charming and wonderful girl, as one would 
 expect from Mr. Brathwayte's niece." 
 
 Ralph gave her a grateful glance. He was Hilda's 
 devoted slave from that moment. 
 
 " Lola takes after her father," said Brathwayte. 
 " He was a mad irresponsible Irishman, developed 
 into an Australian adventurer and pioneer. Not 
 much of the sober Brathwayte blood about her, or 
 Jack." 
 
 " There's a good spice of adventure in you too, I 
 should fancy, if you would let it go," said Hilda. 
 " Well, I suppose now there is no more to be said, 
 and Harry will go free. Poor fellow, what a time he 
 has had." 
 
 " Unfortunately, not quite yet. You see, the in- 
 dictment was craftily drawn. It was for the murder 
 of the woman who was drowned off Waterloo Bridge. 
 True, she was said to be his wife ; but, it was so drawn 
 that if it were proved not to be his wife, he still stands 
 charged with her murder. So we shall need our friend 
 Chicago Sam, as he calls himself. By the way I 
 may tell you there's a warrant for the arrest of Sir 
 Philip Carew. He's hiding in France, but the police 
 know where he is, and two detectives started the day 
 before yesterday. They hoped to catch him before 
 the report of the Appeal would put him on his guard 
 after the verdict in the first trial he would think all 
 was safe. There will, I think, be no question that the 
 woman who went over the bridge was Miss Fortescue, 
 and that Sir Philip Carew was the murderer, either 
 actually or by an agent. We have to identify the body 
 that was found with Miss Fortescue, and that should be 
 easy. Miss Oliver identifies the dress she wore as one 
 which Mrs. Greville gave to Miss Forteecue, and the
 
 324 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 scarf in the hands of the police is a very important link. 
 The letter in the pocket signed " P.C." is undoubtedly 
 from Sir Philip Carew. This is identified by two 
 experts on comparison with known letters from him, 
 though there is a clumsy attempt at disguise of hand- 
 writing. I don't quite see though how the duke's 
 letter came to be in her pocket." 
 
 " I always wrote to Mrs. Greville, to care of Miss 
 Fortescue, as I said at the trial. This one would be 
 written after her death, and when I thought she was at 
 home." 
 
 " I expect," said Hilda," that Miss Fortescue would 
 not care to leave the letters at her house, Miss Oliver 
 knew there were letters sent there for Mrs. Greville, 
 but she would not trust servants." 
 
 " Now I remember," said Brathwayte, " Miss Oliver 
 said to the solicitors that when Miss Fortescue left the 
 house for the last time she said she was going to see 
 Mrs. Greville before she went to Paris, and hoped to 
 book a fresh order. I didn't know about the letters 
 then. That point should have been brought out." 
 
 " It was odd," said Hilda, " that Miss Fortescue 
 should have gone away without luggage." 
 
 " But she didn't : she took a trunk with her, and 
 some other things. We know now that she went in 
 fact to live with Carew, and according to Chicago Sam 
 that was just what he didn't want. He had no idea 
 of being burdened with a woman, and he was already 
 getting tired of her. She thought, poor soul, that he 
 was going to marry her, and she gave out that she 
 was going to Paris just as a blind." 
 
 " Then what about the Mexican poison ? " said the 
 duke. 
 
 " Oh, we shan't hear any more of that I The 
 prosecution have dropped it. If it should by any
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 325 
 
 chance crop up again, I have the Home Secretary's 
 consent to an exhumation, and Ross will prove that 
 there is no trace of it to be found. He is now the 
 acknowledged authority on the subject. I rather 
 wish there were a chance of taking a little more change 
 out of that pompous ass Veldoff, with his second- 
 hand German opinions. Now, let me see that I have 
 got notes of all the things I have to get yet. We 
 have a consultation here this afternoon. Yes, I see, 
 I don't think there should be any difficulty in getting 
 all that, and the case should then be fairly complete. 
 Chicago Sam will be interesting." 
 
 " We are going down to Staffen for a day or two, said 
 the duke. " When this case is over, Mr. Brathwayte, 
 you will badly want a holiday. I hope you will come 
 down and give me the pleasure of your company for a 
 few days. There will be some pheasants left perhaps, 
 if you care for them, though it is late. Anyhow the 
 keepers will show you all the sport of any kind there is 
 I haven't fully mastered the capacities of the place 
 myself yet. And I trust that Mrs. Brathwayte and 
 your niece will accompany you." 
 
 Ralph threw a glance of gratitude at Ronny. He 
 knew well that the inwardness of this invitation was 
 to bring Lola and himself together. Probably Brath- 
 wayte's intuition saw the same possibilities ; but he 
 knew himself to be professionally tied to London. 
 
