Detective and mystery stories; Stone, Fleming (Fictitious character) -- Fiction
During the services I looked closely and in turn at each face, but
beyond the natural emotions of grief which might be expected, I could
read nothing more.
The brother, Philip Crawford, the near neighbors, Mr. Porter and Mr.
Hamilton, the lawyer, Mr. Randolph, all sat looking grave and solemn as
they heard the last words spoken above their dead friend. The ladies of
the household, quietly controlling their emotions, sat near me, and next
to Florence Lloyd Gregory Hall had seated himself.
All of these people I watched closely, half hoping that some inadvertent
sign might tell me of someone's knowledge of the secret. But when
the clergyman referred to the retribution that would sooner or later
overtake the criminal. I could see an expression of fear or apprehension
on no face save that of Florence Lloyd. She turned even whiter than
before, her pale lips compressed in a straight line, and her small black
gloved hand softly crept into that of Gregory Hall. The movement was
not generally noticeable, but it seemed to me pathetic above all things.
Whatever her position in the matter, she was surely appealing to him for
help and protection.
Without directly repulsing her, Hall was far from responsive. He allowed
her hand to rest in his own but gave her no answering pressure, and
looked distinctly relieved when, after a moment, she withdrew it.
I saw that Parmalee also had observed this, and I could see that to him
it was an indication of the girl's perturbed spirit. To me it seemed
that it might equally well mean many other things. For instance it might
mean her apprehension for Gregory Hall, who, I couldn't help thinking
was far more likely to be a wrongdoer than the girl herself.
With a little sigh I gave up trying to glean much information from the
present opportunity, and contented myself with the melancholy pleasure
it gave me simply to look at the sad sweet face of the girl who was
already enshrined in my heart.
After the solemn and rather elaborate obsequies were over, a little
assembly gathered in the library to hear the reading of the will.
As, until then, no one had known of the disappearance of the will,
except the lawyer and the secretary, it came as a thunderbolt.
“I have no explanation to offer,” said Mr. Randolph, looking greatly
concerned, but free of all personal responsibility. “Mr. Crawford always
kept the will in his own possession. When he came to see me, the last
evening he was alive, in regard to making a new will, he did not bring
the old one with him. We arranged to meet in his office the next morning
to draw up the new instrument, when he doubtless expected to destroy the
old one.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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