CHAPTER XX
It was the day of Godfrey Pavely's funeral, and more than one present atthe great gathering observed, either to themselves or aloud to sometrusted crony or acquaintance, that the banker would certainly have beenmuch gratified had he seen the high esteem in which he was held by boththe gentle and simple of the surrounding neighbourhood.
Even Lord St. Amant was a good deal impressed by the scene. Every blindin the High Street was down--a striking mark of respect indeed towardsboth the dead banker and his widow. Apart from that fact, the townlooked as if it was in the enjoyment of a public holiday, but even thatwas in its way a tribute. The streets were full of people, and round theentrance to the churchyard was a huge crowd. As for the churchyarditself, it was overflowing, and presented a remarkable rather than atouching scene. Only a few of the town-folk were still allowed to beburied in the mediaeval churchyard which lay just off the High Street, soa funeral actually taking place there was a very rare event.
The circumstances of Mr. Pavely's death had been so strange that thelocal paper had printed a verbatim report of the inquest, as well as avery flowery account of the departed, who had been, it was explained, sotrue and so loyal a townsman of Pewsbury. Yet, even so, there were thosepresent at his funeral who muttered that Mr. Pavely had met his deathjust as might have been expected, through his love of money. It wasalso whispered that the job in which this queer foreigner had beenassociated with the banker had not been of the most reputable kind. ThisFernando Apra--every one knew his queer name because of the bigreward--had wanted to raise money for a kind of glorified gambling hell;that was the long and the short of it, after all, so much the shrewderfolk of Pewsbury had already found out, reading between the lines of theevidence offered at the inquest.
In an official sense the chief mourners were two distant cousins ofGodfrey Pavely--men with whom he had quarrelled years ago--but in areal, intimate sense, the principal mourners were old Mr. Privet, LordSt. Amant, who, though he was so fond of travel, never neglected theduties entailed by his position in the county, and last but by no meansleast Mr. Oliver Tropenell, who, as every one present was well aware,had during the last few months become the one intimate friend of thedead man. Among the women there were several who knew that at this verymoment Mrs. Pavely was being comforted by Mr. Oliver Tropenell's mother,a lady who stood high in public esteem, and with whom Mrs. Pavely as agirl, had spent much of her youth, and from whose house, picturesqueFreshley Manor, she had been married to the man whom they were nowengaged in burying.
Another person present who aroused even more interest among the goodfolk of Pewsbury than either Lord St. Amant or Oliver Tropenell, wasMrs. Winslow.
The older townspeople looked at Katty with a good deal of rather excitedsympathy, for they remembered the gossip and talk there had been aboutpretty Katty Fenton and the dead man, and of how unkind old Mrs. Pavely,now dead many a year, had shown herself to the lovely, motherless girl.
There were even some there who whispered that poor Godfrey Pavely hadagain become very fond of his first love--and that, too, when they wereboth old enough to know better! But these busybodies were not encouragedto say the little they knew. These are things--natural humanfailings--which should be forgotten at a man's funeral.
Mrs. Winslow did not look unreasonably upset. There were no tears in herbright brown eyes, and her black frock, sable plumed hat, and beautifulblack furs, intensified the brilliant pink and white of her complexion.Indeed, many of the people who gazed at Katty that day thought they hadnever seen her looking so attractive. The world belongs to theliving--not to the dead, and poor Godfrey Pavely, with his big,prosperous one-man business, and his almost uncanny cleverness in thematter of making money, belonged henceforth very decidedly to the past.So it was that among the men and women who stared with eager curiosityand respectful interest at the group of mourners, several noticed thatMr. Oliver Tropenell seemed to pay special attention to Mrs. Winslow.
Once he crossed over, and stood close to her for a minute or two by thestill open grave, and his dark handsome face showed far more trace ofemotion than did hers.
After the funeral, Lord St. Amant dropped Mrs. Winslow at the gate ofRosedean, and, on parting with Katty, he patted her hand kindly, tellinghimself that she was certainly a very pretty woman. Lord St. Amant,like most connoisseurs in feminine beauty, preferred seeing a prettywoman in black.
"You must try and forget poor Godfrey Pavely," he said feelingly.
