The Mystery of the Four Fingers | Page 7

said. "This
business has evidently been too much for her. Meanwhile, I will see
what I can do for Mr. Fenwick."
Venner shot his friend a glance of gratitude. He did not hesitate for a
moment; he saw that the girl by his side was quite incapable of offering
any objections for the present. In his own strong, masterful way, he
drew the girl's hand under his arm, and fairly dragged her from the
room into the comparative silence and seclusion of the corridor beyond.
"Which way do we go?" he asked.
"The Grand Staircase," the girl replied faintly. "It is on the first floor.
But you must not come with me, you must come no further. It would be
madness for him to know that we are together."
"He will not come just yet," Venner replied. "My friend knows
something of my story, and he will do his best to get us five minutes
together. You have heard me speak of Jim Gurdon before."
"But it is madness," the girl whispered. "You know how dangerous it is.
Oh, Gerald, what must you think of me when--"
"I swear to you that I think nothing of you that is unkind or
ungenerous," Venner protested. "By a cruel stroke of fate we were
parted at the very moment when our happiness seemed most complete.
Why you left me in the strange way you did, I have never yet learned.
In your letter to me you told me you were bound to act as you did, and I
believed you implicitly. How many men in similar circumstances
would have behaved as I did? How many men would have gone on
honoring a wife who betrayed her husband as you betrayed me? And
yet, as I stand here at this moment, looking into your eyes, I feel certain
that you are the same sweet and innocent girl who did me the happiness
to become my wife."
The beautiful face quivered, and the blue eyes filled with tears. Her
trembling hand lay on Venner's arm for a moment; then he caught the
girl to his side and kissed her passionately.

"I thank you for those words," she whispered. "From the bottom of my
heart I thank you. If you only knew what I have suffered, if you only
knew the terrible pressure that is put upon me;--and it seemed to me
that I was acting for the best. I hoped, too, that you would go away and
forget me; that in the course of time I should be nothing more than a
memory to you. And yet, in my heart, I always felt that we should meet
again. Is it not strange that we should come together like this?"
"I do not see that it is in the least strange," Venner replied, "considering
that I have been looking for you for the last three years. When I found
you to-night, it was with the greatest difficulty that I restrained myself
from laying my hands on the man who is the cause of all your misery
and suffering. How long has he been passing for an Englishman? Since
when has he been a millionaire? If he be a millionaire at all."
"I cannot tell you," the girl whispered. "Really, I do not know. A little
time ago we were poor enough; then suddenly, money seemed to come
in from all sides. I asked no questions; they would not have been
answered if I had. At least, not truthfully. And now you really must go.
When shall I see you again? Ah, I cannot tell you. For the present you
must go on trusting me as implicitly as you have done in the past. Oh,
if you only knew how it wrings my heart to have to speak to you like
this, when all the time my whole love is for you and you alone.
Gerald--ah, go now; go at once. Don't you see that he is coming up the
stairs?"
Venner turned away, and slipped down a side corridor, till Fenwick had
entered his own room. Then he walked down the stairs again into the
dining-room, where a heated discussion was still going on as to the
identity of the missing waiter.
"They'll never find him," Gurdon muttered, "for the simple reason that
the fellow was imported for the occasion, and, in my opinion, was no
waiter at all. You will notice also that our crippled friend has vanished.
I would give a great deal to know what was in the box that pretty nearly
scared the yellow man to death. I never saw a fellow so frightened in
my life. He had to fortify himself with two brandies before he could get
up to his own room. Gerald, I really must find out what was