THE NOVELIST

Observer, Volume 1, Issue 20, 29 January 1881, Page 197

THE NOVELIST

HUITED DOWN.

A NOVEL,

By Adolphe Belot,

CHAPTER K. Continued.

** Then, madame, we shall succeed — we shall •succeed," and in saying so Cooke seized Eleanor's hands in his own, and shook them warmly. She let him do so without showing the least astonishment or aversion. Cooke was to her not a mail, nor a police agent; he was an accomplice, an avenger. They seated themselves oppposite to one another, and Cooke resumed — "After three ■days' reflection, yoii still think that Brownpath •assassinated your husband ? " "Indeed, I do. And you ? " "Yes, I too. I will go further than that — my suspicions are now almost certainties, but purely moral certainties, and, as you are aware, we must have material proof." " Have you discovered any method of proCuring such proof ? " "Yes, but I need your aid." "It is yours." "Do not forget that you will have to display immense energy." ."I have plenty." "Great patience." " I will have that, too." "You will have to conquer your natural •repugnance to many things.' " I will do so when the necessity arises." "The plan which I have conceived, moreover, will appear to you detestable, insane, horrible ; you will recoil from it at first." "What does that matter, if I adopt it in the •end, and it succeeds ? " "Then listen." " I am all attention." And so that she might not miss a word, she seated herself on the sofa beside Cooke. They might have been a couple of lovers on the eve of an interchange of tender sentiments. "You must know, first of all, madame," said Cooke, after a moment's reflection, "that I have not lost sight of Brownpath since his release from prison. At my request notice was rsent me of the hour when lie would be set at liberty, and 1 awaited him at the gates of the prison. No sooner was he outside than he jumped into a cab, and I followed him, and for the last three days, none of his movements have escaped me. Whilst lam here with you one of my myrmidons, dressed as a commissionaire, has taken up his post at the corner of the street, and is watching the house, so you see, he cannot escape us. But, in putting in force this incessant surveillance, I have not neglected other points no less important, and likely to be of the greatest use to us. I have been initiating myself into the life passed by Brownpath, and have been drawing together all the threads which he imperfectly exposed to the magistrate. The conclusions 1 have formed is that Brownpath has never, during the whole -of his existence as a young man, been in love with any woman." "How does that concern us ? " said Eleanor. "Very deeply, 1 ' was the reply; "and you ■will be convinced of that if you listen to me." "Proceed, then." " There is indeed one woman at whose house Brownpath is a constant visitor. The lady in -question is one Kate Hamilton, perfectly known to the police. This woman has recourse for her livelihood to a walk of industry very popular with some ladies — she gives tea parties." " What do you mean by that ? " interrupted Eleanor. "I do not wonder at your asking, since you cannot be familiar with all our manners and customs. A lady who gives tea parties invites to her house, once or twice a week, some of her female friends, .amongst whom she is careful to select the youngest and prettiest. As soon as these invitations are out she sends others, to all the men of her acquaintance. To one she says, ' You will meet Cora; 'to another, 'The lovely Olympe will be here ; come and bring your friends, and we will spend a pleasant -evening.' Tims allured, her friends and her friends' friends flock to the house. They laugh, they talk, they drink tea, and then one of the ladies casually proposes a game at 'lansquenet' — only a mild game, with a five shilling piece as •the first stake. ' Come and sit by me,' says ! Olympe, to some young man, whom she has completely vanquished. 'Come— l'll bring you good luck, and you shall win all night.' The youth takes his seat, his friends follow his example; they pull a crown out of their pockets and lose it, and then another, which goes the same way. At 2 a.m. the stakes, which were not to exceed twenty shilllings, have jumped up to fifty, or a hundred, and "bank notes have taken the place of gold and 1 silver. At 5 a.m. neither bank notes, nor gold, are to be seen on the table ; everybody declares he has lost, and, nevertheless, all the money has disappeared. In its place counters, cheques, .andX O. U.s appear. At 11 a.m., jaded and tired to death, the guests take their departure, -with losses amounting to three, five, ten hundred pounds. As for the mistress of the house •she had gone to bed, about 5 a. m., after having •carefully stowed away in her capacious pockets '.all the gold and bank notes in circulation up to t that, hour, which help to pay for the tea so .generously provided." . "I understand," said Eleanor, who had been listening attentively. "But," continued Cooke, "amongst the men gathered together by the lady in question there are some who are on intimate terms in the establishment. They have long been familiar . with the manners and customs in vogue, and they know perfectly well what a five shilling -commencement means. They know that it is prudent io 'pass' when Cora cries banquo, and that a drawn game with Olympe is dangerous. 'They know also to a minute when it is prudent .to withdraw the gold and bank notes from circulation, and that moment is not lost. So without having, generally speaking, committed

