CHAPTER VIII.

THORNTON CAREY.

Thornton Carey, who was much surprised at this sudden address, stopped, hesitated, and looked somewhat embarrassed. Another man, accustomed to what are called 'adventures,' would not have been in the least thrown off his balance, either by the suddenness or the style of the address; he would have accepted it as a matter of course, and done his best to make himself pleasant to the speaker. Thornton Carey, however, was not this style of man, and, even if he had been, there was something in the earnestness of Miss Montressor's voice and manner which would have stopped his flippancy. Had she not, moreover, mentioned the name of Helen, and declared herself to be about to speak in Mrs. Griswold's interests? That would have been quite enough at any time to command Thornton Carey's sympathy and attention.

'I am a friend of Mrs. Griswold's,' he replied, looking keenly at his interlocutor, 'and, for the matter of that, of Mr. Griswold's too, I hope.'

'What I have to say concerns them both most nearly,' said Miss Montressor, frankly meeting his gaze. 'Will you, in the exercise of your friendship for them, trust me so far as to accompany me in a carriage to the Fifth-avenue Hotel?'

Again Thornton Carey hesitated. He went very little into female society, and, under any other circumstances, the idea of being shut up in a carriage with a strange lady would certainly have frightened him; and again he suffered himself to be persuaded by Miss Montressor's manner and the object of her mission.

'I will do so willingly,' he said; and ordering the coachman to drive to the hotel, he entered the vehicle, and took his place by his fair companion's side.

As they drove through the crowded streets, Thornton Carey thought with wonder upon his strange position. Here was he, the hermit, the recluse, who so seldom emerged from his lettered seclusion far away in the city of the South, who seldom sought for any company beyond that of the distinguished dead who gathered around him as he pored over his books--here he was, rattling over the stones of New York, bound for the most luxurious hotel in the city, and with a very handsome, dashing young woman by his side. In the course of the desultory reading which, like most young men, he had indulged in before permanently settling down to valuable study, he had, he remembered, come across the description of certain adventures, such as he was then going through; and the idea that he, whom all his coevals looked upon as a model of sageness and sobriety, should be found under such circumstances, would have amused him, had he not at the same time remembered that the errand on which he was bound was, according to his companion's words, one in which Helen's happiness was deeply interested.

The carriage stopped at the ladies' entrance of the hotel, and Miss Montressor, on being handed out by Thornton Carey, requested him to follow her. They passed up the staircase to the first floor, and finding one of the smaller parlours disengaged, his companion requested Mr. Carey to be seated, while she sent one of the servants to call Mr. Bryan Duval.

'Bryan Duval!' echoed Carey in astonishment. 'Why, surely that is the name of a famous actor? Even I, though not much given to dramatic literature or theatre-going, have heard of him.'

'It is the same,' said Miss Montressor.

'But how can he be mixed up in any matter concerning Mrs. Griswold?' asked Carey.

'It is as much in his power as in mine,' said Miss Montressor, 'to give information upon a subject in which Mrs. Griswold is most deeply and most unhappily interested.'

'Unhappily!' interrupted Thornton Carey, turning pale.

'Most unhappily, as you will agree when you know all,' said Miss Montressor. 'Here, however, is Mr. Duval; he will explain matters to you much better than I can.'

She introduced the gentlemen, and was pleased to notice that, so far as she could see, each liked the look of the other's appearance. Duval was pleased with Thornton Carey's frank honest expression, while Carey himself recognised the keen acumen and subtle intelligence displayed in the broad brow and bright eves of the dramatist.

Miss Montressor commenced the conversation by rapidly explaining to Duval, so far as she thought necessary, and without, of course, any allusion to Bess, the failure of her mission to Mrs. Griswold's house, adding that she there had met Mr. Carey, and learning that he was an intimate friend of the family, she had thought it best to ask his kind assistance, and had brought him there in order that the matter might be explained to him.

'You have acted perfectly right, my dear Miss Montressor,' said Bryan, avoiding his usual familiarity, under the idea that it would prove surprising, if not displeasing, to their new ally. 'And now, sir,' he added, turning to Carey, 'I will keep you no longer in suspense. You have, of course, heard of this terrible murder of the American gentleman in Liverpool, the news of which is ringing through all New York.'

