The Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green (best books to read all time TXT) ๐
Read free book ยซThe Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green (best books to read all time TXT) ๐ยป - read online or download for free at americanlibrarybooks.com
- Author: Anna Katharine Green
Read book online ยซThe Leavenworth Case by Anna Katharine Green (best books to read all time TXT) ๐ยป. Author - Anna Katharine Green
But when, upon nearing the reception room, I saw Mary pacing the floor with the air of one who is restlessly awaiting something or somebody, I took a sudden resolution, and, advancing towards her, said: โDo I see you alone, Miss Leavenworth?โ
She paused in her hurried action, blushed and bowed, but, contrary to her usual custom, did not bid me enter.
โWill it be too great an intrusion on my part, if I venture to come in?โ I asked.
Her glance flashed uneasily to the clock, and she seemed about to excuse herself, but suddenly yielded, and, drawing up a chair before the fire, motioned me towards it. Though she endeavored to appear calm, I vaguely felt I had chanced upon her in one of her most agitated moods, and that I had only to broach the subject I had in mind to behold her haughtiness disappear before me like melting snow. I also felt that I had but few moments in which to do it. I accordingly plunged immediately into the subject.
โMiss Leavenworth,โ said I, โin obtruding upon you to-night, I have a purpose other than that of giving myself a pleasure. I have come to make an appeal.โ
Instantly I saw that in some way I had started wrong. โAn appeal to make to me?โ she asked, breathing coldness from every feature of her face.
โYes,โ I went on, with passionate recklessness. โBalked in every other endeavor to learn the truth, I have come to you, whom I believe to be noble at the core, for that help which seems likely to fail us in every other direction: for the word which, if it does not absolutely save your cousin, will at least put us upon the track of what will.โ
โI do not understand what you mean,โ she protested, slightly shrinking.
โMiss Leavenworth,โ I pursued, โit is needless for me to tell you in what position your cousin stands. You, who remember both the form and drift of the questions put to her at the inquest, comprehend it all without any explanation from me. But what you may not know is this, that unless she is speedily relieved from the suspicion which, justly or not, has attached itself to her name, the consequences which such suspicion entails must fall upon her, andโโโ
โGood God!โ she cried; โyou do not mean she will beโโโ
โSubject to arrest? Yes.โ
It was a blow. Shame, horror, and anguish were in every line of her white face. โAnd all because of that key!โ she murmured.
โKey? How did you know anything about a key?โ
โWhy,โ she cried, flushing painfully; โI cannot say; didnโt you tell me?โ
โNo,โ I returned.
โThe papers, then?โ
โThe papers have never mentioned it.โ
She grew more and more agitated. โI thought every one knew. No, I did not, either,โ she avowed, in a sudden burst of shame and penitence. โI knew it was a secret; butโoh, Mr. Raymond, it was Eleanore herself who told me.โ
โEleanore?โ
โYes, that last evening she was here; we were together in the drawing-room.โ
โWhat did she tell?โ
โThat the key to the library had been seen in her possession.โ
I could scarcely conceal my incredulity. Eleanore, conscious of the suspicion with which her cousin regarded her, inform that cousin of a fact calculated to add weight to that suspicion? I could not believe this.
โBut you knew it?โ Mary went on. โI have revealed nothing I ought to have kept secret?โ
โNo,โ said I; โand, Miss Leavenworth, it is this thing which makes your cousinโs position absolutely dangerous. It is a fact that, left unexplained, must ever link her name with infamy; a bit of circumstantial evidence no sophistry can smother, and no denial obliterate. Only her hitherto spotless reputation, and the efforts of one who, notwithstanding appearances, believes in her innocence, keeps her so long from the clutch of the officers of justice. That key, and the silence preserved by her in regard to it, is sinking her slowly into a pit from which the utmost endeavors of her best friends will soon be inadequate to extricate her.โ
โAnd you tell me thisโโโ
โThat you may have pity on the poor girl, who will not have pity on herself, and by the explanation of a few circumstances, which cannot be mysteries to you, assist in bringing her from under the dreadful shadow that threatens to overwhelm her.โ
โAnd would you insinuate, sir,โ she cried, turning upon me with a look of great anger, โthat I know any more than you do of this matter? that I possess any knowledge which I have not already made public concerning the dreadful tragedy which has transformed our home into a desert, our existence into a lasting horror? Has the blight of suspicion fallen upon me, too; and have you come to accuse me in my own houseโโโ
โMiss Leavenworth,โ I entreated; โcalm yourself. I accuse you of nothing. I only desire you to enlighten me as to your cousinโs probable motive for this criminating silence. You cannot be ignorant of it. You are her cousin, almost her sister, have been at all events her daily companion for years, and must know for whom or for what she seals her lips, and conceals facts which, if known, would direct suspicion to the real criminalโthat is, if you really believe what you have hitherto stated, that your cousin is an innocent woman.โ
She not making any answer to this, I rose and confronted her. โMiss Leavenworth, do you believe your cousin guiltless of this crime, or not?โ
โGuiltless? Eleanore? Oh! my God; if all the world were only as innocent as she!โ
โThen,โ said I, โyou must likewise believe that if she refrains from speaking in regard to matters which to ordinary observers ought to be explained, she does it only from motives of kindness towards one less guiltless than herself.โ
โWhat? No, no; I do not say that. What made you think of any such explanation?โ
โThe action itself. With one of Eleanoreโs character, such conduct as hers admits of no other construction. Either she is mad, or she is shielding another at the expense of herself.โ
Maryโs lip, which had trembled, slowly steadied itself. โAnd whom have you settled upon, as the person for whom Eleanore thus sacrifices herself?โ
โAh,โ said I,
Comments (0)