Wyllard's Weird: A NovelBraddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
General
Wyllard's Weird: A Novel
Braddon, M. E. (Mary Elizabeth)
Murder -- Fiction; Mystery and detective stories
"I beg your pardon, Julian. I did not see that you were asleep."
"I was only dozing. Léonie Lemarque! that was the name of the girl who
was killed, was it not? Then no doubt the advertisement is put in by
Heathcote. The reference to Distin indicates as much."
"He must have made some further discovery about that unfortunate girl,"
said Dora thoughtfully. "He must have found out the date of her arrival
in London, and that she came to meet some particular person. Do you
think it was that person who killed her, Julian?"
"My dear Dora, how can I think about a business of which I know
absolutely nothing? For anything we know, the girl's death may have
been purely accidental, and this person who was to have met her at the
station may be a figment of Heathcote's fancy, and this advertisement
only a feeler thrown out in the hope of obtaining information from some
unknown source. Why any of you should trouble yourselves to solve this
mystery is more than I can understand."
"Why, Julian, did not you yourself send for Mr. Distin? did you not say
that as a magistrate it was your duty--"
"To do all I could to further the ends of justice. Most assuredly,
Dora. But having engaged the assistance of the cleverest criminal
lawyer in England, and he having failed to fathom the mystery, I had
no more to do. I had done my duty, and I was content to let the matter
rest."
"So would I have been, if people had not suspected Bothwell. I could
have no peace while there was such a cloud upon my cousin's reputation."
"That shows how narrow a view even the cleverest and most large-minded
of women can take of this big world. Surely it can matter to no man
living what a handful of people in a little country town may choose to
think about him."
"Bothwell has to spend his life among those people."
"Well, you have had your own way in the matter, my dear Dora; and if
you will only allow me to forget all about it, I am content that you
and Heathcote should grope for ever in the labyrinth of that girl's
antecedents. A lady's-maid or a nursery-governess, I suppose, who came
to England to seek her fortune."
Dora was silent. Once again she felt that there was a want of sympathy
upon her husband's part in this matter. He ought to have remembered
that Bothwell was to her as a brother.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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