 " I do need a holiday badly. As a fact, I could 
 only get a very skimped three weeks in Scotland in 
 the long vacation. Staffen Castle is a fascinating dream 
 and I love every kind of sport, fur, or fin, or feather, 
 but alas, it's an unattainable dream ! I have 
 been obliged to put aside lots of things for this 
 case, and though many of them have got themselves 
 done without me, still there are heaps of arrears
 
 326 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 I shall be crowded with work right up to Christmas, 
 and not a chance of even a day off. All the same, it 
 was a kind thought, and I thank you heartily. If you 
 should renew your invitation later, when we get a 
 little breathing space, I shall be most delighted to 
 accept." 
 
 So they parted for the time, Brathwayte to prepare 
 for his important consultation, Ronny and Ralph to 
 catch the first train for Dunchester en route for Staffen 
 Castle, and Hilda back to her house, where Lola 
 Macarthy was coming to luncheon with her. She 
 was longing to tell the girl of her meeting with Ralph 
 Essendine. 
 
 Lola was intensely excited. She had read of Ralph's 
 sudden and dramatic appearance at the trial, and had 
 heard from her uncle of his great annoyance when 
 Ralph and the duke left London so suddenly and 
 inexplicably immediately after. Now equally sud- 
 denly he appeared again, only to vanish as suddenly. 
 
 " I can't understand it," she said. " Hilda, you 
 know all the story, can you explain it ? He must 
 have got my little message : c The brown owl calls 
 by night,' and he said wherever he was on the world's 
 surface that would bring him." 
 
 " And it has brought him, Lola dear, but I think I 
 see why he will not come to you before the adjourned 
 trial. You told me of the scruples and his ideas about 
 divorce, and that he wanted to speak to you to 
 ask you to marry him, in fact but he would not say a 
 word while his wife lived. Now you see in four days 
 more it will be clear, not only to him and you but to 
 the whole world, that his wife is dead. He will be 
 quite free. I can't say I understand such scruples 
 myself, but I can respect them, and now I've seen Mr. 
 Essendine I am certain, if my judgment is worth
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 327 
 
 anything at all, that he is a man who would suffer 
 anything before he budged a hair's breadth from 
 what he thought to be really a matter of conscience 
 and honour." 
 
 " But he would know from the message that I wanted 
 him." 
 
 " My dear, he knows also that if there was urgent 
 trouble he would hear of it through your uncle. He 
 has not been in London except for the matter of this 
 trial, and will not be in London till the evidence is all 
 complete, and that will be when the Court meets again. 
 I was in Mr. Brathwayte's chambers, as you know, 
 this morning, and I tell you there is not now the 
 tiniest point unproved, not the smallest loophole 
 left for a doubt. Poor Eulalie, whom I knew and loved 
 as Mrs. Greville, was Ralph Essendine's wife, and she 
 now rests quietly in Penzance churchyard."
 
 CHAPTER XXI 
 
 BRATHWAYTE, as he had said, was very 
 badly needing a holiday. Since the be- 
 ginning of the year he had been greatly 
 overworked, he had missed his usual long vacation 
 scramble in the Alps, and now the most anxious case 
 in his experience had almost worn out his strength. 
 He had been in many more difficult and intricate cases, 
 but the fact of his lifelong friend being tried for his 
 life, and the sense of responsibility for establishing 
 the innocence of which he was convinced, weighed on 
 him continually day and night. 
 
 Over and over again, in waking hours and through 
 long sleepless nights, he went over the points, searching 
 for any possible clue that might have been neglected. 
 Small wonder was it that, when the Court met again 
 on the day of the adjourned appeal, he looked fagged 
 out, haggard and weary, but gallantly fighting against 
 obvious exhaustion. 
 
 The evidence of the first points had been so carefully 
 prepared that it presented no difficulty, and Bruth- 
 wayte was content to leave the case in his junior's 
 hands. Piece by piece, the Court was told the whole 
 story of Eulalie's coming over an orphan to this country 
 and living with her aunt ; her marriage to Ralph 
 Essendine ; the undefended divorce grounded on 
 infidelity and cruelty that was never denied, but was 
 grounded on such very slender evidence that the 
 
 328
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 329 
 
 decree was only granted with obvious hesitation and 
 reluctance ; the resumption of her maiden name and 
 return to her aunt ; her subsequent marriage to Harry 
 Greville ; the friendship with Ronny Warrington, 
 culminating in the planned expedition to Penzance ; 
 the tragically sudden death at the Terminus Hotel ; 
 the mistake whereby Ralph, assumed to be her hus- 
 band, was actually reunited to his wife at the moment 
 of death ; and the burial at Penzance. The evidence 
 was complete in every detail. Even Masterman made 
 no interruptions ; and the Attorney-General found no 
 loophole for cross-examination. 
 
