A PAYING GUEST.

Press, Volume LV, Issue 9989, 19 March 1898, Page 9

A PAYING GUEST.

My husband and I are of that numerous class of seemingly wealthy people, whose smart shoes pinch them perhaps more tightly than the well worn ones of their poorer neighbours. It ia no easy matter to keep np a great house like the Abbey on an income dwindling year by year. During the spring of 1895, in fact, we were in such low wafer, owing to our tenants' shortcomings in rent, that we had serious thoughts of putting down our horses, and, indeed, our expenses generally. Before we had decided on any such serious measure, however, my eye was caught by one of the fa-hionable "paying guest" advertisemente in a newspaper:—" Young lady desires board and residence in country house; healthy locality, driving, tennis." Liberal terms for introduction into country society. References given and required." It seemed the very thing for us, and I wrote off at once for particulars. My husband slightly demurred at the idea at first, but matters were eventually arranged as I wished—a very satisfactory reference from a clergyman silencing a few of his objections. My son, Harry, also thought it necessary to remonstrate, and wrote to mc from Oxford expressing the strongest disapproval and assuring mc in the most forcible terms that I was " lowering our position." He seemed slightly more reconciled to the arrangement, however, after the first evening spent in the society of our guest, on his "return for the Easter vacation. Nora Lestrange had been with us about ten days then, and with her merry ways and dark fiquante beauty had quite won our hearts, t was scarcely wonderful, therefore, that a boy like Hurry should fall Under the spell of her attractions, and, as I watched himbending over her at the piano, a doubt struck mc for the first time as to the absolute wisdom of my proceedings. From that evening Harry was her devoted slave—fetching, carrying, holding wool for her to wind, rowing her on the river, turning over the leaves of her music.

She was a year or so older than he, and a great deal older, I fancied, in worldly wisdom—for though he had been a year at Oxford, there was a good deal of the schoolboy still in Harry. One afternoon, a week later, when I was nodding over a book in my favourite corner of the drawing-room, I was roused by the sound of voices. Looking through the branches of a great tree fern that screened mc from observation, I Baw a pretty tableau enough. Harry was leaning over the back of a huro chair in which little Nora had ensconced herself. She was laughing and looking up at him, teasing him unmercifully.

Perhaps, as she threw her head back, one of the little curls touched his cheek—perhaps it was the mocking light in her eyes— that filled him with sudden passion. In another moment be was kneeling beside her, clasping her in his arms—kissing her lips, her eyes, her hair—calling her by every endeariug name. " Nora, dearest Nora!" he whispered with boyish ardour as *he drew back from his embrace, "can't you love mc just a-little? I know I am not half good enough for you, not half! When you came here it was juat as if an angel from heaven had come to the house 1" (I could nob help smiling as I thought of his Oxford letter and of the liberal terms on which the angel had come to us.)

" YVon't yon be my good angel, Nora, and try to love mc just a little ?" . There was a strangely stricken look on the girl's face as she listened.

"May God forgive mc I" she said—theh bursting, into tears she rushed from the room.

Harry followed her slowly, and my unintentional eavesdropping remained undetected, but the remembrance of the scene I had witnessed weighed heavily on my mind. The worst of it was that it was all my own fault.

However, Nora Lestrange had only another fortnight with us, aud although 1 could not help liking the girl, I cannot say I felb sorry when her visit drew to a close. Her last day with us happened to be Harry's twenty-first birthday, and in spite of the lowness of our exchequer, we felt obliged to do something to celebrate it. We liad received a good deal of hospitality from our neighbours during the month Nora had been with us, for her beauty and strange, charm of manner had lent brilliancy to the usual monotony of our country festivities, so that we felb almost obliged to do something in return.

After much deliberation, we decided to give a dinner party and informal dance. The entertainment altogether bid fair to be a great success. The dinner was good, though, perhaps, not so luxurious as those that our wealthier friends were in the habit of giving.

