"I am Chester Calhoun," I said, and she bowed in acknowledgment. "I am
junior partner in the firm of Bradbury and Calhoun. Mr. Bradbury is
one of your husband's lawyers and also a friend, so, as circumstances
brought it about, I came here, with Inspector Mason, to tell you--to
tell you--"
Mrs. Schuyler sank into a seat. Still with that air of determination
to be calm, she gripped the chair arms and said, "I heard you tell
Miss Schuyler that Randolph has been killed. I ask you, may it not be
some one else? Why should he be at a house where people called him by
a name not his own?"
She had heard, then, all I had told the older ladies. For Mrs.
Schuyler was not old. She must be, I thought at once, years younger
than her husband. Perhaps a second wife. I was glad she had heard,
for it saved repeating the awful narrative.
"He has not been identified, Mrs. Schuyler," I said, "except by the
policeman of this precinct, who declares he knows him well."
I was glad to give her this tiny loophole of possibility of mistaken
identity, and she eagerly grasped at it.
"You must make sure," she said, looking at Inspector Mason.
"I'm afraid there's no room for doubt, ma'am, but I'm about to send
the man, the valet, over to see him. Do you wish any one else to
go--from the house?"
Mrs. Schuyler shuddered. "Don't ask me to go," she said, piteously.
"For I can't think it is really Mr. Schuyler--and if it should be--"
"Oh, no ma'am, you needn't go. None of the family, I should say."
Mason looked at the elder ladies.
"No, no," cried Miss Sarah, "we couldn't think of it! But let Jepson
go. He is a most reliable man."
"Yes," said Mrs. Schuyler, "send Cooper and Jepson both. Oh, go
quickly--I cannot bear this suspense!" She turned to me, as the two
men who had been hovering in the doorway, came in to take Mason's
orders. "I thank you, Mr. Calhoun. It was truly kind of you to come.
Tibbetts, get me a wrap, please."
This was Mrs. Schuyler's own maid, who went on the errand at once.
More servants had gathered; one or two footmen, a silly French
parlor-maid or waitress, and from downstairs I heard the hushed voices
of others.
Tibbetts returned, and laid a fleecy white shawl about her mistress'
shoulders. Mrs. Schuyler wore a house dress of dull blue. Her hair of
an ash-blonde hue, was coiled on top of her head; and to my surprise,
when I noticed it, she wore a string of large pearls round her throat,
and on her hands were two rings, each set with an enormous pearl.
I must have been awkward enough to glance at the pearls, for Mrs.
Schuyler remarked, "I dressed so hastily, I kept on my pearls. I wear
them at night sometimes, to preserve their luster."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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