The Moonstone 29 страница

" That is a very comforting opinion for me, " I said. " I own I should like to know. "

" You would like to know how I can justify it, " inter-posed Mr. Bruff. " I can tell you in two minutes. Understand, in the first place, that I look at this matter from a lawyer's point of view. It's a question of evidence, with me. Very well. The evidence breaks down, at the outset, on one important point. "

" On what point? "

" You shall hear. I admit that the mark of the name proves the nightgown to be yours. I admit that the mark of the paint proves the nightgown to have made the smear on Rachel's door. But what evidence is there to prove that you are the person who wore it, on the night when the Diamond was lost? "

The objection struck me, all the more forcibly that it reflected an objection which I had felt myself.

" As to this, " pursued the lawyer taking up Rosanna Spearman's confession, " I can understand that the letter is a distressing one to YOU. I can understand that you may hesitate to analyse it from a purely impartial point of view. But I am not in your position. I can bring my professional experience to bear on this document, just as I should bring it to bear on any other. Without alluding to the woman's career as a thief, I will merely remark that her letter proves her to have been an adept at deception, on her own showing; and I argue from that, that I am justified in suspecting her of not having told the whole truth. I won't start any theory, at present, as to what she may or may not have done. I will only say that, if Rachel has suspected you ON THE EVIDENCE OF THE NIGHTGOWN ONLY, the chances are ninety-nine to a hundred that Rosanna Spearman was the person who showed it to her. In that case, there is the woman's letter, confessing that she was jealous of Rachel, confessing that she changed the roses, confessing that she saw a glimpse of hope for herself, in the prospect of a quarrel between Rachel and you. I don't stop to ask who took the Moonstone (as a means to her end, Rosanna Spearman would have taken fifty Moonstones)--I only say that the disappearance of the jewel gave this reclaimed thief who was in love with you, an opportunity of setting you and Rachel at variance for the rest of your lives. She had not decided on destroying herself, THEN, remember; and, having the opportunity, I distinctly assert that it was in her character, and in her position at the time, to take it. What do you say to that? "

" Some such suspicion, " I answered, " crossed my own mind, as soon as I opened the letter. "

" Exactly! And when you had read the letter, you pitied the poor creature, and couldn't find it in your heart to suspect her. Does you credit, my dear sir--does you credit! "

" But suppose it turns out that I did wear the nightgown? What then? "

" I don't see how the fact can be proved, " said Mr. Bruff. " But assuming the proof to be possible, the vindication of your innocence would be no easy matter. We won't go into that, now. Let us wait and see whether Rachel hasn't suspected you on the evidence of the nightgown only. "

" Good God, how coolly you talk of Rachel suspecting me! " I broke out. " What right has she to suspect Me, on any evidence, of being a thief? "

" A very sensible question, my dear sir. Rather hotly put--but well worth considering for all that. What puzzles you, puzzles me too. Search your memory, and tell me this. Did anything happen while you were staying at the house--not, of course, to shake Rachel's belief in your honour--but, let us say, to shake her belief (no matter with how little reason) in your principles generally? "

I started, in ungovernable agitation, to my feet. The lawyer's question reminded me, for the first time since I had left England, that something HAD happened.

In the eighth chapter of Betteredge's Narrative, an allusion will be found to the arrival of a foreigner and a stranger at my aunt's house, who came to see me on business. The nature of his business was this.

I had been foolish enough (being, as usual, straitened for money at the time) to accept a loan from the keeper of a small restaurant in Paris, to whom I was well known as a customer. A time was settled between us for paying the money back; and when the time came, I found it (as thousands of other honest men have found it) impossible to keep my engagement. I sent the man a bill. My name was unfortunately too well known on such documents: he failed to negotiate it. His affairs had fallen into disorder, in the interval since I had borrowed of him; bankruptcy stared him in the face; and a relative of his, a French lawyer, came to England to find me, and to insist upon the payment of my debt. He was a man of violent temper; and he took the wrong way with me. High words passed on both sides; and my aunt and Rachel were unfortunately in the next room, and heard us. Lady Verinder came in, and insisted on knowing what was the matter. The Frenchman produced his credentials, and declared me to be responsible for the ruin of a poor man, who had trusted in my honour. My aunt instantly paid him the money, and sent him off. She knew me better of course than to take the Frenchman's view of the transaction. But she was shocked at my carelessness, and justly angry with me for placing myself in a position, which, but for her interference, might have become a very disgraceful one. Either her mother told her, or Rachel heard what passed--I can't say which. She took her own romantic, high-flown view of the matter. I was " heartless"; I was " dishonourable"; I had " no principle"; there was " no knowing what I might do next" --in short, she said some of the severest things to me which I had ever heard from a young lady's lips. The breach between us lasted for the whole of the next day. The day after, I succeeded in making my peace, and thought no more of it. Had Rachel reverted to this unlucky accident, at the critical moment when my place in her estimation was again, and far more seriously, assailed? Mr. Bruff, when I had mentioned the circumstances to him, answered the question at once in the affirmative.

