The cloven foot : $b A novelBraddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
The cloven foot : $b A novel
Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Detective and mystery stories; Domestic fiction; Inheritance and succession -- Fiction; Psychological fiction
‘Do you know if Madame Chicot had money or any other valuables in her
possession?’
‘I should say she had neither. She was a woman of extravagant habits.
It wasn’t in her to save money.’
Mrs. Rawber’s evidence merely confirmed Mrs. Evitt as to the hour
at which they had been aroused, and the conduct of Jack Chicot. The
two women agreed as to the ghastly look of his face, and the sudden
eagerness with which he had caught at the idea of going to fetch a
policeman, an idea suggested by Desrolles.
Desrolles was the last witness examined. As he stood up to answer the
Coroner, he caught sight of a familiar face in the crowd near the
doorway. It was the countenance of Joseph Lemuel, the stock-broker,
sorely changed since Desrolles had seen it last. Close by Mr. Lemuel’s
side appeared a well-known criminal lawyer. Desrolles’ bistre
complexion grew a shade grayer at sight of these two faces, both
intently watchful.
The evidence of Desrolles threw no new light upon the mystery. He had
known Mr. Chicot and his wife intimately--rarely had passed a day
without seeing them. They were both excellent creatures, but not suited
to each other. They did not live happily together. He had never seen
Jack Chicot guilty of any act of absolute violence towards his wife,
but he believed that there was a good deal of bitterness in his mind;
in short that they could not have gone on living together peaceably
much longer. Mr. Chicot had absented himself from home very much of
late. He had kept late hours, and avoided his wife’s company. In a
word, it was an ill-assorted marriage, and they were a very unhappy
couple--much to be pitied, both.
This was all. The coroner adjourned the inquiry for a week, in the
hope that further evidence would be forthcoming. There was a feeling
in the court that a very strong suspicion attached to the dead woman’s
husband, and that if he did not turn up speedily he would have to be
looked for.
George Gerard watched the inquest from a crowded corner of the room,
but he held his peace as to that discovery of the dagger in Jack
Chicot’s colour-box.
La Chicot was buried two days afterwards, and there was a tremendous
crowd at Kensal Green to see the foreign dancing woman laid in her
untimely grave. Mr. Smolendo, with his own hands, placed a wreath
of white camellias on the coffin. Desrolles stood beside the grave,
decently attired in a suit of black, hired for the occasion from a
dealer in cast-off clothes, and ‘looking quite the gentleman,’ Mrs.
Evitt said to her gossips afterwards. Mrs. Evitt and Mrs. Rawber were
both at the funeral; indeed, it may be said that the whole of Cibber
Street turned out for the occasion. There had not been such a crowd
since the burial of Cardinal Wiseman. All the company from the Prince
Frederick was there, besides much more of dramatic and equestrian
London.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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