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The Mystery of the Yellow Room Chapter 29 - The Mystery of Mademoiselle Stangerson · The Gaston Leroux Library

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  Speaker 1: Chapter twenty nine of the Mystery of the Yellow Room.
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  Speaker 1: This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in
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  Speaker 1: the public domain. For more free audio books or to volunteer,
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  Speaker 1: please visit LibriVox dot org. The Mystery of the Yellow
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  Speaker 1: Room by Gaston LaRue, Chapter twenty nine, The Mystery of
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson. During the days that followed, I had several
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  Speaker 1: opportunities to question him as to his reason for his
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  Speaker 1: voyage to America, but I obtained no more precise answers
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  Speaker 1: than he had given me on the evening of the
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  Speaker 1: adjournment of the trial, when we were on the train
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  Speaker 1: for Paris one day. However, on my still pressing him,
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  Speaker 1: he said, can't you understand that I had to know
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  Speaker 1: Larsen's true personality? No doubt, I said, but why did
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  Speaker 1: you go to America to find that out? He sat
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  Speaker 1: smoking his pipe and made no further reply. I began
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  Speaker 1: to see that I was touching on the secret that
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  Speaker 1: concerned Mane. Momiselle Stangerson Rouletabille evidently had found it necessary
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  Speaker 1: to go to America to find out what the mysterious
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  Speaker 1: tie was that bound her to Larson. By so strange
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  Speaker 1: and terrible a bond in America. He had learned who
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  Speaker 1: Larson was and had obtained information which closed his mouth.
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  Speaker 1: He had been to Philadelphia. And now what was this
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  Speaker 1: mystery which held Mademoiselle Stangerson and Monsieur Robert Darzac in
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  Speaker 1: so inexplicable a silence after so many years and the
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  Speaker 1: publicity given the case by a curious and shameless press.
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  Speaker 1: Now that Monsieur Stangerson knows all and has forgiven all,
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  Speaker 1: all may be told. In every phase of this remarkable story,
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson has always been the sufferer. The beginning dates
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  Speaker 1: from the time when, as a young girl she was
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  Speaker 1: living with her father in Philadelphia. A visitor at the house,
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  Speaker 1: a Frenchman, had succeeded by his wit, grace, and persistent
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  Speaker 1: attention in gaining her affections. He was said to be rich,
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  Speaker 1: and had asked her of her father, Monsieur si Stangerson.
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  Speaker 1: On making inquiries as to Monsieur Jean Roussell, found that
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  Speaker 1: the man was a swindler and an adventurer. Jean Roussel
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  Speaker 1: was but another of the many names under which the
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  Speaker 1: notorious Ballmyre, a fugitive from France, tried to hide himself.
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Stangerson did not know of his identity with Ballmyre.
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  Speaker 1: He learned that the man was simply undesirable for his daughter.
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  Speaker 1: He not only refused to give his consent to the marriage,
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  Speaker 1: but denied him admission into the house. Mattilde Stangerson, however,
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  Speaker 1: had fallen in love to her. Jean rousell was everything
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  Speaker 1: that her love painted him. She was indignant at her
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  Speaker 1: father's attitude and did not conceal her feelings. Her father
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  Speaker 1: sent her to stay with an aunt in Cincinnati. There
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  Speaker 1: she was joined by Jean Roussel, and, in spite of
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  Speaker 1: the reverence she felt for her father, ran away with
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  Speaker 1: him to get married. They went to Louisville and lived
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  Speaker 1: there for some time. One morning, however, a knock came
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  Speaker 1: at the door of the house in which they were,
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  Speaker 1: and the police entered to arrest Jean Rouselle. It was
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  Speaker 1: then that Matilde Stangerson or Roussel learned that her husband
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  Speaker 1: was no other than the notorious Ballmyre. The young woman,
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  Speaker 1: in her despair, tried to commit suicide. She failed in
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  Speaker 1: this and was forced to rejoin her aunt in Cincinnati.
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  Speaker 1: The old lady was overjoyed to see her again. She
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  Speaker 1: had been anxiously searching for her and had not dared
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  Speaker 1: to tell Monsieur Stangerson of her disappearance. Matilde swore her
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  Speaker 1: to secrecy so that her father should not know that
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  Speaker 1: she had been away. A month later, Mademoiselle Stangerson returned
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  Speaker 1: to her father, repentant, her heart dead within her, hoping
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  Speaker 1: only one thing that she would never again see her husband,
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  Speaker 1: the horrible Ballmyre. A report was spread a few weeks
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  Speaker 1: later that he was dead, and she now determined to
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  Speaker 1: atone for her disobedience by a life of labor and
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  Speaker 1: devotion for her father. And she kept her word. All this.