 Then Brathwayte rose and claimed that he had 
 entirely, by the new evidence that had come to light 
 since the trial, proved that the prisoner at the bar 
 could not possibly have murdered his wife. The 
 Attorney-General at once withdrew the charge, but 
 claimed that on another count the prisoner stood 
 charged with the murder of the woman who was 
 drowned off Waterloo Bridge, and though it had been 
 clearly established, as he admitted, that she was not 
 the wife of the prisoner, still the evidence at the trial, 
 which had not been in any way contradicted, went to 
 show that she met her death by the hands of the 
 prisoner, and therefore the appeal failed, and the 
 sentence must remain. 
 
 Then Brathwayte rose again, and it seemed as though 
 all his weariness dropped from him, and his old vigour 
 was restored. 
 
 " I undertook, my lords," he said, " to prove to you 
 who that woman was, and how she met her death. I 
 will now fulfil that promise. I call Denis Samuel 
 O'Rourke, alias Chicago Sam, now in the custody of 
 the police, who has offered himself as King's evidence." 
 
 The hush of a great expectation fell on the Court,
 
 33 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 and every eye in all the crowd was strained to see the 
 witness, who was brought in between two policemen. 
 
 The man was a choice product of international 
 blackguardism such as our civilization occasionally, 
 but fortunately not often, produces. Inheriting 
 the worst qualities of two races, and left at an 
 early age to pick up a living by whatever nefarious 
 means his unscrupulous cunning could devise, he had 
 drifted to San Francisco, where as the keeper of a 
 gambling-hell he had thriven, as ill weeds sometimes 
 did in that Western inferno. When even San Francisco 
 became too hot to hold him, he had got away with the 
 connivance of the police, and started afresh with a 
 changed name in Chicago. Here it was that he had 
 fallen in with Sir Philip Carew, then engaged in dis- 
 sipating a fair fortune in general rascality. O'Rourke 
 saw his opportunity, for Sir Philip was then nearly at 
 the end of his tether, and was prepared to repair his 
 shattered fortunes by any means. O'Rourke had a 
 saloon and gaming-house, and Carew, who was gifted 
 with a fine presence and fascinating manners, and knew 
 well how to play the lure of his title, brought in young 
 moneyed fools to be plucked, under the delusion that 
 they were seeing life. 
 
 About this time it chanced that Carew inherited a 
 second large fortune ; and, having become better 
 known than was at all convenient, found it his best 
 policy to leave Chicago, and return to London ; but 
 he could not shake off his associate : O'Rourke, or 
 Chicago Sam, as he came to be called, stuck to him like 
 a burr. Indeed, the greater blackguard had a fine 
 contempt for his associate. Carew loved women and 
 drink, both of which O'Rourke regarded as weaknesses 
 that interfered with the serious business of preying on 
 the rest of the world ; but they were profitable weak-
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 33* 
 
 nesses to him, for as long as Carew had money there 
 was a sure and comfortable income for the purveyor 
 of his pleasures. So Chicago Sam provided him with 
 mistresses, or deftly removed them in subterranean 
 ways known to himself, and shared his convivialities, 
 remaining coldly sober, as Sir Philip grew gloriously 
 drunk, which services were amply paid for. 
 
 All this, in reply to Brathwayte's questioning, did 
 Chicago Sam tell the Court with cynical effrontery. 
 The latest victim had been Miss Fortescue, the dress- 
 maker from Kilburn. She, it seemed, had been 
 strangely infatuated with Carew. To her he appeared 
 like a god, she worshipped him, making no secret of 
 her adoration ; and the novelty of the experience for 
 a time tickled his jaded appetite. Then some one, 
 seeing them together at a disreputable restaurant in 
 Soho, had mistaken her for Mrs. Greville, and had 
 spread the story. Carew's vanity was touched, the 
 reputation of a liaison with a lady in society was a 
 feather in his cap, and he encouraged the idea with 
 vague hints dropped among his shady companions. 
 Sam had seen Mrs. Greville, and there was a resem- 
 blance certainly, maybe it was more in dress than any- 
 thing else. They certainly dressed alike. 
 
 Here he was shown the dress of the woman who was 
 found drowned. He knew the dress well, it was the 
 one that Miss Fortescue had worn the last time he saw 
 her. She thought that Sir Philip was going to marry 
 her ; she had often told Sam so, and told him, more- 
 over, that when they were married his services would 
 never be forgotten. Many women had said the same 
 before, but they generally went off quite quietly. 
 There were houses on the Continent, and in America, 
 where they were welcome, he didn't know what 
 became of them afterwards, he got very good fees for
 
 332 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 sending them. Miss Fortescue was different. Carew 
 got tired of her, naturally he always did after a short 
 time but she didn't understand it. He had tried to 
 explain to her, and to suggest that he could provide 
 a comfortable refuge for her with friends of his own, 
 and then she had rounded on him. 
 
