The Leavenworth Case

‘I pray God there may be nothing to tell. Judging from your present faith in your cousin, there will not be. Take comfort, then, and be assured I will inform you if anything occurs which you ought to know.’

Giving her a look of encouragement, I left her crushed against the crimson pillows of the sofa on which she sat, and rejoined Mr Gryce. We had scarcely entered the reception room when Eleanore Leavenworth came in.

More languid than she was an hour before, but haughty still, she slowly advanced, and, meeting my eye, gently bent her head.

‘I have been summoned here,’ said she, directing herself exclusively to Mr Gryce, ‘by an individual whom I take to be in your employ. If so, may I request you to make your wishes known at once, as I am quite exhausted, and am in great need of rest.’

‘Miss Leavenworth,’ returned Mr Gryce, rubbing his hands together and staring in quite a fatherly manner at the door-knob, ‘I am very sorry to trouble you, but the fact is I wish to ask you—’

But here she stopped him. ‘Anything in regard to the key which that man has doubtless told you he saw me drop into the ashes?’

‘Yes, Miss.’

‘Then I must refuse to answer any questions concerning it. I have nothing to say on the subject, unless it is this’—giving him a look full of suffering, but full of a certain sort of courage, too—‘that he was right if he told you I had the key in hiding about my person, and that I attempted to conceal it in the ashes of the grate.’

‘Still, Miss—’

But she had already withdrawn to the door. ‘I pray you to excuse me,’ said she. ‘No argument you could advance would make any difference in my determination; therefore it would be but a waste of energy on your part to attempt any.’ And, with a flitting glance in my direction, not without its appeal, she quietly left the room.

For a moment Mr Gryce stood gazing after her with a look of great interest, then, bowing with almost exaggerated homage, he hastily followed her out.

I had scarcely recovered from the surprise occasioned by this unexpected movement when a quick step was heard in the hall, and Mary, flushed and anxious, appeared at my side.

‘What is it?’ she inquired. ‘What has Eleanore been saying?’

‘Alas!’ I answered, ‘she has not said anything. That is the trouble, Miss Leavenworth. Your cousin preserves a reticence upon certain points very painful to witness. She ought to understand that if she persists in doing this, that—’

‘That what?’ There was no mistaking the deep anxiety prompting this question.

‘That she cannot avoid the trouble that will ensue.’

For a moment she stood gazing at me, with great horror-stricken, incredulous eyes; then sinking back into a chair, flung her hands over her face with the cry:

‘Oh, why were we ever born! Why were we allowed to live! Why did we not perish with those who gave us birth!’

In the face of anguish like this, I could not keep still.

‘Dear Miss Leavenworth,’ I essayed, ‘there is no cause for such despair as this. The future looks dark, but not impenetrable. Your cousin will listen to reason, and in explaining—’

But she, deaf to my words, had again risen to her feet, and stood before me in an attitude almost appalling.

‘Some women in my position would go mad! mad! mad!’

I surveyed her with growing wonder. I thought I knew what she meant. She was conscious of having given the cue which had led to this suspicion of her cousin, and that in this way the trouble which hung over their heads was of her own making. I endeavoured to soothe her, but my efforts were all unavailing. Absorbed in her own anguish, she paid but little attention to me. Satisfied at last that I could do nothing more for her, I turned to go. The movement seemed to arouse her.

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