XLI.
SECRET HISTORY.
It was hours before I found myself able to realize that the scene I hadjust witnessed had a deeper and much more dreadful significance thanappeared to the general eye, and that Ruth Oliver, in her desperateinterruption of these treacherous nuptials, had not only made good herprior claim to Randolph Stone as her husband, but had pointed him out toall the world as the villainous author of that crime which for so long atime had occupied my own and the public's attention.
Thinking that you may find the same difficulty in grasping this terriblefact, and being anxious to save you from the suspense under which Imyself labored for so many hours, I here subjoin a written statementmade by this woman some weeks later, in which the whole mystery isexplained. It is signed Olive Randolph; the name to which she evidentlyfeels herself best entitled.
* * * * *
"The man known in New York City as Randolph Stone was first seen by mein Michigan five years ago. His name then was John Randolph, and how hehas since come to add to this the further appellation of Stone, I mustleave to himself to explain.
"I was born in Michigan myself, and till my eighteenth year I livedwith my father, who was a widower without any other child, in a littlelow cottage amid the sand mounds that border the eastern side of thelake.
"I was not pretty, but every man who passed me on the beach or in thestreets of the little town where we went to market and to church,stopped to look at me, and this I noticed, and from this perhaps myunhappiness arose.
"For before I was old enough to know the difference between poverty andriches, I began to lose all interest in my simple home duties, and tocast longing looks at the great school building where girls like myselflearned to speak like ladies and play the piano. Yet these ambitiouspromptings might have come to nothing if I had never met _him_. I mighthave settled down in my own sphere and lived a useful if unsatisfiedlife like my mother and my mother's mother before her.
"But fate had reserved me for wretchedness, and one day just as I was onthe verge of my eighteenth year, I saw John Randolph.
"I was coming out of church when our eyes first met, and I noticed afterthe first shock my simple heart received from his handsome face andelegant appearance, that he was surveying me with that strange look ofadmiration I had seen before on so many faces; and the joy this gave me,and the certainty which came with it of my seeing him again, made thatmoment quite unlike any other in my whole life, and was the beginning ofthat passion which has undone me, ruined him, and brought death andsorrow to many others of more worth than either of us.
"He was not a resident of the town, but a passing visitor; and hisintention had been, as he has since told me, to leave the place on thefollowing day. But the dart which had pierced my breast had not glancedentirely aside from his, and he remained, as he declared, to see whatthere was in this little country-girl's face to make it sounforgettable. We met first on the beach and afterwards under the stripof pines which separate our cottage from the sand mounds, and though Ihave no reason to believe he came to these interviews with any honestpurpose or deep sincerity of feeling, it is certain he exerted all hispowers to make them memorable to me, and that, in doing so, he awokesome of the fire in his own breast which he took such wicked pleasure inarousing in mine.
"In fact he soon showed that this was so, for I could take no step fromthe house without encountering him; and the one indelible impressionremaining to me from those days is the expression his face wore as, onesunny afternoon, he laid my hand on his arm and drew me away to have alook at the lake booming on the beach below us. There was no love in itas I understand love now, but the passion which informed it almostamounted to intoxication, and if such a passion can be understoodbetween a man already cultivated and a girl who hardly knew how to read,it may, in a measure, account for what followed.
"My father, who was no fool, and who saw the selfish quality in thisattractive lover of mine, was alarmed by our growing intimacy. Taking anopportunity when we were both in a more sensible mood than common, heput the case before Mr. Randolph in a very decided way. He told him thateither he must marry me at once or quit seeing me altogether. No delaywas to be considered and no compromise allowed.
"As my father was a man with whom no one ever disputed, John Randolphprepared to leave the town, declaring that he could marry no one at thatstage of his career. But before he could carry out his intention, theold intoxication returned, and he came back in a fever of love andimpatience to marry me.
"Had I been older or more experienced in the ways of the world, I wouldhave known that such passion as this evinced was short-lived; that thereis no witchery in a smile lasting enough to make men like him forget thelack of those social graces to which they are accustomed. But I was madwith happiness, and was unconscious of any cloud lowering upon ourfuture till the day of our first separation came, when an event occurredwhich showed me what I might expect if I could not speedily raise myselfto his level.
"We were out walking, and we met a lady who had known Mr. Randolphelsewhere. She was well dressed, which I was not, though I had notrealized it till I saw how attractive she looked in quiet colors andwith only a simple ribbon on her hat; and she had, besides, a way ofspeaking which made my tones sound harsh, and robbed me of that feelingof superiority with which I had hitherto regarded all the girls of myacquaintance.
"But it was not her possession of these advantages, keenly as I feltthem, which awakened me to the sense of my position. It was the surpriseshe showed (a surprise the source of which was not to be mistaken) whenhe introduced me to her as his wife; and though she recovered herself ina moment, and tried to be kind and gracious, I felt the sting of it andsaw that he felt it too, and consequently was not at all astonishedwhen, after she had passed us, he turned and looked at me critically forthe first time.