" It would have its effect on her mind, " he said gravely. " And I wish, for your sake, the thing had not happened. However, we have discovered that there WAS a predisposing influence against you--and there is one uncertainty cleared out of our way, at any rate. I see nothing more that we can do now. Our next step in this inquiry must be the step that takes us to Rachel. "

He rose, and began walking thoughtfully up and down the room. Twice, I was on the point of telling him that I had determined on seeing Rachel personally; and twice, having regard to his age and his character, I hesitated to take him by surprise at an unfavourable moment.

" The grand difficulty is, " he resumed, " how to make her show her whole mind in this matter, without reserve. Have you any suggestions to offer? "

" I have made up my mind, Mr. Bruff, to speak to Rachel myself. "

" You! " He suddenly stopped in his walk, and looked at me as if he thought I had taken leave of my senses. " You, of all the people in the world! " He abruptly checked himself, and took another turn in the room. " Wait a little, " he said. " In cases of this extraordinary kind, the rash way is sometimes the best way. " He considered the question for a moment or two, under that new light, and ended boldly by a decision in my favour. " Nothing venture, nothing have, " the old gentleman resumed. " You have a chance in your favour which I don't possess--and you shall be the first to try the experiment. "

" A chance in my favour? " I repeated, in the greatest surprise.

Mr. Bruff's face softened, for the first time, into a smile.

" This is how it stands, " he said. " I tell you fairly, I don't trust your discretion, and I don't trust your temper. But I do trust in Rachel's still preserving, in some remote little corner of her heart, a certain perverse weakness for YOU. Touch that--and trust to the consequences for the fullest disclosures that can flow from a woman's lips! The question is--how are you to see her? "

" She has been a guest of yours at this house, " I answered. " May I venture to suggest--if nothing was said about me beforehand--that I might see her here? "

" Cool! " said Mr. Bruff. With that one word of comment on the reply that I had made to him, he took another turn up and down the room.

" In plain English, " he said, " my house is to be turned into a trap to catch Rachel; with a bait to tempt her, in the shape of an invitation from my wife and daughters. If you were anybody else but Franklin Blake, and if this matter was one atom less serious than it really is, I should refuse point-blank. As things are, I firmly believe Rachel will live to thank me for turning traitor to her in my old age. Consider me your accomplice. Rachel shall be asked to spend the day here; and you shall receive due notice of it. "

" When? To-morrow? "

" To-morrow won't give us time enough to get her answer. Say the day after. "

" How shall I hear from you? "

" Stay at home all the morning and expect me to call on you. "

I thanked him for the inestimable assistance which he was rendering to me, with the gratitude that I really felt; and, declining a hospitable invitation to sleep that night at Hampstead, returned to my lodgings in London.

Of the day that followed, I have only to say that it was the longest day of my life. Innocent as I knew myself to be, certain as I was that the abominable imputation which rested on me must sooner or later be cleared off, there was nevertheless a sense of self-abasement in my mind which instinctively disinclined me to see any of my friends. We often hear (almost invariably, however, from superficial observers) that guilt can look like innocence. I believe it to be infinitely the truer axiom of the two that innocence can look like guilt. I caused myself to be denied all day, to every visitor who called; and I only ventured out under cover of the night.

The next morning, Mr. Bruff surprised me at the breakfast-table. He handed me a large key, and announced that he felt ashamed of himself for the first time in his life.

