Annie Haynes Premium Collection – 8 Murder Mysteries in One Volume. Annie Haynes

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      Chapter III

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      “Well, it one of the queerest things I ever heard of!” Garth Davenant’s dark face looked puzzled. “You say the girl cannot give any account of herself at all?” Mavis shook her head.

      “No, she has for the time being entirely lost her memory. Dr. Grieve says she has had some great shock, and that she is in a state of intense nervous prostration.”

      “Grieve is a muff, in my opinion,” remarked Mr. Davenant irreverently. “If the girl is as bad as you say, she ought to have other advice.”

      “Oh, I don’t think so!” Mavis dissented. “Dr. Grieve says that what she needs is absolute rest and careful nursing; then he thinks her memory will come back to her gradually.”

      “Umph!” said Garth sceptically. “And where is I this rest and nursing to be obtained, may I ask? Lady Laura will hardly wish to keep her indefinitely at the Manor, I conclude?”

      “She will stay with us until she is well,” Mavis said indignantly. “Don’t be so hard-hearted, Garth. I am sure mother will not let her go; she thanked us all so prettily this morning for what we had done for her, and; seemed so distressed to think of the trouble she was giving, and I fell quite in love with her.”

      Garth pulled his brown moustache moodily as he looked at her flushed face. The two, having met at the park gates, were now walking up to the Manor together, and Garth had been listening with amazement to Mavis’s story of the discovery of the unknown girl in the park the preceding evening.

      “Was there absolutely no clue to her identity about her clothes?” he asked after a pause.

      “Her things were all marked ‘Hilda’ or with a big ‘H’ which means the same thing. We think she must have been staying somewhere near and have had some great trouble,” Mavis went on speculatively. “We have no idea what it might have been, but I cannot help wondering whether she had quarreled with the man she loved; perhaps he had played her false in some way or other. I don’t think anything could be quite so bad as that, Garth,” with a shy, trustful glance. “I—I know it would make me very miserable.”

      Garth Davenant’s eyes were very tender as he looked down at her; he caught her slender fingers in his. “My darling!” he whispered.

      Mavis blushed prettily as she drew them away, but she was too thoroughly in earnest to be turned away from her subject.

      “So, you see,” she went on after a moment, “that is a reason why I feel that I ought to be especially good to this poor girl. Think of all that she may have suffered before her brain gave way under the strain and left everything a blank. I must do what I can for her; if one is very happy oneself one ought to try to help other people. Don’t you think so, Garth?”

      ‘Y–es!” Garth hesitated. “Only, Mavis, I cannot help saying that, though things may certainly be capable of a perfectly innocent interpretation the whole affair is so extraordinary that one cannot help regarding it with a certain amount of suspicion. And I cannot bear to think of your being brought into daily contact with a girl who may be little better than an adventuress.”

      “Garth!” Mavis cried indignantly. “If you had seen her you could never apply such an expression to her. Why, even Arthur says that she is simply one of the prettiest and sweetest-looking girls he has ever met!”

      “Don’t you think that, as I have not seen her, I may possibly be all the better able to look at matters without prejudice on that very account?” Garth suggested mildly.

      “Without prejudice, indeed!” Mavis repeated scornfully. “I think mother and Arthur can quite be trusted to look after our companions—Dorothy’s and mine. No, Garth”—as he tried to take her hands again—“I am not pleased with you.’’

      There was no one in sight; the big trees of the avenue screened them from sight of the house. Garth ventured to slip one arm around the girl’s waist.

      “Aren’t you, Mavis? Won’t you forgive me, if I promise to take this newly-discovered young woman at your valuation for the future?”

      For a moment the girl held back stiffly, but Mavis never bore malice; the next moment she had turned to Davenant with her own sunny smile.

      “Certainly I will! And, Garth’’—with an effort—“I know I was wrong. I must not expect you always to think as I do, and I know that a barrister must be brought into contact with all sorts of people, and naturally becomes distrustful. We must,” smiling bravely, “agree to differ; that is it, isn’t it?”

      Garth drew the slight form closer to him and bent his head until his dark moustache just brushed the soft cheek.

      “Darling, you know I—”

      “Hallo! You two—”

      The sudden shout discomposed them, and they sprang apart, looking considerably startled as Sir Arthur cantered up behind them.

      “Many apologies!” he began, laughing at Mavis’s hot cheeks. “I am extremely sorry to disturb you good people, but I have just been over to Chadfield on the chance that they might know something of our mysterious visitor; and I am anxious to get back to hear Dr. Grieve’s report. They told me at his house that he had already come up to see the stranger.”

      “Did they know anything at Chadfield?” Mavis interrogated breathlessly.

      “Not a word.” Arthur took off his hat and rubbed his forehead. “It’s a queer affair altogether. What do you make of it, Davenant?”

      “I should prefer to see the young lady before I commit myself to an opinion,” Garth replied diplomatically, with a glance at Mavis’s averted face.

      “Well, I think we have now pretty well exhausted the houses around here,” Sir Arthur went on, walking his horse beside them. “Chadfield was really my last hope. How on earth the girl got into the Park I cannot imagine; no one seems to have seen her, and the lodge-keeper is sure that the gate was locked all the evening.”

      Garth made no reply, but as they walked on to the house together his face was very grave. Fond as he was of Mavis’s brother, neither his very real affection for him nor the fact of his relationship to Mavis could disguise from him Arthur’s weakness of will and instability of purpose.

      Thus he was doubly inclined СКАЧАТЬ