"But his way of showing his dissatisfaction gave me a shock it took meyears to recover from. 'Take off that hat,' he cried, and when I hadobeyed him, he tore out the spray which to my eyes had been its chiefadornment, and threw it into some bushes near by; then he gave me backthe hat and asked for the silk neckerchief which I had regarded as theglory of my bridal costume. Giving it to him I saw him put it in hispocket, and understanding now that he was trying to make me look morelike the lady we had passed, I cried out passionately: 'It is not thesethings that make the difference, John, but my voice and way of walkingand speaking. Give me money and let me be educated, and then we will seeif any other woman can draw your eyes away from me.'
"But he had received a shock that made him cruel. 'You cannot make asilk purse out of a sow's ear,' he sneered, and was silent all the restof the way home. I was silent too, for I never talk when I am angry, butwhen we arrived in our own little room I confronted him.
"'Are you going to say any more such cruel things to me?' I asked, 'forif you are, I should like you to say them now and be done with it.'
"He looked desperately angry, but there was yet a little love left inhis heart for me, for he laughed after he had looked at me for a minute,and took me in his arms and said some of the fine things with which hehad previously won my heart, but not with the old fire and not with theold effect upon me. Yet my love had not grown cold, it had only changedfrom the unthinking stage to the thinking one, and I was quite inearnest when I said: 'I know I am not as pretty or as nice as the ladiesyou are accustomed to. But I have a heart that has never known any otherpassion than its love for you, and from such a heart you ought to expecta lady to grow, and there will. Only give me the chance, John; only letme learn to read and write.'
"But he was in an incredulous state of mind, and it ended in his goingaway without making any arrangements for my education. He was bound forSan Francisco, where he had business to transact, and he promised to beback in four weeks, but before the four weeks elapsed, he wrote me thatit would be five, and later on that it would be six, and afterwards thatit would be when he had finished a big piece of work he was engagedupon, and w
hich would bring him a large amount of money. I believed himand I doubted him at the same time, but I was not altogether sorry hedelayed his return for I had begun school on my own account and was fastlaying the foundation of a solid education.
"My means came from my father, who, now it was too late, saw thenecessity of my improving myself. The amount of studying I did thatfirst year was amazing, but it was nothing to what I went through thesecond, for my husband's letters had begun to fail me, and I was forcedto work in order to drown grief and keep myself from despair. Finally noletters came at all, and when the second year was over, and I could atleast express myself correctly, I woke to the realization that, so faras my husband was concerned, I had gone through all this labor fornothing, and that unless by some fortunate chance I could light uponsome clue to his whereabouts in the great world beyond our little town,I would be likely to pass the remainder of my days in widowhood anddesolation.
"My father dying at this time and leaving me a thousand dollars, I knewno better way of spending it than in the hopeless search I have justmentioned. Accordingly after his burial I started out on my travels,gaining experience with every mile. I had not been away a week before Irealized what a folly I had indulged in in ever hoping to see JohnRandolph back at my side. I saw the homes in which such men as he lived,and met in cars and on steamboats the kind of people with whom he mustassociate to be happy, and a gulf seemed to open between us which evensuch love as mine would be powerless to bridge.
"But though hope thus sank in my breast, I did not lose my old ambitionof making myself as worthy of him as circumstances would permit. I readonly the best books and I allowed myself to become acquainted with onlythe best people, and as I saw myself liked by such the awkwardness of mymanner gradually disappeared, and I began to feel that the day wouldcome when I should be universally recognized as a lady.
"Meantime I did not advance an iota in the object of my journey; and atlast, with every expectation gone of ever seeing my husband again, Imade my way to Toledo. Here I speedily found employment, and what wasbetter still to one of my ambitious tendencies, an opportunity to add tothe sum of my accomplishments a knowledge of French and music. TheFrench I learned from the family I lived with, and the music from aprofessor in the same house whose love for his pet art was so great thathe found it simple happiness to impart it to one so greedy forimprovement as myself.
"Here, in course of time, I also learned type-writing, and it was forthe purpose of seeking employment in this capacity that I finally cameto New York. This was three months ago.
"I was in complete ignorance of the city when I entered it, and for aday or two I wandered to and fro, searching for a suitablelodging-house. It was while I was on my way to Mrs. Desberger's that Isaw advancing towards me a gentleman in whose air and manner I detecteda resemblance to the husband who some five years since had deserted me.The shock was too much for my self-control. Quaking in every limb, Istood awaiting his approach, and when he came up to me, and I saw by hisstartled recognition of me that it was indeed he, I gave a loud cry andthrew myself upon his arm. The start he gave was nothing to thefrightful expression which crossed his face at this encounter, but Ithought both due to his surprise, though now I am convinced they hadtheir origin in the deepest and worst emotions of which a man iscapable.
"'John! John!' I cried, and could say no more, for the agitations offive solitary, despairing years were choking me; but he was entirelyvoiceless, stricken, I have no doubt, beyond any power of mine torealize. How could I dream that in consideration, power, and prestige hehad advanced even more rapidly than myself, and that at this very momenthe was not only the idol of society, but on the verge of uniting himselfto a woman--I will not say of marrying her, for marry her he could notwhile I lived--who would make him the envied possessor of millions. Suchfortune, such daring, yes and such depravity, were beyond the reach ofmy imagination, and while I thought his pleasure less than mine, I didnot dream that my existence was a menace to all his hopes, and thatduring this moment of speechlessness he was sounding his nature formeans to rid himself of me even at the cost of my life.