 Carew had suggested that she might be drugged and 
 taken on board ship without knowing anything about it, 
 but the game was too risky. Then Carew had sworn 
 he would shoot her if she came to his flat again, and she 
 wouldn't believe it, thought it was just his fun and she 
 actually arrived at his flat with her luggage. Come to 
 stay, of all things in the world ! Well, of course there 
 was bound to be a row, but it didn't happen at once. 
 Sir Philip seemed to be wondering what to do. He 
 didn't shoot, as a matter of fact ; for once he was cool- 
 and reasonable, and the three of them lunched to- 
 gether that was the day of the awful fog and Sir 
 Philip said he would take her down to Brooklands to 
 see the flying. Perhaps she should go for a flight, 
 she had often wanted to do so. Sam had a guess at 
 what was in his mind and tried to warn him. He knew 
 you couldn't arrange aeroplane accidents at a mo- 
 ment's notice, without running the most devilish 
 risks ; but, as it happened, there was no need. 
 
 There began to be words between them in the street, 
 and by the time they got to Waterloo Bridge it was a 
 regular quarrel. Then she asked Sir Philip plump and 
 plain when he was going to marry her, and he told 
 her equally plainly that he wasn't going to do any such 
 thing, and she might go to the devil for all he cared. 
 He was never going to see her again. She was very 
 angry and swore she would expose him. Much he 
 would care for that. Then she wept, and begged him 
 to forgive her and take her back, she couldn't live
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 333 
 
 without him. Then she jumped on the parapet of the 
 bridge and swore she would jump over. The fog was 
 so thick then that you couldn' t see your hand. Sam was 
 close behind Sir Philip. He didn't think she meant 
 it she just wanted to frighten him, and make him 
 take her back but he just gave her a push, and she 
 gave a scream and fell over into the river. 
 
 The next thing was that Sam saw a policeman run- 
 ning up. He pushed Sir Philip on one side and whis- 
 pered to him to slip along the parapet, and he called to 
 the policeman, telling him a woman had fallen over, 
 pointing out a man coming from the Surrey side as the 
 man who had been with her. Sir Philip had got away 
 in the fog, and Sam slipped off too while the policeman 
 was arresting the man. It was easy enough to slip out 
 of the way in that fog. No one ever thought of Sir 
 Philip, but a few days later they considered it would 
 be best to clear out of London, and then Sir Philip 
 remembered a letter that she had given him to post. 
 They steamed it open, and it was just what they 
 wanted, so he had posted it in Paris to make believe 
 that she was there. 
 
 It was after that that Carew quarrelled with Sam. 
 The latter was running short of funds and thought he 
 was entitled to a bigger cheque than usual. Carew 
 thought that he had Sam under his thumb now, that 
 he would not dare to cross him ; and said so. Sam was 
 nettled, and next morning he wasn't there, but the 
 Rev. Peter Macmurdoch was among the passengers 
 on board the next steamer for Para. Suffered much 
 from seasickness did that poor minister, and had to 
 keep his berth all the voyage, notwithstanding pressing 
 requests to conduct a service for some of the God- 
 fearing passengers. 
 
 The police, however, were suspicious of the minister,
 
 334 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 and in Para he found himself watched and followed, 
 and finally arrested. He had led a crooked life, but 
 now he earnestly desired to reform, if only he might 
 have the chance, and as a first step he had volunteered 
 to make a perfectly clean breast of it. 
 
 Such broadly was the story, told in a picturesque 
 mixture of American slang and Irish humour. Being 
 shown the letter signed " P.C." found in the pocket of 
 the dead woman, he had no difficulty in identifying it 
 as from Sir Philip, but it was much more decent than 
 his letters usually were. " Good Heavens ! " ejacu- 
 lated Masterman under his breath. " Save us from 
 reading the others." 
 
 The Attorney-General cross-examined minutely and 
 severely, but failed to score a point. Chicago Sam 
 made not the smallest attempt to conceal or justify 
 any of his blackguardism. He cheerfully admitted 
 himself to be a rascal of the first water, but he stuck 
 to every point of his tale. There is no need to follow 
 further the minutiae of the appeal. With Chicago 
 Sam's evidence the dramatic interest was closed. 
 Only when Sam made an urgent claim to his liberty as 
 the price of his evidence, the Lord Chief Justice spoke 
 sternly. 
 
