The Silent Shore: A RomanceBloundelle-Burton, John
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The Silent Shore: A Romance
Bloundelle-Burton, John
English fiction -- 19th century
He had come into the house with innumerable suspicions against Lord
Penlyn, suspicions aroused by his being the inheritor of Cundall's
property, and also by the fact that he and the dead man had both loved
the same woman, and with a strange feeling in his heart that, when he
stood before him, he would stand before a murderer. He had also
remembered that conversation in the club about the peculiarity of the
dagger, or knife, with which Cundall must have been slain, and his
recollection of the hesitating way in which Penlyn had answered, had
added to his suspicions. But, when he had seen the genuine tears of
sorrow that had been shed over the will, those suspicions vanished,
and he told himself that it was not in this man that the murderer
would be found. And, if this new-formed idea had required any
strengthening, it would have received it when those importunate and
threatening letters had been read from the unknown person signing
himself, _Corot_. There was the man, who, if in England, must be found
at all costs. But how to find him was the question.
"There is one to whom I must, at least, disclose my relationship with
Walter," Penlyn said, and they both noticed that, for the first time,
he spoke of his brother by his Christian name. "I must tell Miss
Raughton the position we stood in to one another."
Stuart, with feelings of a very different nature now in his heart from
those with which he had first regarded him, asked him if he thought it
was wise to do so? Would she not think that, standing in the position
of his affianced wife and having also been beloved by his brother, she
should have been the first to be told of the bond between them?
"It may not be wise," Penlyn said sadly, and with a weary look upon
his face, "and it may be that she will think I have deceived her--as,
unhappily, I have done by my silence--but still I must tell her. With
her, at least, there must be nothing more suppressed."
Then he told them of the strange dream that she had had (even
mentioning that she had said she could recognise the form, if not the
face, of the man who sprang upon him), and of the vow she had made him
take to endeavour to discover the murderer.
"If dreams were of the slightest importance, which they are not," Mr.
Fordyce said, "this one would go to prove that _Corot_ is not the
murderer, since it is hardly likely that she has ever known him.
Still, it is a strange coincidence that she should have dreamt of his
death on the very night that it took place."
"The idea of knowing the form, or figure, of the man is nothing,"
Stuart said. "If there was any likelihood of there being anything in
that, it would also be the case that we should have to look upon Lady
Chesterton's conservatory as the spot where it happened, as it was
there she dreamt she saw him. But we know that he was killed in St.
James' Park."
"If the detectives can only discover this man _Corot_," Penlyn said,
"we might find out what he was doing on that night."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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