"His first movement was to push me away, but I clung to him all theharder; at which his whole manner changed and he began to make futileefforts to calm me and lead me away from the spot. Seeing that theseattempts were unavailing, he turned pale and raised his arm uppassionately, but speedily dropped it again, and casting glances thisway and that, broke suddenly into a loud laugh and became, as by thetouch of a magician's wand, my old lover again.
"'Why, Olive!' he cried; 'why, Olive! is it you? (Did I say my name wasOlive?) Happily met, my dear! I did not know what I had been missing allthese years, but now I know it was you. Will you come with me, or shallI go home with you?'
"'I have no home,' said I, 'I have just come into town.'
"'Then I see but one alternative.' He smiled, and what a power there wasin his smile when he chose to exert it! 'You must come to my apartments;are you willing?'
"'I am your wife,' I answered.
"He had taken me on his arm by this time and the recoil he made at thesewords was quite perceptible; but his face still smiled, and I was toomad with joy to be critical.
"'And a very pretty and charming wife you have become,' said he, drawingme on for a few steps. Suddenly he paused, and I felt the old shadowfall between us again. 'But your dress is very shabby,' he remarked.
"It was not; it was not near as shabby as the linen duster he himselfwore.
"'Is that rain?' he inquired, looking up as a drop or two fell.
"'Yes, it is raining.'
"'Very well, let us go into this store we are coming to and buy agossamer. That will cover up your gown. I cannot take you to my housedressed as you are now.'
"Surprised, for I had thought my dress very neat and lady-like, butnever dreaming of questioning his taste any more than in the old days inMichigan, I went with him into the shop he had pointed out and bought mea gossamer, for which he paid. When he had helped me to put it on andhad tied my veil well over my face, he seemed more at his ease and gaveme his arm quite cheerfully.
"'Now,' said he, 'you look well, but how about the time when you willhave to take the gossamer off? I tell you what it is, my dear, you willhave to refit yourself entirely before I shall be satisfied.' And againI saw him cast about him that furtive and inquiring look which wouldhave awakened more surprise in me than it did had I known that we werein a part of the city where he ran but little chance of meeting any onehe knew.
"'This old duster I have on,' he suddenly laughed, 'is a veryappropriate companion to your gossamer,' and though I did not agree withhim, for my clothes were new, and his old and shabby, I laughed also andnever dreamed of evil.
"As this garment which so disfigured him that morning has been theoccasion of much false speculation on the part of those whose businessit was to inquire into the crime with which it is in a most unhappy wayconnected, I may as well explain here and now why so fastidious agentleman as Randolph Stone came to wear it. The gentleman called HowardVan Burnam was not the only person who visited the Van Burnam offices onthe morning preceding the murder. Randolph Stone was there also, but hedid not see the brothers, for finding them closeted together, he decidednot to interrupt them. As he was a frequent visitor there, his presencecreated no remark nor was his departure noted. Descending the stairsseparating the offices from the street, he was about to leave thebuilding, when he noticed that the clouds looked ominous. Being dressedfor a luncheon with Miss Althorpe, he felt averse to getting wet, so hestepped back into the adjoining hall and began groping for an umbrellain a little closet under the stairs where he had once before found suchan article. While doing this he heard the younger Van Burnam descend andgo out, and realizing that he could now see Franklin without difficulty,he was about to return up-stairs when he heard that gentleman also comedown and follow his brother into the street.
"His first impulse was to join him, but finding nothing but an oldduster in the closet, he gave up
this intention, and putting on thisshabby but protecting garment, started for his apartments, littlerealizing into what a course of duplicity and crime it was destined tolead him. For to the wearing of this old duster on this especialmorning, innocent as the occasion was, I attribute John Randolph'stemptation to murder. Had he gone out without it, he would have takenhis usual course up Broadway and never met _me_; or even if he had takenthe same roundabout way to his apartments as that which led to ourencounter, he would never have dared, in his ordinary fine dress,conspicuous as it made him, to have entered upon those measures, which,as he is clever enough to know, lead to disgrace, if they do not end ina felon's cell. It was John Randolph, then, or Randolph Stone, as he ispleased to call himself in New York, and not Franklin Van Burnam (whohad doubtless proceeded in another direction) who came up to whereHoward had stood, saw the keys he had dropped, and put them in his ownpocket. It was as innocent an action as the donning of the duster, andyet it was fraught with the worst consequences to himself and others.
"Being of the same height and complexion as Franklin Van Burnam, andboth gentlemen wearing at that time a moustache (my husband shaved hisoff after the murder), the mistakes which arose out of this strangeequipment were but natural. Seen from the rear or in the semi-darknessof a hotel-office they might look alike, though to me or to any onestudying them well, their faces are really very different.
"But to return. Leading me through streets of which I knew nothing, hepresently stopped before the entrance of a large hotel.
"'I tell you what, Olive,' said he, 'we had better go in here, take aroom, and send for such things as you require to make you look like alady.'
"As I had no objection to anything which kept me at his side, I told himthat whatever suited him suited me, and followed him quite eagerly intothe office. I did not know then that this hotel was a second-rate one,not having had experience with the best, but if I had, I should not havewondered at his choice, for there was nothing in his appearance, as Ihave already intimated, or in his manners up to this point, to lead meto think he was one of the city's great swells, and that it was only insuch an unfashionable house as this he would be likely to passunrecognized. How with his markedly handsome features and distinguishedbearing he managed so to carry himself as to look like a man of inferiorbreeding, I can no more explain than I can the singular change whichtook place in him when once he found himself in the midst of the crowdwhich lounged about this office.