'I have indeed,' replied Carey; 'and though the victim, whose name I believe was Foster, was personally unknown to me, the fact of his being a stranger, apparently without friends or connections at the scene of the assassination, seems to render the tragedy doubly dreadful.'

'That he had no friends or relatives at the scene of the murder is, I have no doubt, perfectly true,' said Bryan Duval; 'but I have too much reason to believe, not merely that his name was not Foster, but, from what we now learn, that he was an intimate friend of yours.'

'Good God!' cried Thornton Carey, upon whom a light suddenly broke. 'And you say that Helen Griswold is also deeply interested in the matter? You cannot imagine for an instant--' and he stopped, for his voice suddenly failed him.

'I do not merely imagine,' said Bryan Duval, speaking deliberately, 'but in my own mind I no longer entertain any doubt that the man, the news of whose murder has caused such a shock in New York society, was Mr. Griswold, the husband of the lady whom you went to see this morning.'

'It is too terrible,' said Thornton Carey, covering his face with his hands. 'You seem to speak with certainty. Mr. Griswold was in Europe--might have been in Liverpool at the very time--and yet why this assumption of a false name?'

'That is exactly what we want you to explain to us,' said Bryan quickly; 'but before you attempt to do so, let me explain to you as shortly as possible the story of my acquaintance with Griswold, and the reason I have for coming to this sad conclusion.'

Then Bryan Duval succinctly, and in as few words as possible, sketched the story of their acquaintance with Griswold in London--narrated the particulars of the Richmond dinner, the conversation which the unfortunate man had had with Miss Montressor, the devoted manner in which he had spoken of his wife, and in which he had exhibited her portrait set in the watch; the melancholy which had overcome him at Liverpool at the knowledge that they were about to proceed to New York, while his business must detain him some little time longer in England; told him, in fact, the whole story, without concealment or curtailment, down to Miss Montressor's recognition of the lady in the stalls on the previous evening as the original of the portrait which the so-called Mr. Foster had shown her, and the terrible dread which had then fallen upon her and Duval, that the murdered man was Mr. Griswold, who, for some object of his own unknown to them, had chosen, while away from home, to pass under an assumed name.

'But what that object was,' said Bryan Duval, in conclusion, 'we want you to tell us.'

After a pause of a few minutes, during which he had remained buried in abstraction, Thornton Carey spoke. 'You have given me a task which I am quite unable to fulfil,' he said, shaking his head. 'There is probably no man in the world who understands so little of business, by which I mean commercial matters, as myself. Mr. Griswold never spoke to me about them, and if he had I should have been unable to understand them; and, fond of me as I am sure he was, I should have been one of the last persons in the world to whom he would have made any business confidence.'

'You believe, then,' said Bryan Duval, 'that this taking of an assumed name was really done for business purposes?'

'I have not the least doubt of it,' said Thornton Carey earnestly.

'I am myself inclined to that belief,' said Bryan. 'There was a singular frankness and honesty about the man, and the way in which he spoke about his wife, both to myself and Miss Montressor here, was evidently genuine; though,' he continued, with a touch of that worldly cynicism which sometimes came upon him, as it were, in spite of himself, 'these are matters in which one must never be led away by what one either sees or hears. There are men who love their wives very deeply, and who yet, when away from them, urged on by vanity or passion, or whatever they may choose to call it--'

'I know what you would say,' said Thornton Carey, holding up his hand, 'and I suppose, as regards the generality of men, you are right. But, believe me, this was not the case with Alston Griswold--his was not a mere mouth worship of his wife; no other woman, be she who she might, would have been able for an instant to make him forget her whom he so dearly loved.'

'I believe you, Mr. Carey,' said Bryan, 'and in any case I honour you for your championship; but in this case I think you are right. From the little I saw of him, I have no doubt that your friend was all you say. We will allow, then, that he dropped his own name and called himself Foster for the furtherance of certain business transactions. To obtain anything like a clue to this murder, it is necessary for us to know what those business transactions were, and whence this necessity for concealment arose; until we can obtain that, we shall still be in the dark as to the motives of the murderer.'

'I cannot help you,' said Thornton Carey, shaking his head ruefully. 'As I said before, I only knew Mr. Griswold in his domestic capacity as my friend, and the word business was never even mentioned between us.'

