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23 - Ashiel Mystery - A Detective Story by Mrs. Charles Bryce · Ashiel Mystery - A Detective Story

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty three of The Ashyl Mystery. This is a
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  Speaker 1: LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain.
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  Speaker 1: For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox dot org.
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  Speaker 1: Recording by Mary Herndon Bell. The Asheyl Mystery by Missus
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  Speaker 1: Charles Bryce, Chapter twenty three. Sir Arthur Byrne took his
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  Speaker 1: adopted daughter back to Belgium on the following day, since,
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  Speaker 1: although she would have to return to England to give
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  Speaker 1: evidence against Mark in due course, some time must elapse
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  Speaker 1: before his trial came on, and he judged it best
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  Speaker 1: to remove her as far as possible from a place
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  Speaker 1: whose associations must always be painful. Then ensued a series
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  Speaker 1: of weary, long weeks for Juliet, in which she had
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  Speaker 1: no trouble in convincing herself that David had forgotten her.
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  Speaker 1: She heard nothing from him directly, though indirectly news of
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  Speaker 1: him filtered through in letters they received from Lady Ruth
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  Speaker 1: and Gimlet. He had not, it appeared, taken his cousin's guilt,
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  Speaker 1: as proved so readily as Mark had affected to do
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  Speaker 1: in his own case, refusing absolutely to hear a word
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  Speaker 1: of the evidence against him, and maintaining that the whole
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  Speaker 1: thing was a mistake, as colossal as it was ghastly.
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  Speaker 1: Only when he was persuaded unwillingly, but finally that it
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  Speaker 1: was Juliet's word which he must doubt if he were
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  Speaker 1: to continue to believe in Mark's innocence, did he give
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  Speaker 1: in and sorrowfully acknowledged himself. Convinced all this, Lady Ruth
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  Speaker 1: wrote to the girl, together with the fact that Sir
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  Speaker 1: David was still in attendance on his mother, now happily
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  Speaker 1: recovering from the nervous shock she had sustained. From Gimlet
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  Speaker 1: and from Messrs Findlay and Ince, they heard that by
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  Speaker 1: the will which the detective had found, all Lord Ashle's
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  Speaker 1: money and estate were left to the adopted daughter of
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  Speaker 1: Sir Arthur Byrne, no hitherto as Juliet Byrne, with a
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  Speaker 1: suggestion that she should provide for his nephews to the
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  Speaker 1: extent she should think fit. The will, though not technically worded,
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  Speaker 1: was perfectly good and legal, and Juliet could have all
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  Speaker 1: the money she was likely to want for the present
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  Speaker 1: by accepting the offer of an advance, which the lawyers
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  Speaker 1: begged to be allowed to make Gimblet wrote further that
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  Speaker 1: the list of names of members of the Nilis Society
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  Speaker 1: entitled the Friends of Man, which he had discovered at
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  Speaker 1: the same time as the will, and contrary to Lord
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  Speaker 1: Ashele's wishes, sent off by registered posts to Scotland, Yard,
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  Speaker 1: had been communicated to the heads of the police in
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  Speaker 1: Russia and the other European countries in which many of
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  Speaker 1: those designated were now scattered, with the result that a
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  Speaker 1: large number of arrests had been quietly made and the
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  Speaker 1: society practically wiped out. The foreign guest of the Cryennan
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  Speaker 1: hotel was still at large. The name of Count Pretovsky
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  Speaker 1: was not on the list, and nothing could be proved
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  Speaker 1: against him. He had moved on to another hotel farther west,
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  Speaker 1: where he was lying very low and continuing to practice
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  Speaker 1: the gentle art of the fishermen. A member of the
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  Speaker 1: Russian Secret Police was on his way to Scotland, however,
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  Speaker 1: and it was likely that Count Pretovsky would be recognized
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  Speaker 1: as one of the persons on Lord Ashele's list who
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  Speaker 1: were as yet unaccounted for. Gimblet told them, besides that
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  Speaker 1: he had succeeded in finding the widow of the respectable
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  Speaker 1: plumber named Harsden, whom Julia had mentioned as being her father.
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  Speaker 1: Missus Harsden corroborated the story and said that it was
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  Speaker 1: certainly the Countess Romaninov to whom Missus Meredith had consigned
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  Speaker 1: the little girl they had given her. Widely distributed advertisements
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  Speaker 1: also brought to light the nurses of the two children,
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  Speaker 1: both the nurse who had taken Julia out to Russia
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  Speaker 1: and the woman who had been with Missus Meredith when
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  Speaker 1: she took over the charge of the Maconican baby, quickly
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  Speaker 1: claiming the reward that was offered for their des discovery.
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  Speaker 1: There was no longer any room for doubt that Juliet
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  Speaker 1: Byrne was the same person as Juliana mc konikan, or
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  Speaker 1: that Julia Romaninov had begun life as little Judy Harsden.
