“I took it out of its box very gingerly and put it on. It didn’t want any strings. For it fitted well over the back of my head and quite closely over my face. I looked at myself in the mirror. It was incredible how completely another personality had been fitted on to me with the mask. My own eyes were there shining through the long curled delicate eyelashes, but I could not have identified them myself. I had only to wear some dress no one at Suvlac had seen me in, alter it to give me a look of greater age, and with a mask like that over my head and face my own mother could not have recognized me.
“Yes, but I couldn’t get a mask like that. It was the work of a real artist, a mask as finished as an ode of Horace. And then in a flash the inspiration did come. If I could take Diana’s place! The dress itself showed that she was to take an actual part in the celebration. She was to be the acolyte who swings the censer. If I could take her place — and get away scot- free afterwards! Why, I should be mistress of the position and Diana would be unhurt. I could threaten, I could expose, if the law had a punishment for this particular abomination, I could help the law to inflict it — and Diana would not be touched. If I could only take her place! And the moment after the inspiration came, and whilst I was still standing before the mirror looking through the eye-holes of the mask, came the means of realizing it. They just unrolled themselves out in front of me.
“I won’t say that I wasn’t desperately frightened. I was. I knew that I should receive very little mercy from Evelyn Devenish once I was helpless in her hands. I shivered as I stood there. But it wasn’t all from fear. There was excitement in it too.
“I took off the mask — reluctantly — for I fancied that with its removal my inspiration would vanish too, and my plan become an absurdity. But they both remained with me. I held the mask in my hand until I felt sure of them. Then I replaced it in its white cardboard box, set everything in order, and slipped out of the room. The house was still empty. I went down to a bench at the bottom of the garden and, sitting there, worked out my plan step by step, trying to think of every flaw in it, of every possibility of failure. But, of course, the dreadful crime which did ruin it altogether never entered into my mind.
“That evening was of good augury. I had made a guess that Evelyn Devenish was a woman who would never move without a little store of soporifics. I told her after dinner that I was sleeping badly at Suvlac, but that since I didn’t have a doctor’s prescription, I didn’t see how I was going to get a sleeping-draught which it would be worth while to take. Evelyn Devenish first of all laughed contemptuously at my innocence. But she ceased to laugh. She looked at me curiously, and then with a gleam of pleasure.
“‘But, of course, I can help you,’ she cried. So I was right in my guess. ‘I have some chloral in crystals. I’ll fetch you a few,’ and she hurried off to her room.
“I think it had come into her head that a good strong sleeping-draught taken by me on the evening of Wednesday week would be a sound proposition. I should be kept out of the way very completely. I was the more sure of that when she returned with a little paper packet. For she particularly insisted that I should let her know in the morning what effect the crystals had had.
“‘You must dissolve them in water, of course,’ she said. ‘I have given you quite a small dose to be on the safe side. But it’s important that I should know tomorrow how it has worked.’
“I promised to let her know, and took the crystals to my room. But once there, I was frightened to use them. Yet I had got to use them. I knew nothing about sleeping-draughts. I have slept like a baby all my life. I hadn’t the slightest idea whether it was a weak dose or a strong dose — or even too strong a dose which had been given to me. Yes, that fear was unpleasantly vivid to me. I watched the crystals disappearing in the water under the light of the lamp by my bed and I wondered whether I was not dissolving enough to put me out of the way for good and all. Evelyn’s hard eyes had held so mocking a smile: she had looked me over with such complete contempt. On the other hand, she was probably experimenting — just as I was. She was finding out how much of the chloral was required to induce sleep so profound that nothing would disturb it on the night of Wednesday week — just as I was. I got into bed and drank the glassful of water in a hurry. I was in a panic when I had done it, and I tried quite uselessly not to sleep at all. ‘I won’t,’ I said to myself. ‘I won’t.’ And the next thing I remember was looking at my watch in broad daylight and realizing that it was half-past eleven and my coffee stone-cold on the table at my side. I felt a little heavy, but nothing worse; and I was inclined to doubt whether if I had been naturally a light sleeper, the dose would have been strong enough. So all that I said to Evelyn was:
“‘Yes, I slept a good deal better. I didn’t wake up so often.’