In one thing, however, could none of them rival us, and that was in the magnificent display of silver plate that always made our table at least a feast for the eyes. Most of the pieces were heirlooms, and their age lent them additional value, so that if we could have made up our minds to part with one or two of them the proceeds would easily have tided us over our difficulties. However, we should a 8 soon have thought of selling the old abbey house itself. Directly dinner was over the servants prepared the table for the light supper, which I thought would be acceptable after the dancing, the arrangement of silver and flowers being left, of course, undisturbed. The gentlemen did nob remain very long in the smoke room, and at 10 o'clock we all adjourned to the ball-room, which was in quite a different parb of bhe house. Nora, of course, was the belle of the evening, and it was whispered that our festivity was given, not alone to celebrate our sou s majority, but also his betrothal to the beautiful Miss Lestrange. She was dressed all in white, and was wearing the most magnificent jewels in the room, the brilliancy of which gave rise to the report that we had been successfully angling for an heiress. Harry's devotion to her certainly gave food for gossip, though I could see that Bhe gave him as little encouragement as possible. With her other partners she laughed and talked incessantly, though, to my mind, there seemed something forced and unnatural in her gaiety. She was unusually • pale, a circumstance which rather heightened than detracted from her beauty, and her dark eyes shone like stars.

Everyone Beemed to be enjoying themselves, and all was going merrily as a marriage bell, when the footman, who had lately to do duty for butler, came rushing into the room with a scared look on his face.

When he reached mc he could scarcely speak for excitement; but at last he managed to gasp out what was amiss—the silver plate— the priceless silver plate had vanished from the dining table ! While we had been dancing and laughing and amusing ourselves in one remote corner of the house, and while the servants had been shut up in the servants' hall over their supper, a daring burglary had been committed.

In a moment all was confusiou, and scarcely believing our ears, we made with one accord for the dining-room. There was the table with its banks of flowers, its shining glass and dainty dishes— yet the table shorn of its glory—the silver centrepieces were gone! For a moment I felt too dazed to do or say

anything, but my husband went straight to the windows. They were fastened ; but a glass door leadinc from the tbe conservatory was not. The footman always had strict orders to lock it before dusk, and assured us positively that he had done so that evening.

It was a suspicious circumstance, and my husband whispered to mc that he thought the thief, whoever he was, must have had an accomplice in the house. It did, indeed, seem as if the perpetrator had been made acquainted with the evening's arrangements.

Nora and a niece of ours, who had been asked to stay the night, now added to the general panic by announcing, after visiting their rooms together, that their jewel cases had also been stolen. Nora, we knew, had a set of rubies worth nearly as much as the diamonds she was wearing. We sent at once for the police—not that we had any gceat reliance on their sagacity, but because it seemed the only thing to do. Tiie nearest village policeman, however, was three miles away, aud my husband, naturally impatient, could not bear the thought of the delay. I am not quite sure whether it was he or Harry who finally suggested the mad scheme of going themselves in pursuit. ; 1 begged aud prayed them not to do such a foolish thing. What would be the good of all the silver in the world if they got killed or hurt? But they only laughed at my entreaties.

Most of the guests had left by this time, but a friend of mine and her husband offered to stay to keep mc company. Harry, of the two, was more bent on going, though Nora added her tears and persuasions to mine. I had thought up till now that she did not care for him, and was very much surprised, therefore, to hear her begging him to stay for her sake.

"It is for your sake 1 am going," he whispered in reply, " to find your jewels."

There was a bright look on his lace as he answered his lather's summons to start.

Poor boy. If he had only known what he was going to find.

However, I will leave my husband to tell the story or the night's adventures.

11. I think my wife has deputed the most unpleasant, if perhaps the most thrilling part of the story bo mc. It is boo bad of her, as I am really no good at handling a pen; 1 am more in my element with a gun or a horse.

However, "needs must when the dcv " But I am forgetbing who will overhaul my manuscript.

I felb quite in my element on the night in question—a good horse under mc, and a good gallop in prospect. Even bhe probable irretrievable loss of the silver, weighed less heavily on my mind when I felt bhe sweep of the cool night wind in my face.

My son Harry was my only companion, the groom being unable to accompany us for lack of a third mount.

Of course, I had an idea in my head before we set forth as to what direction we should take, though I knew that the chances were that our expedition would, in any case, prove a wild goose chase. • Without wishing to emulate Sherlock Holmes, I "deducted" from tbe probabilities of the case that the thieves had brought some kind of vehicle to convey their booty away; also that they would most likely make with it for the coast, our house being only fifteen miles inland.