" Is she coming? "

" She is coming to-day, to lunch and spend the afternoon with my wife and my girls. "

" Are Mrs. Bruff, and your daughters, in the secret? "

" Inevitably. But women, as you may have observed, have no principles. My family don't feel my pangs of conscience. The end being to bring you and Rachel together again, my wife and daughters pass over the means employed to gain it, as composedly as if they were Jesuits. "

" I am infinitely obliged to them. What is this key? "

" The key of the gate in my back-garden wall. Be there at three this afternoon. Let yourself into the garden, and make your way in by the conservatory door. Cross the small drawing-room, and open the door in front of you which leads into the music-room. There, you will find Rachel--and find her, alone. "

" How can I thank you! "

" I will tell you how. Don't blame me for what happens afterwards. "

With those words, he went out.

I had many weary hours still to wait through. To while away the time, I looked at my letters. Among them was a letter from Betteredge.

I opened it eagerly. To my surprise and disappointment, it began with an apology warning me to expect no news of any importance. In the next sentence the everlasting Ezra Jennings appeared again! He had stopped Betteredge on the way out of the station, and had asked who I was. Informed on this point, he had mentioned having seen me to his master Mr. Candy. Mr. Candy hearing of this, had himself driven over to Betteredge, to express his regret at our having missed each other. He had a reason for wishing particularly to speak to me; and when I was next in the neighbourhood of Frizinghall, he begged I would let him know. Apart from a few characteristic utterances of the Betteredge philosophy, this was the sum and substance of my correspondent's letter. The warm-hearted, faithful old man acknowledged that he had written " mainly for the pleasure of writing to me. "

I crumpled up the letter in my pocket, and forgot it the moment after, in the all-absorbing interest of my coming interview with Rachel.

As the clock of Hampstead church struck three, I put Mr. Bruff's key into the lock of the door in the wall. When I first stepped into the garden, and while I was securing the door again on the inner side, I own to having felt a certain guilty doubtfulness about what might happen next. I looked furtively on either side of me; suspicious of the presence of some unexpected witness in some unknown corner of the garden. Nothing appeared, to justify my apprehensions. The walks were, one and all, solitudes; and the birds and the bees were the only witnesses.

I passed through the garden; entered the conservatory; and crossed the small drawing-room. As I laid my hand on the door opposite, I heard a few plaintive chords struck on the piano in the room within. She had often idled over the instrument in this way, when I was staying at her mother's house. I was obliged to wait a little, to steady myself. The past and present rose side by side, at that supreme moment--and the contrast shook me.

After the lapse of a minute, I roused my manhood, and opened the door.

CHAPTER VII

At the moment when I showed myself in the doorway, Rachel rose from the piano.

I closed the door behind me. We confronted each other in silence, with the full length of the room between us. The movement she had made in rising appeared to be the one exertion of which she was capable. All use of every other faculty, bodily or mental, seemed to be merged in the mere act of looking at me.

A fear crossed my mind that I had shown myself too suddenly. I advanced a few steps towards her. I said gently, " Rachel! "

The sound of my voice brought the life back to her limbs, and the colour to her face. She advanced, on her side, still without speaking. Slowly, as if acting under some influence independent of her own will, she came nearer and nearer to me; the warm dusky colour flushing her cheeks, the light of reviving intelligence brightening every instant in her eyes. I forgot the object that had brought me into her presence; I forgot the vile suspicion that rested on my good name; I forgot every consideration, past, present, and future, which I was bound to remember. I saw nothing but the woman I loved coming nearer and nearer to me. She trembled; she stood irresolute. I could resist it no longer--I caught her in my arms, and covered her face with kisses.

There was a moment when I thought the kisses were returned; a moment when it seemed as if she, too might have forgotten. Almost before the idea could shape itself in my mind, her first voluntary action made me feel that she remembered. With a cry which was like a cry of horror--with a strength which I doubt if I could have resisted if I had tried--she thrust me back from her. I saw merciless anger in her eyes; I saw merciless contempt on her lips. She looked me over, from head to foot, as she might have looked at a stranger who had insulted her.

" You coward! " she said. " You mean, miserable, heartless coward! "

Those were her first words! The most unendurable reproach that a woman can address to a man, was the reproach that she picked out to address to Me.

