Lost Man's Lane: A Second Episode in the Life of Amelia Butterworth

by Anna Katharine Green

  XL

  EXPLANATIONS

  The hour we all spent together late that night in the old house wasunlike any hour which that place had seen for years. Mr. Ostrander,Lucetta, Loreen, William, Mr. Gryce, and myself, all were there, and asan especial grace, Saracen was allowed to enter, that there might not bea cloud upon a single face there assembled. Though it is a small matter,I will add that this dog persisted in lying down by my side, notyielding even to the wiles of his master, whose amusement over this factkept him good-natured to the last adieu.

  There were too few candles in the house to make it bright, but Lucetta'sunearthly beauty, the peace in Loreen's soft eyes, made us forget thesombreness of our surroundings and the meagreness of the entertainmentHannah attempted to offer us. It was the promise of coming joy, andwhen, our two guests departed, I bade good-night to the girls in theirgrim upper hall, it was with feelings which found their best expressionin the two letters I hastened to write as soon as I gained the refuge ofmy own apartment. I will admit you sufficiently into my confidence tolet you read those letters. The first of them ran thus:

  "DEAR OLIVE:

  "To make others happy is the best way to forget our own misfortunes. A sudden wedding is to take place in this house. Order at once for me from the shops you know me to be in the habit of patronizing, a wedding gown of dainty white taffeta [I did this not to recall too painfully to herself the wedding dress I helped her buy, and which was, as you may remember, of creamy satin], with chiffon trimmings, and a wedding veil of tulle. Add to this a dress suitable for ocean travel and a half-dozen costumes adapted to a southern climate. Let everything be suitable for a delicate but spirited girl who has seen trouble, but who is going to be happy now if a little attention and money can make her so. Do not spare expense, yet show no extravagance, for she is a shy bird, easily frightened. The measurements you will find enclosed; also those of another young lady, her sister, who must also be supplied with a white dress, the material of which, however, had better be of crape.

  "All these things must be here by Wednesday evening, my own best dress included. On Saturday evening you may look for my return. I shall bring the latter young lady with me, so your present loneliness will be forgotten in the pleasure of entertaining an agreeable guest. Faithfully yours,

  "AMELIA BUTTERWORTH."

  The second letter was a longer and more important one. It was directedto the president of the company which had proposed to send Mr. Ostranderto South America. In it I related enough of the circumstances which hadkept Mr. Ostrander in X. to interest him in the young couple personally,and then I told him that if he would forgive Mr. Ostrander this delayand allow him to sail with his young bride by the next steamer, I myselfwould undertake to advance whatever sums might have been lost by thischange of arrangement.

  I did not know then that Mr. Gryce had already made this matter goodwith this same gentleman.

  The next morning we all took a walk in the lane. (I say nothing aboutthe night. If I did not choose to sleep, or if I had any cause not tofeel quite as elevated in spirit as the young people about me, there issurely no reason why I should dwell upon it with you or even apologizefor a weakness which you will regard, I hope, as an exception settingoff my customary strength.)

  Now a walk in this lane was an event. To feel at liberty to stroll amongits shadows without fear, to know that the danger had been so locatedthat we all felt free to inhale the autumn air and to enjoy the beautiesof the place without a thought of peril lurking in its sweetest nooksand most attractive coverts, gave to this short half-hour a distinctivedelight aptly expressed by Loreen when she said:

  "I never knew the place was so beautiful. Why, I think I can be happyhere now." At which Lucetta grew pensive, till I roused her by saying:

  "So much for a constitutional, girls. Now we must to work. This house,as you see it now, has to be prepared for a wedding. William, yourbusiness will be to see that these grounds are put in as good order aspossible in the short time allotted to you. I will bear the expense, andLoreen----"

  But William had a word to say for himself.

  "Miss Butterworth," said he, "you're a right good sort of woman, asSaracen has found out, and we, too, in these last few plaguy days. ButI'm not such a bad lot either, and if I do like my own way, which maynot be other people's way, and if I am sometimes short with the girlsfor some of their d--d nonsense, I have a little decency about me, too,and I promise to fix these grounds, and out of my own money, too. Nowthat nine tenths of our income does not have to go abroad, we'll havechink enough to let us live in a respectable manner once more in a placewhere one horse, if he's good enough, will give a fellow a standing andmake him the envy of those who, for some other pesky reasons, may thinkthemselves called upon to fight shy of him. I don't begrudge the oldplace a few dollars, especially as I mean to live and die in it; so lookout, you three women folks, and work as lively as you can on the insideof the old rookery, or the slickness of the outside will put you to openshame, and that would never please Loreen, nor, as I take it, MissButterworth either."

  It was a challenge we were glad to accept, especially as from the numberof persons we now saw come flocking into the lane, it was very apparentthat we should experience no further difficulty in obtaining any help wemight need to carry out our undertakings.

  Meantime my thoughts were not altogether concentrated upon thesepleasing plans for Lucetta's benefit. There were certain points yet tobe made clear in the matter just terminated, and there was a confessionfor me to make, without which I could not face Mr. Gryce with all thatunwavering composure which our peculiar relations seemed to demand.

