human
As you are in my employ, I take it for granted that you will not inform the police or the press of your--suspicions,
gpt
Certainly not, my lord. On the other hand, I must ask you to allow me to withdraw from the case.
human
But why?
gpt
Because my duty to you, as my client, prevents me from taking any further steps in this matter.
human
I don't understand you!
gpt
I gather that you are less anxious to clear up the mystery than to protect her Ladyship. Am I not right?
human
Yes,
gpt
You would even wish me to assist you in providing a safe retreat for her.
human
Exactly.
gpt
Well, my lord, that is just what I cannot do. It is my duty, as I conceive it, to hold my tongue, but I should not feel justified in aiding her Ladyship to escape the consequences of her--her--action. In order to be faithful to my engagement to you, I am willing to let the public believe that I have made a failure of the case. I shall not even allow my imagination to dwell on your future movements, but more than that I cannot do.
human
You take the position that her Ladyship is an ordinary criminal, but you must realise that that is absurd. Even granting that she is responsible for her husband's death--of which, by the way, we have no absolute proof--are you not able to make allowances for a poor woman goaded to desperation by an opium fiend?
gpt
I do not constitute myself her Ladyship's judge, but I don't think your Lordship quite realises all that you are asking of me. Even if I were willing to waive the question of my professional honour, I should still decline to undertake a task which, I know, is foredoomed to failure. For, if _I_ discovered Lady Wilmersley with so little difficulty, Scotland Yard is bound to do so before long. The trail is too unmistakable. It is impossible--absolutely impossible, I assure you, that the secret can be kept.
human
I wish I could convince your Lordship of this and induce you to allow the law to take its course. Her Ladyship ought to come forward at once and plead justifiable homicide. If she waits till she is arrested, it will tell heavily against her.
gpt
But she is ill, really ill, insisted Cyril.
human
Dr. Stuart-Smith tells me that if she is not kept perfectly quiet for the next few weeks, her nervous system may never recover from the shock.
gpt
H'm! That certainly complicates the situation; on the other hand, you must remember that discovery is not only inevitable but imminent, and that the police will not stop to consider her Ladyship's nervous system. No, my lord, the only thing for you to do is to break the news to her yourself and to persuade her to give herself up. If you don't, you will both live to regret it.
human
That may be so, replied Cyril after a minute's hesitation,
gpt
True. But, if I went on the principle of suspecting every one who cannot prove themselves innocent, I should soon be lost in a quagmire of barren conjectures. Of course, I have considered Valdriguez, but I can find no reason for suspecting her.
human
Well, I could give you a dozen reasons.
gpt
Indeed, my lord, and what are they?
human
In the first place, we know that she is a hard, unprincipled woman, or she would never have consented to aid my cousin in depriving his unfortunate wife of her liberty. A woman who would do that, is capable of any villainy. Then, on the witness-stand didn't you feel that she was holding something back? Oh, I forgot you were not present at the inquest.
gpt
I was there, my lord, but I took good care that no one should recognise me.
human
Well, and what impression did she make on you?
gpt
A fairly favourable one, my lord. I think she spoke the truth and I fancy that she is almost a religious fanatic.
human
You don't mean to say, Judson, that you allowed yourself to be taken in by her sanctimonious airs and the theatrical way that she kept clutching at that cross on her breast? A religious fanatic indeed! Why, don't you see that no woman with a spark of religion in her could have allowed her mistress to be treated as Lady Wilmersley was?
gpt
Quite so, my lord, and it is because Valdriguez impressed me as an honest old creature that I am still doubtful whether her Ladyship is insane or not, and this uncertainty hampers me very much in my work.
human
Lady Upton assured me that her granddaughter's mind had never been unbalanced and that his Lordship, although he frequently wrote to her, had never so much as hinted at such a thing; and if you believe the young lady at the nursing home to be Lady Wilmersley, I give you my word that she shows no sign of mental derangement.
gpt
Well, that seems pretty final, and yet--and yet--I cannot believe that Valdriguez is a vicious woman. A man in my profession acquires a curious instinct in such matters, my lord. The detective paused a moment and when he began again, he spoke almost as if he were reasoning with himself.
human
Now, if my estimate of Valdriguez is correct, and if it is also a fact that Lady Wilmersley has never been insane, there are certainly possibilities connected with this affair which I have by no means exhausted--and so, my lord, I am not only willing but anxious to continue on the case, if you will agree to allow me to ignore her Ladyship's existence.
