Victoria looked at him puzzled; then it seemed she
understood.
But every other thought was soon swallowed up in the remembrance of the
widow and daughter.
"Not to-night--not to-night," pleaded Undershaw who had seen Netta
Melrose professionally, only that morning. "I dread the mere shock for
Mrs. Melrose. Let them have their sleep! I will be over early to-morrow."
XXI
By the first dawn of the new day Tatham was in the saddle. Just as he was
starting from the house, there arrived a messenger, and a letter was
put into his hand. It was from Undershaw, who, on leaving Duddon the
night before, had motored back to the Tower, and taken Faversham in
charge. The act bore testimony to the little doctor's buffeted but still
surviving regard for this man, whom he had pulled from the jaws of death.
He reported in his morning letter that he had passed some of the night in
conversation with Faversham, and wished immediately to pass on certain
facts learnt from it, first of all to Tatham, and then to any friend of
Faversham's they might concern.
He told, accordingly, the full story of the gems, leading up to the
quarrel between the two men, as Faversham had told it to him.
"Faversham," he wrote, "left the old man, convinced that all was at an
end as to the will and the inheritance. And now he is as much the heir as
ever! I find him bewildered; for his _mind_, in that tragic half-hour,
had absolutely renounced. What he will do, no one can say.
Pages:
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
437
438
439
440
441
442
443
444
445
446
447
448