Put Yourself in His Place [232]
But, meantime, what had passed in the bride's chamber?
Raby found Grace Carden, with her head buried on her toilet-table, and her hair all streaming down her back.
The floor was strewn with pearls and broken ornaments, and fragments of the bridal veil. On the table lay Henry Little's letter.
Jael took it without a word, and gave it to Raby.
He took it, and, after a loud ejaculation of surprise, began to read it.
He had not quite finished it when Dr. Amboyne tapped at the door, and Jael let him in.
The crushed figure with disheveled hair, and Raby's eye gleaming over the letter in his hand, told him at once what was going on.
He ceased to doubt, or vacillate, directly; he whispered Jael Dence to stand near Grace, and watch her closely.
He had seen a woman start up and throw herself, in one moment, out of a window, for less than this--a woman crushed apparently, and more dead than alive, as Grace Carden was.
Then he took out his own letter, and read it in a low voice to Mr. Raby; but it afterward appeared the bride heard every word.
"MY BEST FRIEND,--Forgive me for neglecting you so long, and writing only to her I love with all my soul. Forgive me, for I smart for it. I have written fifteen letters to my darling Grace, and received no reply. I wrote her one yesterday, but have now no hope she will ever get it. This is terrible, but there is worse behind. This very day I have learned that my premises were blown up within a few hours of my leaving, and poor, faithful Jael Dence nearly killed; and then a report of my own death was raised, and some remains found in the ruins that fools said were mine. I suppose the letters I left in the box were all destroyed by the fire.
"Now, mark my words, one and the same villain has put that dead man's hand and arm in the river, and has stopped my letters to Grace; I am sure of it. So what I want you to do is, first of all, to see my darling, and tell her I am alive and well, and then put her on her guard against deceivers.
"I suspect the postman has been tampered with. I write to Mr. Ransome to look into that. But what you might learn for me is, whether any body lately has had any opportunity to stop letters addressed to 'Woodbine Villa.' That seems to point to Mr. Carden, and he was never a friend of mine. But, somehow, I don't think he would do it.
"You see, I ask myself two questions. Is there any man in the world who has a motive strong enough to set him tampering with my letters? and, again, is there any man base enough to do such an act? And the answer to both questions is the same. I have a rival, and he is base enough for any thing. Judge for yourself. I as good as saved that Coventry's life one snowy night, and all I asked in return was that he wouldn't blow me to the Trades, and so put my life in jeopardy. He gave his word of honor he wouldn't. But he broke his word. One day, when Grotait and I were fast friends, and never thought to differ again, Grotait told me this Coventry was the very man that came to him and told him where I was working. Such a lump of human dirt as that--for you can't call him a man--must be capable of any thing."
Here the reading of the letter was interrupted by an incident.
There was on the toilet-table a stiletto, with a pearl handle. It was a small thing, but the steel rather long, and very bright and pointed.
The unfortunate bride, without lifting her head from the table, had reached out her hand, and was fingering this stiletto. Jael Dence went and took it gently away, and put it out of reach. The bride went on fingering, as if she had still got hold of it.
Amboyne exchanged an approving glance with Jael, and Raby concluded the letter.
"I shall be home in a few days after this; and, if I find my darling well and happy, there's no great harm done. I don't mind my own trouble and anxiety, great as they are, but if any scoundrel has made her unhappy, or made her believe I am dead, or false to my darling, by God, I'll kill him, though I hang for it next day!"
Crushed,