any act of dishonesty, properly so called, .they rarely lose, and never refuse the invitations which the mistress of the house sends them '; for they are skilled in attracting other gamblers, in keeping up the excitement, and in raising the stakes. These last details will sufficiently explain to you, madame, the character of the relations which, according to rumour, exist between Brownpath and Miss Hamilton ; you have divined that it is, as far as they are concerned, a simple question of interest. Brownpath is certainly not in love with her." "But what do you wish to convey by all this ? " said Eleanor, impatient on account of her failure to comprehend Cooke's drift. "I conclude that if he has never loved he ought to be, of all men, susceptible of the tender passions." "Well ! whom do you wish him to love?" " You, madame." "I !" "Yes, you." "I?" repeated Eleanor, who imagined she had not heard aright. " It is the only means we have of arriving at the truth. Brownpath does not know you, and consequently, will not suspect you. You will enter into his life ; you will be a partaker in his existence ; yon will gain an insight into his past, and, little by little, you Avill unmask him. With such an adversary as ours, ordinary means would fail. Something," he added, looking fixedly at Eleanor, who had not yet recovered from her siuprise, " unforeseen, something out of the way and extraordinary, is necessary. I have sought for such a thing, and I think I have found it. You will be the Delilah of this new Samson, you will shear his

locks, and lie will deliver himself into the hands of the Philistines." "But this scheme is altogether a mad one," cried Eleanor. "I admit it." " It cannot be realised." "As for that I will he responsible, with your assistance." "I should need superhuman cowrage." " And you Avill have it." " I should betray myself." "Never! If you adopt my plan you will have but one sole idea — success. Brownpath will be the one to betray himself, and your husband will be avenged." And as Eleanor, pale and in a fever of excitement, did not reply, he took up his hat and his cane, which he had deposited m a corner of the room, and, going towards the door said — "I will return to-morrow, at the same hour. If you tell me, as I hope you will, that you adopt my scheme, I shall have the honour of unfolding it to you more in detail." "But — ," said Eleanor, as if she wished to detain her visitor. "Until to-morrow," said he, and he left the room. CHAPTER XI. Toavards the end of October Sir John Thornton, one of whose interesting letters we have already made public, wrote to his protege, Cooke, thus : — " I give you my word, most trusty youth, that the contents of your last letter have roused my curiosity. I was beginning to be terribly bored when you appeared, on the scene to cheer me up a bit. It is very good of you, and, with a little more amusement at your hands, I shall end by putting you in my will !

to the detriment of my nephew, a great overgrown booby who has so far forgotten himself as to air his Liberal ideas in my presence. Yes, he has even dared to cast in my teeth that I am behind the age. '[Zounds! that is a phrase which might easily cost him two or three thousand pounds. " Behind my age— l ! I not only belong to the present generation, but to that also which is to come, and in it I predict a few creditable catastrophes. "Ah, my dear nephew, yon will have some news of it to tell me, if God grants you life, which is not probable, seeing that you are fading away and are already developing premature decay. Yes, you belong thoroughly to your generation; nobody would argue that point with you. " But here I am, talking of family matters to you. Am lin my dotage, or is it that— l stop short here, for if there is a secret between us two you will soon discover it. Louis you are bloodhound enough for that. And now let us hark back to our text.

" I have reflected deeply on the plan "which you have conceived and conniunicated to me. Between ourselves, it is absurd, impossible, senseless, but— it will sncceed, if for that reason only. Ah !if your pretty widow of St. John's Wood were a Londoner, I should say to you — devil a bit, my dear friend ; she is incapable of carrying such a scheme to a prosperous end, she will take the first opportunity of rounding on you and showing you up as a fool for your pains. " But she is an Italian, a Northern Italian, a Genoese. Those women are to be trusted ; they have not yet degenerated, as many of

their countrywomen and all our own have. They are not mere drawing-room dolls, they are women, true women. "Go on your way with this one; you will arrive at your deslinaf ion, and it is I who say so. She Avill deliver this Brownpath up to you, she will dissect him, and there will not be a bit of him left. " Your idea of comparing them to Delilah and Samson is very happy. Upon my honour, for a man of your time you are not quite a fool, and you deserve to have lived under the old regime. "But, tell me. has she accepted the plan you proposed to her '( Your last letter stopped at the most interesting point ; you might be writing a noA'el in instalments, another nice invention of modern times ! Quick, quick, send me aline putting me in possession of all that passed at your last interview with her. At my age, alas ! I cannot live on my own account ; help me to live in the life of others. You will not regret it; men of my stamp do not forget services rendered ; ingratittide is a recent invention. " P.S. — This Government of July is going on badly enough, and moreover, it has no money. The life that you are going to lead will put .you to a great expense, which, believe me, your secret service allowance will not cover, notwithstanding all the promises made to you. Draw on me ; do not let it bother you ; I am not going to economise for my ass of a nephew. Behind my age, dndeed ! The idiot ! He might as well have called me a blockhead at once. But, par la sambleu, he shall pay for it." Cooke lost no time in replying — | "I called on Mrs. Hardcastle, at ten o'clock

