firm tone. "But that's not half thecraft and cunning she displayed, as you will perceive later. I know Ihave acted wrongly, and should have long ago placed my suspicions beforethe police, but I feared to do so, lest I should be arrested for thefraud. From day to day I lived on in anxiety and breathless wonder,Mrs. Blain or Blain himself being constant visitors to The Hollies,while now and then Hartmann would come down from London, as if called infor consultation. At length, one day in early June, we returned to thehouse in Upper Phillimore Place, Madame announcing her intention toremain there a month. Our neighbours, the Coulter-Kerrs, were delightedat our return, for they seemed to know hardly a soul in London. Afterwe had been there about a week Mrs. Blain and Mary called one afternoon,and while I chatted to the latter in the dining-room, Mrs. Blain talkedprivately with Madame in the room beyond. The door was closed, asusual, and they were conversing only in low whispers, when suddenlytheir voices became raised in heated discussion. A quarrel had arisen,for I heard Mrs. Blain exclaim quite distinctly: `I tell you I havenever dreamed of any such thing; and I'll never be a party to it. Sucha suggestion is horrifying!' Then Madame spoke some low words, to whichher companion responded: `I tell you I will not! From this moment Iretire from it. Such a thing is infamous! I never thought that it wasintended to act in such a manner.' To this Madame made some mutteredobservation regarding `absurd scruples' and the impossibility ofdetection, whereupon Mrs. Blain flounced forth from the room in a highstate of indignation, saying, `Mary, it's time we should go, dear, or weshan't be home for dinner.' Then she made a cold adieu to the woman whohad been her most intimate friend, and with her daughter departed."Eva's breath came and went rapidly in the intensity of her emotions, herthin nostrils slightly dilated, and as she paused her lips were firmlypressed together.
"Next morning, at about eleven, almost before Madame was ready toreceive, Blain himself called," she went on. "He was grey-faced andvery grave, but after a rather long interview he left in high spirits,wishing me farewell quite gaily. On the following day the Coulter-Kerrswere in great distress about their servants, for both were dishonest,and upon Madame's declaration that she could immediately find othersthey had been discharged at a moment's notice. About five o'clock thatafternoon both husband and wife, with whom I was on the most friendlyterms, came in to chat with Madame about the servants, and after we hadconversed some time tea was brought, of which we all partook. ThenMadame invited them in for whist after dinner, as was our habit, for wewere all inveterate players. About six o'clock, while I accompanied Mr.Kerr next door in order to prepare their makeshift meal, Mrs. Kerr--Madame always called her Anna--remained behind to make some arrangementsfor one of our servants to go in temporarily. Suddenly, about twentyminutes later, while I was in the kitchen washing some salad, I becameconscious of a strange, sharp pain which struck me across the eyes,followed almost instantly by a kind of paralysis of the limbs and afeeling of giddiness. I ascended to the hall, calling loudly for help,and from the drawing-room heard Mr. Kerr's voice, hoarse andstrange-toned, in response. With difficulty I struggled up the secondflight of stairs, but on entering the room where the tiny red lightburned--some curious Indian superstition of Mrs. Kerr's--I saw in thedusk that Kerr had fallen prone on the floor and was motionless as onedead. Then, helpless, I tottered across to a chair, and sinking into itall consciousness left me."
Both Boyd and myself stood breathless at these startling revelations.
"When I came to myself," she continued, "I was back in Madame's housenext door. She had forced some liquid between my lips, and wasinjecting some other fluid into my arms with a hypodermic syringe. Iwas amazed, too, to notice that she had changed her dress, assumed agrey wig, and wore a cap with bright ribbons, in most marvellousimitation of an old lady. While I thus remained on the couch in theback sitting-room, dazed and only half conscious, there came a loud ringat the door and I overheard a police-officer making inquiries of `Mrs.Luff' regarding the people next door. Then I knew that Kerr's body hadbeen discovered, and that Madame was personating the previous occupierof that house. I was not, however, aware at that time of how Hartmannhad called upon Madame and had carried Mrs. Kerr through a small breachmade in the fencing of the garden at the rear into her own house, orthat I had been brought back by the same way into ours. Madame, whenall was clear, went that night down to The Hollies, leaving me alonewith the servants, who, having apparently been sent out upon errandsduring the events described, knew nothing. I therefore kept my owncounsel, and recollecting having overheard Blain, when taking leave ofMadame on his last visit, refer to an appointment he had with Hartmannin St. James's Park, I resolved also to keep it. I did, but instead ofmeeting him," she said, addressing me, "I met you."