"From a man to attract all eyes he became at once a man to attract none,and slouched and looked so ordinary that I stared at him inastonishment, little thinking that he had assumed this manner as adisguise. Seeing me at a loss, he spoke up quite peremptorily:
"'Let us keep our secret, Olive, till you can appear in the worldfull-fledged. And look here, darling, won't you go to the desk and askfor a room? I am no hand at any such business.'
"Confounded at a proposition so unexpected, but too much under the spellof my feelings to dispute his wishes, I faltered out:
"'But supposing they ask me to register?'
"At which he gave me a look which recalled the old days in Michigan, andquietly sneered:
"'Give them a fictitious name. You have learned to write by this time,have you not?'
"Stung by his taunt, but more in love with him than ever, for hismomentary display of passion had made him look both masterful andhandsome, I went up to the desk to do his bidding.
"'A room!' said I; and when asked to write our names in the book thatlay before me, I put down the first that suggested itself. I wrote withmy gloves on, which was why the writing looked so queer that it wastaken for a disguised hand.
"This done, he rejoined me, and we went up-stairs, and I was too happyto be in his company again to wonder at his peculiarities or weigh theconsequences of the implicit confidence I accorded him. I wasdesperately in love once more, and entered into every plan he proposedwithout a thought beyond the joyous present. He was so handsome withouthis hat; and when after some short delay he threw aside the duster, Ifelt myself for the first time in my life in the presence of a finishedgentleman. Then his manner was so changed. He was so like his oldest andbest self, so dangerously like what he was in those long vanished hoursunder the pines in my sand-swept home on the shores of Lake Michigan.That he faltered at times and sank into strange spells of silence whichhad something in them that made my breath come fitfully, did not awakenmy apprehension or rouse in me more than a passing curiosity. I thoughthe regretted the past, and when, after one such pause in ourconversation, he drew out of his pocket a couple of keys tied togetherwith a string, and surveyed the card attached to them with a strangelook, easily enough to be understood by me now, I only laughed at hisabstraction, and indulged in a fresh caress to make him more mindful ofmy presence.
"These keys were the ones which Mrs. Van Burnam's husband had dropped,and which he had picked up before meeting me; and after he had put themback into his pocket he became more talkative than before, and moresystematically lover-like. I think he had not seen his way clearly tillthis moment, the dark and dreadful way which was to end, as he supposed,in my death.
"But I feared nothing, suspected nothing. Such deep and desperatewickedness as he was planning was beyond the wildest flight of myimagination. When he insisted upon sending for a complete set ofclothing for me, and when at his dictation I wrote a list of thearticles I wanted, I thought he was influenced by his wish as my husbandto see me dressed in articles of his own buying. That it was all a plotto rob me of my identity could not strike such a mind as mine, and whenthe packages came and were received by him in the sly way already knownto the public, I saw nothing in his caution but a playful display ofmystery that was to end in my romantic establishment in a home of loveand luxury.
"Or rather it is thus that I account for my conduct now, and yet theprecaution I took not to change the shoes in which my money was hidden,may argue that I was not without some underlying doubt of his completesincerity. But if so, I hid it from myself, and, as I have every reasonto believe, from him also, doubtless excusing my action to myself byconsidering that I would be none the worse off for a few dollars of myown, even if he was my husband, and had promised me no end of pleasureand comfort.
"That he did intend to make me happy, he had assured me more than once.Indeed, before we had been long in this hotel room, he informed me thatgreat experiences lay before me; that he had prospered much in the lastfive years and had now a house of his own to offer me and a large circleof friends to make our life in it agreeable.
"'We will go to our house to-night,' said he. 'I have not been living init lately, and you may find it a little uncomfortable, but we willremedy that to-morrow. Anything is better than staying here under afalse name and I cannot take you to my bachelor apartment.'
"I had doubted some of his previous statements, but this one Iimplicitly believed. Why should not so elegant a man have a house of hisown; and if he had told me it was built of marble and hung withFlorentine tapestries, I should still have credited it all. I was infairy-land and he was my knight of romance, even when he again hung hishead in leaving the hotel and looked at once so ordinary anduninteresting.
"The ruse he made use of to cut off all connection between ourselves andthe Mr. and Mrs. James Pope who had registered at the Hotel D---- wasaccepted by me with the same lack of suspicion. That he should wish tocarry no remembrance of our old life into our new home I thought adelightful piece of folly, and when he proposed that we should bequeathmy gossamer and his own disfiguring duster to the coachman in whose hackwe were then riding, I laughed gleefully and helped him fold them up andplace them under the cushions, though I did wonder why he cut a pieceout of the neck of the former, and pouted with the happy freedom of aself-confident woman when he said:
"'It is the first thing I ever bought for you, and I am just foolishenough to wish to preserve this much of it for a keepsake. Do youobject, my dear?'
