San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1886-11-09
CHAPrER VII



vo'ce fell upon h ar AID turning in tho
direction from wnirn / came, me saw two
shadows at what appear, It to be door lead,
ing from the "Widern S. as that part of
the grounds was ca, Il. into the lane with.
out.
1t was the voice of an elderly woman that
GreengravcS first h 'l"d aId that woman
was none other than the "Aunty" Of whom
he had just been thinkin-.
II must be gong now" she said; land
you must try and bear with it, dear, as PIT
tiently as you can, and all will come right
in the end. Ifrs, sur OF that. Only pray
be ear ful. II vOu mnIr he least slip OF
the tongue, you don't know what trouble
you'd get me into about the character.
They're so severe now over that sort of
thing"
''Oh, you may depend upon me, mother.
/ will be careful for my own sake as well. :"
Yes, dear, | am sure you will. Seeing
all you have gone through too. This was
your only chance. Oace down, always down.
l know thatr
They were silent for a moment, and then
the elder woman spoke again:
"Pve been thinking over what you were
telling me, Hester, about that man. You
say when You met him in the passage he
did not appear the least surprised, did not
even seem TO recognize yOH. Are you quite
sure he is the same prison? One hears of
cases of extraordinary Iikenesses."
There is no mistake, mother"
But do you mean to tell me he was not
at all taken aback at meeting the woman he
had so wrOngei, so heartlessly deserted?
Did he not even change cOlOT?'
HE did not move muscle. have been
thinking that perhaps as | had been in the
house some hours he might have seen me
before, although l had not seen him, and
that he had prepared himself for what must
happen. For my part, the shock was so
sudden, so terrible, l trembled like leaf,
should have fallen il had not chung to the
balustrade He looked straight into my face
straight into my eyes, and passed on"
You say he calls himself Craven, and he
Is sort of clerkp'
'Cuthbert Craven his name is supposed to
be, and he is Sir Richards secretary. The
name knew him by four years agO-the
name he gave us-was most likely a ia So
one"
"Or," said the elder woman quickly, she
name he uses here may be sham. One thing,
though, seems pretty plain to me. If he is
really the same man and you are not mis-
taken, he is not likely to interfere with you.
You leave him alone, and he viii! leave you
alone. He's nothing to you now, and you
are nothing to him. And now must 90, OF
l shall lose my last omnibus, am afraid"
The detective, standing in the deep shad-
ow of the trees, heard the women exchange
kiss and then he listened to the sound of
the mothers retreating steps upon the gravel
path Of the lane without, and as they died
away at length in the far distance, pro-
found silence fell upon the garden, and its
surroundings and the still green surface of
the ghostly pond.
A moment later soft wind whispered
plaintivey among the naked branches, and
bowed the heads of the tallests blades of the
rank grass growing round the trunks of the
trees, and, following il, deep sOb5 and a wall
ing cry Of grief.
Cautiously advancing his head, and cram
ing his neck to get better viewO what was
passing, Greengraves's eyes rested upon the
slim 1.-the figure Of a woman who could bare
ly have reached her twenty-firSt year, with
face that at times must have been a pretty
one, but now was distorted by passion as
she knclt there among the grass, that the
slender fingers of her hands twisted and
dragged up by lie roots, whilst in half
chOked voice, yet perfectly audible 10 the
sharp ears of the spy, she Kept repeating:
Nothing to mc-nothing to him! Moth
ing, nothing" and then in what seemed to
be q burst of uncomfortable agony, she cried
aloud: "Oh, Heaven! | love him-I love
him still! l cannot help it."
And as she spoke she flung herself face
downwards upon the earth and burst into
torrent of tears.
Mr.. Greengraves drew back his head
again, reflectively stroked his chin with his
right hand, and with his left deeply thrust
down into his trOuserS-pOcket discreetly re-
traced his steps towards the house.
Twenty minutes later the superior person,
Miss Hester Partridge, made her appear
ance in the servants hall, very calm and
quiet, but with an air of intense WEAKNESS,
and with eyes which Mr.. Greengrayes
shrewdly judged were yet little red and
swollen with the binding tears he had seen
her she'd
This" said Mr.. Greengraves, as he walk
ed hOmewards that night-''this is really
most remarkable household. Hang me if
there's a cupboard in it that has not got its
own private and particular skeleton! Skele-
ton? Skeletons, l ought to say. There's
some of the cupbOards must be choke-full of
'em, several to the shelfp'