Crimes of Old London: The Scoured Silk by Marjorie Bowen

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by Monte Herridge


  Her cousin was not there; she heard

  future husband; a yearning for the kindly

  angry voices overhead and saw the two maid

  presence of her childhood’s companion,

  servants affrighted on the stairs; a disturbance united in the resolute words she whispered

  was unknown in this household.

  into her pillow during that bitter night: “I can While Elisa stood bewildered, a door

  never marry him now!”

  banged, and Captain Hoare came down, red in

  The next day it snowed heavily. A

  the face and fuming; he caught his cousin’s

  strange elation was in Elisa’s heart as she

  arm and hurried her out of the house.

  descended to the warm parlor, bright from the

  In an angry voice, he told her of the

  fire and light from the glow of the snow

  unwarrantable behavior of Mr. Orford. who

  without.

  had found him in the hall and called him

  She was going to tell her father that

  “intruder” and “spy” without waiting for an

  she could not carry out her engagement with

  explanation; the soldier had followed the Mr. Orford and that she did not want to even scholar up to his cabinet and there had been an go into his house again.

  angry scene about nothing at all, as Captain

  They were all gathered round the

  Hoare said.

  breakfast-table when Captain Hoare came in

  “Oh, Philip,” broke out poor Elisa, as

  late (he had been out to get a news-letter) and they hastened through the cold darkness, “I

  brought the news that was the most unlooked

  can never, never marry him!”

  for they could conceive, and that was soon to

  And she told him the story of Flora

  startle all London.

  Orford. The young man pressed her arm

  Mr. Orford had been found murdered

  through the heavy cloak.

  in his cabinet.

  “And how came such a one to entangle

  These tidings, though broken as

  thee?” he asked tenderly. “Nay, thou shall not

  carefully as possible, threw the little

  marry him.”

  household into the deepest consternation;

  They spoke no more, but Elisa, happy

  there were shrieks and cryings and runnings to

  in the protecting and wholesome presence of

  and fro.

  her kinsman, sobbed with a sense of relief and

  Only Miss Minden, though of a ghastly

  gratitude. When they reached home they color, made no especial display of grief; she

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  10

  was thinking of Flora Orford.

  spillings of grease on the desk. The supper-

  When the doctor could get away from

  tray stood at the other end of the room and

  his agitated womenkind, he went, with his

  most of the food had been eaten, most of the

  nephew, to the house of Mr. Orford.

  wine drunk, and the articles were all there in

  The story of the murder was a mystery.

  order, excepting only the knife, sticking

  The scholar had been found in his chair in

  between Mr. Orford’s shoulder-blades.

  front of his desk with one of his own bread-

  When Captain Hoare had passed the

  knives sticking through his shoulders: and house on his return from buying the news-there was nothing to throw any light as to how

  letter he had seen the crowd and gone in and

  or through whom he had met his death.

  been able to say that he had been the last

  The story, sifted from the mazed person to see the murdered man alive, as, he incoherency of Mrs. Boyd, the hysterics of the

  had had his sharp encounter with Mr. Orford

  maids, the commentaries of the police about ten o’clock, and he remembered seeing constables, and the chatter of the neighbors,

  the supper things in the room.

  ran thus:

  The scholar had heard him below,

  At half past nine the night before Mrs.

  unlocked the door, and called out such

  Boyd had sent one of the maids up with her

  impatient resentment of his presence that

  master’s supper. It was his whim to have it

  Philip had come angrily up the stairs and

  always thus served, on a tray, in the cabinet.

  followed him into the cabinet; a few angry

  There had been wine and meat, bread

  words had passed when Mr. Orford had

  and cheese, fruit and cakes, the usual plates

  practically pushed his visitor out, locking the and silver among these the knife that had

  door in his face and bidding him take Miss

  killed Mr. Orford.

  Minden home.

  When the servant left, the scholar had

  This threw no light at all on the

  followed her to the door and locked it after

  murder. It only went to prove that at ten

  her. This was also a common practise of his, a

  o’clock Mr. Orford had been alive and locked

  precaution against any possible interruption.

  in his cabinet.

