The Red Redmaynes | Page 8

husband's you think
most likely to be of use."
She did not speak for a moment and Brendon, taking a chair, drew it up

and sat with his arms upon the back of it facing her in a casual and easy
position. He wanted her to feel quite unconstrained.
"Just chat, as though you were talking of the past to a friend," he said.
"Indeed you must believe that you are talking to a friend, who has no
desire but to serve you."
"I'll begin at the beginning," she answered. "My own history is brief
enough and has surely little bearing on this dreadful thing; but my
relations may be more interesting to you than I am. The family is now a
very small one and seems likely to remain so, for of my three uncles all
are bachelors. I have no other blood relations in Europe and know
nothing of some distant cousins who live in Australia.
"The story of my family is this: John Redmayne lived his life on the
Murray River in Victoria, South Australia, and there he made a
considerable fortune out of sheep. He married and had a large family.
Out of seven sons and five daughters born to them during a period of
twenty years, Jenny and John Redmayne only saw five of their children
grow into adult health and strength. Four boys lived, the rest died
young; though two were drowned in a boating accident and my Aunt
Mary, their eldest daughter, lived a year after her marriage.
"There remained four sons: Henry, the eldest, Albert, Bendigo, and
Robert, the youngest of the family, now a man of thirty-five. It is he
you are seeking in this awful thing that is thought to have happened.
"Henry Redmayne was his father's representative in England and a
wool broker on his own account. He married and had one daughter:
myself. I remember my parents very well, for I was fifteen and at
school when they died. They were on their way to Australia, so that my
father might see his father and mother again after the lapse of many
years. But their ship, The Wattle Blossom, was lost with all hands and I
became an orphan.
"John Redmayne, my grandfather, though a rich man was a great
believer in work, and all his sons had to find occupation and justify
their lives in his eyes. Uncle Albert, who was only a year younger than

my father, cared for studious subjects and literature. He was
apprenticed in youth to a bookseller at Sydney and after a time came to
England, joined a large and important firm of booksellers, and became
an expert. They took him into partnership and he travelled for them and
spent some years in New York. But his special subject was Italian
Renaissance literature and his joy was Italy, where he now lives. He
found himself in a position to retire about ten years ago, being a
bachelor with modest requirements. He knew, moreover, that his father
must soon pass away and, as his mother was already dead, he stood in a
position to count upon a share of the large fortune to be divided
presently between himself and his two remaining brothers.
"Of these my Uncle Bendigo Redmayne was a sailor in the merchant
marine. After reaching the position of a captain in the Royal Mail
Steamship Company he retired on my grandfather's death, four years
ago. He is a bluff, gruff old salt without any charm, and he never
reached promotion into the passenger service, but remained in
command of cargo boats--a circumstance he regarded as a great
grievance. But the sea is his devotion, and when he was able to do so,
he built himself a little house on the Devon cliffs, where now he resides
within sound of the waves.
"My third uncle, Robert Redmayne, is at this moment apparently
suspected of having killed my husband; but the more I think of such a
hideous situation, the less possible does it appear. For not the wildest
nightmare dream would seem more mad and motiveless than such a
horror as this.
"Robert Redmayne in youth was his father's favourite and if he spoiled
any of his sons he spoiled the youngest. Uncle Robert came to England,
and being fond of cattle breeding and agriculture, joined a farmer, the
brother of an Australian friend of John Redmayne's. He was supposed
to be getting on well, but he came and went, for my grandfather did not
like a year to pass without a sight of him.
"Uncle Bob was a pleasure-loving man especially fond of horse racing
and sea fishing. On the strength of his prospects he borrowed money
and got into debt. After the death of my own father I saw a little