Two on a Tower
child's forgetfulness of the past that he took her view of the case.
When he was gone she hastily re-entered the house. Her brother had not
reappeared from upstairs; but she was informed that Tabitha Lark was
waiting to see her, if her ladyship would pardon the said Tabitha for
coming so late. Lady Constantine made no objection, and saw the young
girl at once.
When Lady Constantine entered the waiting-room behold, in Tabitha's
outstretched hand lay the coral ornament which had been causing Viviette
so much anxiety.
'I guessed, on second thoughts, that it was yours, my lady,' said
Tabitha, with rather a frightened face; 'and so I have brought it back.'
'But how did you come by it, Tabitha?'
'Mr. Glanville gave it to me; he must have thought it was mine. I took
it, fancying at the moment that he handed it to me because I happened to
come by first after he had found it.'
Lady Constantine saw how the situation might be improved so as to effect
her deliverance from this troublesome little web of evidence.
'Oh, you can keep it,' she said brightly. 'It was very good of you to
bring it back. But keep it for your very own. Take Mr. Glanville at his
word, and don't explain. And, Tabitha, divide the strands into two
bracelets; there are enough of them to make a pair.'
The next morning, in pursuance of his resolution, Louis wandered round
the grounds till he saw the girl for whom he was waiting enter the
church. He accosted her over the wall. But, puzzling to view, a coral
bracelet blushed on each of her young arms, for she had promptly carried
out the suggestion of Lady Constantine.
'You are wearing it, I see, Tabitha, with the other,' he murmured. 'Then
you mean to keep it?'
'Yes, I mean to keep it.'
'You are sure it is not Lady Constantine's? I find she has one like it.'
'Quite sure. But you had better take it to her, sir, and ask her,' said
the saucy girl.
'Oh, no; that's not necessary,' replied Louis, considerably shaken in his
convictions.
When Louis met his sister, a short time after, he did not catch her, as
he had intended to do, by saying suddenly, 'I have found your bracelet. I
know who has got it.'
'You cannot have found it,' she replied quietly, 'for I have discovered
that it was never lost,' and stretching out both her hands she revealed
one on each, Viviette having performed the same operation with her
remaining bracelet that she had advised Tabitha to do with the other.
Louis was mystified, but by no means convinced. In spite of this attempt
to hoodwink him his mind returned to the subject every hour of the day.
There was no doubt that either Tabitha or Viviette had been with Swithin
in the cabin. He recapitulated every case that had occurred during his
visit to Welland in which his sister's manner had been of a colour to
justify the suspicion that it was she. There was that strange incident
in the corridor, when she had screamed at what she described to be a
shadowy resemblance to her late husband; how very improbable that this
fancy should have been the only cause of her agitation! Then he had
noticed, during Swithin's confirmation, a blush upon her cheek when he
passed her on his way to the Bishop, and the fervour in her glance during
the few moments of the imposition of hands. Then he suddenly recalled
the night at the railway station, when the accident with the whip took
place, and how, when he reached Welland House an hour later, he had found
no Viviette there. Running thus from incident to incident he increased
his suspicions without being able to cull from the circumstances anything
amounting to evidence; but evidence he now determined to acquire without
saying a word to any one.
His plan was of a cruel kind: to set a trap into which the pair would
blindly walk if any secret understanding existed between them of the
nature he suspected.
XXX
Louis began his stratagem by calling at the tower one afternoon, as if on
the impulse of the moment.
After a friendly chat with Swithin, whom he found there (having watched
him enter), Louis invited the young man to dine the same evening at the
House, that he might have an opportunity of showing him some interesting
old scientific works in folio, which, according to Louis's account, he
had stumbled on in the library. Louis set no great bait for St. Cleeve
in this statement, for old science was not old art which, having
perfected itself, has died and left its secret hidden in its remains. But
Swithin was a responsive fellow, and readily agreed to come; being,
moreover, always glad of a chance of meeting Viviette _en famille_. He
hoped to tell her of a scheme that had lately suggested itself to him as
likely to benefit them both: that he should go away for a while, and
endeavour to raise sufficient funds to visit the great observatories of
Europe, with an eye to a post in one of them. Hitherto the only bar to
the plan had been the exceeding narrowness of his income, which, though
sufficient for his present life, was absolutely inadequate to the
requirements of a travelling astronomer.
Meanwhile Louis Glanville had returned to the House and told his sister
in the most innocent manner that he had been in the company of St. Cleeve
that afternoon, getting a few wrinkles on astronomy; that they had grown
so friendly over the fascinating subject as to leave him no alternative
but to invite St. Cleeve to dine at Welland the same evening, with a view
to certain researches in the library afterwards.
'I could quite make allowances for any youthful errors into which he may
have been betrayed,' Louis continued sententiously, 'since, for a
scientist, he is really admirable. No doubt the Bishop's caution will
not be lost upon him; and as for his birth and connexions,--those he
can't help.'
