Beyond These VoicesBraddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
Beyond These Voices
Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Fiction
He described, with studious particularity, how on leaving his room
on that morning, having just finished dressing, and having been kept
waiting for his shaving water, he had run against Ma'mselle, who was
rushing along the passage in a frantic manner, pale as death, and with
eyes starting out of her head. A young person who was apt to excite
herself about trifles, and who on this occasion seemed absolutely
demented.
On hearing Ma'mselle's statement, given in so distracted a manner that
only a person of superior intelligence could find out what she meant,
he had immediately sent one of the footmen to the police office, to
fetch a capable officer. It was no case for the first constable called
in from the street.
He, Sedgewick, had then gone upstairs with another of the men, and had
found the dead body lying, as Ma'mselle had stated, against the door
of communication with Mrs. Provana's bedroom. The face was hidden,
but he had not an instant's doubt as to the dead man's identity, for,
apart from the commanding figure, the left hand was visible, on which
the witness observed an old Italian ring that his master always wore.
He had touched the hand, and found it was the hand of death; yet, in
the circumstances, he had considered it his duty to telephone for the
doctor. The room in which the body lay was used by his master as a
dressing-room; but it was also used by him as a study, and there was a
large office desk in front of one of the windows, at which Mr. Provana
sometimes sat writing late into the night. There was also a safe in
which his master was supposed to keep important papers, and possibly
cash. It was not a large safe, but it was of exceptional strength, and
of the most modern and costly make. This safe was open when the police
took possession of the room, after the removal of the body under the
doctor's superintendence. There were no signs of disorder in the room,
except that the pistol case on the desk was open, and both pistols were
lying on the floor, one near the hand of the deceased, the other near
the desk. The safe had not been forced open. The key was in the door,
one of three small keys on a steel ring engraved with Signor Provana's
name and address. His master always carried these keys in one of his
pockets.
"When was Madame Provana informed of her husband's death?"
"Not until half-past eight o'clock, when Lady Okehampton came. Mrs.
Manby, the housekeeper, went in a cab to Berkeley Square to tell her
ladyship what had happened, and Lady Okehampton came to the house in
the cab with Mrs. Manby."
"Had not Mrs. Provana been awakened by the sounds of voices and
footsteps on the landing?"
"No. Everything had been done with the utmost quiet. There had been no
talking above a whisper. His mistress had been at the ball at Fulham
Park, and had not come home till three o'clock, and she was still
sleeping when Lady Okehampton went into her room."
The doctor was the next witness.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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