“The Lezaire Mystery”

Thames Star, Volume LIX, Issue 16656, 28 November 1925, Page 3

“The Lezaire Mystery”

By MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS. (Author of “The Brand of the Broad Arrow,” Etc., Etc.)

CHAPTER XXVJI. SIR PERCY SPEAKS. ■ “I neocl hardly pause to describe the effect that this terrible communication had upon me. I read and re-read it, turning over its contents again -and again, seeking for some shadowy hope that it was an impudent and fraudulent attampt to impose.** My constant reiteration of this view I came ere long to believe it, and after a week or two I had almost succeeded in dismissing the letter from my thoughts. Surely the wisest course was to treat the whole affair with studied silent contempt.

‘‘The meagre comfort I obtained from this decision was rudely assailed before three months had passed. A second letter came 'from Priscilla, more peremptory, more menacing in its tone. ■

“Still I could not bring myself to act; and a third letter found me still wavering, almost at my wits’ end. “This third letter might well distress me. It was not from Nova Scotia, but from London. Priscilla had come in person with her child, a boy now of eleven years, to proseiute her claims.

“It was impossible to delay longer. Some steps must be taken forthwith to satisfy Priscilla, to silence her, if possibly to buy her off. “I went alone to London that, very day, to the address Priscilla gave me, a lodging-house in a street off the Strand. I saw her there, the true Lady Lezaire, wan and worn, but still handsome, and bearing herself proudly, despite her evident poverty and He meanness of her surroundings.

“The meeting was indescribably painful to both of us. The recollection of it alone is bitter; I will not linger caot its details. For a long time Priscilla was defiant, implacable, but I won upon her at last entirely through the boy. By a distinct and solemn pomise to watch over ■'■ml pro'.'de for him, I persuaded her to waive her rightful pretensions and withdraw to Nova Scotia again. I agreed to nake over to hoi at once a substantia! sun. in hard cash to secure her against want, and to take charge of the bo\ myseif. I swore by all I held most sacred to do my duty by him, and this letter, acutely painful as it is to me. is a most unreserved fulfilment, however tardy, of mv oath.

“Priscilla promised me to leave England again without an instant’s delay, and in order to expedite her departure, I. went straight from the Strand to Lincoln’s Inn Fields, where I made a garbled and incomplete confession to Mr. Harvey, the senior partner of Harvey and Tinson, our family solicitors. T told him that years previously I had formed a connection in Nova Scotia, one of which I had no reason to be proud, but that I did not desire to evade the responsibilities 1 had incurred.

“A child had been born, and I was anxious to do my duty by it. Of course I made not the slightest allusion to the legal ties by which I was really bound. To have confessed by marriage to Priscilla would have fallen like a thunderbolt on the dear ones at Straddlethorpe. to spare whom, if 1 could. I was resolutely but culpably determined.

“Mr. Harvey heard my story with grim disapproval, but he could not. withhold the advice and assistance 1 sought. He agreed to take charge of

OUR SERIAL STORY

the boy, temporarily, until I could provide for him.

“On leaving the lawyers 1 cashed a cheque for UloOO at my bankers, tailing the bulk of it in one hundred pound notes, which I handed over to Priscilla, my rightful wife, as the price of her perpetual silence. In exchange, but very reluctantly, and torn with passionate sorrow, she surrendered her son, my'rightful heir. I never saw or heard of her again. “The boy Hubert, now twelve years old, remained in Mr. Harvey’s hands for some months, but the lawyer frequently urged me to relieve him of his charge. I wished to have the lad properly educated, and hoped Mr. Harvey would manage the whole business for me. But it was one that seemed extremely distasteful to the lawyer, and I found myself compelled ere long to take it into my own hands.

“About this time a man who had been on a hunting expedition with me in the Far West, a practised backwoodsman, wrote begging to enter my service in England if I could get him a place. He was a splendid shot, and I made him under-keeper.

