On the morning following these extraordinary occurrences, there was
seated an old gentleman, wearing blue spectacles, on a secluded seat on
the Parade at Brighton. He appeared to be immersed in a book that he
held close to his face. An observant onlooker would have noticed that
his attention was less engrossed in the book than in the passers-by, of
whom, at this point of the Parade, there were not many. A
neatly-uniformed nursemaid, with her two young children, approached the
seat and appeared to show intention of taking possession of the scant
amount of room that was left vacant. The old gentleman uttered a snarl,
and glared through his blue spectacles so ferociously that, by common
consent, the children refused this particular seat at that particular
moment. The old gentleman was again left in sole possession. In spite
of the book, impatience seemed to characterise his gestures. At last,
with a grunt of satisfaction, he observed, in the distance, the person
for whom he had waited.
An elderly lady shuffled her way along the front. As she approached
this secluded spot, after looking round warily, she took her place at
one end of the seat. The old gentleman raised his hat courteously and
said: "Well! where are they? Have you got them?"
In a beautiful voice, but in tremulous tones, the old lady said: "No, I
have not got them."
With a half-suppressed howl, he said: "What! you have not got them? You
lie! You are deceiving me."
Still tremulously, but quite restrained, she replied:
"No! I have not got them, and I am not deceiving you. Let me tell you
what happened."
In spite of the blue glasses the old man's face assumed a contorted
expression of anger that was hateful to behold. Grasping her arm with a
vicious grip, he almost shrieked: "Again I tell you, you lie! Where are
they? You dare not tell me you have bungled after all the care I took."
"Hush!" she whispered. "You will be heard. Yes! I bungled."
Then this innocent-looking old lady told the events of the previous
night at Aldborough Park, for it was Gilda Tempest disguised with
consummate craft. The old man writhed and fumed, as each incident of
that eventful night was narrated to him in the soft and musical tones of
this young criminal of the beauteous countenance. The crime of a
burglar is at all times contemptible. This story of an attempted
burglary was peculiarly repellent, coming from the lips of a young girl
who was so dearly loved by the "intended victim." To have stolen any
property belonging to Raife Remington would have been discreditable, but
to attempt, with all the skilled burglar's art, to steal those valuable
jewels of the baroness, which had been entrusted to Raife for safe
keeping--that was to place him in the most invidious position. It
sounded hateful in the hearing. Yet this old reprobate of the deepest
dye was the cause of this young girl's downfall, and he was furious at
her failure.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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