CHAPTER XVI In Greenvale
"For the love of Mike, Zizi, what are you doing here?" exclaimedPennington Wise, nearly struck dumb with astonishment at sight of thegirl.
"I ask you that!" she returned, looking at him with equal amazement.
"Well, anyway, I'm glad to see you;" he smiled at her with real pleasure."I've had a long, horrid and most unsatisfactory quest for the elusive L.N. and I haven't found him yet."
"Any hope of it?"
"Nothing but. I mean no expectation or certainty,--but always hope. Now,what's your lay? _Why_,--Zizi, tell me _why_ you're here, or I'll fly offthe handle!"
"Well, wait till we can sit down somewhere and talk comfortably. Ihaven't had a room assigned to me yet."
"But tell me this: you're here on the Varian case?"
"Yes, of course. Are you?"
"I am. Oh, girl, there must be something doing when we're here fromdifferent starting points and for different reasons!"
"I'm here because of some revelations of Mrs Varian," Zizi said and Wisestared at her.
"Mrs Varian!" he exclaimed. "I say, Ziz, go to your room, get your bagunpacked and your things put away as quick as you can, won't you? Andthen let's confab."
Zizi darted away, she arranged to have a bedroom and sitting-room thatshe could call her own for a few days, and in less than half an hour, shewas receiving Wise in her tiny but pleasant domain. "Now," he said, "tellme your story."
"It isn't much of a story," Zizi admitted,--"but I came here because thisis where Betty Varian was born."
"Up here? In Greenvale, Vermont?"
"Yes,--in a little hospital here."
"And what has that fact to do with Betty's disappearance?"
"Oh, Penny, I don't know! But I hope,--I believe it has something!"
"Well, my child, I'm up here to investigate the early life of MrsLawrence North."
"Then we are most certainly brought to the same place by totallydifferent clues,--if they are clues, and one or both of them _must_ provesuccessful! Who was she, Penny?"
"As near as I can find out, she was a widow when North married her. Hername was then Mrs Curtis. Her maiden name I don't know."
"Well, what's the procedure?"
The procedure, as Wise mapped it out, was to go to the hospital first andsee what could be learned concerning Mrs Varian's stay there twenty yearsago.
They had no difficulty in getting an interview with the superintendent ofthe institution, but as Wise had feared, he was not the man who had beenin charge a score of years previous.
In fact, there had been several changes since, and the present incumbent,one Doctor Hasbrook, showed but slight interest in his callers'questions.
"The hospital is only twenty-two years old," Hasbrook said, "so thepatient you're looking up must have been here soon after it was opened.""You have the records, I suppose?" asked Wise. "Yes,--if you care to huntthem over, they are at your disposal."
As a result of this permission, Wise and Zizi spent several hours lookingover the old and not very carefully kept records of the earliest years ofthe little country hospital.
"The worst of it is," said Zizi, "I don't exactly know what we're hopingto find, do you?"
"I have a dim idea, Zizi, and it's getting clearer," Wise replied,speaking as from a deep absorption. "Here's something."
"What?"
"It's a list of births for a year,--the year Betty Varian was bornand,--oh, Zizi! the very same night that Mrs Varian's baby was born, aMrs Curtis also bore a child!"
"Well?"
"Oh, don't sit there and babble 'What?' and 'Well?' Can't you see?"
"No, I can't."
"Well, wait a bit,--now, let me see,--yes, Miss Morton,--h'm,--MissBlack,----"
"Pennington Wise, if you've lost your mind, I'll take you to a modernsanitarium,--I don't want to go off and leave you here in this littleone-horse hospital!"
"Hush up, Zizi, don't chatter! Miss Morton,--h'm----"
Zizi kept silent in utter exasperation. She knew Wise well enough to besure he was on the trail of a real discovery, but her impatience couldscarcely stand his mutterings and his air of suppressed excitement.
However, there was nothing to do but wait for his further elucidation andwhen at last he closed the books and looked up at her, his face wasfairly transfigured with joyous expectancy.