“It was on condition that he should adopt young Hubert, and give him his name, Podifat. To remove him from Mr. Harvey’s charge to his new home at the under-keeper’s lodge, was a matter easily effected. As I write these lines" the boy is still there; the boy who is really and rightfully the heir to the baronetcy and all the Straddlethorpe estates.’ ’

The confession, so far as. the facts conveyed, ended here. But Sir Percy once more took himself to task; with poignant upbraiding and self-reproach implored the pardon of those he had wronged. One of two important documents were added to the confession in support of it. There were certified extracts from the registrar’s book; one of Sir Percy’s marriage with Priscilla Sparv, witnessed by Hamish Groot, master mariner, and Peter Spofforth, both of the yacht Evangeline, the other certified the birth of the boy. Hubert Algernon Lezaire, at Louisville, on the '9th January, 185—. CHAPTER XXVIII. IS HE THE HEIR ? Of the mingled feelings that oppressed Lady Lezaire after the perusal of this strange confession, indignation was scarcely the strongest. She would be more angry with her husband by-and-bv. when the full measure of her disgrace and degradation were realised—that she'was a mother but no wife—that her children were illegitimate. and that she had no right to the title of Lady Lezaire. She could not be expected' to forgive Sir Percy Lezaire for exposing her, even unwittingly, to such reproaches as these. But her first emotion now was a sc rt of sardonic satisfaction. “He will lose it all—that wretcb! In the bitterness of his disap joint nent .1 could almost rejoice at this dreadful blow.” This brought her to consider what action she ought to take, if any, and when. “Thev burn my hands, these papers. 1 feel T have no right to hold them a moment longer than I can help. They are legal documents, and must be given up to the lawyers. Mr. Tinson. I suppose, has left Market Rcepham. He must come back at once.”

Lady Lezaire gathered up everything and returning to her own sitting-room, carefully locked up the despatch-box with its contents. Then a telegram was sent off, requiring ,Mr. Tinson’s immediate presence at the Hall.

The lawyer came down early next day, and was immediately taken to see Ladv Lezaire.

“It is the strangest story I have met with in my whole professional experience,”’ he confessed frankly, when lie had read all the papers. “Strange, and to me almost incredible.” “But there are the facts, Mr. Tinson. You cannot go against the written evidence.” “I don’t know what to say. You are quite satisfied, quite positive this is Sir Percy’s handwriting? You have seen more of it than 1 have.”“Oh, j'es; I have no reason to doubt it. Jt is weak, variable, but 1 feel sure it is his.” “What beats me is the concealment of the confession till the present moment. Let me see, when did he die?” “On December the 11th, 1871.” “Eight years ago. And these papers, of the most vital importance, have lain hidden all this time. Extraordinary !” “Not when you consider where they l were.” “But how can they have escaped the executors? My partner, old Mr. Harvey, was liere for a week or more going through the deceased’s papers, just after Sir Percy died.” “He could not have visited the Spanish chamber. So far as ! can remember. the room was shut up immediately after the funeral. No one entered it then, or has since ,except the maids.”

“Well, I am answered, but not entirely satisfied. Lady Lezaire. You see such tremendous issues bang on this confession.”

“A regards the property?” “That in the first place. Then as regards yourself ” “Oh .never mind me. Let justice be done; let the rightful heir succeed, and without delay. He has too long been kept "out of his own.” “Yes. yes; but we must proceed regularly. Lady Lezaire. It will he necessary first to make every step sure. No notice of ejectment—and that is what will have to be served on Mrs. St. Evelyn if the case is to go on—” “Why, of course, it is to go on. The St. Evelyns must be dispossessed; lie must be forced to disgorge the plunder lie has taken such dreadful means to secure.”

“Forgive me. Lady Lezaire. Colonel St. Evelyn has been acquitted by a jury of his fellows. You must not make such insinuations.”

“The point as whether you will act in this matter, or shall I call in & me other lawyer?”

“On behalf of the claimant, this Hubert?' You would make his case vour own?”