"As I was conscious of cherishing a similar folly in his regard, andco
uld have pressed even that old duster of his to my heart, I offeredhim a kiss and said 'No,' and he put the scrap away in his pocket. Thatit was the portion on which was stamped the name of the firm from whichit was bought did not occur to me.
"When the coach stopped, he urged me away on foot in a directionentirely strange to me, saying we would take another hack as soon as wehad disposed of the bundles we were carrying. How he intended to dothis, I did not know. But presently he drew me towards a Chineselaundry, where he bade me leave one of them as washing, and the other hedropped before the opening of a sewer as we stepped up a neighboringcurb-stone.
"And still I did not suspect.
"Our ride to Gramercy Park was short, but during it he had time to put abill in my hand and tell me I was to pay the driver. He had also time tosecure the weapon upon which he had probably had his eye fixed from thefirst. His manner of doing this I can never forgive, for it was alover's manner, and as such intended to deceive and cajole me. Drawingmy head down on his shoulder, he drew off my veil, saying that it wasthe only article left of my own buying, and that we would leave itbehind us in this coach as we had left the gossamer in the other. 'OnlyI will make sure that no other woman ever wears it,' he laughed,slitting it up and down with his knife. When this was done he kissed me,and then while my heart was tender and the warm tears stood in my eyes,he drew out the pin from my hat, meeting my remonstrances with theassurance that he hated to see my head covered, and that no hat was aspretty as my own brown hair.
"As this was nonsense, and as the coach was beginning to stop, I shookmy head at him and put my hat on again, but he had dropped the pin, orso he said, and I had to alight without it.
"When I had paid the driver and the coach had driven off, I had a chanceto look up at the house before which we had stopped. Its height andimposing appearance daunted me in spite of the great expectations I hadformed, and I ran up the stoop after him in a condition of mingled aweand wild delight that was the poorest preparation possible for what laybefore me in the dark interior we were entering.
"He was fumbling nervously in the keyhole with his key, and I heard awhispered oath escape him. But presently the door fell back, and westepped in to what looked to me like a cavern of darkness.
"'Do not be frightened!' he admonished me. 'I will strike a light in amoment.' And after carefully closing the street door behind us, hestretched out his hand to take mine, or so I judge, for I heard himwhisper impatiently, 'Where are you?'
"I was on the threshold of the parlor, to which I had groped my waywhile he was closing the front door, so I whispered back, 'Here!' butfound voice for nothing further, for at that instant I heard a soundproceeding from the depths of darkness in front of me, and was so struckwith terror that I fell back against the staircase, just as he passed meand entered the room from which that stealthy noise had issued.
"'Darling!' he whispered, 'darling!' and went stumbling on in the voidof darkness before me, till suddenly by some power I cannot explain Iseemed to see, faintly but distinctly, and as if with my mind's eyerather than with my bodily one.
"I perceived the shadowy form of a woman standing in the space beforehim, and beheld him suddenly grasp her with what he meant to be a lovingcry, but which to my ears at that moment sounded strangely ferocious,and after holding her a moment suddenly release her, at which sheuttered one low, curdling moan and sank at his feet. At the same instantI heard a click, which I did not understand then, but which I now knowto have been the head of the hat-pin striking the register.
"Horrified past all power of speech and action, for I saw that he hadintended this blow for me, I cowered against the stairs, waiting for himto pass out. This he did not do at once, though the delay must have beenshort. He stopped long enough by the prostrate form to stir it with hisfoot, probably to see if life was extinct, but no longer, yet it seemedan eternity before I perceived him groping his way over the threshold;an eternity in which every act of my life passed before me, and everyword and every expression with which he had beguiled me came to rack mysoul and made the horror of this mad awakening greater.
"No thought of her, or of the guilt with which he had forever damned hissoul, came to me in that first moment of misery. _My_ loss, _my_ escape,and the danger in which I still stood if the least hint reached him ofthe mistake he had made, filled my mind too entirely for me to dwell onany less impersonal theme. His words, for he muttered several in thatshort passage out, showed me in what a fools' paradise I had beenrevelling, and how certainly I had turned his every thought towardsmurder when I seized him in the street and proclaimed myself his wife.The satisfaction with which he uttered, 'Well struck!' gave little hintof remorse; and the gloating delight with which he added something aboutthe devil having assisted him to make it a safe blow as well as a deadlyone, was proof not only of his having used all his cunning in planningthis crime, but of his pleasure in its apparent success.
"That he continued in this frame of mind, and that he never lostconfidence in the precautions he had taken and in the mystery with whichthe deed was surrounded, is apparent from the fact that he revisited theVan Burnam office on the following morning, and hung again on itsaccustomed nail the keys of the Gramercy Park house.
"When the front door had closed, and I knew that he had gone away in thefull belief that it was my form he had left lying behind him on thatmidnight floor, all the accumulated terrors of the situation came to mein full force, and I began to think of her as well as of myself, andlonged for courage to approach her or even the daring to call out forhelp. But the thought that it was my husband who had committed thiscrime held me tongue-tied, and though I soon began to move inch by inchin her direction, it was some time before I could so far overcome myterror as to enter the room where she lay.