"Come on, girl," he cried, "come on."
He rose, and, as Zizi followed, they went back to the superintendent'soffice.
"Can you tell us, Doctor Hasbrook," Wise asked, "where we can find twonurses who were here twenty years ago? One was named Black and oneMorton."
This was a matter of definite record, and Hasbrook soon informed themthat Nurse Black had died some years ago but that Nurse Morton hadmarried and was still living in Greenvale.
"Thank Heaven," murmured Wise as he took the address of Mrs Briggs, whohad been Nurse Morton.
To her house they then went, Zizi now quite content to trudge along bythe detective's side, without asking further questions. She knew shewould learn all in due time.
The pretty little cottage which was the home of Mrs Briggs they found andwent through the wooden picket gate and up to the front door.
"Something tells me she won't be glad to see us," Wise whispered, andthen they were admitted by a middle-aged woman who answered Wise'scourteous question by stating that she was Mrs Briggs.
She looked amiable enough, Zizi thought, and she asked her callers to beseated in her homely but comfortable sitting-room.
"I am here," Wise began, watching her face for any expression of alarm,"to ask you a few questions about some cases you attended when you were anurse in the Greenvale Hospital."
"Yes, sir," was the non-committal response, but Zizi's quick eye noticedthe woman's fingers grasp tightly the corner of her apron, which sherolled and twisted nervously.
"One case, especially, was that of a Mrs Varian. You remember it?"
"No,--I do not," Mrs Briggs replied, but it was after a moment'shesitation, and she spoke, in a low, uncertain voice.
"Oh, yes, you do," and Wise looked at her sternly. "Mrs FrederickVarian,--a lovely lady, who gave birth to a girl child, and you were herattendant."
"No; I don't remember any Mrs Varian." The voice was steadier now but thespeaker kept her eyes averted from the detective's face.
"Your memory is defective," he said, quietly. "Do you, then, remember aMrs Curtis?"
This shot went home, and Mrs Briggs cried out excitedly, "What do youmean? Who are you?"
"You haven't been asked anything about these people for twenty years,have you?" Wise went on. "You didn't think you ever would be asked aboutthem, did you? Your memory is all right,--now what have you to say----"
"I have nothing to say. I remember a Mrs Curtis, but she was not mypatient."
"No; Mrs Varian was your patient. But Mrs Curtis figured in the Variancase pretty largely, I should say!"
Mrs Briggs broke down. "I didn't do any harm," she said. "I only did whatI was told. I obeyed the others who were in greater authority than Iwas." She buried her face in her apron and sobbed.
"That's right, Mrs Briggs," Wise said kindly; "tell the truth, and Ipromise you it will be far better for you in the long run, than to makeup any falsehoods."
"Tell me what happened," the woman said, eagerly, as she wiped her eyes."Oh, sir, tell me? Did Mrs--Mrs Varian's little girl live to grow up?"
"Mrs _Varian's_ little girl!" Wise repeated with a strange intonation anda shrewd shake of his head.
"Yes, Mrs Varian's little girl," the woman insisted obstinately. "Theytook the child away when it was four weeks old, Mrs Varian was quite welland happy then."
"Of course she was,--but, were you happy?"
"Why not?" The words were defiant, but Mrs Briggs' face showed aninvoluntary fear.
"Come now, Mrs Briggs, tell me the whole story and you will get off scotfree. Keep back the truth or any
portion of the truth, and you will findyourself in most serious trouble. Which do you choose?"
"Where are the Varians? Where is Mr Varian?"
"Mr Varian is dead. You have me to reckon with instead of him. Oh, Ibegin to see! Was it Mr Varian's scheme?"
"Yes, it was. I told you I had no choice in the matter."
"Because he paid you well. Now, are you going to tell me, or must I dragthe story from you, piece-meal?"
"I'll--I'll tell."
"Tell it all, then. Begin at the beginning."