“I do not hesitate—if he has the best fight to be master here. ’ “Of course, I owe no allegiance to Colonel St. Evelyn. On the contrary, he has taken the affairs of the Straddlctliorpe estates altogether out of our hands. But ; t is a serious thing to declare war, to commence a suit of ejectment, in fact. We must see our way first quite clearly; we cannot take up such a case, you understand, merely on ‘spec.’ It would not be'reputable —we have our professional character to think of. Lady Lezaire—nor safe.”

“You might be out of pocket, you mean, if the case went against you?” “Frankly, yes. We should lose heavily, and not only in money.”

“So you refuse to take it up?” “Softly, softly, my dear lady. I do not say that. But 1 must make some inquiries, some preliminary investigation. I must verify some of these facts ”

“For instance? Is not the evidence of my husband's confession enough?”

“No ; these marriage and birth ; certificates must be authenticated, and ip the claimant, Sir Hunbert, as lie ought to be called if his case is clear, must be identified.” , “By whom? How?” • *

“Our Mr. Harvey is old, and has re- ' tired from the business; but lie .is poi fectly clear-headed still. He will assuredly remember the boy Sir Percy intrusted to him, and can say whether lie is one and the same with this Hubert Podifat, as he was called, who has lived here in Straddlethorpe ever since.” So saying, Mr. Tinson left her ladyship’s presence. * ' : v \i;j: CHAPTER XXIX. EJECTMENT- SERVED. ' Colonel St. Evelyn had travelled with his family into the very heart ot Europe. It had been his wife’s earnest = wish, and he himself was nothing to avoid English people, 'to ; escape English gossip, and to see, none of the papers which still commentedon and freely criticised “his case.”

He had found the peaceful seclusion he sought at a little lake-side town. Jt was an Arcadian evistenee, calm, happy and uneventful —a period of absolute repose which is too often the precursor of sorrow and misfortune, just as the whirlwind is preceded by a deathlike stillness in the physical world..

“Too bright to last,” Rachel had said that morning, with a not uncommon presentiment, of evil near at hand.

It came that very day, in the shape , ' of a letter from Air. Tinson—a business letter, brief and to the point,: with summons to surrender so sum- % mary and unconditional that St. Evelyn ; , felt* the case against him must be strong. ’ j “As you are the husband and nearest < ■ representative of Mrs. Rachel St. Evelyn,” wrote Mr. Tinson, “I beg to give* you notice of ejectment from the A Straddlethorpe estates. The existence of a son of Sir Percy Lezgire by an earlier marriage lias been in our opinion satisfactorily and conclusively proved, and the rightful heir has placed the matter in our hands. If you are disposed to contest the' claim, ■- be so good as to notify us of the names of the solicitors acting on your arid 1 your wile’s behalf, who will accept service, as we shall carry the matter at once before the court.—Your obedient' servant.' HILARY TINSON.” ' “What is it, Ferdinand, dear?” Mrs. ■ St. Evelyn asked. “You seem put • out. Won’t you tell me? Do not keep anything from me now, after all / we have gone through.” “I'.have nothing to conceal, only I don't understand quite. The thing’s so sudden, so incomprehensible, so strange. But you should know; you , may lieip me, dear. Did you ever hear that your father had been married twice?” ■ ’ v 1 “What! before lie married mamma? ‘ Oh, no. never! It cannot be possible. Who says so!” , . “It is positively asserted here,” said the Colonel, holding out the letter. “More, that there was,a child by this first marriage.” “Who is that from?" “Mr. Tinson.” , ■ “Surely mamma doe.s ■ . .this ?” I “There is no ment'ioi/* of y Lezaire. but I seem to seedier hjM, in j it. A fresh attempt,.to rujti js. *: Really. Rachel, your nether— . jLf ' “And what became of the ciiih||| 1 asked Mrs. St. Evelyn .avoidinQ|U reference to Lady Lezaire. / (To bo continued.) §