“Evelyn Devenish nodded her head.
“‘Well, I’ll give you a stronger draught next time. But it mustn’t be yet. If you get into the habit of taking this stuff it won’t have any effect. You shall have some more of the crystals in a week’s time, if you remind me.”
“Now, a week brought us exactly to the Wednesday when I was to be out of the way. I thanked her very gratefully for her kindness. She must have taken me for a zany, I slipped my foot so stupidly into her trap.
“So far all was very promising, but I had one more precaution to take. I knew that the celebration of the Black Mass followed the ritual of the true Mass, and I must be familiar with it. I therefore attended the little church at Suvlac assiduously during the next week, and I am afraid that I left the Abbe Fauriel under the belief that he was in the way of making a valuable convert of a girl from the United States with millions of money. As a matter of fact, I was watching every movement of the one small boy of the village who acted as his acolyte. There were movements not so very easy to get into one’s head. For sometimes they corresponded with the movements of the priest, sometimes they were in a sort of opposition, like — I don’t use the words irreverently — like dancers setting to partners. However, by the Wednesday, what with attendance at the church and rehearsing in my bedroom, I felt that I could get through. On Tuesday morning, too, the registered parcel arrived from Leeds, and so everything was ready.”
Joyce Whipple drew in a breath as she thus reached the last stage of her adventure, and sat with her eyes brooding upon the table. A bottle of Evian water stood in the centre. She touched the arm of her lover and asked for a glass of it.
“Mademoiselle,” Hanaud said gently, “if you are disturbed by your recollections of that night, you must not let us add the distress of relating them to us here. You will, alas! have to tell them once more.”
“At the Cour d’Assizes,” she answered. “I know, and I confess that I shrink from the prospect of the publicity and the gaping faces. But it will help me against that hour of ordeal if I tell it first among my friends. My story will be all the more ordered, and its repetition less of a penance.”
She drained her glass of water and resumed.
CHAPTER 28
THE NIGHT OF WEDNESDAY
“ON THE WEDNESDAY after luncheon I took Evelyn Devenish aside upon the terrace and startled her thoroughly by saying: “‘It’s for tonight, isn’t it?’
“Her eyes opened to their full width in consternation, and the blood left her face.
“‘For tonight? What’s for tonight?’ she stuttered, and waited in suspense for my answer. I took a little malicious pleasure in keeping her for as long as I could safely do it in her embarrassment and agitation.
“‘What?’ I repeated with an air of surprise. Oh, you won’t have forgotten! I can’t believe it,’ and with every fresh sentence I spoke she lost more and more of her power to dissimulate, until her face looked like a pair of hard eyes bright with hate set in a white mask. I thought indeed as I looked at her: ‘There’s the very disguise for me.’ But at the same time I realized that I wasn’t being very wise. So I said quickly:
“‘You promised me a sleeping-draught for tonight, Mrs. Devenish. I h
ave been looking forward to it tremendously.’
“The colour rushed back into her face. ‘Of course, I hadn’t forgotten,’ she answered. ‘You shall certainly have it, Joyce.’ Then she changed her note. ‘I want you to do something for me in return. Oh, a little thing! It’ll sound silly to you. Perhaps it is. But I am rather superstitious,’ and she pulled herself up as though she had said too much. ‘I want you to lend me something you usually wear — that bracelet, for instance,’ and she pointed to the gold band round my wrist. ‘I’ll give it back to you tomorrow.’
“No doubt I looked surprised. I couldn’t imagine why even the most superstitious person should want it. It wasn’t a charm, or a thing which is supposed to bring luck, like a bracelet of elephant’s hair. It was just a strip of gold with a fire opal at the clasp. I unfastened it, however, and gave it to her.
“‘Of course you can have it,’ I said, rather amused. Evelyn Devenish almost snatched at it. Then she looked at me with amusement too, but a secret sort of amusement, as though I was the greatest fool in the world to let her have it.
“I waited until after tea in the garden — we had no expedition arranged for that day — and then I slipped out alone for a walk, with the varnish, a small paint-brush and a thick pair of gloves in my handbag. I went by the hill road to the little gate in the tall hedge of the Mirandol garden. No one was within sight. I put on the thick gloves and painted the latch and the post and the rail carefully and quickly. Then I made a bundle of the bottle, the brush and the gloves and pushed it deep into the hedge; from which place Monsieur Hanaud has, I think, recovered it.”