Lady Constantine showed such alacrity in adopting the idea of having
Swithin to dinner, and she ignored his 'youthful errors' so completely,
as almost to betray herself. In fulfilment of her promise to see him
oftener she had been intending to run across to Swithin on that identical
evening. Now the trouble would be saved in a very delightful way, by the
exercise of a little hospitality which Viviette herself would not have
dared to suggest.
Dinner-time came and with it Swithin, exhibiting rather a blushing and
nervous manner that was, unfortunately, more likely to betray their cause
than was Viviette's own more practised bearing. Throughout the meal
Louis sat like a spider in the corner of his web, observing them
narrowly, and at moments flinging out an artful thread here and there,
with a view to their entanglement. But they underwent the ordeal
marvellously well. Perhaps the actual tie between them, through being so
much closer and of so much more practical a nature than even their critic
supposed it, was in itself a protection against their exhibiting that
ultra-reciprocity of manner which, if they had been merely lovers, might
have betrayed them.
After dinner the trio duly adjourned to the library as had been planned,
and the volumes were brought forth by Louis with the zest of a
bibliophilist. Swithin had seen most of them before, and thought but
little of them; but the pleasure of staying in the house made him welcome
any reason for doing so, and he willingly looked at whatever was put
before him, from Bertius's Ptolemy to Rees's Cyclopaedia.
The evening thus passed away, and it began to grow late. Swithin who,
among other things, had planned to go to Greenwich next day to view the
Royal Observatory, would every now and then start up and prepare to leave
for home, when Glanville would unearth some other volume and so detain
him yet another half-hour.
'By George!' he said, looking at the clock when Swithin was at last
really about to depart. 'I didn't know it was so late. Why not stay
here to-night, St. Cleeve? It is very dark, and the way to your place is
an awkward cross-cut over the fields.'
'It would not inconvenience us at all, Mr. St. Cleeve, if you would care
to stay,' said Lady Constantine.
'I am afraid--the fact is, I wanted to take an observation at twenty
minutes past two,' began Swithin.
'Oh, now, never mind your observation,' said Louis. 'That's only an
excuse. Do that to-morrow night. Now you will stay. It is settled.
Viviette, say he must stay, and we'll have another hour of these charming
intellectual researches.'
Viviette obeyed with delightful ease. 'Do stay, Mr St. Cleeve!' she said
sweetly.
'Well, in truth I can do without the observation,' replied the young man,
as he gave way. 'It is not of the greatest consequence.'
Thus it was arranged; but the researches among the tomes were not
prolonged to the extent that Louis had suggested. In three-quarters of
an hour from that time they had all retired to their respective rooms;
Lady Constantine's being on one side of the west corridor, Swithin's
opposite, and Louis's at the further end.
Had a person followed Louis when he withdrew, that watcher would have
discovered, on peeping through the key-hole of his door, that he was
engaged in one of the oddest of occupations for such a man,--sweeping
down from the ceiling, by means of a walking-cane, a long cobweb which
lingered on high in the corner. Keeping it stretched upon the cane he
gently opened the door, and set the candle in such a position on the mat
that the light shone down the corridor. Thus guided by its rays he
passed out slipperless, till he reached the door of St. Cleeve's room,
where he applied the dangling spider's thread in such a manner that it
stretched across like a tight-rope from jamb to jamb, barring, in its
fragile way, entrance and egress. The operation completed he retired
again, and, extinguishing his light, went through his bedroom window out
upon the flat roof of the portico to which it gave access.
Here Louis made himself comfortable in his chair and smoking-cap,
enjoying the fragrance of a cigar for something like half-an-hour. His
position commanded a view of the two windows of Lady Constantine's room,
and from these a dim light shone continuously. Having the window partly
open at his back, and the door of his room also scarcely closed, his ear
retained a fair command of any noises that might be made.
In due time faint movements became audible; whereupon, returning to his
room, he re-entered the corridor and listened intently. All was silent
again, and darkness reigned from end to end. Glanville, however, groped
his way along the passage till he again reached Swithin's door, where he
examined, by the light of a wax-match he had brought, the condition of
the spider's thread. It was gone; somebody had carried it off bodily, as
Samson carried off the pin and the web. In other words, a person had
passed through the door.
Still holding the faint wax-light in his hand Louis turned to the door of
Lady Constantine's chamber, where he observed first that, though it was
pushed together so as to appear fastened to cursory view, the door was
not really closed by about a quarter of an inch. He dropped his light
and extinguished it with his foot. Listening, he heard a voice
within,--Viviette's voice, in a subdued murmur, though speaking
earnestly.
Without any hesitation Louis then returned to Swithin's door, opened it,
and walked in. The starlight from without was sufficient, now that his
eyes had become accustomed to the darkness, to reveal that the room was
unoccupied, and that nothing therein had been disturbed.
With a heavy tread Louis came forth, walked loudly across the corridor,
knocked at Lady Constantine's door, and called 'Viviette!'
She heard him instantly, replying 'Yes' in startled tones. Immediately
afterwards she opened her door, and confronted him in her dressing-gown,