Having deducted as much as that, it was only natural to deduct further that, there being by-ways and lanes leading in that direction, the thieves would naturally prefer them to the high road, even chough they were somewhat circuitous, and probably— as there had been some heavy rain—bad travelling. Ten miles away the lanes and the highway converged, and my plan consisted in riding as hard as possible along the road until we reached the converging point. The success of the plan depended not alone in my being right in my deductions— which Harry, at any rate, seemed to think extremely doubbful—but also on the question of how much start the thieves had had of us.

Two points in our favour were that our horses knew the road well, while the broad stretch of turf on either side made it an excellent one for riding. Save for an occasional stumble or so wo reached the cross roads without advefltttre, then, tying our horses up ab a little distance T-as they were not the kind of animals to Btand a pistol shot—we prepared to await the approach of the enemy. A damp pitch was not, perhaps, the most prudent resting place after such violent exertion, and the half hour we spent in it seemed, I must say, interminable. Harry begun to shiver, and to wish openly that we were back again, aud that the plate was—somewhere else.

We could not have waited more than a half hour, however, when the distant sound of wheels made us spring to our feet and prepare for action.

It was nearly 1 o'clock in the morning, and, so far, we had met no vehicles—indeed, oh a country road at such an hour there was not likely to be much traffic.

The sound of wheels, therefore, naturally threw us into a great state of excitement. The sound, too, seemed to come more from the direction of the lane than the road. It was rather a dark night, and we could not see, until the vehicle was close upon us, that it Was a trap with two men in it. Then I heard Harry make a little exclamation of surprise. It was Farmer Jones's g'g:

Farmer Jones was one of our own tenants, and a mau, moreover, who was not much in the habic of making nocturnal excursions. Tho horse was not being driven much beyond the old man's usually smart pace, but neither of the figures in the trap, as I saw when ib drew nearer, was the stalwart one of Jones.

Something in their muffled np appearance made mc _whisper hurriedly to Harry and dart forward, dashing the loaded end of my whip across the horse's nose.

As I had anticipated, ib swerved violently, the trap, which was a light one, heeling completely over, while the two occupants were thrown into the ditch. The horse, amidst the crash of the breaking shafts and woodwork, kicked and plunged madly, finally galloping away, snorting aud terrified, dragging the wreck of the trap behind him.

Then, for a moment, an awful doubt seized mc as to whether I had been assaulting and overturning two harmless friends of Farmer Jones.

A glance at the packing cases strewn around, however, reasured mc, but the moment's hesitation had been fatal to our pre-arranged plan of binding the thieves as they lay stunned with the fall.

The one upon whom I advanced, in fact, almost immediately sprang to his feet and came for mc.

He was a strong, powerful fellow—in much better training, as I soon found, than Harry, meanwhile, went towards the other prostrate form, which as yet had not stirred. "My God .'" I heard him exclaim, " it's a woman." -■■*■ He did not see the pistol which was lying beside her, and thinking that, even if* she recovered consciousness, she could do no harm, he came to my assistance.

It was not before I needed it, for the man had got his hands round my throat, and was choking the life out of mc. Harry told mc afterwards that my eyes were starting from

my head and that my face was perfectly livid. Coming up behind, he dealt the ruffian a blow on the head with his riding whip, which served to make him relax his grip. We had resolved beforehand not to use our firearms, unless in extremity. We were now as we tbcaght, two to one, and the man was getting the worst of it, when I happened to glance in the woman's direction. She was crouching on the ground and covering mc with her pistol. Quick as thought I pushed the mau between myself and the glistening barrels. At that moment the report rang outthere was a sickening thud at our feet—and for a moment—silence. It was broken by the woniau's hysterical screaming. Like a tigress she came towards us—lifting the lifeless head in her armsstraining it to her breast—kissing the dead hp 3 again and again, oblivious of us, of her own danger, of'everything except-the one terrible fact that the man she loved was dead, and that she had killed him. Her cloak and muffler had fallen from her, and we saw to our surprise that she was wearing a black lace dress cut low at the neck. We saw, too, as she tore open her companion's overcoat to feel tor the heart she iiad stilled for ever, that he was also in evening dress. The woman was singularly handsome, and it seemed, even in the dim light of the matches we kept striking, that there was something familiar in hei beauty. It was long before the distracted woman could be gotlo believe that her accomplice was really dead, but when at last she realised the terrible truth, she seemed quite apathetic as regards her own fate, and willing to do whatever we told her. Harry had ridden off ab once for a doctor and other assistance, and plenty of people were soon on the scene. The woman, in her ravings, told the doctor before bhem all that she had shot her husband, rather a fortunate thing for us, as it seemed a case of manslaughter or murder against somebody. Harry had also managed to procure a. horse and cart from somewhere, for Jones s horse had long ago disappeared. It was found, in fact, at his gate next morning, still shivering with fright, and dragging the broken remnants of the trap after ib.