  For, he said, he did the best part of his work in Now here was the mystery; in the

  the evening.

  morning the door was still locked, on the

  It was found next morning that his bed

  inside; the window was, as it had been since had not been slept in and that the library door early evening, shuttered and fastened across

  was still locked. As the alarmed Mrs. Boyd

  with an iron bar, on the inside; and the room could get no answer to her knocks, the man-being on an upper floor, access would have

  servant had sent for some one to force the

  been almost impossible by the window, which

  lock, and Humphrey Orford had been found in

  gave on to the smooth brickwork of the front

  his chair, leaning forward ever his papers,

  of the house.

  with the knife thrust into the hilt between his Neither was there any possible place in

  shoulders. He must have died instantly, for

  the room where any one might be hidden. It

  there was no sign of any struggle, any was just a square, lined with the shallow book-disarrangement of his person or his papers.

  shelves, the two pictures (that somber little

  The first doctor to see him—a passer by, one looking strange now above the bent back attracted by the commotion about the house—

  of the dead man), the desk, one or two chairs,

  said he must have been dead some hours and side-tables. There was not as much as a probably the night before. The candles had all

  cupboard or bureau, not a hiding-place for a

  burned down to the socket, and there were

  cat.

  Crimes of Old London: The Scoured Silk 11

  How, then, had the murderer entered

  what she had told Elisa Minden—the affair

  and left the room?

  was twenty years ago, and the gallows bird

  Suicide, of course, was out of the had no kith or kin left.

  question, owing to the nature of the wound.

  But Miss Minden remained convinced

  Murder seemed equally out of the question.

  that the story of Flora Orford had to do with

  Mr. Orford sat so close to the wall that the

  the death of her husband.

  handle of the knife touched the panel behind

  This poor
lady fell into a desperate

  him. For any one to have stood between him

  state of agitation, a swift change from her first and the wall would have been impossible;

  stricken calm. She wanted Mr. Orford’s house

  behind the back of his chair was not space

  pulled down, the library and all its contents

  enough to push a walking-stick.

  burned. Her own wedding-dress she did burn,

  How, then, had the blow been in frenzied silence, and none dare stop her.

  delivered with such deadly precision and She resisted her father’s entreaties that she force?

  should go away directly after the inquest; she

  Not by any one standing in front of

  would stay on the spot, she said, until the

  Mr. Orford; first, because he must have seen

  mystery was solved.

  them and sprung up; and secondly, because,

  The truth was that she was afraid that

  even had he been asleep with his head down,

  Philip Hoare would come under suspicion as

  no one, not even a very tall man, could have

  having been the last man to speak to Mr.

  leaned over the top of the desk and driven in

  Orford and as having quarreled with him, as

  the knife, for experiment was made and it was

  the maid servants had heard.

  found that no arm could possibly reach such a

  Of course it was a crazy thought; for

  distance.

  there was the fact of the door being locked on

  The only theory that remained was that

  the inside (and the key being found in Mr.

  Mr. Orford had been murdered in some other

  Orford’s pocket), and the maids had also

  part of the room and afterward dragged to his

  heard their master calling after his visitor as present position.

  he shut himself in. Still, it was a thought that But this seemed more than unlikely, as

  further distracted the tortured mind of the girl.

  it would have meant moving the desk, a heavy

  The whole thing seized her with a

  piece of furniture that did not look as if it had terrible sense of nightmare horror, and on the

  been touched, and also because there was a

  second day after the murder she was in a state

  paper under the dead man’s hand, a pen in his

  so desperate that her father feared for her

  fingers, a splutter of ink where it had fallen, reason.

  and a sentence unfinished.

  Nothing would content her but a visit

  The thing remained a complete and

  to Mr. Orford’s cabinet. She was resolved, she

  horrid mystery, one that seized the said wildly, to come to the bottom of this imagination of men. The thing was the talk of

  mystery; and in that room, which she had only

  all the coffee-houses and clubs.

  entered once, and which had affected her so

  The murder seemed absolutely terribly, she believed she might find some motiveless; the dead man was not known to

  clue.

  have an enemy in the world, yet robbery was

  The doctor thought it best to allow her

  out of the question, for nothing had been even

  to go. He and her cousin escorted her to the

  touched.

  house, that now no one passed without a

  The early tragedy was opened out. shudder, and into the chamber that all dreaded Mrs. Boyd told all she knew, which was just

  to enter.

