I need not describe to you my interview with Jeannette.There are things concerning it which, even at this late day, when their roseate hue glows but dimly in the blue retrospect of the past, - it would seem sacrilege for me to mention to another.Believe me, I am perfectly aware of your inquisitive nature, and I know that this omission may nettle you.Charge it all up, then, to the perversity of a bachelor in the throes of his first, last, and only love experience.You must see that such things cannot be conveyed to another with anything like their real significance.Were I to say I was carried beyond myself by her protestations of gratitude until, in a delirium of joy, I seized her in my arms and covered her with kisses, do you for a moment fancy you could appreciate my feelings?
Do you imagine that the little tingle of sympathy which you might experience were I to say that, instead of pushing me from her, Ifelt her clasp tighten about me, - would tell you anything of the great torrent of hot blood that deluged my heart as she lay there in my arms, quivering ecstatically at every kiss? No! a thousand times no! Therefore have I thought best to say nothing about it.
Our love can keep its own secrets.- But alas! this was long ago, and as I sit here alone writing this to you, I cannot but wonder, with a heavy sense of ever-present longing, where on this great earth Jeannette - 'my Jeannette,' I have learned to call her - is now.You see a bachelor's love-affair is a serious thing, and years cannot always efface it.But to return to the past:
Jeannette, I think, was not more pleased than Gwen at the turn affairs had taken.Indeed, so exuberant was Gwen in her quiet way that I marvelled much at the change in her, so much, indeed, that finally I determined to question Alice about it.
"I can understand," I said to her, "why Gwen, on account of her sympathy and love for Jeannette, should be glad that M.Latour is likely to be acquitted.I can also appreciate the distaste she may have felt at the prospect of having to deal with M.Godin under the terms of her father's will; but even both of these considerations seem to me insufficient to account for her present almost ecstatic condition.There is an immediateness to her joy which could hardly result from mere release from a future disagreeable possibility.
How do you account for it, sis?" Alice's answer was somewhat enigmatical and didn't give me the information I sought."Ned,"she replied," I'll pay for the tickets to the first circus that comes here, just to see if you can find the trunks on the elephants."Do my best, I couldn't make her enlighten me any further, for, to every question, she replied with a most provoking laugh.
Maitland called and spent most of the next day, which was Sunday, with us, and we all talked matters over.He did not seem either to share or understand Gwen's exuberance of spirits, albeit one could easily observe that he had a measure of that satisfaction which always comes from success.More than once I saw him glance questioningly at Gwen with a look which said plainly enough: "What is the meaning of this remarkable change? Why should it so matter to her whether M.Latour's or M.Godin's death avenges her father's murder?" When he left us at night I could see he had not answered that question to his own satisfaction.
CHAPTER III
The Devil throws double sixes when he turns genius heliward.
The next morning after the events last narrated I was utterly dumfounded by an article which met my gaze the instant I took up my paper.It was several moments before I sufficiently recovered my faculties to read it aloud to Gwen, Alice, and Jeannette, all of whom had noticed my excitement, and were waiting with such patience as they could command.I read the following article through from beginning to end without pause or comment:
M.Godin Anticipates the Law.- The Real Murderer of John Darrow Writes His Confession and Then Suicides in His Cell.- Contrived to Mix His Own Poison Under the Very Nose of His Jailer! -=20The Dorchester Mystery Solved at Last.- Full Description of the Life of One of the Cleverest Criminals of the Century.
At 4.30 this morning M.Godin was found dead in his cell, No.26, at Charles Street Jail.The manner of his death might still be a mystery had he not left a written confession of his crime and the summary manner of his taking off.This was written yesterday afternoon and evening, M.Godin being permitted to have a light on the ground that he had important legal documents to prepare for use on the morrow.We give below the confession in full.
"I am beaten at a game in which I did my own shuffling.I never believe in trying to bluff a full hand.Had I had but ordinary detectives with whom to deal, I make bold to say I should have come off rich and triumphant.'I had no means of knowing that I was to play with a chemist who would use against me the latest scientific implements of criminal warfare.It is, therefore, to the extraordinary means used for my detection that I impute my defeat, rather than to any bungling of my own.This is a grim consolation, but it is still a consolation, for I have always prided myself upon being an artist in my line.As I propose to put myself beyond the reach of further cross-examination, I take this opportunity to make a last statement of such things as I care to have known.After this is finished I shall sup on acetate of lead and bid good-night to the expectant public.