 " In the whole course of my experience I have not 
 met with a man who better deserved hanging than you 
 do ; but you have been able to prevent, or help to 
 prevent, a very grave miscarriage of justice. I have 
 looked into your record, now in the hands of the police, 
 and I say with confidence that had you not given the 
 evidence you have given to-day you would have been 
 hanged for a certainty. I can only say now that what 
 you have done will be considered when the time comes 
 for dealing with you." 
 
 A certain amount of more or less formal evidence
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 335 
 
 established the absolute truth of Chicago Sam's evi- 
 dence, and the foregone conclusion was reached : Harry 
 Greville passed out of the dock through the private 
 entrance of the Court a free man. 
 
 The judges rose and bowed to the Court and retired. 
 It was noticed by those nearest that Brathwayte 
 staggered slightly as he rose to bow to the judges, and 
 he passed out to the robing-room leaning on the arm 
 of the Attorney-General. 
 
 The Court rapidly cleared, every one hurrying as 
 fast as possible out into the fresh air ; but Ralph and 
 Ronny lingered a little to exchange a few words with 
 Sir Alfred Ross, who had waited all day on the possi- 
 bility of being called. 
 
 An usher came hurriedly in and looked round 
 anxiously. 
 
 " Is Sir Alfred Ross here still ? " he said. 
 
 " Here I am. Who wants me ? " 
 
 " Oh, if you please, sir, will you come round to the 
 robing-room at once ? Mr. Brathwayte has been taken 
 suddenly ill. He fainted directly he got out of the 
 Court."" 
 
 Sir Alfred turned at once to follow the man. 
 
 " Come back and tell us," said the duke, " we'll 
 wait here." 
 . It was not long before Sir Alfred returned. 
 
 " No danger, I think," he said. " It's a sharp attack of 
 influenza, fought off by his simple will-power till the 
 last moment. I suspect he was badly overdone before 
 this. He'll need care and nursing, and at least two 
 or three months' complete rest." 
 
 " That settles it," said the duke. " I asked him to 
 come to Staffen Castle, and he refused on the score 
 of business. Now he absolutely must come, and of 
 course his wife and niece with him. You'll see to that,
 
 336 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 won't you, Sir Alfred ? Order everything you want 
 for him. Treat the Castle as a nursing home, or 
 hospital, or whatever you like, send your nurses or 
 attendants, or whatever it is, come yourself whenever 
 you can. You shall have a whole wing to do what 
 you like in. The Lord knows there's room enough. 
 I don't half know the way about it yet myself. Well, 
 you settle it. Bring him down whenever you think 
 fit. Send a wire when you start, and everything will 
 be ready. We can't do enough for him after all he 
 has done for us in this case." 
 
 " The very thing," said Sir Alfred. " He'll want 
 
 country air, and rest, and change. Trust me, I will 
 
 see that he comes. Now I must be off. I promised to 
 
 go back with Brathwayte in his car to prevent Mrs. 
 
 Brathwayte being anxious, I am glad now that she 
 
 and Miss Macarthy both so determinedly refused to 
 
 come to Court. Half the smart women in London were 
 
 fighting for places, in the hope of hearing poor Greville 
 
 sentenced to death. Then I must go and see Greville, 
 
 and I'm due at a Royal Society meeting at 8. Looks 
 
 as if I shouldn't get much dinner. Good-bye." 
 
 ' ' Good-bye, Sir Alfred. We shall see you at Staff en. ' ' 
 
 " Never fear 1 I shall not fail to come." 
 
 " We can catch a train to Dunchester, Ralph. No 
 
 need to stay another night in town. ' ' 
 
 There came a lovely day in late autumn, some three 
 weeks after the conclusion of the appeal case, when 
 Staff en Castle and its wide park were looking their best : 
 the woods were flaming in all the magnificent autumn 
 colours, and the terrace gardens were ablaze with 
 autumn flowers ; the dark wellingtonias and cypresses 
 stood stately among the deciduous trees, whose hues 
 ranged from the pale yellow of the birches, through the
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 337 
 
 orange of the beeches, and the golden brown of oaks, 
 to the crimson foliage of the wild cherry. The grey 
 old pile itself, basking in the sunset, seemed to be dream- 
 ing of the historic scenes it had known, of the monarchs 
 who had spent joyous days of sport and revelry there, 
 Plantagenet, and Tudor, and Stuart ; or had sheltered 
 there in time of adversity, for the mad Warringtons 
 were ever the staunchest of royalists, and many kings 
 had loved to enjoy the hospitality of Staff en. 
 
 Brathwayte lay back in a long garden chair revelling 
 in perfect content and enjoyment. He was regaining 
 his strength, and the healing influences of the calm 
 peaceful surroundings were working wonders. Lola 
 was sitting in a low chair beside him. 
 