Hanaud contented himself with a nod of assent. This was not the moment for even the most commodious of phrases. For a curious uneasiness had been gaining upon Joyce’s small audience. Each one felt that he was a spectator of the events which he was merely hearing related. Each one was present in the rose-pink chateau of Suvlac, watched the lone, fine-hearted girl in her crusade against the powers of darkness, and trembled at the issue. She was there in front of them, but the pinewood walls of the homely restaurant had fallen apart and they walked with her in the glamour of her high adventure.
“Whilst I was dressing for dinner Evelyn Devenish knocked at my door and entered the room.
“‘Here’s the draught for you,’ she said. ‘There are a few more crystals than there were last time. But not too many. I should take them all.’
“She pushed the white packet into my hand and went out again. The packet was a good deal heavier than the one which she had originally given me, and I was afraid to use it all. I dissolved about three-quarters of the crystals in a small amount of water whilst I finished dressing, poured the draught carefully into a little medicine bottle, corked the bottle and hid it in a drawer. Then I went down to dinner and found you” — she turned towards Mr. Ricardo with a smile. “You gave me a fine shock afterwards, although you were unaware of it, but at that moment I was delighted to see you. I had been alone before — now I had someone who would stand by my side.”
“Yes, yes! To be sure, I was there,” said Mr. Ricardo, feeling quite ready for everything now that the danger of everything had passed. He was unable, indeed, to understand in what way he could have caused Joyce Whipple any serious alarm. Joyce was making a mistake. Her memories of that night were not unnaturally confused.
“I welcomed you all the more,” Joyce continued, “because we were all, with the exception of Robin Webster, nervous on that evening. He was as calm, as self-assured, as though he had no anxiety upon his mind heavier than a doubt whether the shower of rain would fall in time to increase the vintage. But the rest of us were troubled, and when the Abbe Fauriel arrived with his story of the stolen vestments, I think we were all on the edge of hysteria. I know that I made the most terrible blunder when I cried out: ‘It is not I who dispense the cold!’ There was not a soul in the dining-room except the servants, Mrs. Tasborough and Mr. Ricardo who did not understand my allusion. I had given away my knowledge of the horrible secret which bound that little household as clearly as if I had stood up and cried it aloud. I remember that Evelyn Devenish, after the moment of consternation had passed, looked triumphantly across the table at Robin Webster. She was saying by her expression as clearly as words could have said: ‘What did I tell you? She knows.’
“There was, indeed, a little conference held upon the terrace after dinner between her and Robin Webster and de Mirandol. But they had no reason to think that I was aware of what they had planned for tonight, and as for tomorrow — well, Evelyn Devenish had made her arrangements for me. I was afraid for a moment that the celebration might be put off until the Friday. For I had no excuse for altering my arrangements. I was bound to go in the morning. But as the conference broke up, de Mirandol said in his high voice: ‘At one o’clock, then.’ Then a low cry of impatience from Evelyn Devenish, but he added ‘tomorrow,’ and they all laughed.
“The arrangement was to hold, then. I have explained to you how I had slipped into the way of preparing the drinks of the party. I ran off to my room, got the little bottle with the sleeping-draught, and holding it in my handkerchief, returned to the drawing-room just in time to hear Mrs. Tasborough calling for Diana to mix a nightcap for the Abbe. Diana, Mr. Ricardo at all events will remember, came into the room last of all, and asked me for a brandy-and-soda. The table was so placed that I had my back to the room. I took the cork out of the little bottle, put some brandy into the glass, and then, tilting the siphon with my left hand, squirted the soda-water into it. At the same time I was holding the glass on the table with my right hand, and I was able to empty the little phial into the brandy under cover of the noise made by the siphon. Immediately afterwards, the Abbe Fauriel and the others who were not staying in the house departed, and we dispersed to our rooms. It was still very early.”
“Yes,” Mr. Ricardo agreed. “I remember that it was exactly ten minutes to eleven when I began to prepare myself for bed.”
