Produced by Al Haines
BY WIT OF WOMAN
By
ARTHUR W. MARCHMONT
_Author of "When I was Czar" "By Snare of Love" "A Dash for a Throne"etc etc_
ILLUSTRATIONS BY S. H. VEDDER
LONDON
WARD LOCK & CO. LIMITED
1906
CONTENTS
CHAP.
I FROM BEYOND THE PALE II A CHESS OPENING III MY PLAN OF CAMPAIGN IV MADAME D'ARTELLE V A NIGHT ADVENTURE VI GARETH VII GARETH'S FATHER VIII COUNT KARL IX I COME TO TERMS WITH MADAME X A DRAMATIC STROKE XI PLAIN TALK XII HIS EXCELLENCY AGAIN XIII GETTING READY XIV I ELOPE XV AN EMBARRASSING DRIVE XVI A WISP OF RIBBON XVII IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT XVIII THE COST OF VICTORY XIX A TRAGI-COMEDY XX MY ARREST XXI HIS EXCELLENCY TO THE RESCUE XXII COLONEL KATONA SPEAKS XXIII A GREEK GIFT XXIV WHAT THE DUKE MEANT XXV ON THE THRESHOLD XXVI FACE TO FACE XXVII "THIS IS GARETH" XXVIII THE COLONEL'S SECRET XXIX A SINGULAR TRUCE XXX THE END
ILLUSTRATIONS
"He held out his hand when Madame presented him."
"The two scoundrels pulled up at the sight of it."
"Throwing herself on her knees at the Duke's feet."
CHAPTER I
FROM BEYOND THE PALE
"To John P. Gilmore, Jefferson City, Missouri, U.S.A.
"MY DEAR BROTHER-IN-LAW,--For years you have believed me dead, and Ihave made no effort to disturb that belief.
"I am dying now, alone in Paris, far from my beloved country; unjustlydegraded, dishonoured and defamed. This letter and its enclosure willnot be despatched until the grave has closed over me.
"To you I owe a debt of deep gratitude. You have taken and cared formy darling child, Christabel; you have stood between her and the world,and have spared her from the knowledge and burden of her father'sunmerited shame. You can yet do something more--give her your name, sothat mine with its disgrace may be forgotten; unless--it is a wildthought that has come to me in my last hours, the offspring of myhopeless melancholy--unless she should ever prove to have the strength,the courage, the wit and the will to essay that which I haveendeavoured fruitlessly--the clearance of my name and honour.
"When ruin first fell upon me, I made a vow never to reveal myself toher until I had cleared my name and hers from the stain of thisdisgrace. I have kept the vow--God knows at what sorrow to myself andagainst what temptation in these last lonely years--and shall keep itnow to the end.
"The issue I leave to you. If you deem it best, let her continue tobelieve that I died years ago. If otherwise, give her the enclosedpaper--the story of my cruel wrong--and tell her that during the lastyears of my life my thoughts were all of her, that my heart yearned forher, and that my last conscious breath will be spent in uttering hername and blessing her.
"Such relics of my once great fortune as I have, I am sending to youfor my Christabel.
"Adieu. "ERNST VON DRESCHLER, COUNT MELNIK."
"To my Daughter, Christabel von Dreschler.
"MY DEAREST CHILD,--If you are ever to read these lines it will bebecause your uncle believes you are fitted to take up the task ofclearing our name, from the stain of crime which the villainy of othershas put upon it. But whether you will make the effort must be decidedfinally by yourself alone. For two years I have tried, with suchstrength as was left to me by those who did me this foul wrong, and Ihave failed. Were you a son, I should lay this task upon you as asolemn charge; but you are only a girl, and left in your hands, itwould be all but hopeless, because of both its difficulty and probabledanger. I leave you free to decide: for the reason that if you havenot the personal capacity to make the decision, you will not have inyou the power to succeed. One thing only I enjoin upon you. If youcannot clear my name, do not bear it.
"I have not strength to write out in full all the details of thematter, but I give you the main outline here and send in this packetmany memoranda which I have made from time to time. These will giveyou much that you need.
"At the time of your mother's death and your leaving Hungary for theUnited States I was, as you may remember, a colonel in theAustro-Hungarian army, in possession of my title and estates, and infavour with one of the two most powerful of all the great Slav nobles,Ladislas, Duke of Kremnitz. I continued, as I believed, to enjoy hisconfidence for two years longer, up to the last, indeed. He was one ofthe leaders of the Patriots--the great patriotic movement which youwill find described in the papers I send you--the other being theHungarian magnate, Duke Alexinatz of Waitzen. Two of my friends, whosenames you must remember, were Major Katona, my intimate associate, andColonel von Erlanger, whom I knew less well.
"If the Patriots were successful, the Hungarian Throne was to be filledby Duke Alexinatz with reversion to his only son, Count Stephen; and itis necessary for you to understand that this arrangement was expresslymade by Duke Ladislas himself.
"So matters stood when, one day, some hot words passed between youngCount Stephen and myself, and he insulted me grossly. Two days later,Major Katona came to my house at night in great agitation. He declaredthat the Count had sworn to shoot me, and that his father had espousedhis side in the quarrel and threatened to have me imprisoned; and thatDuke Ladislas, unwilling to quarrel with Duke Alexinatz, althoughtaking my part in the affair, desired me to absent myself fromBuda-Pesth until the storm had blown over. He pressed me to leaveinstantly; and, suspecting nothing, I yielded. I had scarcely left myhouse when the carriage was stopped, I was seized, gagged, andblindfolded, and driven for many hours in this condition, and thenimprisoned. I believed that I was in the hands of the agents of DukeAlexinatz; and continued in this belief for six years, during the wholeof which time I was kept a close prisoner.
"Then at length I escaped: my strength sapped, my mind impaired and myspirit broken by my captivity; and learned that I had been branded as amurderer with a price set on my head.
"On the night when I had left, the young Count Stephen had been foundshot in my house; my flight was accepted as proof of my guilt, and,most infamous of all, a confession of having murdered him had been madepublic with my signature attached to it.
"That is the mystery, as it stands to-day. The God I am soon to meetface to face knows my heart and that I am innocent; but prove it Icannot. May He give you the strength and means denied to me to solvethe mystery.
"With this awful shadow upon me, I could not seek you out, let my heartache and stab as it would with longing for a sight of your face and atouch of your hand. I thank God I have still been man enough--feebleas my mind is after my imprisonment--to keep away from you.
"This sad story you will never know, unless your uncle deems it for thebest.
"That God may keep you happy and bless you is the last prayer of yourunhappy father,
"ERNST VON DRESCHLER."
* * * * *
My Uncle Gilmore had been dead three months, having left me his fortuneand his name, when, in sorting his old papers to destroy them, I cameupon these letters.
They were two years old; and it was evident that while my uncle hadintentionally kept them from me, he had at the same time been unwillingto destroy them.
My poor, poor father!