 *' Uncle Sidney," she said, after a long silence, 
 " there's a mystery about Ralph, something that 
 troubles him, something he wants to tell me, and he 
 can't. I remember you said you could not under- 
 stand his divorce, and I'm certain there's something 
 there that has never been explained. Of course 
 it makes not one shred of difference to me Ralph is 
 Ralph, whatever he has done or not done but, do you 
 see? it makes a difference to him. Whether he was 
 unfaithful, I neither know nor care a button. It's 
 unlikely, anyhow it doesn't matter ; but cruelty 
 that is impossible. If it were true, I should love him 
 just the same, for he would need me to help him, but 
 it isn't true. And I can feel now that he is writhing 
 under a false accusation, that for some reason he cannot 
 meet or refute." 
 
 " Lola, my girl, I want to save you from unhappiness 
 hereafter. I have known the saddest cases from girls 
 trusting to men in every way unworthy to be trusted 
 No, don't get angry, my dear. There is a mystery as 
 you said, and we must try to unravel it, for Ralph's
 
 338 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 sake as well as yours. I am an old lawyer, and I've 
 had about as much experience of the queer twists of 
 human nature as most people. I've seen all the proofs 
 in that divorce case, and so far as I can make out Ralph 
 never read a line of it. The papers were served on him, 
 and he put them in the fire unread ; but there is no 
 manner of doubt that he acknowledged an illegiti- 
 mate child, and paid for its maintenance, and provided 
 handsomely for the mother." 
 
 " Well, what of that, Uncle Sidney ? He was but 
 doing his duty." 
 
 " True. But now suppose mind you, I only say 
 ' suppose ' that you should find out that he had never 
 loved you, that there was some one else that he really 
 loved. What then ? " 
 
 " What then ? Why, I should do everything in 
 my power to make him happy, to ward off all evil, 
 and all sorrow and trouble from him. I could be his 
 guardian angel at a distance. Even though I never 
 saw him, I should be content if I knew all was well 
 with him." 
 
 " Lola, I think we men are not worthy of women like 
 you. Run indoors now, my dear, for a little, I hear 
 the car, and Ross is coming to see me. I must have 
 a few words with him first. We are to have tea on 
 the terrace, I believe." 
 
 But it was very little of medical diagnosis that Sir 
 Alfred had to speak. Brathwayte was going on 
 splendidly and needed nothing but continued idleness. 
 The doctor, however, had news to tell. Harry Greville 
 was going abroad for a long spell, and Ross had been to 
 say good-bye. He had great hopes that some day or 
 other, when the memory of all the tragedy that had 
 passed was faded and softened by time, Harry would 
 marry Hilda Donelly ; a better match could not be.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 339 
 
 But that of course was in the distant future. In the 
 meantime, Harry had been busy destroying quantities 
 of papers, and other odds and ends of rubbish that had 
 accumulated at Bermuda Avenue, and in the process 
 he had found some papers endorsed in poor Eulalie's 
 handwriting, in a locked letter case, preserved carefully 
 among her most sacred treasures. One was marked 
 " Documents about Mary Morrison," and with this 
 was a sealed envelope on which was written : " After 
 my death please let this be given to my former husband, 
 Ralph Waldo O'Connor, if he stills lives and can be 
 found. I beg him to forgive, and to pray for my soul 
 if he will." These documents Harry had confided 
 to Ross to deliver to Ralph Essendine. 
 
 " Mary Morrison," said Brathwayte, " that was the 
 name of the woman in the divorce proceedings. There 
 was a child, and Essendine provided for it very hand- 
 somely, and for the mother too. Of course it was 
 inferred that the child was his, but so far as I remember 
 there was no atom of direct proof ; at all events none 
 that would have stood for a moment if the case had 
 been defended. Oh, yes, these are just the documents 
 that were produced in the case. Well, there comes 
 Essendine with the duke, you can give them to him 
 now. We are going to have tea on the terrace." 
 
 Brathwayte got up and leaned on Essendine's arm, 
 as they walked across to where the tea-table was set 
 out in a sheltered nook of the highest terrace. The 
 ladies were just coming down the iron steps that led 
 from the great library. 
 
 " I have two documents to give you, Essendine," 
 said Sir Alfred, " from Harry Greville, to whom I have 
 been saying good-bye before he leaves for the 
 Continent. This is a sealed envelope to be given to 
 you, the other is merely some productions in your
 
 340 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 divorce case, endorsed ' documents concerning Mary 
 Morrison.' ' 
 
 The duke started and turned suddenly. 
 
 " What's that ? " he cried. " That concerns me. 
 Mary Morrison for how many years I have hunted 
 high and low to find Mary Morrison." 
 
 He stretched his hand for the papers, but Ralph 
 had already taken them. 
 
 " No, Ronny, pardon me, they are mine. Look, 
 4 Ralph O'Connor/ clear as possible." 
 
