第73章

"Your Honour and Gentlemen of the Jury: We will rest our case here for to-day.To-morrow, or rather on Monday, we shall show the strange influence which M.Godin exercised over M.Latour, as well as M.Latour's reasons for his confession.We shall endeavour to make clear to you how M.Latour was actually led to believe he had murdered John Darrow, and how he was bribed to confess a crime=20 committed by another.Of the hypnotic power of M.Godin over M.Latour I have indisputable proof, though we shall see that M.Godin by no means relied wholly upon this power.We shall show you also that sufficient time elapsed to enable M.Godin, by great skill and celerity, to make away with the evidences of his guilt in time to enable him to be present with Messrs.Osborne and Allen at the examination.In short, we shall unravel before you a crime which, for cleverness of conception and adroitness ofexecution, has never been equalled in the history of this community."Maitland having thus concluded his remarks by dropping into a courteous plural in deference to Mr.Jenkins, the court adjourned until Monday, and I left Gwen in Maitland's charge while I hurried home, fearful lest I should not be the first to bring to Jeannette the glad news of her father's innocence, for I had not the slightest doubt of Maitland's ability to prove conclusively all he had undertaken.

I need not describe to you my interview with Jeannette.There are things concerning it which, even at this late day, when their roseate hue glows but dimly in the blue retrospect of the past, - it would seem sacrilege for me to mention to another.Believe me, I am perfectly aware of your inquisitive nature, and I know that this omission may nettle you.Charge it all up, then, to the perversity of a bachelor in the throes of his first, last, and only love experience.You must see that such things cannot be conveyed to another with anything like their real significance.Were I to say I was carried beyond myself by her protestations of gratitude until, in a delirium of joy, I seized her in my arms and covered her with kisses, do you for a moment fancy you could appreciate my feelings? Do you imagine that the little tingle of sympathy which you might experience were I to say that, instead of pushing me from her, I felt her clasp tighten about me, - would tell you anything of the great torrent of hot blood that deluged my heart as she lay there in my arms, quivering ecstatically at every kiss? No! a thousand times no! Therefore have I thought best to say nothing about it.Our love can keep its own secrets.- But alas! this was long ago, and as I sit here alone writing this to you, I cannot but wonder, with a heavy sense of ever-present longing, where on this great earth Jeannette - 'my Jeannette,' I have learned to call her - is now.You see a bachelor's love-affair is a serious thing, and years cannot always efface it.But to return to the past:

Jeannette, I think, was not more pleased than Gwen at the turn affairs had taken.Indeed, so exuberant was Gwen in her quiet way that I marvelled much at the change in her, so much, indeed, that finally I determined to question Alice about it.

"I can understand," I said to her, "why Gwen, on account of hersympathy and love for Jeannette, should be glad that M.Latour is likely to be acquitted.I can also appreciate the distaste she may have felt at the prospect of having to deal with M.Godin under the terms of her father's will; but even both of these considerations seem to me insufficient to account for her present almost ecstatic condition.There is an immediateness to her joy which could hardly result from mere release from a future disagreeable possibility.How do you account for it, sis?" Alice's answer was somewhat enigmatical and didn't give me the information I sought."Ned," she replied," I'll pay for the tickets to the first circus that comes here, just to see if you can find the trunks on the elephants." Do my best, I couldn't make her enlighten me any further, for, to every question, she replied with a most provoking laugh.

Maitland called and spent most of the next day, which was Sunday, with us, and we all talked matters over.He did not seem either to share or understand Gwen's exuberance of spirits, albeit one could easily observe that he had a measure of that satisfaction which always comes from success.More than once I saw him glance questioningly at Gwen with a look which said plainly enough: "What is the meaning of this remarkable change? Why should it so matter to her whether M.Latour's or M.Godin's death avenges her father's murder?" When he left us at night I could see he had not answered that question to his own satisfaction.