A Secret Inheritance (Volume 3 of 3)Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
General
A Secret Inheritance (Volume 3 of 3)
Farjeon, B. L. (Benjamin Leopold)
Mystery fiction; Sleepwalking -- Fiction
"Have you any objection to granting me a private interview with
Emilius?"
"None whatever. You have but to name your own time."
"May Mr. Carew see him also?"
"If he wishes."
In this conversation Gabriel Carew had borne no share. This was due to
an absolute fairness on Carew's part. Prejudiced as he was against
Emilius, he was aware that he could say nothing in favour of the
accused, and he did not wish to pain Doctor Louis by expressing what
he felt. When the magistrate left them, Doctor Louis said, "The one
person to whom Emilius is willing to confide is either you or myself."
To this view Gabriel Carew did not subscribe. In his remarks to Doctor
Louis he touched lightly but firmly upon the instinctive aversion
which, from the first, he and the brothers had felt towards each
other, and said that this aversion, on the part of Emilius, must have
been strengthened rather than modified by the opinions he had felt it
his duty to express with respect to Emilius's dealings with Patricia.
"But he behaved honourably to her," contended Doctor Louis, and
endeavoured to win Carew to a more favourable judgment of the unhappy
man. He was not successful.
"There are sentiments," said Carew, "which it would be folly to
struggle against. Emilius was always my enemy, and is still more so
now. If he wishes to see me I will go to him. Not otherwise."
Shortly afterwards Doctor Louis had an interview with Emilius.
"I thought you might come to me," said the prisoner, but he refused
the hand which Doctor Louis held out to him. "Not till I am free," he
said, "and pronounced innocent of this horrible charge."
"You will be--soon," said Doctor Louis with inward sinking, the
evidence was so black against Emilius.
"I scarcely dare to hope it," said Emilius gloomily. "A fatality dogs
our family. It destroyed my father and his brother; it has destroyed
Eric; it will destroy me."
"Under any circumstances," said Doctor Louis, not pursuing the theme,
"I should have endeavoured to see you, but there is a special reason
for my present visit. The magistrate by whom you have been examined
informed me that there is a certain matter in connection with this
deplorable event which you will disclose to one person only. Am I
he--and should you make the disclosure, is it likely to serve you?"
"I was not quite exact," said Emilius, "when I made that statement to
the magistrate, in answer to a question he put to me. There were,
indeed, two persons in my mind--but you are the first, by right."
"And the other--is it Gabriel Carew?"
"Yes, it is he--though I doubt whether he would come of his own free
will. He bears me no friendship."
"He is an honourable, upright man," said Doctor Louis. "Though you
have not been drawn to each other, as I hoped would be the case, I am
sure he would be willing to serve you if it were in his power."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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