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  Speaker 1: She had confessed to Robert Darzac, and, believing Ballmyre dead,
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  Speaker 1: had given herself to the joy of a union with him.
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  Speaker 1: But fate had resuscitated Jean Rouselle, the Ballmire of her youth.
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  Speaker 1: He had taken steps to let her know that he
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  Speaker 1: would never allow her to marry Darzac, that he still
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  Speaker 1: loved her. Mademoiselle Stangerson never for one moment hesitated to
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  Speaker 1: confide in Monsieur Darzac. She showed him the letter in
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  Speaker 1: which Jean Rousselle asked her to recall the first hours
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  Speaker 1: of their union in their beautiful and charming Louisville home.
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  Speaker 1: The presbytery has lost nothing of its charm nor the
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  Speaker 1: garden of its brightness. He had written. The scoundrel pretended
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  Speaker 1: to be rich and claimed the right of taking her
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  Speaker 1: back to Louisville. She had told Darzac that if her
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  Speaker 1: father should know of her dishonor, she would kill herself.
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  Speaker 1: Monsieur Darzac had sworn to silence her persecutor, even if
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  Speaker 1: he had to kill him. He was outwitted and would
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  Speaker 1: have succumbed had it not been for the genius of Rouletabille.
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  Speaker 1: Mademoiselle Stangerson was herself helpless in the hands of such
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  Speaker 1: a villain. She had tried to kill him when he
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  Speaker 1: had first threatened and then attacked her in the Yellow Room.
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  Speaker 1: She had unfortunately failed, and felt herself condemned to be
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  Speaker 1: forever at the mercy of this unscrupulous wretch, who was
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  Speaker 1: continually demanding her presence at clandestine interviews. When he sent
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  Speaker 1: her the letter through the post office asking her to
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  Speaker 1: meet him, she had refused. The result of her refusal
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  Speaker 1: was the tragedy of the Yellow Room. The second time
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  Speaker 1: he wrote, asking for a meeting. The letter reaching her
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  Speaker 1: in her sick chamber, she had avoided him by sleeping
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  Speaker 1: with her servants. In that letter, the scoundrel had warned
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  Speaker 1: her that since she was too ill to come to him,
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  Speaker 1: he would come to her, and that he would be
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  Speaker 1: in her chamber at a particular hour on a particular night.
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  Speaker 1: Knowing she had everything to fear from Ballmyer, she had
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  Speaker 1: left her chamber on that night. It was then that
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  Speaker 1: the incident of the inexplicable gallery occurred. The third time.
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  Speaker 1: She had determined to keep the appointment. He asked for
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  Speaker 1: it in the letter he had written in her own
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  Speaker 1: room on the night of the incident, in the gallery,
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  Speaker 1: which he left on her desk. In that letter, he
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  Speaker 1: threatened to burn her father's papers if she did not
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  Speaker 1: meet him. It was to rescue these papers that she
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  Speaker 1: made up her mind to see him. She did not
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  Speaker 1: for one moment doubt that the wretch would carry out
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  Speaker 1: his threat if she persisted in avoiding him, and in
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  Speaker 1: that case, the labors of her father's lifetime would be
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  Speaker 1: forever lost. Since the meeting was thus inevitable, she resolved
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  Speaker 1: to see her husband and appeal to his better nature.
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  Speaker 1: It was for this interview that she had prepared herself
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  Speaker 1: on the night the keeper was killed. They did meet,
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  Speaker 1: and what passed between them may be imagined. He insisted
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  Speaker 1: that she renounced Darzac. She, on her part, affirmed her
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  Speaker 1: love for him. He stabbed her in his anger, determined
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  Speaker 1: to convict Darzac of the crime. As Larsan he could
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  Speaker 1: do it, and had so managed things that Darzac could
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  Speaker 1: never explain how he had employed the time of his
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  Speaker 1: absence from the Chateau, Ballmyer's precautions were most cunningly taken.
