The Miller press. [volume] (Miller, S.D.) 190?-current, 1909-07-08
CHAPTER TX.
Daisy.

ern substitute for one of Dore's illus
trations to the Inferno"
Capt. Basil Marriott was already
seated in the luncheon car of the fasr
train which was running down to Els
sex. 1t was the day after that of the
terrible discovery of the Baroness Won
Ravenstein's body, which Basil had
made with Michael Grant, in the lat
ter's fiat.
What had happened was this, briefly
summarized.
The body had been taken to the
Westminster mortuary. An hour or
two after dinner both the young men
had arrived once more at 1OOA, Picca-
dilly, and there had been a long and
intimate conversation with the Ouch
ess. The poor girl, both Of them had
found, was bearing up wonderfully
well. Messages of sympathy and of
fers of help had poured in upon her
from all quarters, for by then it was
hardly too much to say the whole civ
ilized world knew of what had occur.
red.
She told the young men of this uni
yersal sympathy, and that she had
been especially touched by the fact
that, just before dinner time, a little
black, single,horse ~brougham had
dashed up to the house, and a tall and
gracious lady had entered the strick-
en- home, remained there some fifteen
minutes, and then driven away. Even
the journalists had not yet got hold of
this fact, though hour by hour special
editions-full of the most astonishing
misstatements and the widest cor.
jectures-were being hawked about
the streets of the town.
The duchess had told her two bench
men exactly how the matter stood at
present. The detective agencies of
Scotland Yard and the continent were
employed to their fullest power, but,
from the very nature of the case, the
duchess had felt herself quite unable
to place in the hands of these people
the whole story of what she feared,
which must necessarily involve the
opening of old wounds and the recital
OF the mysterious history of the past,
when the late duke was alive.
Strangely enough, the suicide Of her
aunt had not added very much to the
burden of misery and terror under
which the duchess suffered. The moth
er in her was awake and fierce. All
her affection for the grim and singu-
lar old woman who was dead was
turned to the fiercest hate and resent
ment.
Nevertheless. from the fact of the
suicide, the duchess drew a certain
consolation. What she had said, in
effect, to Grant and Marriott was that
she believed Miss Decies, or-to give
her her right name-the Baroness Won
Ravenstein, had successfully accom-
plished her conspiracy of getting the
little duke out of the house, and then
was not concerned with it any more.
Terrified at the magnitude Of the
evil which she had wrought, torn both
ways by conflicting impulses, she had
found the struggle too great for her,
and-old. scared, never too much in
love with life-she had quietly made
exit from it which was not lacking |
in the elements of sardonic dignity.
The duchess had made many things
plain to her knights, and they had left
Piccadilly primed with all the informa-
ton that 1t was possible to obtain.
One thing only remained. To see Miss
Hobson, who had so lately been re-
moved from the position of under
nurse, for, in view of her appearance
at Michael Grants fiat and what she
had stated there, it might well be that
she held some clue.
II was for this reason that Basil
Marriott was travelling down to Essex
In order to interview the girl in the
seclusion of her fathers rectory.
Grant had offered to undertake this
office. but the captain had been mark
anxious to do so himself, and had
carried his point. 1t had been ar
ranged for a conference between the
duchess, Grant, Marriott and Sir An
Lhony HELLER that the two young men
pursue their own Investigations
absolutely apart from those undertake
by the officials. They would have
A free hand, and unlimited command
Of money to do exactly what seemed
to them in the matter.
In short, they were embarked upon
romantic and dangerous a quest as
might we'll exist in all the tangled life
and by-ways of our modern civiliza-
lion.
So Basil was going to interview
Daisy Hobson. He would be back In
London by z or 8 o'clock In the even
ing, and by the midnight mail the two
adventurers would leave Victoria for
and catch the great through
train into Germany.
There had been a difficulty, and q
very great one-the iuuueSt upOn the