 " Then it was you, Ralph, who spirited Mary 
 away." 
 
 Mrs. Brathwayte and Lola looked from one to 
 the other. Some strange romance of the dead past 
 was in those papers, and now unintentionally divulged. 
 
 " It was I, Ronny, I tried to save you from yourself." 
 
 " I think I should have killed you if I had known 
 at the time, Ralph. I believe I can bless you now." 
 
 " I think you owe us the story," said Lola, " that is 
 if it's not too private to be told." 
 
 " I believe I do," replied the duke. " Not exactly 
 because it's an old yarn about myself I hate yarning 
 about myself but one or two things I have heard lately 
 have brought me to think that some utterly unfair 
 suspicions have rested on Ralph, of which until this 
 moment I had not the least idea, and it is my duty to 
 remove them." 
 
 " Let it rest, Ronny," said Ralph. " It's all past 
 and done, there's no use in raking up these old stories." 
 
 " I beg your pardon, Ralph. The truth is always 
 worth telling. Well, this story goes back almost to 
 boyhood. I was little more than a schoolboy, in my 
 second year at college as a fact. I was mad on George 
 Borrow then, and camping out by myself in the west, and 
 playing at Lavengro, and Mary Morrison came along,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 341 
 
 a queer, wild, half-gipsy girl ; clever too she was in a 
 way, read a lot of out-of-the-way books, artist and poet 
 too of sorts, and she knew the ways of every bird and 
 beast in the country-side. I didn't teach her San- 
 scrit roots, perhaps because I didn't know any it 
 was Sanscrit, wasn't it ? I forget my Borrow now 
 but I told her about boar hunting in the German forests. 
 I had just had a turn of that, and she was fascinated. 
 She cooked for me, and did everything, in fact. It 
 was an idyl. But I ran up to London for two days, 
 and when I came back Mary Morrison was gone, and I 
 never saw her since. I hunted for her high and low, 
 but not a trace could I ever find. And it was you, 
 Ralph, who spirited her away, and I never knew." 
 
 " I took care you should not, Ronny ; you were just in 
 the mood then to ruin yourself entirely. You thought 
 you were in love with Mary Morrison, and you were 
 not one bit. You were only fascinated with the spirit 
 of adventure, as you have been all your life. I was 
 sober and matter-of-fact. You could never have 
 lived the wild gipsy life that was all she knew, and she 
 could never have lived your life. So it was best as 
 it was. I was watching you then, though you didn't 
 know it, and when you went to London I had a serious 
 talk with Mary Morrison. She had a lot of good sound 
 sense, for all her wild gipsy blood. She was not in 
 love with you, however much you might flatter your- 
 self. She was in love with love, and in love with 
 adventure, and mischief, but she saw that she would 
 spoil your life, and she saw it could not last. So she 
 disappeared." 
 
 " Disappeared," said the duke, " yes ; and you, 
 Ralph, provided for her, and the child, and you let 
 people think the child was yours ? " 
 
 " What else could I do ? I couldn't bring your name
 
 34 2 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 in. I couldn't tell you anything about it. You 
 know what you would have done ; and just undone 
 everything I tried to do." 
 
 " Then that was why you didn't defend the divorce, 
 and why you never told me a word about the business ? " 
 
 " That, and other things. Of course, if I had defended 
 I should have been obliged to let the whole thing become 
 public property ; but besides that you know my views 
 on divorce : if I had defended I should have acknow- 
 ledged in effect that a civil Court has a right to break 
 the marriage tie. I hold that no Catholic can appear 
 in such a Court in any capacity or acknowledge its 
 jurisdiction. I suppose that these papers, which relate 
 to the provision for Mary Morrison and the boy, 
 somehow fell into my wife's hands. She asked me 
 about Mary Morrison, and, of course, I could only say 
 it was another man's confidence, which I could not 
 break, and equally of course she did not believe me. 
 No one would believe such a story." 
 
 ' ' What became of her, Ralph ? Where is she now ? ' ' 
 
 " She died, not very long after the boy was born, 
 about two years after, I think. Went out alone to camp 
 in the woods, got drenched, and caught double pneu- 
 monia. Every mortal thing was done, but it was no 
 use." 
 
 " And the boy ? " 
 
 " At Osborne, doing splendidly. He's mad for the 
 Navy. He believes his father is dead." 
 
 " He shall never know it's far better so but he 
 shall have every chance. Ralph, how can I ever repay 
 you ? " 
 
 And Lola murmured softly to Brathwayte : 
 
 " Uncle Sidney, was there ever a man like Ralph ? " 
 
 Meanwhile, Ralph was looking at the sealed letter 
 tha t Sir Alfred Ross had brought down.
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 343 
 
 " How curious it is," he said, " how things all come 
 back. Eulalie's handwriting, and, from the date, 
 only a fortnight or three weeks after the divorce." 
 