"The beginning was merely that the Varians were spending the summer herein a little cottage over on the next street to this. Mrs Varian wasexpecting a confinement but hoped to get back to the city before it tookplace. However, she was not well, and Mr Varian brought her to thehospital for consultation and treatment. I was her nurse, and I came toknow her well, and--to love her. She was a dear lady, and as her firstbabies had died in infancy she was greatly worried and anxious lest thisnew baby should be sickly or, worse, should be born dead.
"Mr Varian was the most devoted husband I ever saw. He put up with allhis wife's whims and tantrums,--and she was full of them,--and heindulged and petted her all the time. He was quite as anxious as she fora healthy child, and when they discovered that she must remain here forher confinement, he sent to town for all sorts of things to make hercomfortable and happy.
"Well,--the baby was born,--and it was born dead. Mrs Varian did not knowit, and when I told Mr Varian, he was so disappointed I thought he wouldgo off his head.
"Now there was another case in the hospital that was a very sad matter.It was Mrs Curtis. She, poor woman, was confined that same night, and herbaby was born, fine and healthy. But she didn't want the child. She wasso poor she scarce could keep soul and body together. She had threelittle children already and her husband had died by accident only a monthbefore. How to care for a new little one, she didn't know.
"It was Nurse Black who thought of the plan of substituting the lovelyCurtis child for the dead Varian baby, and we proposed it to Mr Varian.To our surprise he fairly jumped at it. He begged us to ascertain if MrsCurtis would agree, saying he would pay her well. Now, Mrs Curtis wasonly too grateful to be assured of a good home and care for her child,and willingly gave it over to the Varians. But Mrs Varian never knew.
"That was Mr Varian's idea, and it was an honest and true desire toplease his wife and to provide her with a healthy child such as sheherself could never bear.
"I think Mr Varian was decided at the last by the piteous cries of MrsVarian for her baby. When he heard her, he said quickly, 'Take the Curtischild to her,--and see if she accepts it?'"
"And did she?" asked Zizi, her eyes shining at the dramatic story.
"Oh, she did! She cried out in joy that it was her baby and a beautiful,healthy child, and she was so pleased and happy and contented that shedropped off into a fine, natural sleep and began to get well at once.When she wakened she asked for the child, and so it went on until therewas no question what to do. The whole matter was considered settled----"
"Who knew of the fraud?" asked Wise.
"No one in the world but Mrs Curtis, Mr Varian and we two nurses. MrVarian paid the poor mother ten thousand dollars, and he gave us athousand dollars apiece. The authorities of the hospital never knew. Theyassumed the dead child was Mrs Curtis' and the living child was MrsVarian's."
"And the doctors?"
"There was but one. I forgot him. Yes, he knew, but he was a greedyscamp, and Mr Varian easily bought him over. He died soon after, anyway."
"So that now,--what living people know of this thing?"
"Why--you say Mr Varian is dead?"
"Yes."
"And Mrs Varian never learned the truth?"
"No," Zizi answered, emphatically, "she never did."
"And Nurse Black is dead, and the doctor is dead,--why, then nobody knowsit--oh, yes, Mrs Curtis, of course."
"She, too, is dead," Wise said.
"Then nobody knows it but we three here. Unless of course, Mr Varian orMrs Curtis told."
"Mr Varian never did," Wise said,--"as to Mrs Curtis I can't say."
"Oh, she'd never tell," Mrs Briggs declared. "She was honest in the wholematter. She said she didn't know how she'd support her three children,let alone a fourth. And, she was glad and thankful to have it brought upamong rich and kind people. She never would have let it go unless she hadbeen sure of their kindness and care, but we told her what fine peoplethe Varians were and she was satisfied."
"Were there adoption papers taken out?"
Mrs Briggs stared at Wise's question.
"Why, no; it wasn't an adoption, it was a substitution. How could therebe an adoption? Mrs Varian thought it her own child,--the authorities ofthe hospital thought the living child was Mrs Varian's. The matter waskept a perfect secret."