" I remember the time, Rachel, " I said, " when you could have told me that I had offended you, in a worthier way than that. I beg your pardon. "

Something of the bitterness that I felt may have communicated itself to my voice. At the first words of my reply, her eyes, which had been turned away the moment before, looked back at me unwillingly. She answered in a low tone, with a sullen submission of manner which was quite new in my experience of her.

" Perhaps there is some excuse for me, " she said. " After what you have done, is it a manly action, on your part, to find your way to me as you have found it to-day? It seems a cowardly experiment, to try an experiment on my weakness for you. It seems a cowardly surprise, to surprise me into letting you kiss me. But that is only a woman's view. I ought to have known it couldn't be your view. I should have done better if I had controlled myself, and said nothing. "

The apology was more unendurable than the insult. The most degraded man living would have felt humiliated by it.

" If my honour was not in your hands, " I said, " I would leave you this instant, and never see you again. You have spoken of what I have done. What have I done? "

" What have you done! YOU ask that question of ME? "

" I ask it. "

" I have kept your infamy a secret, " she answered. " And I have suffered the consequences of concealing it. Have I no claim to be spared the insult of your asking me what you have done? Is ALL sense of gratitude dead in you? You were once a gentleman. You were once dear to my mother, and dearer still to me----"

Her voice failed her. She dropped into a chair, and turned her back on me, and covered her face with her hands.

I waited a little before I trusted myself to say any more. In that moment of silence, I hardly know which I felt most keenly--the sting which her contempt had planted in me, or the proud resolution which shut me out from all community with her distress.

" If you will not speak first, " I said, " I must. I have come here with something serious to say to you. Will you do me the common justice of listening while I say it? "

She neither moved, nor answered. I made no second appeal to her; I never advanced an inch nearer to her chair. With a pride which was as obstinate as her pride, I told her of my discovery at the Shivering Sand, and of all that had led to it. The narrative, of necessity, occupied some little time. From beginning to end, she never looked round at me, and she never uttered a word.

I kept my temper. My whole future depended, in all probability, on my not losing possession of myself at that moment. The time had come to put Mr. Bruff's theory to the test. In the breathless interest of trying that experiment, I moved round so as to place myself in front of her.

" I have a question to ask you, " I said. " It obliges me to refer again to a painful subject. Did Rosanna Spearman show you the nightgown. Yes, or No? "

She started to her feet; and walked close up to me of her own accord. Her eyes looked me searchingly in the face, as if to read something there which they had never read yet.

" Are you mad? " she asked.

I still restrained myself. I said quietly, " Rachel, will you answer my question? "

She went on, without heeding me.

" Have you some object to gain which I don't understand? Some mean fear about the future, in which I am concerned? They say your father's death has made you a rich man. Have you come here to compensate me for the loss of my Diamond? And have you heart enough left to feel ashamed of your errand? Is THAT the secret of your pretence of innocence, and your story about Rosanna Spearman? Is there a motive of shame at the bottom of all the falsehood, this time? "

I stopped her there. I could control myself no longer.

" You have done me an infamous wrong! " I broke out hotly. " You suspect me of stealing your Diamond. I have a right to know, and I WILL know, the reason why! "

" Suspect you! " she exclaimed, her anger rising with mine. " YOU VILLAIN, I SAW YOU TAKE THE DIAMOND WITH MY OWN EYES! "

The revelation which burst upon me in those words, the overthrow which they instantly accomplished of the whole view of the case on which Mr. Bruff had relied, struck me helpless. Innocent as I was, I stood before her in silence. To her eyes, to any eyes, I must have looked like a man overwhelmed by the discovery of his own guilt.

She drew back from the spectacle of my humiliation and of her triumph. The sudden silence that had fallen upon me seemed to frighten her. " I spared you, at the time, " she said. " I would have spared you now, if you had not forced me to speak. " She moved away as if to leave the room--and hesitated before she got to the door. " Why did you come here to humiliate yourself? " she asked. " Why did you come here to humiliate me? " She went on a few steps, and paused once more. " For God's sake, say something! " she exclaimed, passionately. " If you have any mercy left, don't let me degrade myself in this way! Say something--and drive me out of the room! "

I advanced towards her, hardly conscious of what I was doing. I had possibly some confused idea of detaining her until she had told me more. From the moment when I knew that the evidence on which I stood condemned in Rachel's mind, was the evidence of her own eyes, nothing--not even my conviction of my own innocence--was clear to my mind. I took her by the hand; I tried to speak firmly and to the purpose. All I could say was, " Rachel, you once loved me. "

She shuddered, and looked away from me. Her hand lay powerless and trembling in mine. " Let go of it, " she said faintly.

