The Hampstead mystery: a novel. Volume 2 (of 3)Marryat, Florence
General
The Hampstead mystery: a novel. Volume 2 (of 3)
Marryat, Florence
Fiction
‘Sacred to the memory of Jane Emily Crampton, the only child of John
Crampton, Esq., of this parish, who was killed by a fall over the Dover
cliffs on the 14th of August, 1875, in the twentieth year of her age.
“Thou God knowest.”’ After which was written: ‘Also to the memory of
John William Crampton, her father, who survived her loss only five
weeks. “Vengeance is mine! I will repay, saith the Lord.”’
Not a word of her marriage--not a mention of Frederick Walcheren’s
name--only those words and quotations, which, to those who knew the
circumstances of the case, revealed but too plainly what the friends
of the dead girl thought about her mysterious death. To the guilty
conscience of Henry Hindes, it was almost as if the monument cried out
to the whole world to come and read how _he_ had thrown the daughter
over the cliff, and killed her father into the bargain. It terrified
and alarmed him. He would have liked to have rooted it all up again.
But he knew it must stand there for ever--for centuries, perhaps,
after his own death, an enduring testimony to his shame and remorse
and disgrace. And it was Jenny--Jenny, whom he loved, who lay there,
condemning him! The unhappy man sunk down on his knees before the red
granite column, and sighed forth the anguish of his soul.
‘Oh, my darling! my darling!’ he groaned within himself. ‘You know,
don’t you, that I never thought of the awful consequences of my hasty
act--that I never meant to harm you, that it was your unkind words
that led me on until I was no longer master of my self. You know I
didn’t want to take your father’s money--_your_ money, Jenny, and I
would give it back, with all that I possess myself, to undo the fatal
accident of that day. For it _was_ an accident, my darling--you must
know that now, and how your miserable lover is suffering for his
rashness. Oh, Jenny! if I could only think so! if I could only think
so!’
He had buried his face in his hands, and was unaware of the approach
of any one until he was roused by the voice of Frederick Walcheren
demanding indignantly,--
‘And pray, Mr Hindes, may I ask by what right I find you weeping over
my wife’s grave?’
He had come as privately as possible to see the spot where they had
laid his Jenny, intending to give himself the poor consolation of
praying above her ashes for the repose of her soul; but, to find
his intentions forestalled, and by the man he so much disliked and
distrusted, roused all the old Adam in him again. At the imperious
question, Henry Hindes also felt the fighting spirit rise in his
breast. The instinct of self-preservation made him resent the idea that
it was anything out of the way for him to be found kneeling on the
grave of his friends. He drew himself up haughtily and replied,--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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