 " There are things in human nature no one can ever 
 fathom," said the duke. " I knew her, or thought I 
 did, but why in the world she should ever have wanted 
 to divorce you beats me altogether. It seems utterly 
 against her whole nature as I knew her." 
 
 " And as I thought I knew her, but this throws a 
 certain light. After so much has been told that I hoped 
 was for ever buried in oblivion, there is no need to keep 
 this final word of the story a secret. It is what they 
 call a ' human document,' in the modern journalistic 
 slang." 
 
 He read from the paper in his hand : 
 
 "' So it is done now, and can never be undone again. 
 Probably the most foolish, and perhaps the most wicked 
 thing I have ever done. I have been mad I know, 
 and now I am cold and sane, and would give half my 
 life to undo it. Why did I do it ? Well, I am made 
 that way. I can forgive, but I can never forget. 
 Infidelity ? No, it wasn't that ; though, when some 
 interfering fool came and told me about Mary Morrison 
 I didn't believe the story, and then they brought me 
 proofs, accounts for the keep of the boy, and allow- 
 ance to Mary Morrison. But I thought I would ask 
 him about it I wish to God now I hadn't. But he 
 denied it and told me a lame story that wouldn't have 
 deceived a child. It made my blood boil. It's my 
 temperament. I saw red, I vowed I would never see him 
 again. Oh, I was mad. I know now that I am cold 
 and sane. And then those friends, as they called 
 themselves the worst of enemies as I now know 
 came and told me how easily I could get free. I raust
 
 344 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 
 
 be consistent, I said to myself. I had vowed I would 
 never see him again, and I would not. I knew nothing 
 of the law ; but the solicitors came to me and per- 
 suaded me to leave everything to them, I needn't 
 bother myself at all, they would prepare the case. So 
 I just let it go at that. I never knew what they put 
 into the case. They told me they were getting all 
 the evidence. And then of course I had a bad heart- 
 attack just before the case came on. They said it 
 was necessary that I should appear in Court, but that 
 there was no opposition, and I had only to say that the 
 statement they had prepared was true. I know my 
 doctor went into Court, and swore that I was not 
 really fit to give evidence, but that I would go into the 
 witness-box and confirm the statements in the petition. 
 So I dragged myself there, more dead than alive, and 
 they were very kind. They only asked me if the state- 
 ments in the petition were true, and I said they were, 
 I trusted the solicitors, and I would have said anything. 
 I was too weak to do anything else, and I hardly under- 
 stood what they said, and then Aunt Susie took me 
 home, and they told me the decree had been made, 
 and that in six months I should be free. It was 
 days afterwards that I understood that I had actually 
 charged cruelty against Ralph. Cruelty 1 The idea 
 of it. Ralph, who wouldn't hurt a living human creature 
 and who would have suffered even to death himself 
 rather than anything should hurt me in the smallest 
 degree. I sent for the solicitors, and asked how they 
 had dared put such lies into my mouth, and they were 
 very plausible, they had got the evidence from servants, 
 they didn't want to trouble me when I was ill. It was 
 all right. In a little while, when I had got over the 
 shock, I should see that they had acted for the best, 
 and t so on, and so on. But nothing could be altered now,
 
 The Tragedy of an Indiscretion 345 
 
 and so I had a terrible row with them, and made myself 
 ill again, and lay between life and death for weeks, 
 and then dear Aunt Susie took me away to recover. 
 So here I am now as Miss Lomax again, and alone, 
 as I shall be alone all the rest of my life. But some day, 
 when I am gone to rest, I would like Ralph, if he is 
 still alive, to know how it all came about. Perhaps he 
 will say a prayer for me. He is a good man, far too 
 good for me, and I trust he may have a word of pardon, 
 and believe that what I did was the act of a mad 
 woman, who is now sane and repentant. (Signed) 
 Eulalie Lomax.' ' 
 
 " Poor Eulalie," said Ronny, " what a life ! what a 
 tragedy 1 Ralph, the ways of providence are mysterious. 
 It was your quixotic shouldering of my burdens 
 that lost you your wife, and the same thing brought 
 you back to her at the moment of her death, and 
 enabled you to lay her in the grave. Well, she knows 
 now, and I have a queer fancy that she sends a blessing 
 to you, from wherever it is that she has gone to." 
 
 Lola had gone over to stand beside Ralph. 
 
 " I think so too," she whispered. As she spoke the 
 cry of an owl came from the shrubbery. " Ralph," 
 she said, " the brown owl calls by night. Come down 
 and feed the swans." 
 
 Side by side they passed down the broad steps from 
 the terrace. 
 
 THE END
 
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