The Chief Legatee | Page 6

Gerridge entered. He held a photograph in his hand which he had
evidently taken from his pocket on his way up.
"Look at this," said he. "Do you recognize the face?"
"The lady--"
"Just so; the one who said she had seen no one come into No. 3 on the
first floor."
Mr. Ransom's expression of surprised inquiry was sufficient answer.
"Well, it's a pity you didn't look at her gloves instead of at her face.
You might have had some dim idea of having seen them before. It was
she who rode to the hotel with you; not your wife. The veil was wound
around her face for a far deeper purpose than to ward off rice."
Mr. Ransom staggered back against the table before which he had been
standing. The blow was an overwhelming one.
"Who is this woman?" he demanded. "She came from Mr. Fulton's
house. More than that, from my wife's room. What is her name and
what did she mean by such an outrage?"

"Her name is Bella Burton, and she is your wife's confidential maid. As
for the meaning of this outrage, it will take more than two hours to
ferret out that. I can only give you the single fact I've mentioned."
"And Mrs. Ransom?"
"She left the house at the same moment you did; you and Miss Burton.
Only she went by the basement door."
"She? She?"
"Dressed in her maid's clothes. Oh, you'll have to hear worse things
than that before we're out of this muddle. If you won't mind a bit of
advice from a man of experience, I would suggest that you take things
easy. It's the only way."
Shocked into silence by this cold-blooded philosophy, Mr. Ransom
controlled both his anger and his humiliation; but he could not control
his surprise.
"What does it mean?" he murmured to himself. "What does it all
mean?"
CHAPTER III
"HE KNOWS THE WORD"
The next moment the doubt natural to the occasion asserted itself.
"How do you know all this? You state the impossible. Explain
yourself."
Gerridge was only too willing to do so.
"I have just come from Mr. Fulton's house," said he. "Inquiries there
elicited the facts which have so startled you. Neither Mr. Fulton nor his
wife meant to deceive you. They knew nothing, suspected nothing of
what took place, and you have no cause to blame them. It was all a plot

between the two women."
"But how--why--"
"You see, I had a fact to go upon. You had noticed that your so-called
bride's gloves did not fit her; the boy below, that her shoes were so
tight she hobbled. That set me thinking. A woman of Mrs. Ransom's
experience and judgment would not be apt to make a mistake in two
such important particulars; which, taken with the veil and the promise
she exacted from you not to address or touch her during your short ride
to the hotel, led me to point my inquiries so that I soon found out that
your wife had had the assistance of another woman in getting ready for
her journey and that this woman was her own maid who had been with
her for a long time, and had always given evidence of an especial
attachment for her. Asking about this girl's height and general
appearance (for the possibility of a substitution was already in my
mind), I found that she was of slight figure and good carriage, and that
her age was not far removed from that of her young mistress. This
made the substitution I have mentioned feasible, and when I was told
that she was seen taking her hat and bonnet into the bride's room, and,
though not expected to leave till the next morning, had slid away from
the house by the basement door at the same moment her mistress
appeared on the front steps, my suspicions became so confirmed that I
asked how this girl looked, in the hope that you would be able to
recognize her, through the description, as the woman you had seen
sitting in Reception-room No. 3. But to my surprise, Mrs. Fulton had
what was better than any description, the girl's picture. This has
simplified matters very much. By it you have been able to identify the
woman who attempted to mislead you in the reception-room, and I the
person who rode here with you from Mr. Fulton's house. Wasn't she
dressed in brown? Didn't you notice a similarity in her appearance to
that of the very lady you were then seeking?"
"I did not observe. Her face was all I saw. She was looking directly at
me as I stepped into the room."
"I see. She had taken off her veil and trusted to your attention being
caught by her