"I had supposed, and still supposed (as was natural after seeing himopen the door with the keys he took from his pocket), that the house washis, and the victim a member of his own household. But when, afterinnumerable hesitations and a bodily shrinking that was little short oftorment, I managed to drag myself into the room and light a match whichI found on a farther mantel-shelf, I saw enough in the generalappearance of the rooms and of the figure at my feet to make me doubtthe truth of both these suppositions. Yet no other explanation came tolighten the mystery of the occasion, and dazed as I was by the horror ofmy position and the mortal dread I felt of the man who in one instanthad turned the heaven of my love into a hell of fathomless horrors, Isoon had eyes for the one fact only, that the woman lying before me wassufficiently like myself to inspire me with the hope of preserving mysecret and keeping from my would-be slayer the knowledge of my havingescaped the doom he had prepared for me.
"For ascribe it to what motive you will, that was the one idea nowdominating my mind. I wanted him to believe me dead. I wanted to feelthat all connection between us was severed forever. He _had_ killed me.By killing my love and faith in him he had murdered the better part ofmyself, and I shrank with inconceivable horror from anything that wouldbring me again under his eye, or force me to assert claims that it wouldbe the future business of my life to forget.
"When the first match went out I had not courage to light another, so Icrept away in the darkness to listen at the foot of the stairs. Therewas no sound from above, and a terrifying sense began to pervade me thatI was in that house alone. Yet there was safety in the thought, andopportunity for what I was planning, and finally, under the stress ofthe purpose that was every moment developing within me, I went softlyup-stairs and listened at all the doors till I was certain that thehouse was unoccupied. Then I came down and walked resolutely back intothe parlor, for I knew if I allowed any time to pass I could never againsummon up strength to cross its grisly threshold. Yet I did nothing forhours but crouch in one of its dismal corners, waiting for morning. ThatI did not go mad in that awful interval is a wonder. I must have beennear it more than once.
"I have been asked, and Miss Butterworth has been asked, how in thelight of what we now know concerning this poor
victim's presence there,we account for her being in the darkness and showing so little terror atour entrance and Mr. Stone's approach. _I_ account for it in this way:Two half-burned matches were found in the parlor grate. One I flungthere; the other had probably been used by her to light the dining-roomgas. If this was still lighted when we drove up, as it may have been,then, alarmed by the sound of the stopping coach, she had put it out,with a vague idea of hiding herself till she knew whether it was the oldgentleman who was coming or only her suspicious and unreasonablehusband. If it was not lighted then, she was probably aroused from asleep on the parlor sofa, and was for the moment too dazed to cry out orresent an embrace she had not time to understand before she succumbed tothe cruel stab that killed her. Miss Butterworth, however, thinks thatthe poor creature took the intruder for Franklin till she heard myvoice, when she probably became so amazed that she was in a measureparalyzed and found it impossible to move or cry out. As MissButterworth is a woman of great discretion I should think herexplanation the truest, if I did not consider her a little prejudicedagainst Mrs. Van Burnam.
"But to return to myself.
"With the first glimmer of light that came through the closed shutters Irose and began my dreadful task. Upheld by a purpose as relentless asthat which drove the author of this horror into murder, I stripped thebody and put upon it my own clothing, with the one exception of theshoes. Then, when I had re-dressed myself in hers, I steadied up myheart and with one wild pull dragged down the cabinet upon her so thather face might lose its traits and her identification become impossible.
"How I had strength to do this, and how I could contemplate the resultwithout shrieking, I cannot now imagine. Perhaps I was hardly human atthis crisis; perhaps something of the demon which had informed him inhis awful work had entered into my breast, making this thing possible. Ionly know that I did what I have said and did it calmly. More than that,that I had mind and judgment left to give to my own appearance.Observing that the dress I had put on was of a conspicuous plaid, Iexchanged the skirt portion with the brown silk petticoat under it, andwhen I observed that it hung below the other, as of course it would, Iwent through the house till I came upon some pins with which I pinned itup out of sight. Thus equipped, I was still a person to attractattention, especially as I had no hat to put on; my own having fallenfrom my head and been covered by the dead woman's body, which nothingwould induce me to move again.
"But I had confidence in my own powers to escape question, toned up asI was in every nerve by the dreadfulness of my situation, and as soon asI was in decent shape for flight, I opened the front door and preparedto slip out.
"But here the intense dread I felt of my husband, a dread which hadactuated all my movements and sustained me in as harrowing a task asever woman performed, seized me with renewed force, and I quailed at theprospect of entering the streets alone. Supposing he should be on thestoop! Supposing he should be in an opposite window even! Could Iencounter him again and live? He was not far away, or so I felt. Amurderer, it is said, cannot help haunting the scene of his crime, andif he should see me alive and well, what might I not expect from hisastonishment and alarm? I did not dare go out. But neither did I dareremain, so after quaking for a good five minutes on the threshold, Imade one wild dash through the door.
"There was no one in sight, and I reached Broadway before I ran acrossman or woman. Even then I got by without any one speaking to me, and,favored by Providence, found a nook at the end of an alley-way, where Iremained undiscovered till it was late enough in the morning for me toenter a shop and buy a hat.
"The rest of my movements are known. I found my way to Mrs. Desberger's,this time without interruption; and from that place sought and found asituation with Miss Althorpe.