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  Speaker 1: Larzan threatened Darzac as he had threatened Mattield, with the
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  Speaker 1: same weapon and the same threats. He wrote Darzac urgent letters,
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  Speaker 1: declaring himself ready to deliver up the letters that had
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  Speaker 1: passed between him and his wife and to leave them
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  Speaker 1: forever if he would pay him his price. He asked
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  Speaker 1: Darzac to meet him for the purpose of arranging the matter,
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  Speaker 1: appointing the time when Larzan would be with Mademoiselle Stangerson.
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  Speaker 1: When Darzac went to Epinay, expecting to find Ballmyre or
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  Speaker 1: Larsan there, he was met by an accomplice of Larsan's
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  Speaker 1: and kept waiting until such time as the coincidence could
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  Speaker 1: be established. It was all done with Macavelli and cunning,
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  Speaker 1: But ballmyre had reckoned without Joseph Rouletabille. Now that the
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  Speaker 1: mystery of the Yellow Room has been cleared up, this
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  Speaker 1: is now the time to tell of Rouletabille's adventures in America.
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  Speaker 1: Knowing the young reporter as we do, we can understand
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  Speaker 1: with what acumen he had traced step by step the
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  Speaker 1: story of Mattilde Stangerson and Jean Roussel. At Philadelphia, he
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  Speaker 1: had quickly informed himself as to Arthur William Rand. There
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  Speaker 1: he learned of Rance's act of devotion and the reward
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  Speaker 1: he thought himself entitled to for it. A rumor of
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  Speaker 1: his marriage with Mademoiselle Stangerson had once found its way
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  Speaker 1: into the drawing rooms of Philadelphia. He also learned of
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  Speaker 1: Rance's continued attentions to her and his importunities for her.
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  Speaker 1: Hand he had taken to drink. He had said, to
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  Speaker 1: drown his grief at his unrequited love. It can now
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  Speaker 1: be understood while Rouletabille had shown so marked a coolness
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  Speaker 1: of demeanor towards Rance when they met in the witness's
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  Speaker 1: room on the day of the trial, the strange Rousselle
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  Speaker 1: Stangerson mystery had now been laid bare. Who was this
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  Speaker 1: Jean Roussel Rouletabille had traced him from Philadelphia to Cincinnati.
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  Speaker 1: In Cincinnati, he became acquainted with the old Aunt and
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  Speaker 1: had found means to open her mouth the story of
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  Speaker 1: Ballmeyer's arrest through the right light on the whole story.
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  Speaker 1: He visited the Presbytery, a small and pretty dwelling in
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  Speaker 1: the old colonial style, which had indeed lost nothing of
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  Speaker 1: its charm. Then, abandoning his pursuit of traces of Mademoiselle Stangerson,
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  Speaker 1: he took up those of Ballmyre. He followed them from
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  Speaker 1: prison to prison, from crime to crime. Finally, as he
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  Speaker 1: was about leaving for Europe, he learned in New York
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  Speaker 1: that Ballmyre had, five years before embarked for France with
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  Speaker 1: some valuable papers belonging to a merchant of New Orleans,
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  Speaker 1: whom he had murdered. And yet the whole of this
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  Speaker 1: mystery has not been revealed. Mademoiselle Stangerson had a child
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  Speaker 1: by her husband, a son. The infant was born in
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  Speaker 1: the old Aunt's house. No one knew of it. So
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  Speaker 1: well had the aunt managed to conceal the event. What
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  Speaker 1: became of that son? That is another story which so
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  Speaker 1: far I am not permitted to relate. About two months
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  Speaker 1: after these events, I came upon Rouletabille sitting on a
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  Speaker 1: bench in the Palais de Justice, looking very depressed. What's
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  Speaker 1: the matter, old man, I asked, you are looking very downcast.
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  Speaker 1: How are your friends getting on? Apart from you? He said,
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  Speaker 1: I have no friends. I hope that Monsieur Darzac, no doubt.
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  Speaker 1: And Mademoiselle Stangerson, how is she better? Much better then you? Ought?
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  Speaker 1: Not to be sad? I am sad, he said, because
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  Speaker 1: I am thinking of the perfume of the Lady in Black.
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  Speaker 1: The perfume of the Lady in Black. I have heard
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  Speaker 1: you often refer to it. Tell me why it troubles you,
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  Speaker 1: perhaps some day, some day, said Rouletabille, and he heaved
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  Speaker 1: a profound sigh. And of Chapter twenty nine and of
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  Speaker 1: the Mystery of the Yellow Room by Gaston LaRue,