in the morning of the day before yesterday, as I had arranged with her on the previous evening. This time I had not to wait. She joined me at once, and told me without delay that she had reflected well over my scheme, and, seeing 'that other means were wanting, accepted it. " ' Very well, madame,' I replied. " ' Then, without further loss of time, we sat down, face to face, and discussed an infinity of details. Two hours afterwards I left her and entered forthwith on the campaign. The first thing I had to do was to prepare the ground, and study the position of the enemy so as to join issue with, him at once, and attack him with the advantage on our side. "In our last conversation on paper I had the honour, Sir John, of introducing to you a certain Kate Hamilton. I told you that there was a bond of union between her and Brownpath, and I explained to you the nature of it. It was this woman that I proposed to circumvent first of all ; in her house, if my projects were successful, Mrs. Hardcastle and Brownpath would meet for the first time. And this is how I set about it.

"Yesterday, at 2 p.m., I knocked at the door of of No. 10, Newman-street, the residence of Miss Hamilton. If you had met me on the staircase, Sir John, notwithstanding all your shrewdness and all your rare qualities of observation, I can assure you that you would, no^ have recognised me. I had put on an entirely new skin. I was got up as a foreigner, quite comme ilfaut, but a flat, if I may make use of the expression. Any moderately sharp woman would have said, on seeing me — 'Here's a nice pigeon to pluck !' "My toilet may be described in a few words — black frock coat, cravat, and waistcoat, dark trousers, lavender kid gloves, crape on my hat, patent leather boots, a gold watch chain meandering over my waistcoat, a diamond pin in my cravat, another diamond on my right hand, which was left ungloved, and a stick with a gokl knob set with turquoises. "You will see, Sir John, that it is the guise at once of a rich man and a foreigner who is not versed in our customs — one of these sensational costumes, so called because of their effect upon certain of the fair sex. It is unnecessary to add to you that both diamonds and turquoises were excellent shams. " ' Can I see Miss Hamilton ? ' I asked. "'I do not know. Will you be good enough to give me your name ?' said a very wide-awake looking servant-girl. "I put on a puzzled air, as if I was a novice ill the English language, and then I answered with as strong an Italian accent as my intercourse for the last few days with Mrs. Hardcastle had enabled me to catch. " 'My name is not known to your mistress, but I have letters of introduction to her from several of her friends. I have just arrived from Naples, and if you will kindly give her my card — ' " I handed her a card stamped with a crest, which I had been careful to procure on the previous evening, and the girl, after showing me into an elegant drawing-room, went to inform her mistress. "I had now fairly penetrated into the fortress, and Miss Hamilton was not long in putting in an appearance. She is a fair, plump, little woman, so thoroughly made up that it is impossible to say whether she is pretty or not. Her features are, nevertheless, refined, and at one time she must have been really attractive. She was dressed in a long dressing-gown of blue silk, which clung close to the curves of her well-developed figure. '"1 am delighted, count,' said she, looking at the card which I had sent in and she held still in her hand, ' to make your acquaintance ; pray be seated. You are recommended, to me, you say, by — ' "' By several of your friends, madame ; the Marquis de Santa Vicchini, amongst others.' " 'Ah ! the dear marquis. I have not seen him for five or six years. Is he well?' " ' Invariably so, madame, invariably.' " 'You are just from Naples, count ?' " 'Direct, madame.' " 'And you have already thought of paying me a visit. That is charming.' " ' I. have heard so much of you.' " 'Ah. you are a flatterer, I see. We are going to quarrel at once,' said she, with a simper. "'I should be in despair in that case. Kern ember that I have neither acquaintance nor friend in London. ' " ' Poor young man ! But consider my house your own. And what, if may I ask, are j^ou going to do amongst us ? ' "'I am come for amusement, madame. I have experienced much trouble, having in the last few months lost my nearest relatives. You see I am in mourning.' "'lndeed! And have you made tip your mine to reside permanently amongst us ? ' site asked with interest. " ' Possibly ; if London pleases me.' " ' You are aware that pleasure in London — nay, living well at all— is expensive.' "That is a matter of little importance, prowled I enjoy myself.' " At this reply, uttered with an air of entire simplicity, Miss Hamilton edged a little closer to me. [To he continued.]