"That her fate was in any way connected with mine, or that the RandolphStone she was engaged to marry was the John Randolph from whose clutchesI had just escaped, was, of course, unsuspected by me, and, incredibleas it may seem, continued to be unsuspected as long as I remained in thehouse. There was reason for this. My duties were such as I could wellattend to in my own room, and feeling a horror of the world andeverything in it, I kept my room as much as possible, and never went outof it when I knew that he was in the house. The very thought of loveawakened intolerable emotions in me, and much as I admired and reveredMiss Althorpe, I could not bring myself to meet or even talk of the manto whom she was in expectation of being so soon united. There wasanother thing of which I was ignorant, and that was the circumstanceswhich had invested with so much interest the crime of which I had beenwitness. I did not know that the victim had been recognized, or that aninnocent man had been arrested for her murder. In fact I knew nothingconcerning the affair save what I had seen with my own eyes, no onehaving mentioned the murder in my presence, and I having religiouslyavoided the very sight of a paper for fear that I should see someaccount of the horrible affair, and so lose what small remnants ofcourage I still possessed.
"This apathy concerning a matter so important to myself, or rather thisalmost frenzied determination to cut myself loose from my dreadful past,may seem strange and unnatural; but it will seem stranger yet when I saythat for all these efforts I was haunted night and day by one small factconnected with this past, which made forgetfulness impossible. I hadtaken the rings from the hands of the dead woman as I had taken away herclothes, and the possession of these valuables, probably because theyrepresented so much money, weighed on my conscience and made me feellike a thief. The purse which I found in a pocket of the skirt I had puton was a trouble to me, but the rings were a source of constant terrorand disturbance. I hid them finally in a ball of yarn I was using, buteven then I experienced but little peace, for they were not mine, and Ilacked the courage to avow it or seek out the person to whom they nowrightfully belonged.
"When, therefore, in the intervals of fever which attacked me in MissAlthorpe's house, I overheard enough of a conversation between her andMiss Butterworth to learn that the murdered woman had been a Mrs. VanBurnam, and that her husband or relatives had an office somewheredowntown, I was so seized by the instinct of restitution, that I tookthe first opportunity that offered to leave my bed and hunt up thesepeople.
"That I would injure them in any way by secretly restoring these jewels,I never dreamed. Indeed, I did not exercise my mind at all on thesubject, but only followed the instincts of my delirium; and while toall appearance I showed all the cunning of an insane person, in thepursuit of my purpose, I fail to remember now how I found my way toDuane Street, or by what suggestion of my diseased brain I was inducedto slip these rings upon the hook attached to Mr. Van Burnam's desk.Probably the mere utterance of this well-known name into the ears of thepassers-by was enough to obtain for me such directions as I needed, buthowever that may be, the result was misapprehension, and thecomplications which followed, serious.
"Of the emotion caused in me by the unaccountable discovery of myconnection with this crime I need not speak. The love which I at onetime felt for John Randolph had turned to gall and bitterness, butenough sense of duty remained in my bruised and broken heart to keep mefrom denouncing him to the police, till by a sudden stroke of fate orProvidence, I saw him in the carriage with Miss Althorpe, and realizedthat he was not only the man with whom she was upon the point of allyingherself, but that it was to preserve his place in her regard and toattain the lofty position promised by this union, he had attempted tomurder me, and had murdered another woman only less unfortunate andmiserable than myself.
"It was the last and bitterest blow that could come from his hand; andthough instinct led me to throw myself into the carriage before which Istood, and thus escape a meeting which I felt I could never survive, Iwas determined from that moment not only to save Miss Althorpe from analliance with this villain, but to revenge myself upon him in somenever-to-be-forgotten manner.
"That this revenge involved her in a public shame from which her angelicgoodness to me should have saved her, I regret now as deeply as even shecan wish. But the mad
ness that was upon me made me blind to every otherconsideration than that of the boundless hatred I bore him; and while Ican look for no forgiveness from her on that account, I still hope theday will come when she will see that in spite of my momentary disregardof her feelings, I cherish for her an affection that nothing can effaceor make other than the ruling passion of my life."
XLII.
WITH MISS BUTTERWORTH'S COMPLIMENTS.
They tell me that Mr. Gryce has never been quite the same man since theclearing up of this mystery; that his confidence in his own powers isshaken, and that he hints, more often than is agreeable to hissuperiors, that when a man has passed his seventy-seventh year it istime for him to give up active connection with police matters. _I_ donot agree with him. His mistakes, if we may call them such, were notthose of failing faculties, but of a man made oversecure in his ownconclusions by a series of old successes. Had he listened to _me_--But Iwill not pursue this suggestion. You will accuse me of egotism, animputation I cannot bear with equanimity and will not risk; modestdepreciation of myself being one of the chief attributes of mycharacter.[D]
Howard Van Burnam bore his release, as he had his arrest, with greatoutward composure. Mr. Gryce's explanation of his motives in perjuringhimself before the Coroner was correct, and while the mass of peoplewondered at that instinct of pride which led him to risk the imputationof murder sooner than have the world accuse his wife of an unwomanlyaction, there were others who understood his peculiarities, and thoughthis conduct quite in keeping with what they knew of his warped andover-sensitive nature.
That he has been greatly moved by the unmerited fate of his weak butunfortunate wife, is evident from the sincerity with which he stillmourns her.