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  Speaker 1: All this scarcely sufficed to rouse Juliet from the apathy
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  Speaker 1: into which she had fallen. To her it seemed incredible
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  Speaker 1: to think with what excitement and delight such news would
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  Speaker 1: have filled her a few months earlier. Now, since David
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  Speaker 1: plainly no longer cared for her, nothing mattered any longer.
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  Speaker 1: Her depression was put down to the shock she had suffered,
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  Speaker 1: and efforts were made to feed her up and coddle her,
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  Speaker 1: which she ungratefully resented. She had nothing in life to
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  Speaker 1: look forward to now, so she told herself, except the
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  Speaker 1: horrible ordeal of the trial, which she would be obliged
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  Speaker 1: to attend. It was in the dejection now becoming habitual
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  Speaker 1: to her that she sat idly one fine October morning
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  Speaker 1: in her little sitting room at the Consulate. She had
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  Speaker 1: refused to play tennis with her step sisters, not because
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  Speaker 1: she had anything else to do, but because nothing was
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  Speaker 1: worth doing any more, and because it was less trouble
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  Speaker 1: to sit and gaze mournfully through the open window at
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  Speaker 1: the yellow leaves of the poplar in the garden, as
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  Speaker 1: from time to time one of them fluttered down through
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  Speaker 1: the still air. How unspeakably sad it was, she thought
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  Speaker 1: to herself, this slow falling of the leaves, like the
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  Speaker 1: gradual but persistent loss of our hopes and illusions, which
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  Speaker 1: eventually make each human dweller in this world of change
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  Speaker 1: feel as bare and forlorn as the leafless winter trees.
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  Speaker 1: On a branch a few feet away, a robin perched, and,
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  Speaker 1: after looking at her critically for a few minutes lifted
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  Speaker 1: up its voice in cheerful song, but she took no
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  Speaker 1: heed of it, and continued to brood over her sorrows.
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  Speaker 1: All men were faithless with them. It was out of sight,
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  Speaker 1: out of mind, and she would assuredly never never believe
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  Speaker 1: in one again. The best thing she could do, she decided,
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  Speaker 1: was to put away all thought of such things and
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  Speaker 1: forget the man whom she had once been so vain
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  Speaker 1: as to imagine really cared for her. And just as
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  Speaker 1: she had told herself for the hundredth time that she
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  Speaker 1: had given up all hope and had resigned herself to
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  Speaker 1: the role of broken hearted maiden, the door opened and
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  Speaker 1: David was shown in. By good luck, she was alone.
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  Speaker 1: Lady Byrne was not yet down, and her stepsisters were out,
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  Speaker 1: so there was no one to see her blushes, and
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  Speaker 1: add to her embarrassment. In the surprise of seeing him,
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  Speaker 1: all her presence of mind vanished, leaving her speechless and
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  Speaker 1: trembling with agitation. For his part, David approached her with
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  Speaker 1: the confusion as obvious as her own. Juliet, he stammered,
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  Speaker 1: as soon as they were left alone together, I know
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  Speaker 1: I oughtn't to have come, but I simply couldn't keep away.
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  Speaker 1: Why oughtn't you to have come? Was all she could ask, foolishly,
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  Speaker 1: Because I know you can't want to see me, said
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  Speaker 1: the absurd young man. Though I do think you liked
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  Speaker 1: me pretty well before, didn't you, when Maisie Tarver tied
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  Speaker 1: my tongue or ought to have I'm afraid I should say,
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  Speaker 1: but she had enough sense to drop me when I
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  Speaker 1: was arrested. She couldn't stand a man arrested for murder
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  Speaker 1: any more than you or any one else could. He
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  Speaker 1: said the last words with an air of shamefaced interrogation. Why,
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  Speaker 1: said Juliet, who was being carried off her feet on
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  Speaker 1: the top of a rapturous flood, What nonsense? You were
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  Speaker 1: as innocent as I was. What would it matter if
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  Speaker 1: you were arrested twenty times? Well, I shouldn't care to
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  Speaker 1: be myself, said David, without apparently deriving much satisfaction from
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  Speaker 1: such a suggestion. Once is enough for me, and anyway,
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  Speaker 1: he added, inconsequentially, you can't very well marry a fellow
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  Speaker 1: who is first cousin to a man who's as good
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  Speaker 1: as hanged already, Oh, David, David, cried Juliet, as if
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  Speaker 1: that mattered. But who do you suppose I am. Don't
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  Speaker 1: you know that he's my first cousin, just as he
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  Speaker 1: is yours by Jingo, said David, I never thought of that. Somehow,
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  Speaker 1: then we're both in the same boat. And he stepped
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  Speaker 1: forward and caught her by the hands. Yes, David, she said,
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  Speaker 1: as he drew her to him tenderly, both in the
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  Speaker 1: same boat. And what can be nicer than that? And
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  Speaker 1: of the Ashey Mystery by Missus Charles Bryce