My touch seemed to have the same effect on her which the sound of my voice had produced when I first entered the room. After she had said the word which called me a coward, after she had made the avowal which branded me as a thief--while her hand lay in mine I was her master still!

I drew her gently back into the middle of the room. I seated her by the side of me. " Rachel, " I said, " I can't explain the contradiction in what I am going to tell you. I can only speak the truth as you have spoken it. You saw me--with your own eyes, you saw me take the Diamond. Before God who hears us, I declare that I now know I took it for the first time! Do you doubt me still? "

She had neither heeded nor heard me. " Let go of my hand, " she repeated faintly. That was her only answer. Her head sank on my shoulder; and her hand unconsciously closed on mine, at the moment when she asked me to release it.

I refrained from pressing the question. But there my forbearance stopped. My chance of ever holding up my head again among honest men depended on my chance of inducing her to make her disclosure complete. The one hope left for me was the hope that she might have overlooked something in the chain of evidence some mere trifle, perhaps, which might nevertheless, under careful investigation, be made the means of vindicating my innocence in the end. I own I kept possession of her hand. I own I spoke to her with all that I could summon back of the sympathy and confidence of the bygone time.

" I want to ask you something, " I said. " I want you to tell me everything that happened, from the time when we wished each other good night, to the time when you saw me take the Diamond. "

She lifted her head from my shoulder, and made an effort to release her hand. " Oh, why go back to it! " she said. " Why go back to it! "

" I will tell you why, Rachel. You are the victim, and I am the victim, of some monstrous delusion which has worn the mask of truth. If we look at what happened on the night of your birthday together, we may end in understanding each other yet. "

Her head dropped back on my shoulder. The tears gathered in her eyes, and fell slowly over her cheeks. " Oh! " she said, " have I never had that hope? Have I not tried to see it, as you are trying now? "

" You have tried by yourself, " I answered. " You have not tried with me to help you. "

Those words seemed to awaken in her something of the hope which I felt myself when I uttered them. She replied to my questions with more than docility--she exerted her intelligence; she willingly opened her whole mind to me.

" Let us begin, " I said, " with what happened after we had wished each other good night. Did you go to bed? or did you sit up? "

" I went to bed. "

" Did you notice the time? Was it late? "

" Not very. About twelve o'clock, I think. "

" Did you fall asleep? "

" No. I couldn't sleep that night. "

" You were restless? "

" I was thinking of you. "

The answer almost unmanned me. Something in the tone, even more than in the words, went straight to my heart. It was only after pausing a little first that I was able to go on.

" Had you any light in your room? " I asked.

" None--until I got up again, and lit my candle. "

" How long was that, after you had gone to bed? "

" About an hour after, I think. About one o'clock. "

" Did you leave your bedroom? "

" I was going to leave it. I had put on my dressing-gown; and I was going into my sitting-room to get a book----"

" Had you opened your bedroom door? "

" I had just opened it. "

" But you had not gone into the sitting-room? "

" No--I was stopped from going into it. "

" What stopped you?

" I saw a light, under the door; and I heard footsteps approaching it. "

" Were you frightened? "

" Not then. I knew my poor mother was a bad sleeper; and I remembered that she had tried hard, that evening, to persuade me to let her take charge of my Diamond. She was unreasonably anxious about it, as I thought; and I fancied she was coming to me to see if I was in bed, and to speak to me about the Diamond again, if she found that I was up. "

" What did you do? "

" I blew out my candle, so that she might think I was in bed. I was unreasonable, on my side--I was determined to keep my Diamond in the place of my own choosing. "

" After blowing out the candle, did you go back to bed? "

" I had no time to go back. At the moment when I blew the candle out, the sitting-room door opened, and I saw----"

" You saw? "

" You. "

" Dressed as usual? "

" No. "

" In my nightgown? "

" In your nightgown--with your bedroom candle in your hand. "

" Alone? "

" Alone. "

" Could you see my face? "

" Yes. "

" Plainly? "

" Quite plainly. The candle in your hand showed it to me. "

" Were my eyes open? "

" Yes. "