'You may yet be able to help us,' said Miss Montressor, leaning forward. 'This unfortunate Mr. Foster--Mr. Griswold as we must now think of him--told me that evening in the garden at Richmond that he had an intimate friend and confidant in New York, to whom during his absence he had not merely intrusted the conduct and supervision of his affairs and correspondence, but he had also placed his wife in this man's charge. Now, knowing the Griswolds as you do, you will probably be able to tell us if there is any man who stood in this relation with them and if so, what is his name?'

'This declaration goes further to corroborate your idea that the murdered man was indeed poor Griswold,' said Thornton Carey, with a sigh. 'There was a man exactly fulfilling those functions, who was understood to be a sort of partner of Griswold's in certain matters, and from whom he was never separated. I did not know that he carried the intimacy into his domestic life, and, indeed, I should have thought the person I mean was one for whom Mrs. Griswold would have had but little liking.'

'What was the name?' asked Duval eagerly.

'His name was Warren--Trenton Warren,' replied Carey. 'He was a man much thought of for his foresight and acuteness in commercial matters, and he had an office down town in Broad-street, not far from Griswold's own place of business.'

'The thing to be done, then, is to see this Mr. Warren at once,' said Bryan Duval. 'If we prove to him, as we shall be able to do, that we were friends of Mr. Griswold's, he will doubtless be able to clear up the whole mystery of the change of names.'

'Even in this we are baffled for the time being,' said Thornton Carey. 'I heard accidentally that Mr. Warren was at Chicago.'

'Is that far distant?' asked Miss Montressor.

'Thirty-six hours' journey at least,' said Duval; 'and being, as I understand, essentially a man of business, Mr. Warren might not be able to leave at once, however earnestly we might venture to recall him.'

'You would be right, under ordinary circumstances,' said Thornton Carey; 'but I think if you were to let him know that it was of great importance that Mrs. Griswold should see him at once, he would return.'

'And what shall we say to him when he comes?' asked Miss Montressor.

'Rather what shall he say to us?' said Carey. 'Mixed up as he is with Griswold's affairs, he will be able to see at a glance to whose interest it would be that this unfortunate man should be unfairly gotten rid of.'

'You seem disposed to take my view of this affair, Mr. Carey,' said Bryan Duval: 'that robbery was not the motive cause for this murder, but some ulterior object.'

'Unquestionably,' said Carey, 'robbery was not the object, because, if the papers be correct, the unfortunate man's watch and money were left undisturbed. Some other motive, doubtless connected with the business which took him on his fatal journey, and which he was at such pains to keep secret--perhaps even dictated from this side of the water--must be at the bottom of it.'

'Your views coincide exactly with mine,' said Bryan Duval. 'It is useless for us, however, further to speculate on this matter, more especially since we know nothing at all approaching certainty, until Mr. Warren helps us with his experience. The one thing that confronts us and that cannot be blinked at is, that no matter from what reason or other the poor fellow has been murdered, the fact, sooner or later, must be broken to his wife.'

'That is what I feel so deeply,' said Carey. 'There is a mail from Europe due to-morrow; she will know of its arrival; and after that the truth can no longer be kept from her.'

'All that will remain, then, for us,' said Bryan, 'will be to break it to her in the most delicate manner possible, and it is most lucky that we have found you to aid us in that difficult task.'

'I will do my best most willingly,' said Carey; 'and after I have settled upon the matter, I may be of some use. At present, I confess that the news has come upon me so suddenly, my obligation to this unfortunate gentleman is so great, and my regard for him and his wife so essentially a portion of my life, that I cannot trust myself to give anything like clear advice or reliable aid.'

'I perfectly comprehend your feelings,' said Bryan Duval, 'and there is no need for us to prolong this painful interview--in fact, Miss Montressor and myself have our duties to attend to at the theatre, and we must go to them. We may, however, rely upon you to take the one step immediately necessary--namely, to apprise Mr. Warren by telegraph that his presence is most desirable in New York.'

'You may depend upon my doing so,' said Carey, 'and upon my being here tomorrow to take my part in any further consultation.'

So they parted.