We hoisted the packing cases (containing the silver, for the recovery of which we had all paid such a heavy price) into the vehicle. Then the woman was dragged from the side of her dead husband and put in beside them, the doctor whispering to mc that I had better accompany her, as she seemed in a very wild sbabe. He himself undertook to see to the disposal of the body and all the necessary arrangement-. Accordingly I gave Harry directions to bring the horses, and returned to the. Abbey —with-the silver certainly, but scarcely the happier for that. However, indirectly, I could not help feeling that the man's death lay at our door. My wife was exceedingly kind to the poor woman, who seemed all but demented by the shock. I think gratitude for her qwn husband • and son's safety lent additional warmth to her sympathy. Harry reached home, of course, long before tho arrival of my Eomewhat lumbering conveyance, and my wife told mc thab he looked round first of all for Nora, and seemed strangely disconcerted when a servant told him that she had just gone to her room. Perhaps he hoped she might have felt a little anxiety on his behalf. My wife spent tixe rest of the night with the woman who had tried to work us such ill. Every hour-the poor creature seemed to grow wilder and wilder, until in the -morning we felt compelled to send for a aoctor. The house was thrown into some confusion, but still we could, not help wondering slightly when breakfast time came and .neither my wife nor Nora put in an appearance. I said to the former later in the morning that I supposed Nora was helping with the patient, but to my surprise nothing had been seen of her in the sick room.

My wife ran up to see if our guest were ill, returning with a blank look on her face. Nora was not in her room, the bed had not been slept in—but she had brought down a little note directed to Harry, which she had found on the dressing table.

The contents of that note were never divulged, only Harry's face grew strangely white as he read ib, and he got up and left the room abruptly. ' The content- of another note, however, found subsequently in our poor patient's pocket explained mabters but too clearly. Ib was a note from Nora to her mother, in cipher, certainly, but a cipher which was easily interpreted. In it all our plans for the evening were succintly set down. " At 10 o'clock," the letter stated, "Mr and Mrs and their friends will all.be in the ball-room, which is at the back of the house, the servants will be at supper in the servants' hall, and" (this underlined) "the little glass door into the dining-room will be unlocked."

Directions wero also given for finding the path -trough the shrubbery, a plan of the house and garden being inclosed, and even for the best Way of stealing off'with Farmer Jones's horse and trap. " Come in evening dress," the letter concluded, " and then if you are seen you will only be mistaken for some of the guests—a goo 4 many strangers are invited. I will collect the jewel cases and leave them in the oak bureau near the dinner waggon, my own among them to divert suspicion." Then came the postscript:— " P.S.—Mr and Mrs — have been very kind to mc, and 1 would have cut, off my right hand sooner than have told you all— if you had not made mc." I suppose when poor Nora heard that her father had been overtaken and killed and her mother brought to J|b.e house in such an unhinged state of mind, she must have thought the game was up and that her only safety lay in flight. We should, in fact, have gained some insight into the plot from the poor mother's ravings, even had we not found that letter in her pocket. We did not take any steps to set the police in pursuit of our guest, and, indeed, very few.people ever dreamt that the beautiful Miss Lestrange had been in any way connected with the affair.

We never received the " liberal terms " for her board, residence and introduction into society ; but, as she left her rubies behind, Harry not having had an opportunity of returning them to her that night, we were more than indemnified;

We did our best to restore them to her by means of advertisements, but never receiving any tidings of her whereabouts, we were unable to do so.

Harry's wife, the little fair-haired and richly-dowered daughter of a neighbouring squire, sometimes wears them ; but I never think he likes to see her do so. I often wonder if he ever told her all their history. Nora's poor mother, so strangely like her in appearance, never recovered her reason, and ended her adventurous career in an asylum.

The silver plate, somewhat battered and damaged, was soon restored to its pristine glory, and bids fair to be handed down to future generations.— Home Notes.