I had always understood that Franklin had never been told of the perilin which his good name had stood for a few short hours. But since acertain confidential conversation which took place between us oneevening, I have come to the conclusion that the police were not soreticent as they made themselves out to be. In that conversation heprofessed to thank me for certain good offices I had done him and his,and waxing warm in his gratitude, confessed that without my interferencehe would have found himself in a strait of no ordinary seriousness;"For," said he, "there has been no over-statement of the feelings Icherished toward my sister-in-law, nor was there any mistake made inthinking that she uttered some very desperate threats against me duringthe visit she paid me at my office on Monday. But I never thought ofridding myself of her in any way. I only thought of keeping her and mybrother apart till I could escape the country. When therefore he cameinto the office on Tuesday morning for the keys of our father's house, Ifelt such a dread of the two meeting there, that I left immediatelyafter my brother for the place where she had told me she would await afinal message from me. I hoped to move her by one final plea, for I lovemy brother sincerely, notwithstanding the wrong I once did him. I wastherefore with her in another place at the very time I was thought to bewith her at the Hotel D----, a fact which greatly hampered me, as youcan see, when I was requested by the police to give an account of how Ispent that day. When I left her it was to seek my brother. She had toldme of her deliberate intention of spending the night in the GramercyPark house; and as I saw no way of her doing this without my brother'sconnivance, I started in search of him, meaning to stick to him when Ifound him, and keep him away from her till that night was over. I wasnot successful in my undertaking. He was locked in his rooms it seems,packing up his effects for flight,--we always had the same instinctseven when boys,--and receiving no answer to my knock, I hastened away toGramercy Park to keep a watch over the house against my brother comingthere. This was early in the evening, and for hours afterwards Iwandered like a restless spirit in and out of those streets, meeting noone I knew, not even my brother, though he was wandering about in verymuch the same manner, and with very much the same apprehensions.
"The duplicity of the woman became very evident to me the next morning.In my last interview with her she had shown no relenting in her purposetowards me, but when I entered my office after this restless night inthe streets, I found lying on my desk her little hand-bag, which hadbeen sent down from Mrs. Parker's. In it was _the letter_, just as youdivined, Miss Butterworth. I had hardly got over the shock of this mostunexpected good fortune when the news came that a woman had been founddead in my father's house. What was I to think? That it was she, ofcourse, and that my brother had been the man to let her in there. MissButterworth," this is how he ended, "I make no demands upon you, as Ihave made no demands upon the police, to keep the secret contained inthat letter from my much-abused brother. Or, rather, it is too late nowto keep it, for I have told him all there was to tell, myself, and hehas seen fit to overlook my fault, and to regard me with even moreaffection than he did before this dreadful tragedy came to harrow up ourlives."
Do you wonder I like Franklin Van Burnam?
The Misses Van Burnam call upon me regularly, and when they say "_Dearold thing!_" now, they mean it.
Of Miss Althorpe I cannot trust myself to speak. She was, and is, thefinest woman I know, and when the great shadow now hanging over her haslost some of its impenetrability, she will be a useful one again, or Ido not rightly read the patient smile which makes her face so beautifulin its sadness.
Olive Randolph has, at my request, taken up her abode in my house. Thecharm which she seems to have exerted over others she has exerted overme, and I doubt if I shall ever wish to part with her again. In returnshe gives me an affection which I am now getting old enough toappreciate. Her feeling for me and her gratitude to Miss Althorpe arethe only treasures left her out of the wreck of her life, and it shallbe my business to make them lasting ones.
The fate of Randolph Stone is too well known for me to enlarge upon it.But before I bid farewell to his name, I must say that after that curtconfession of his, "Yes, I did it, in the way and for the motive shealleged," I have often tried to imagine the contradictory feelings withwhich he must have listened to the facts as they came out at theinquest, and convinced, as he had every reason to be, that the victimwas his wife, heard his friend Howard not only accept her for his, butinsist that he was the man who accompanied her to that house of death.He has never lifted the veil from those hours, and he never will, but Iwould give much of the peace of mind which has lately come to me, toknow what his sensations were, not only at that time, but when, on theevening, after the murder, he opened the papers and read that the womanwhom he had left for dead with her brain pierced by a hat-pin, had beenfound on that same floor crushed under a fallen cabinet; and whatexplanation he was ever able to make to himself for a fact soinexplicable.
FOOTNOTES:
[Footnote D: My attention has been called to the fact that I have notconfessed whether it was owing to a mistake made by Mr. Gryce or myself,that Franklin Van Burnam was identified as the man who had entered theadjoining house on the night of the murder. Well, the truth is, neitherof us was to blame for that. The man I identified (it was while watchingthe guests who attended Mrs. Van Burnam's funeral, you remember) wasreally Mr. Stone; but owing to the fact that this latter gentleman hadlingered in the vestibule till he was joined by Franklin and that theyhad finally entered together, some confusion was created in the mind ofthe man on duty in the hall, so that when Mr. Gryce asked him who it wasthat came in immediately after the four who arrived together, heanswered Mr. Franklin Van Burnam; being anxious to win his superior'sapplause and considering that person much more likely to merit thedetective's attention than a mere friend of the family like Mr. Stone.In punishment for this momentary display of egotism, he has beendischarged from the force, I believe.--A. B.]
THE END.
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