  The explanations came first. They were volunteered by Mr. Gryce, whom Imet in the course of the morning at Mother Jane's cottage. That oldcrone had been perfectly happy all night, sleeping with the coin in herhand and waking to again devour it with her greedy but loving eyes. As Iwas alternately watching her and Mr. Gryce, who was directing with hishand the movements of the men who had come to smooth down her garden andmake it presentable again, the detective spoke:

  "I suppose you have found it difficult, in the light of these newdiscoveries, to explain to yourself how Mother Jane happened to havethose trinkets from the peddler's pack, and also how the ring, which youvery naturally thought must have been entrusted to the dove by Mr.Chittenden himself, came to be about its neck when it flew home that dayof Mr. Chittenden's disappearance. Madam, we think old Mother Jane musthave helped herself out of the peddler's pack before it was found in thewoods there back of her hut, and of the other matter our explanation isthis:

  "One day a young man, equipped for travelling, paused for a glass ofwater at the famous well in Mr. Trohm's garden just as Mother Jane'spigeons were picking up the corn scattered for them by the former, whosetastes are not confined to the cultivation of fruits and flowers, butextend to dumb animals, to whom he is uniformly kind. The young man worea ring, and, being nervous, was fiddling with it as he talked to thepleasant old gentleman who was lowering the bucket for him. As hefiddled with it, the earth fell from under him, and as the daylightvanished above his head, the ring flew from his up-thrown hand, and lay,the only token of his now blotted-out existence, upon the emerald swardhe had but a moment before pressed with his unsuspicious feet. Itburned--this ruby burned like a drop of blood in the grass, when thatdemon came again to his senses, and being a tell-tale evidence of crimein the eyes of one who had allowed nothing to ever speak against him inthese matters, he stared at it as at a deadly thing directed againsthimself and to be got rid of at once and by means which by nopossibility could recoil back upon himself as its author.

  "The pigeons stalking near offered to his abnormally acute understandingthe only solution which would leave him absolutely devoid of fear. Hemight have swung open the lid of the well once more and flung it afterits owner, but this meant an aftermath of experience from which heshrank, his delight being
in the thought that the victims he saw vanishbefore his eyes were so many encumbrances wiped off the face of theearth by a sweep of the hand. To see or hear them again would bedestructive of this notion. He preferred the subtler way and to takeadvantage of old Mother Jane's characteristics, so he caught one of thepigeons (he has always been able to lure birds into his hands), andtying the ring around the neck of the bird with a blade of grass pluckedup from the highway, he let it fly, and so was rid of the bauble whichto Mother Jane's eyes, of course, was a direct gift from the heavensthrough which the bird had flown before lighting on her doorstep."

  "Wonderful!" I exclaimed, almost overwhelmed with humiliation, butpreserving a brave front. "What invention and what audacity!--theinvention and the audacity of a man totally irresponsible for his deeds,was it not?" I asked. "There is no doubt, is there, about his being anabsolute maniac?"

  "No, madam." What a relief I felt at that word! "Since we entrapped himyesterday and he found himself fully discovered, he has lost all gripupon himself and fills the room we put him in with the unmistakableravings of a madman. It was through these I learned the facts I havejust mentioned."

  I drew a deep breath. We were standing in the sight of several men, andtheir presence there seemed intolerable. Unconsciously I began to walkaway. Unconsciously Mr. Gryce followed me. At the end of several paceswe both stopped. We were no longer visible to the crowd, and I felt Icould speak the words I had been burning to say ever since I saw thetrue nature of Mr. Trohm's character exposed.

  "Mr. Gryce," said I, flushing scarlet--which I here solemnly declare issomething which has not happened to me before in years, and if I canhelp it shall never happen to me again,--"I am interested in what yousay, because yesterday, at his own gateway, Mr. Trohm proposed to me,and----"

  "You did not accept him?"

  "No. What do you think I am made of, Mr. Gryce? I did not accept him,but I made the refusal a gentle one, and--this is not easy work, Mr.Gryce," I interrupted myself to say with suitable grimness--"the samething took place between me and Deacon Spear, and to him I gave aresponse such as I thought his presumption warranted. The discriminationdoes not argue well for my astuteness, Mr. Gryce. You see, I crave nocredit that I do not deserve. Perhaps you cannot understand that, but itis a part of my nature."

  "Madam," said he, and I must own I thought his conduct perfect, "had Inot been as completely deceived as yourself I might find words ofcriticism for this possibly unprofessional partiality. But when an oldhand like myself can listen to the insinuations of a maniac, and repose,as I must say I did repose, more or less confidence in the statements hechose to make me, and which were true enough as to the facts hementioned, but wickedly false and preposterously wrong in suggestion, Ican have no words of blame for a woman who, whatever her understandingand whatever her experience, necessarily has seen less of human natureand its incalculable surprises. As to the more delicate matter you havebeen good enough to confide to me, madam, I have but one remark to make.With such an example of womanhood suddenly brought to their notice insuch a wild as this, how could you expect them, sane or insane, to dootherwise than they did? I know many a worthy man who would like tofollow their example." And with a bow that left me speechless, Mr. Grycelaid his hand on his heart and softly withdrew.