"And I think it was all right," Zizi defended. "So long as Mr Varianknew, so long as Mrs Curtis was satisfied, I don't see where any harm wasdone to anybody."
"I don't either, miss," said Mrs Briggs eagerly. "I'm gratified to hearyou say that, and I hope, sir, you feel the same way about it."
"Why, I scarcely know what to say," Wise returned. "It depends on whetheryou view the whole thing from a judicial----"
"Or from a viewpoint of common sense and kind-heartedness!" Zizi said. "Ithink it was fine,--and I'm only sorry for poor Mr Varian who had to bearthe weight of his secret all alone through life."
"Oh, Zizi, that would explain the pearls!" Wise cried.
"Of course it does! He had to leave them to a Varian,--and Betty wasn't aVarian,--oh, Penny, what a situation! That poor man!"
"And it explains a lot of other things," Wise said, thoughtfully. "Well,Mrs Briggs, we'll be going now. As to this matter, I think I can say, ifyou'll continue to keep it secret, we will do the same, at least for thepresent. Did you never tell anybody? Not even your husband?"
"I never did. It was the only secret I ever kept from my husband, he'sdead now this seven year, poor man,--but I felt I couldn't tell him. Itwasn't my secret. When I took Mr Varian's money, I promised never to tellabout the child. And I kept my word. Until now," she added, and Wisesaid,
"You had to tell now, Mrs Briggs, if you hadn't told willingly andfrankly, I could have brought the law to bear on your decision."
"That's what I thought, sir. Please tell me of the child? Is she now afine girl?"
Wise realized that up in this far away hamlet the news of Betty Varian'sdisappearance had not become known, so he merely said,
"I've never seen her, but I'm told she is a fine and lovely girl. Hermother is a charming woman."
"I'm glad you say so, sir, for though I was sorry for her, she was aterror for peevishness and fretting. Yet, after she got the little girlshe seemed transformed, she was that happy and content."
Back to the inn went Pennington Wise and Zizi.
"The most astonishing revelation I ever heard," was Wise's comment, as heclosed the door of Zizi's sitting room and sat down to talk it over.
"Where do you come out?"
"At all sorts of unexpected places. Now, Zizi, have you realized yet thatLawrence North married that Mrs Curtis?"
"You're sure?"
"Practically; he married a widow named Curtis, who formerly lived inGreenvale, Vermont. I've not struck any other. And besides, it connectsNorth with this whole Varian case and I'm sure he is mixed up in it."
"But how?"
"That's the question. But here's a more immediate question, Zizi. Are weto tell Mrs Varian what we have learned from the nurse up here?"
"How can we help telling her?"
"But, think, Zizi. Have we a right to divulge Frederick Varian's secret?After he spent his life keeping it quiet, shall we be justified inblurting it out----"
"Oh, Penny, that's why Mr Varian and Betty were at odds! She wasn't hischild----"
"She didn't know that----"
"No; but he did, and it made him irritable and impatient. Oh, do
n't yousee? He was everlastingly thinking that her traits were not Varian traitsnor traits of her mother's family,--and he couldn't help thinking of thechild's real mother,--and oh, I can see how altogether he was upset overand over again when Betty would do or say something that he didn'tapprove of."
"Yes, that's so,--but Zizi, here's a more important revelation. Thereason Frederick Varian was so opposed to Betty's marrying was because hefound himself in such an equivocal position! He couldn't let her marry adecent man without telling him the story of her birth,--yet, he couldn'ttell it! He couldn't tell the young man without telling his wife,--and totell Mrs Varian,--at this late date,--oh, well, no wonder the poorfather,--who was no father,--was nearly distracted. No wonder he wascrusty and snappish at Betty,--yet of course the poor girl was in no wayto blame!"
"Wouldn't you think Mrs Varian would have suspected?"
"No; why should she? And, too, her husband took good care that sheshouldn't. It's a truly marvelous situation!"