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"This gentleman was not one of your wife's friends?" |
"No, no; I call him a gentleman by courtesy, but he was quite a |
common-looking person. I hardly noticed his appearance. But really I |
think that we are wandering rather far from the point." |
"Lady St. Simon, then, returned from the wedding in a less cheerful |
frame of mind than she had gone to it. What did she do on re-entering |
her father's house?" |
"I saw her in conversation with her maid." |
"And who is her maid?" |
"Alice is her name. She is an American and came from California with |
her." |
"A confidential servant?" |
"A little too much so. It seemed to me that her mistress allowed her |
to take great liberties. Still, of course, in America they look upon |
these things in a different way." |
"How long did she speak to this Alice?" |
"Oh, a few minutes. I had something else to think of." |
"You did not overhear what they said?" |
"Lady St. Simon said something about 'jumping a claim.' She was |
accustomed to use slang of the kind. I have no idea what she meant." |
"American slang is very expressive sometimes. And what did your wife |
do when she finished speaking to her maid?" |
"She walked into the breakfast-room." |
"On your arm?" |
"No, alone. She was very independent in little matters like that. |
Then, after we had sat down for ten minutes or so, she rose |
hurriedly, muttered some words of apology, and left the room. She |
never came back." |
"But this maid, Alice, as I understand, deposes that she went to her |
room, covered her bride's dress with a long ulster, put on a bonnet, |
and went out." |
"Quite so. And she was afterwards seen walking into Hyde Park in |
company with Flora Millar, a woman who is now in custody, and who had |
already made a disturbance at Mr. Doran's house that morning." |
"Ah, yes. I should like a few particulars as to this young lady, and |
your relations to her." |
Lord St. Simon shrugged his shoulders and raised his eyebrows. "We |
have been on a friendly footing for some years--I may say on a very |
friendly footing. She used to be at the Allegro. I have not treated |
her ungenerously, and she had no just cause of complaint against me, |
but you know what women are, Mr. Holmes. Flora was a dear little |
thing, but exceedingly hot-headed and devotedly attached to me. She |
wrote me dreadful letters when she heard that I was about to be |
married, and, to tell the truth, the reason why I had the marriage |
celebrated so quietly was that I feared lest there might be a scandal |
in the church. She came to Mr. Doran's door just after we returned, |
and she endeavoured to push her way in, uttering very abusive |
expressions towards my wife, and even threatening her, but I had |
foreseen the possibility of something of the sort, and I had two |
police fellows there in private clothes, who soon pushed her out |
again. She was quiet when she saw that there was no good in making a |
row." |
"Did your wife hear all this?" |
"No, thank goodness, she did not." |
"And she was seen walking with this very woman afterwards?" |
"Yes. That is what Mr. Lestrade, of Scotland Yard, looks upon as so |
serious. It is thought that Flora decoyed my wife out and laid some |
terrible trap for her." |
"Well, it is a possible supposition." |
"You think so, too?" |
"I did not say a probable one. But you do not yourself look upon this |
as likely?" |
"I do not think Flora would hurt a fly." |
"Still, jealousy is a strange transformer of characters. Pray what is |
your own theory as to what took place?" |
"Well, really, I came to seek a theory, not to propound one. I have |
given you all the facts. Since you ask me, however, I may say that it |
has occurred to me as possible that the excitement of this affair, |
the consciousness that she had made so immense a social stride, had |
the effect of causing some little nervous disturbance in my wife." |
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