Thornton Carey was completely overwhelmed by the news he had just heard. He would have disbelieved it, but he was never in the habit of allowing his common sense to be over-ridden by his sympathies; and that rare and inestimable quality told him that Mr. Bryan Duval had, indeed, good foundation for the deductions he had drawn. The more he thought over it, the less real doubt had he that the _soi-disant_ Foster and his friend and benefactor, Alston Griswold, were one. He knew that Griswold's one idea in life had been to achieve such a fortune as would enable him to vie with the proudest millionaire in New York, and to retire altogether from business. It was evident that, in this endeavour, he had gone in for some great stake; so great as to require the exercise of what in the commercial world is known as tact, but in free-spoken circles, outside the commercial world, is called duplicity. This change of name, for instance--it could be easily learned whether the secret had been confided to Warren alone, or was known to the clerks in Griswold's house of business--that could be learned from the clerks themselves; and Thornton Carey determined at once to inquire of them.

Wall-street, hot, rushing, and demented as usual; closing hour just at hand, and everybody anxious to make a few hundred or thousand more dollars before returning up-town for the day; telegraphs ticking from attic to basement in each of the enormous houses between Canal-street and Bowling-green; messengers rushing about in frantic haste, and the bar at Delmonico's at the corner of Chambers-street actually for five minutes without an occupant. Hustled on all sides, and swayed hither and thither by the fluctuating crowd, Thornton Carey at last made his way into Griswold's office. Telegraph instrument madly clicking in one corner, and white serpents winding out from it and covering the floor with their tortuous folds; clerks running races with the telegraph instrument, and endeavouring to drown its noise with the scratching of their pens over the paper; men in shiny hats tumbling in and out, and adding to the general confusion.

After some delay, Thornton Carey was recognised by one of the principal clerks, who vouchsafed him three minutes' conversation. 'Mr. Griswold still in Europe; hoped he would be back very shortly; should be able to say more to-morrow, as letters were expected by the morning mail, giving the date of his return.'

Plainly everybody there was wholly unconscious of any evil having befallen the head of the establishment. 'That argued nothing,' Thornton Carey thought to himself, 'save that Griswold had placed no confidence in his servants.' He must try Warren's office next.

Being a partner of Mr. Griswold's, Trenton Warren had the use of the clerks and appliances of his friend's office. For his own particular service he kept but one quiet, silent, trustworthy individual, who looked up when Carey entered, and in reply to his inquiry, announced that Mr. Warren was at Chicago. 'I forward his letters to him every day,' said the man, 'and if you have anything to send, it can go with my lot.'

Thornton Carey reflected for a moment.

'No, thank you,' he said; 'my business is important, and I must wire Mr. Warren at once. What is his address?'

'Three Bryan's Block, Chicago, will find him,' said the clerk, and immediately whirled round on his stool to continue his writing.

On Thornton Carey leaving Warren's office, he stepped at once into the Western Union Telegraph, and sent the following message:

'Trenton Warren, 3 Bryan's Block, Chicago.--I most earnestly request you to come to New York without delay; it is of the utmost importance that I should see you; a great calamity has occurred.

'HELEN GRISWOLD.'

'Now we must trust to Providence for the rest,' said Thornton Carey, as he walked away.

Having despatched the telegram, Thornton Carey returned to Mrs. Griswold's house, to which he was admitted by Jim. He ascertained from Mrs. Jenkins and from Helen's maid that there was not any danger of her proposing to go out when she should leave her room. On this point he was extremely anxious. He knew it would have been impossible for her to have passed a street corner, any public building, or any group of talkers without seeing the announcement of the latest news from England of the murder which was occupying the attention of every intelligent person in New York at that moment, or hearing it discussed. It was everything to those who were now engaged in considering how best the awful truth should be broken to the unconsciously bereaved woman, that no uneasiness should be created in her mind through any indirect source.

'You are quite sure,' Thornton Carey asked of Mrs. Jenkins, 'that she has not ordered the carriage for this afternoon?'

'I am quite sure,' returned Mrs. Jenkins. 'About an hour ago she sent a note down to Mrs. Villiers to excuse herself from a dinner engagement for to-day, which was made at the play last night; and, indeed, I should not be surprised if she did not leave her room all day--her cold is very heavy.'

It was impossible that Thornton Carey could have thus questioned the two women servants without exciting some suspicion, some uneasiness in their minds. He saw very plainly that he had done so, and he thought he might just venture to give them a hint of the origin of the caution, to endeavour to impress it upon them, and thereby render them more certain to observe it.

