第14章 BOOK I:AS SEEN BY TWO STRANGERS(14)

The inspector,and,if not he,the coroner,will have to be told about these letters and will probably ask to see them.""They are the letters of a gentleman."

"With the one exception."

"Yes,that is understood."Then in a sudden heat and with an almost sublime trust in his daughter notwithstanding the duplicity he had just discovered:

"Nothing -not the story told by these letters,or the sight of that sturdy paper-cutter with its long and very slender blade,will make me believe that she willingly took her own life.You do not know,cannot know,the rare delicacy of her nature.She was a lady through and through.If she had meditated death -if the breach suggested by the one letter I have mentioned,should have so preyed upon her spirits as to lead her to break her old father's heart and outrage the feelings of all who knew her,she could not,being the woman she was,choose a public place for such an act -an hotel writing-room -in face of a lobby full of hurrying men.It was out of nature.Every one who knows her will tell you so.The deed was an accident -incredible -but still an accident."Mr.Gryce had respect for this outburst.Making no attempt to answer it,he suggested,with some hesitation,that Miss Challoner had been seen writing a letter previous to taking those fatal steps from the desk which ended so tragically.Was this letter to one of her lady friends,as reported,and was it as far from suggesting the awful tragedy which followed,as he had been told?

"It was a cheerful letter.Such a one as she often wrote to her little protogees here and there.I judge that this was written to some girl like that,for the person addressed was not known to her maid,any more than she was to me.It expressed an affectionate interest,and it breathed encouragement -encouragement!and she meditating her own death at the moment!Impossible!That letter should exonerate her if nothing else does."Mr.Gryce recalled the incongruities,the inconsistencies and even the surprising contradictions which had often marked the conduct of men and women,in his lengthy experience with the strange,the sudden,and the tragic things of life,and slightly shook his head.

He pitied Mr.Challoner,and admired even more his courage in face of the appalling grief which had overwhelmed him,but he dared not encourage a false hope.The girl had killed herself and with this weapon.They might not be able to prove it absolutely,but it was nevertheless true,and this broken old man would some day be obliged to acknowledge it.But the detective said nothing of this,and was very patient with the further arguments the other advanced to prove his point and the lofty character of the girl to whom,misled by appearance,the police seemed inclined to attribute the awful sin of self-destruction.

But when,this topic exhausted,Mr.Challoner rose to leave the room,Mr.Gryce showed where his own thoughts still centred,by asking him the date of the correspondence discovered between his daughter and her unknown admirer.

"Some of the letters were dated last summer,some this fall.The one you are most anxious to hear about only a month back,"he added,with unconquerable devotion to what he considered his duty.

Mr.Gryce would like to have carried his inquiries further,but desisted.His heart was full of compassion for this childless old man,doomed to have his choicest memories disturbed by cruel doubts which possibly would never be removed to his own complete satisfaction.

But when he was gone,and Sweetwater had returned,Mr.Gryce made it his first duty to communicate to his superiors the hitherto unsuspected fact of a secret romance in Miss Challoner's seemingly calm and well-guarded life.She had loved and been loved by one of whom her family knew nothing.And the two had quarrelled,as certain letters lately found could be made to show.

VII

THE LETTERS

Before a table strewn with papers,in the room we have already mentioned as given over to the use of the police,sat Dr.Heath in a mood too thoughtful to notice the entrance of Mr.Gryce and Sweetwater from the dining-room where they had been having dinner.

However as the former's tread was somewhat lumbering,the coroner's attention was caught before they had quite crossed the room,and Sweetwater,with his quick eye,noted how his arm and hand immediately fell so as to cover up a portion of the papers lying nearest to him.

"Well,Gryce,this is a dark case,"he observed,as at his bidding the two detectives took their seats.

Mr.Gryce nodded;so did Sweetwater.

"The darkest that has ever come to my knowledge,"pursued the coroner.

Mr.Gryce again nodded;but not so,Sweetwater.For some reason this simple expression of opinion seemed to have given him a mental start.

"She was not shot.She was not struck by any other hand;yet she lies dead from a mortal wound in the breast.Though there is no tangible proof of her having inflicted this wound upon herself,the jury will have no alternative,I fear,than to pronounce the case one of suicide.""I'm sorry that I've been able to do so little,"remarked Mr.Gryce.

The coroner darted him a quick look.

"You are not satisfied?You have some different idea?"he asked.

The detective frowned at his hands crossed over the top of his cane,then shaking his head,replied:

"The verdict you mention is the only natural one,of course.Isee that you have been talking with Miss Challoner's former maid?""Yes,and she has settled an important point for us.There was a possibility,of course,that the paper-cutter which you brought to my notice had never gone with her into the mezzanine.That she,or some other person,had dropped it in passing through the lobby.

But this girl assures me that her mistress did not enter the lobby that night.That she accompanied her down in the elevator,and saw her step off at the mezzanine.She can also swear that the cutter was in a book she carried -the book we found lying on the desk.