This eBook was produced by Andrew Heath
and David Widger
The lawyer came the next day, and with something like a smile on his lips.He brought me a few lines in pencil from Mrs. Ashleigh; they were kindlyexpressed, bade me be of good cheer; "she never for a moment believed inmy guilt; Lilian bore up wonderfully under so terrible a trial; it was anunspeakable comfort to both to receive the visits of a friend so attachedto me, and so confident of a triumphant refutation of the hideous calumnyunder which I now suffered as Mr. Margrave!"
The lawyer had seen Margrave again,—seen him in that house. Margraveseemed almost domiciled there!
I remained sullen and taciturn during this visit. I longed again for thenight. Night came. I heard the distant clock strike twelve, when againthe icy wind passed through my hair, and against the wall stood theluminous Shadow.
"Have you considered?" whispered the voice, still as from afar. "I repeatit,—I alone can save you."
"Is it among the conditions which you ask, in return, that I shall resignto you the woman I love?"
"No."
"Is it one of the conditions that I should commit some crime,—a crimeperhaps heinous as that of which I am accused?"
"No."
"With such reservations, I accept the conditions you may name, provided I,in my turn, may demand one condition from yourself."
"Name it."
"I ask you to quit this town. I ask you, meanwhile, to cease your visitsto the house that holds the woman betrothed to me."
"I will cease those visits. And before many days are over, I will quitthis town."
"Now, then, say what you ask from me. I am prepared to concede it. Andnot from fear for myself, but because I fear for the pure and innocentbeing who is under the spell of your deadly fascination. This is yourpower over me. You command me through my love for another. Speak."
"My conditions are simple. You will pledge yourself to desist from allcharges of insinuation against myself, of what nature soever. You willnot, when you meet me in the flesh, refer to what you have known of mylikeness in the Shadow. You will be invited to the house at which I maybe also a guest; you will come; you will meet and converse with me asguest speaks with guest in the house of a host."
"Is that all?"
"It is all."
"Then I pledge you my faith; keep your own."
"Fear not; sleep secure in the certainty that you will soon be releasedfrom these walls."
The Shadow waned and faded. Darkness settled back, and a sleep, profoundand calm, fell over me.
The next day Mr. Stanton again visited me. He had received that morning anote from Mr. Margrave, stating that he had left L—— to pursue, inperson, an investigation which he had already commenced through another,affecting the man who had given evidence against me, and that, if hishope should prove well founded, he trusted to establish my innocence, andconvict the real murderer of Sir Philip Derval. In the research he thusvolunteered, he had asked for, and obtained, the assistance of thepoliceman Waby, who, grateful to me for saving the life of his sister, hadexpressed a strong desire to be employed in my service.
Meanwhile, my most cruel assailant was my old college friend, RichardStrahan. For Jeeves had spread abroad Strahan's charge of purloining thememoir which had been entrusted to me; and that accusation had done me