Detective and mystery stories; Fiction; Love stories
"She is at present at the nursing home of Dr. Stuart-Smith," he said at
last.
"Nonsense!" exclaimed Cyril, sinking back into his chair and negligently
lighting another cigarette. "I thought you had discovered something. You
mean my wife, Lady Wilmersley----"
"Pardon me for interrupting you, my lord. I don't make mistakes like
that. I repeat, the Dowager Lady Wilmersley is under the care of Dr.
Smith."
The man's tone was so assured that Cyril was staggered for a moment.
"It isn't true," he asserted angrily.
"Is it possible that you really do not know who the lady is that you
rescued that day from the police?" exclaimed the detective, startled out
of his habitual impassivity.
"I confess that I do not. But of one thing I am sure, and that is that
she is not the person you suppose."
"Well, my lord, I must say that you have surprised me. Yet I ought to
have guessed it. It was stupid of me, very."
"I tell you that you are on the wrong track. Lady Wilmersley has golden
hair. Well, this lady's hair is black."
"She has dyed it."
"She has not, for it has turned completely white," exclaimed Cyril,
triumphantly.
"Did she tell you so?"
"Yes."
"Her Ladyship is cleverer than I supposed," remarked the detective with
a pitying smile.
"I am not such a fool as you seem to think," retorted Cyril. "And I can
assure you that the lady in question is incapable of deception."
"All I can say is, my lord, that I am absolutely sure of her Ladyship's
identity and that you yourself gave me the clue to her whereabouts."
"I--how?"
"I of course noticed that when you heard her Ladyship had golden hair,
you were not only extremely surprised but also very much relieved. I at
once asked myself why such an apparently trivial matter should have so
great and so peculiar an effect on you. As you had never seen her
Ladyship, I argued that you must that very day have met some one you had
reason to suppose to be Lady Wilmersley and that this person had dark
hair. By following your movements from the time you landed I found that
the only woman with whom you had come in contact was a young lady who
had joined you in Newhaven, and that she answered to the description of
Lady Wilmersley in every particular, with the sole exception that she
had dark hair! I was, however, told that you had said that she was your
wife and had produced a passport to prove it. Now I had heard from your
valet that her Ladyship was still in France, so you can hardly blame me
for doubting the correctness of your statement. But in order to make
assurance doubly sure, I sent one of my men to the continent. He
reported that her Ladyship had for some months been a patient at
Charleroi, but had recently escaped from there, and that you are still
employing detectives to find her."
"I did not engage you to pry into my affairs," exclaimed Cyril savagely.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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