"I recollect the meeting well," I answered. "Continue."
"Well, I returned to The Hollies, but it was evident from Madame'smanner that she was in deadly fear. I was not, of course, aware of whathad actually occurred, although I entertained the horrible suspicionthat both my friends had fallen victims. She took me partly into herconfidence later that day, for the police, she said, would discover an`awkward accident' next door, and that she must not be seen andrecognised as Mrs. Luff. She told me that, in order to avoid anyunpleasant inquiries, Hartmann had entered the place before the police,and had carried away every scrap of anything that could lead to theiridentity, and as I knew from Mr. Kerr's previous conversation that allhis letters were addressed to Drummond's Bank, it seemed improbable thatthe bodies would be identified. `It's a very serious matter for us,'Madame said to me earnestly. `Therefore say nothing, either to Mrs.Blain or Mary.' By that, and other subsequent circumstances, I knewthat both were in ignorance. They had no hand whatever in the ghastlyaffair, for after the quarrel they never again met Madame.
"Weeks went by," she continued, after a pause. "I still remained onfriendly terms with Mrs. Blain and her daughter, knowing them to beinnocent. Madame never went out, but once or twice Hartmann visitedher. Whenever he did so, high words usually arose, regarding money, itseemed, and once Blain, who by his family was supposed to be still inParis, came late at night, ill-dressed and dirty. It was then that Ifirst learnt the motive for the ingenious conspiracy. Blain seemed inabject fear that the police had somehow established the identity of thedead man. If so, he said, all had been futile. Hartmann, it appeared,had a daughter whom I had never seen, and it was through her that theactivity of the police had been ascertained." Then, turning her eyesagain to me with an undisguised love-look, Eva exclaimed, "The torturesof conscience which I suffered through those summer days when youdeclared your love are known to God alone. My position was a terribleone, for I saw that by preserving this secret I had been an accessory toa most foul and cowardly crime, and I held back from your embrace,knowing that one day ere long I should be arrested and brought topunishment. I lived on, my heart gripped by that awful sin in which Ihad been unwittingly implicated. Then one day you called at The Holliesand I gave you some wine from a fresh bottle which I opened myself. Itwas wine which Madame had specially ordered from the stores on myaccount because the doctor had prescribed port for me. That wine waspoisoned, and you narrowly escaped death. The fatal draught wasintended for me! Hartmann and Madame Damant had, indeed, broughtpoisoning to a fine art."
"Was poison never in your possession?" inquired Boyd gravely.
"Yes," she responded without a second's hesitation. "After the affairat Phillimore Place I discovered Hartmann's address, and from a paper inMadame's jewel-cabinet I copied some strange name--Latin, I think--whichI knew related to one of the secret poisons. Then, in order to satisfymyself as to Hartmann's position, I went to him to obtain some. My ideawas that the information I could thus obtain would be of use if I werearrested. I found that under the name of Morris Lowry he had for yearskept a herbalist's shop near the _Elephant and Castle_. Fortunately, byreason of my veil, he did not recognise me, and after some haggling gaveme some greyish powder in a small wooden box securely sealed. Idiscove
red afterwards that his daughter was in love with your friend Mr.Cleugh, therefore it must have been through the latter that the old manbecame aware of the movements of the police."
"Yes," said Lily simply, "it was." The revelation held her dumbfounded.
"Then Hartmann and Lowry were actually one and the same?" I observed,bewildered.
"Certainly," Eva answered, all her soul in her eyes. "But there was yeta further curious incident. A few days after you had taken that fataldraught from my hand, Madame, in sudden anger, discharged all threeservants. Then, when they had gone, she had a small square hole aboutsix inches wide cut in the wall of one of the
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