'I daresay you wonder,' he continued, 'why I am so anxious to know about Mrs. Griswold's probable movements of to-day; and, as I am sure I may trust you, and that you are both faithful friends to her'--the women exchanged looks with each other, and each bestowed an inquiring nod upon Thornton Carey, while they drew closer to him in their eagerness--'I will tell you that there is a rumour of an accident having occurred in England, in which it is just possible that Mr. Griswold may have been injured.'

'A railway accident, sir?' the two women exclaimed simultaneously.

'No,' he answered, with some confusion, 'not a railway accident; it is, I believe, a case of supposed malicious injury. I cannot enter into the particulars now. I am not, indeed, fully aware of them. As soon as I am, and that I know for certain whether Mr. Griswold is or is not injured, I will tell you. In the mean time, you will understand that it is of immense importance that Mrs. Griswold should not be alarmed. If what we fear is true, she must know it soon enough. If it is not true, it will be most cruel to subject her to the excitement and suspense of knowing anything about it until all is known. I want you, Mrs. Jenkins, and you, Annette,' addressing Helen's maid, 'to make me the same promise that I have also secured from Jim.'

'I will do anything you wish, sir,' said Mrs. Jenkins; 'and I am sure Annette will say the same.'

'Mais oui, mais oui,' assented Annette eagerly.

'Well, then, you promise to be very cautious in your own manner, looks, and speech--not to let Mrs. Griswold hear you talking to one another in any unusual way; not to go into her room with frightened faces, or with anything in your look which could lead her to think that this day is different from any other day in any respect. Will you promise me to keep a perpetual watch over yourselves, and to remember that all we want is a few hours' interval, during which I and other friends of Mrs. Griswold's may be quite sure that no one will be allowed to see her who can talk to her about the distressing rumour which has just reached New York, and yet that she will not suspect that any such watchfulness is being observed?'

Again he received assuring nods from the two women.

'I must also beg you,' he continued, 'to be very particular to keep every newspaper out of your mistress's sight until after the next time I shall have been here; make any excuse and every excuse that comes in your heads, but don't permit her to get hold of a single evening paper or any morning paper of to-day. I hope none have found their way to her room this morning?'

'No, I think not,' said Mrs. Jenkins. 'You haven't seen any newspapers about, Annette?'

'No,' Annette replied; 'madame had not asked for any newspapers, and she had taken none up to her.'

'You need not be frightened on that point,' said Mrs. Jenkins; 'for I never saw a lady with so little curiosity about news as Mrs. Griswold. She reads the weeklies sometimes, when they are all about books and interesting things that are happening in the world; but I have known her go a whole week without looking into a daily; and we will keep them out of her way, if by any perverse chance she should take it into her head to want to see them. She is not given to scolding, but I daresay Jim would not mind taking a scolding from her for not having thought of fetching an evening paper, if it is for her.'

'Don't make yourself uneasy, sir; not but what we should like to have a look at what they say.'

'They don't say anything,' said Thornton Carey; 'at least, they have not said it yet. The news has come by private cable message, and I am only afraid of its getting into the later editions. I shall be here tomorrow early, and implicitly trust you in this matter. There is another thing, too, you will have to be very careful about, if you please.'

'Certainly, sir,' said Mrs. Jenkins. 'What is that?'

'It is just possible that a telegram may come, directed to Mrs. Griswold.'

'From Europe, sir?'

'No,' said Thornton Carey; 'from Chicago.'

Mrs. Jenkins started slightly, and said:

'Chicago! Is there anything wrong there?'

'O, no, there is nothing wrong; only Mrs. Griswold has been sending a message on business to a friend of Mr. Griswold's, and it is better, until we are sure that Mr. Griswold is all right, that she should not see the answer. Will you therefore, Mrs. Jenkins, undertake, if this telegram should come, to have it sent at once to me at the Fifth-avenue Hotel? You need not be alarmed at undertaking the responsibility--the giving the message to one to whom it is not addressed. I can give you my word of honour for that, and you will know why almost as soon as I do. I cannot tell you more just now, because I do not know more.'

'I will have the message sent, sir,' said Mrs. Jenkins. 'Up to what hour shall you expect it?'