“I had made up my mind to wait for an hour and a half before I stole down to Diana’s room. I took off my dress and changed into black stockings and shoes, and put on a dressing-gown, all in a foolish fever. But after that I had nothing to do and I have never known time creep so slowly. With the passage of each everlasting minute I shrank more and more from the peril in front of me. I saw myself detected, my mask stripped from me. I imagined Evelyn Devenish gloating over me, her hate satisfied. But I had a shivery sort of intuition that even she could not be as cruel as de Mirandol with his red lips and his big, flabby face. And the mere sight of my bed, with its white sheet turned neatly down, began to make me drowsy. I began to argue: ‘Suppose that I went to bed, Diana could not leave the house tonight. That’s certain and that’s the main thing.’
“Of course it wasn’t. The main thing was that there shouldn’t be another opportunity of repeating tonight with Diana present. But the invitation of my pillows was becoming irresistible, would have already become irresistible if I had not had just one little spark of shame glowing within me at the thought that all my fine plans and resolutions were dwindling to nothing at all because I couldn’t keep my eyes open. Then I sprang up and turned out the light. I couldn’t go on with the white sheets and the pillows shouting to me not to be a fool. In the dark, unable to see them, I might be better able to keep awake. And it was lucky that I did turn the light out. For a few minutes later, as I was sitting on the edge of the bed, I heard the scrape of a foot upon the stone staircase outside my door. Someone — Evelyn Devenish — it could only be her — was listening outside my door to make sure that I was asleep. At once I was wide awake and certain too that I was late, that I ought to be now dressed and ready in the hall. I had a fear that she would go into Diana’s room, and I listened for the sound of a door opening and shutting, for a startled cry, for a rush of feet. But when a few moments afterwards I opened my own door, the house was so silent that I felt I could have heard a mouse stirring.
“I had closed my shutters and drawn the
curtains over the windows, when I first went upstairs. I turned on the light again and looked at my watch. It was within a few minutes of half-past twelve. I crept downstairs and very gently opened Diana’s door. Her light was still burning, but she herself lay upon her bed in the dress which she had been wearing, breathing easily and sound asleep. I laid a quilt over her, took from the drawer the black velvet suit, the cassock, the domino and the mask, and was turning towards the door when I saw a parcel wrapped up in brown paper upon the table. For all I knew, it might have something to do with the dress she was to have worn. I unfolded it and saw that it was the lace-edged surplice which upon special days I had seen the Abbe’s acolyte wearing at High Mass. I added it to my little pile of clothes, turned out the light, took the key from the lock, and after going out locked the door behind me. I didn’t want Evelyn Devenish to blunder into the room at the last moment and find her asleep. If she tried the door, she would think that Diana had already made her way to our rendezvous and had locked her door for safety.
“At ten minutes to one, then, dressed and masked, I slipped out of the front door and went quickly down the road to the farm buildings. A small car without any lights stood in the road. Robin Webster quite undisguised sat at the wheel, with a woman beside him — Evelyn Devenish. She threw open the door upon her side, but I had quickness enough to see that fortune was favouring me. I waved with my hand, ‘The answer is in the negative,’ and climbed into the dickey. Neither Robin Webster nor Evelyn pressed the invitation to join them, and the car ran swiftly along the road across the pasture and up the hill to the gate. I let them both get down first, and I was still indeed on the step when I heard a stifled oath from Webster and a little cry of annoyance from Evelyn Devenish. Both of them had got some of my professor’s varnish on their hands, and when I reached them they were rubbing it off as best they could with their handkerchiefs. ‘Be careful of the gate. It’s sticky,’ said Robin Webster as he swung it open. I passed through behind him and Evelyn Devenish, and I kicked it to with my foot. I wanted everybody who used that gate tonight to open it with a hand upon the latch. The front door of the house was open and the passage lit. The light streaming through the doorway showed me some small groups of people, and here the light revealed a mask, there an enshrouding cloak. There were lights, too, in the library upon the ground floor, and the shadows of people moving to and fro were flung upon the gravel. The company, indeed, was larger than I expected, and at one moment I welcomed it as a security, at another I dreaded it as multiplying the chances of detection.
Complete Works of a E W Mason Page 115