He was startled and moved by the intensity with which she answeredhim:--"I wish I could--but I can't. I feel all the time as if he wasthere, close to me, trying to tell me something! I believe that he wasmurdered, Lord St. Amant."
"I'm sure you're mistaken. You must never think that!"
"Ah, but I do think so. I'm certain of it!"
* * * * *
Following the old custom, Godfrey Pavely's will was to be read after hisburial, and Laura had written to Lord St. Amant asking him if he wouldbe present.
In the great dining-room of The Chase, a dining-room still lined withthe portraits of Mrs. Tropenell's ancestors, were two tables, one largelong table which was never used, and a round table in the bow-window.To-day it was about the big table that there were gathered the five menand the one woman who were to be present at the reading of the will.Laura was the one woman. The men were Godfrey Pavely's lawyer, the deadman's two cousins--who had perhaps a faint hope of legacies, a hopedestined to be disappointed, Oliver Tropenell, present as Laura Pavely'strustee, and Lord St. Amant, who had been a trustee to her marriagesettlement.
Laura, in her deep black, looked wan, sad and tired, but perfectly calm.All the men there, with one exception, glanced towards her now andagain with sympathy. The exception was Oliver Tropenell. He had shut herout, as far as was possible, from his mind, and he seemed hardly awareof her presence. He stared straight before him, a look of ratherimpatient endurance on his face--not at all, so argued Lord St. Amant tohimself, the look of a man from whose path a hitherto impassableobstacle has just been removed.
Though rather ashamed of letting his mind dwell on such thoughts at sucha time, Lord St. Amant told himself that Mrs. Tropenell had doubtlessbeen mistaken as to what she had confided to him on his return fromabroad. Mothers are apt to be jealous where only sons are concerned, andLetty--his dear, ardent-natured friend Letty--had always been romantic.
Lord St. Amant was confirmed in this view by the fact that that verymorning Mrs. Tropenell had told him that Oliver was going back to Mexicoalmost at once. To her mind it confirmed what she believed to be true.But her old friend and some-time lover had smiled oddly. Lord St. Amantjudged Oliver by himself--and he had always been a man of hot-footdecisions. It was inconceivable to him that any lover could act in socold-blooded, careful a fashion as this. No, no--if Oliver cared forLaura as his mother believed he cared, he would not now go off to theother end of the world, simply to placate public opinion.
To those who had known the man, Godfrey Pavely's will contained only onesurprise, otherwise it ran on the most conventional lines. Practicallythe whole of his very considerable fortune was left, subject to Laura'slife interest--an interest which lapsed on re-marriage--in trust for hisonly child.
The surprise was the banker's substantial legacy to Mrs. Winslow. Thatlady was left Rosedean, the only condition attaching to the legacy beingthat, should she ever wish to sell the little property, the first offermust be made to Alice Pavely's trustees. Also, rather to theastonishment of some of those present, it was found that the will hadonly been made some two months ago, and the lawyer who read it out wasaware that in some important particulars it had been modified andchanged. In the will made by Godfrey Pavely immediately after hismarriage he had left his wife sole legatee. After Alice was born thebanker had naturally added a codicil, but he had still left Laura in afar greater position of responsibility in regard to the estate than inthis, his final will.
After the will had been read, Lord St. Amant
spent a few moments alonewith Laura. He felt he had a rather disagreeable task before him, and hedid not like disagreeable tasks. Still he faced this one withcharacteristic courage.
"I've been asked by Sir Angus Kinross to undertake a rather unpleasantduty, my dear Laura--that of persuading you to withdraw the reward youare offering for the discovery of Fernando Apra. He points out that ifApra's story is true, it might easily mean that you would simply begiving a present of a thousand pounds to the person who killed yourhusband."
Laura heard him out without interruption. Then she shook her head. "Ifeel it is my duty to do it," she said in a low voice. "Katty, who wasGodfrey's greatest friend, says he would have wished it--and I thinkshe's right. It isn't going to be paid out of the estate, you know. _I_will pay it--if ever it is earned."
She went on painfully. "I am very unhappy, Lord St. Amant. Godfrey and Iwere not suited to one another, but still I feel that I was oftenneedlessly selfish and unkind."
Lord St. Amant began to see why Oliver Tropenell was going back toMexico so soon.