'I mean to remain at the hotel all day--at least until it comes,' said Thornton Carey. 'There is an almost absolute certainty that it will come.'

'There will be no difficulty about it, sir,' said Mrs. Jenkins; 'but may I ask you if we are to be as particular about letters as about telegrams and newspapers?'

'Certainly,' said Thornton Carey; 'my injunctions refer to every kind of communication which could possibly reach Mrs. Griswold between this time and my next visit.'

'I don't see how we are to manage that, sir,' said Mrs. Jenkins. 'She doesn't mind about newspapers, and she does not expect any telegrams from any part of the States; but she will be looking out for English letters in the morning--they ought to be in--and it won't be possible, I am afraid, to keep her quiet then, to prevent her coming downstairs, or to hide the letters from her, if they come. What are we to do in that case?'

'It will not matter about English letters,' he replied. 'Any she could get tomorrow morning must have been written before the accident which is reported, so you need not trouble about that; besides, I will be here almost as soon as the mail can be delivered.'

He received an earnest assurance from the two women that all his requests should be scrupulously observed, and he left the house feeling that, as far as human precaution could be taken towards securing her from a premature shock, Helen was safe, at all events, for a few hours.

Mrs. Jenkins and Annette retired to the waiting-room of the hall, and earnestly discussed the strange directions which they had just received. As a matter of course, they immediately seized on the morning paper of that day; for it had not escaped Mrs. Jenkins's characteristic acuteness that there was a decided inconsistency between Thornton Carey's statement that the news which he apprehended reaching Mrs. Griswold had come in private telegram, and his question as to whether any newspapers had been taken to her room that day. 'Depend upon it,' said she to Justine, 'whatever it is, there is some hint of it in the dailies for to-day. Let us have a look.'

The papers lay, as they had done on the previous day, on the table in the waiting-room; the two women turned them over eagerly, but found nothing which they could suppose to have reference to the mysterious rumour to which Thornton Carey had vaguely alluded--the murder at Liverpool was still the leading theme.

'I cannot,' said Mrs. Jenkins, 'find out that anybody has come to grief except that unlucky Mr. Foster.'

Thornton Carey returned to the Fifth-avenue Hotel, where he found Bryan Duval, looking weary and dejected. The actor said little in reply to the narrative of the steps which he had taken. The little he did say was in approval, and then he made a dreary effort to get away for a while from the terrible subject which was occupying them.

'I shall stay here all day,' said Thornton Carey, 'and wait for the telegram, and I really don't see that there is anything else to be done. But you had better go out and get a little fresh air to string yourself up for to-night's work--it will be hard to get through, I fancy.'

'Deuced hard,' said Bryan Duval. 'It is not the first time I have comedied on the beards and tragedied behind the scenes, but I do not know that I ever found the contrast so great a pull as this time--it is the unconsciousness of the woman that is so horrid; when she knows the worst, it will not be so bad. Good Heavens! only think, if she took it into her head to come to the theatre to-night!'

'There is not the slightest danger of that,' said Thornton Carey. 'I forgot to tell you that she has a heavy cold.'

But little more was said between them, and Bryan Duval took the young man's advice. He went out until it was time to go down to the theatre. About two hours later than the time at which Thornton Carey had rejoined him they met for a moment before the performance, and Thornton told him that no news had come; a message to the same effect was conveyed to Bryan Duval in a twisted note on his return after the play, but Thornton Carey made no attempt to see him again that night.

Once more the house had been crowded by an enthusiastic audience; again the performance had realised public expectation to the fullest extent. If possible, Bryan Duval had been more exquisitely humorous, had thrown more of his characteristic acuteness into his part, than on the previous evening. Miss Montressor had charmed all the spectators; but some of those who had been present at the first performance noticed that she was slightly nervous, which she had not been on that occasion, and that she wore a little more rouge.

During the whole of that night Thornton Carey did not undress or lie down; the hours passed drearily away, and no message came to interrupt them. Just before the time at which Mrs. Griswold's house was usually closed and her servants retired, Jim had 'slipped round,' as he phrased it, to Fifth-avenue Hotel, and told Mr. Carey that his orders had been strictly observed; no callers, no news, no newspapers, no messages had been suffered to reach Mrs. Griswold, who was better, had got up rather late in the evening, and passed an hour in the nursery; but she had asked no dangerous questions, she had displayed no imprudent curiosity. She was in bed, and asleep, old Jim said, on the authority of Mrs. Jenkins, when he came out to report to Thornton Carey; but no telegram had been received.

