Category: Crime, Thrillers and Mystery

The D'Arblay mystery

There are certain days in our lives which, as we recall them, seem to detach themselves from the general sequence as forming the starting-point of a new epoch. Doubtless, if we examined them critically, we should find them to be but links in a connected chain. But in a retrosp...

Chapters

1. CHAPTER I.

There are certain days in our lives which, as we recall them, seem to detach themselves from the general sequence as forming the starting-point of a new epoch. Doubtless, if we...

2. CHAPTER II.

The sound of the closing door seemed, as it were, to punctuate my experiences and to mark the end of a particular phase. So long as Miss D’Arblay was present, my attention was e...

3. CHAPTER III.

It was in the evening of the very day on which I took up my duties at number 61 Mecklenburgh-square that the little blue paper was delivered summoning me to attend at the inques...

4. CHAPTER IV.

There are certain districts in London the appearance of which conveys to the observer the impression that the houses, and indeed, the entire streets, have been picked up second-...

5. CHAPTER V.

To a man whose mind is working actively, walking is a more acceptable mode of progression than riding in a vehicle. There is a sort of reciprocity between the muscles and the br...

6. CHAPTER VI.

Most of us have, I imagine, been conscious at times of certain misgivings as to whether the Progress of which we hear so much has done for us all that it is assumed to have done...

7. CHAPTER VII.

“I am glad you were able to come,” said Thorndyke, as we took our places at the table. “Your letter was a shade ambiguous. You spoke of discussing the D’Arblay case, but I think...

8. CHAPTER VIII.

It was near the close of my incumbency of Dr. Cornish’s practice—indeed, Cornish had returned on the previous evening—that my unsatisfactory attendance on Mr. Simon Bendelow cam...

9. CHAPTER IX.

Although I had been in harness but a few weeks, it was with a pleasant sense of freedom that I turned from the door and crossed the road towards the alley. My time was practical...

10. did. But he had trained himself to an outward solemnity of manner that

was doubtless a valuable asset in his particular class of practice, and he walked at my side in unmoved gravity, taking an occasional, quick, critical look at me. When we came t...

11. CHAPTER X.

The mist, which had been gathering since the early afternoon, began to thicken ominously as I approached Abbey-road, Hornsey, from Crouch End Station, causing me to quicken my p...

12. CHAPTER XI.

The fog had thinned to a mere haze when the porter admitted me at the Inner Temple Gate, so that, as I passed the Cloisters and looked through into Pump-court I could see the li...

13. CHAPTER XII.

About eleven o’clock in the forenoon of the third day after the terrible events of that unforgettable night of the great fog, Marion and I drew up on our bicycles opposite the s...

14. CHAPTER XIII.

The statement that I had made to Thorndyke was perfectly true in substance; but it was hardly as significant in fact as the words implied. I had, it is true, in my journeyings a...

15. CHAPTER XIV.

When I arrived at the studio on the following afternoon I found the door open and Polton waiting just inside with his hat and overcoat on and his bag in his hand.

16. CHAPTER XV.

On the following morning, in order to make sure of arriving before the detective officer, I presented myself at King’s Bench-walk a good half-hour before I was due. The door was...

17. CHAPTER XVI.

It appeared that Thorndyke was correct in his estimate of the Superintendent’s state of mind, for that officer managed to dispose in a very short space of time of the formalitie...

18. CHAPTER XVII.

In answer to my knock the studio door was opened by Polton; and as I met his eyes for a moment I was conscious of something unusual in his appearance. I had scanty opportunity t...

19. CHAPTER XVIII.

Shortly before leaving Thorndyke’s chambers with Marion and Miss Boler I managed to secure his permission to confide to them, in general terms, what was to happen on the morrow;...

20. CHAPTER XIX.

The days of my captivity at No. 5a, King’s Bench-walk passed with a tranquillity that made me realize the weight of the incubus that had been lifted. Now, in the mornings, when...