London (England) -- Fiction; Man-woman relationships -- Fiction; Mystery fiction
"I do wish, Ralph, you would be more careful. Your actions every day
betray the truth, and I fear somebody may suspect. You know how
carefully I am watched and how my every action is noted. Every hour I
live in dread. Think what exposure would mean to me. I shall walk down
to Braithwaite Station to-morrow evening about 5:30. Do not write to
me, as I fear Mason may get hold of one of your letters. She is so very
curious. If you are free to-morrow evening perhaps I shall meet you
`accidentally.' But I do warn you to be careful for my sake. Till to
morrow.--S."
What was meant by the "truth?" Was that ill-dressed, low-born fellow
actually her secret lover? The love token showed that such was actually
the case. Yet who was he?
Another note, written hurriedly upon a plain sheet of common notepaper,
was as follows:--
"I don't know if I can escape them. If so, I shall try and get hold of
one of Mason's dresses and hats and meet you in Serle Street, outside
Lincoln's Inn. But it is very risky. Do be careful that you are not
followed."
The next was upon pale green notepaper, bearing in gold the heading,
"S.Y. _Regina_," with the added words, "Off the Faroe Islands:--
"I am longing to be back again in town, but it cannot be for another
four or five weeks. We have decided to do the Fiords. Do not write, as
your letter must go through so many hands before it reaches me. What
you tell me makes me suspicious. Why should they ask you that question
if there had not been some whisper? Find out. Remember I have
enemies--very bitter ones. It was hazardous of you to come to Glasgow.
I saw you on the quay when we sailed. But you may have been recognised.
If so, think of my position. Again I do beg of you to be as cautious
as I am. From me the world shall never know the truth. I can keep a
secret. See if you cannot do so, for my sake."
Apparently the fellow had preserved all her letters, either because he
was so deeply in love with her, or with that ulterior motive of which
she had so openly accused him.
"Why did you speak to me on the stairs last night?" she asked,
reproachfully, in another hastily-written note upon plain paper. "You
imperil me at every moment. You may love me as fervently as you declare
you do, but surely you should do nothing that may imperil my good name!"
In another, evidently of more recent date, she wrote:
"I cannot understand you. Our love has been a very foolish romance.
Let us part and agree to forget it. I have been injudicious, and so
have you. Let us agree to be friends, and I will, I assure you, do all
I can for your interests in the future. Sometimes I think that Mason
suspects. She may have seen you speak to me, or overheard you. She
looks at me so very strangely sometimes, and I'm sure she watches me."
Again in another communication, which was besmirched by the dead man's
blood, writing from the Hotel Ritz, in Paris, she said:--
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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