This inexplicable circumstance sorely troubled and beset the mind of Thornton Carey. Advice, assistance from Warren, if not his actual presence, was entirely indispensable under the circumstances; but when the morning dawned, and when the letter-post hour was near, Thornton knew that the moment he dreaded so intensely had arrived, that no further delay was possible, and that that advice and assistance must be dispensed with.

At the early hour which had previously been agreed upon, Bryan Duval, Thornton Carey, and Miss Montressor--the trio had by this time become quite friends--left the hotel and proceeded on foot to Helen Griswold's house. As they reached it, the postman came up, with his usual quick important step, and delivered a few unimportant notes, which Jim, with a glance at Thornton Carey, who was ascending the steps, took from his hand. The three entered the house, the door was shut behind them, and the letters just received were handed by the docile Jim to Carey.

'There is nothing here,' he remarked, laying them on the table in the waiting-room. 'Jim, ring for the women.'

In answer to the customary summons, both Mrs. Jenkins and Annette came downstairs. The first thing to be done was to send up word, in reply to Mrs. Griswold's eager inquiry (made, as Mrs. Jenkins told them, the moment she awoke, only a few instants ago) as to whether letters from England were yet delivered, 'that they had not yet come.'

'Tell her this,' said Thornton Carey, 'and then tell her that I am here, and that I beg she will see me as soon as is convenient. If she asks why I come so early, say you do not know. It is too late to make any excuse now.'

'Is it true, sir,' said Mrs. Jenkins--'has anything really happened to Mr. Griswold?'

'It is too true,' said Duval, addressing the wondering woman, whose eager interest and curiosity about him showed in every feature of her face, even in this crisis; 'it is too true--you will soon know all! In the mean time be more cautious than ever.'

Without a word Mrs. Jenkins returned up-stairs, whither Annette had preceded her, and Thornton Carey led the way into the dining-room, where the three sat in profound silence, interrupted after the interval of a few minutes by Mrs. Jenkins, who entered the room with a very pale face, and addressed Thornton Carey.

'She will see you, sir; she is just getting up, and Annette is dressing her as fast as she can. But--I hope you won't be angry, sir, or think it was my fault--I gave my message as matter-of-fact as could be, and the curtain was between me and her, so she could not see my face; but the very moment she heard you wanted to see her at this hour of the morning, she took fright. I suppose it was because she had not had the English letters that she expected, and that disappointment had told upon her nerves, and helped to make her suspicious. She said she knew there was something wrong. "Go down," said she, "and say I will see him. Bring him up to the boudoir, and let him tell me whatever I have got to hear and bear." Not another word, sir, but she is as white as a corpse.'

Thornton Carey had started up before Mrs. Jenkins had got through her first sentence, and turned a face of wild distress upon the other two.

'It cannot be helped,' said Bryan Duval, 'and it is better so. Go up with the good woman at once--for God's sake get it over.'

He, too, rose as he spoke, and turning abruptly towards the chimneypiece, laid his arms upon it, and hid his face in them.

Miss Montressor sat profoundly still, but the description her sister had just given of Helen might have been repeated of her--she, too, was as pale as a corpse.

Thornton Carey and Mrs. Jenkins went up-stairs without exchanging a single word. The door of Helen's boudoir opened in the corridor outside her bedroom. Mrs. Jenkins merely threw it open in passing, and the young man went in, while she entered the bedroom by the other door. No sound reached his strained ear for the few minutes during which he waited. At their expiration Helen came in. She wore a white muslin dressing-gown, and her hair was simply brushed behind her ears, and hung loose upon her shoulders. As she came through the door of her bedroom into the boudoir, she faced Thornton Carey directly, and her first glance at him told her that her fears had been prophetic--that he had bad news to tell.

END OF VOL. II.

LONDON: ROBSON AND SONS, PRINTERS, PANCRAS ROAD, N.W.

End of Project Gutenberg's The Impending Sword (Vol. 2 of 3), by Edmund Yates