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  Good Mrs. Boyd was sobbing behind

  scholar being carried away. and his chair

  them. The poor soul was quite dazed by this

  stood back. The long panel on which hung the

  sudden and ghastly ending to her orderly life.

  picture of the gallows was fully exposed to

  She spoke all incoherently, explaining, view.

  excusing and lamenting, all in a breath; yet

  To Elisa’s agitated imagination this

  through all her trouble she showed plainly and

  portion of the wall, sunk in the surrounding

  artlessly that she had had no affection for her book-shelves, long and narrow, looked like

  master, and that it was custom and habit that

  the lid of a coffin.

  had been wounded, not love...

  “It is time that picture came down,”

  Indeed, it seemed that there was no

  she said; “it cannot interest any one any

  one who did love Humphrey Orford. The longer.”

  lawyers were already busy looking for a next

  “Lizzie, dear,” suggested her father

  of kin: it seemed likely that this property and gently, “had you not better come away? This

  the estates in Suffolk would go into Chancery.

  is a sad and awful place.”

  “You should not go in, my dear, you

  “No,” replied she. “I must find out

  should not go in,” sobbed the old woman,

  about it; we must know.”

  catching at Miss Minden’s black gown (she

  And she turned about and stared at the

  was in mourning for the murdered man), and

  portrait of Flora Orford.

  yet peering curiously into the cabinet.

  A silence fell on the little party; each

  Elisa looked ill and distraught, but also

  was thinking of this grim mystery that there

  resolute.

  seemed little chance of solving, the mystery of

  “Tell me, Mrs. Boyd,” said she, the murdered man in the locked room—an pausing on the threshold, “what became of the

  absolute purposeless murder, as far as any one

  scoured silk?”

  could see.

  The startled housekeeper protested that

  1It was Elisa Minden who broke the silence.

  she had never seen it again. Here was another

  “He hated her, Mrs. Boyd, did he not?

  touch of mystery, the old peach-colored silk

  And she must have died of fear; think of

  skirt that four persons had observed in Mr.

  that—died of fear, thinking all the while of

  Orford’s cabinet the night of his murder had

  that poor body on the gallows. He was a

  completely disappeared.

  wicked man, and whoever killed him must

  “He must have burned it,” said Captain

  have done it to revenge Flora Orford.”

  Hoare, and though it seemed unlikely that he

  “My dear,” said the doctor hastily, “all

  could have consumed so many yards of stuff

  that was twenty years ago, and the man was

  without leaving traces in the grate, Still it was quite justified in what he did, though I cannot the only possible solution.

  say I should have been so pleased with the

  “I cannot think why he kept it so match if I had known this story.”

  long,” murmured Mrs. Boyd. “for it could

  “How did we ever like him?” muttered

  have been no other than Mrs. Orford’s best

  Elisa Minden. “If I had entered this room

  gown.”

  before, I should never have been promised to

  “A ghastly relic,” remarked the young

  him. Something terrible is in this room.”

  soldier grimly.

  “And what else can you look for, my

  Elisa Minden went into the middle of

  dear,” sniveled Mrs. Boyd, “in a room where a

  the room and stared about her. Nothing
in the

  man has been murdered?”

  place was changed, nothing disordered. The

  “But it was like this before,” replied

  desk had been moved round to allow of the

  Miss Minden; “it frightened me.”

  Crimes of Old London: The Scoured Silk 13

  She looked round at her father and

  window a few inches square, which looked on

  cousin and her face was quite distorted.

  the garden, was furnished with a filthy bed of

  “There is something here now,” she

  rags and a stool with a few tattered clothes. A said—“something in this room.”

  basket of broken bits was on the floor.

  They hastened toward her, thinking

  Elisa Minden crept closer.

  that her overstrained nerves had given way;

  “It is Flora Orford.” she said, speaking

  but she took a step forward.

  like one in a dream.

  Shriek after shriek left her lips.

  They brought the poor body down into

  With a quivering finger she pointed

  the room, and then it was clear that this faded before her at the long panel behind the desk.

  and terrible creature had a likeness to the

  At first they could not tell at what she

  pictured girl who smiled from the canvas over

  pointed, then Captain Hoare saw the cause of

  the mantelpiece.

  her desperate terror.

  And another thing was clear, and for a

  It was a small portion of faded peach-

  moment they refrained from talking.

  colored silk, showing above the ribbed line of

  For twenty years this woman had

 

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