gpt
Certainly. But tell me, Judson, how can you hope to reconcile two such absolutely contradictory facts?
human
Two such apparently contradictory facts, gently corrected the detective.
gpt
Well, my lord, I propose to find out more of this woman's antecedents. I have several times tried to get her to talk, but so far without the least success. She says that she will answer any question put to her on the witness-stand, but that it is against her principles to gossip about her late master and mistress. She is equally reticent as to her past life and when I told her that her silence seemed to me very suspicious, she demanded--suspicious of what? She went on to say that she could not see that it was anybody's business, where she lived or what she had done, and that she had certainly no intention of gratifying my idle curiosity; and that was the last word I could get out of her. Although she treated me so cavalierly, I confess to a good deal of sympathy with her attitude.
human
Have you questioned Mrs. Eversley about her? asked Cyril.
gpt
She was housekeeper here when Valdriguez first came to Geralton and ought to be able to tell you what sort of person she was in her youth.
human
Mrs. Eversley speaks well of her. The only thing she told me which may have a bearing on the case is, that in the old days his Lordship appeared to admire Valdriguez very much.
gpt
Ah! I thought so,
human
But we cannot be too sure of this, my lord. For when I tried to find out what grounds she had for her statement, she had so little proof to offer that I cannot accept her impression as conclusive evidence. As far as I can make out, the gossip about them was started by his Lordship going to the Catholic church in Newhaven.
gpt
By going to the Catholic church!
human
Exactly. Not a very compromising act on his Lordship's part, one would think. But as his Lordship was not a Catholic, his doing so naturally aroused a good deal of comment. At first the neighbourhood feared that he had been converted by his mother, who had often lamented that she had not been allowed to bring up her son in her own faith. It was soon noticed, however, that whenever his Lordship attended a popish service, his mother's pretty maid was invariably present, and so people began to put two and two together and before long it was universally assumed that she was the magnet which had drawn him away from his own church. I asked Mrs. Eversley if they had been seen together elsewhere, and she reluctantly admitted that they had. On several occasions they were seen walking in the Park but always, so Mrs. Eversley assured me, in full view of the castle. She had felt it her duty to speak to Valdriguez on the subject, and the latter told her that his Lordship was interested in her religion and that she was willing to run the risk of having her conduct misconstrued if she could save his soul from eternal damnation. She also gave Mrs. Eversley to understand that she had her mistress's sanction, and as her Ladyship treated Valdriguez more as a companion and friend than as a maid, Mrs. Eversley thought this quite likely and did not venture to remonstrate further. So the intimacy, if such it could be called, continued as before. What the outcome of this state of things would have been we do not know, for shortly afterwards both Lord and Lady Wilmersley died and Valdriguez left Geralton. When his Lordship went away a few weeks later, a good many people suspected that he had joined her on the continent. Mrs. Eversley, however, does not believe this. She has the most absolute confidence in Valdriguez's virtue, and I think her testimony is pretty reliable.
gpt
Bah! Mrs. Eversley is an honest, simple old soul. A clever adventuress would have little difficulty in hoodwinking her. Mark my words, you have found the key to the mystery. What more likely than that his Lordship--whose morals, even as a boy, were none of the best--seduced Valdriguez and that she returned to Geralton so as to have the opportunity of avenging her wrongs.
human
I can think of nothing more unlikely than that his Lordship should have selected his cast-off mistress as his wife's attendant,
gpt
Not at all. You didn't know him, replied Cyril.
human
I can quite fancy that the situation would have appealed to his cynical humour.
gpt
Your opinion of the late Lord Wilmersley is certainly not flattering, but even if we take for granted that such an arrangement would not have been impossible to his Lordship, I still refuse to believe that Valdriguez would have agreed to it; even assuming that his Lordship had wronged her and that she had nursed a murderous resentment against him all these years, I cannot see how she could have hoped to further her object by accepting the humiliating position of his wife's maid. It also seems to me incredible that a woman whose passions were so violent as to find expression in murder could have controlled them during a lifetime. But leaving aside these considerations, I have another reason to urge against your theory: Would his Lordship have trusted a woman who, he knew, had a grievance against him, as he certainly trusted Valdriguez? She had free access to his apartments. What was there to have prevented her from giving him an overdose of some drug during one of the many times when he was half-stupefied with opium? Nothing. The risk of detection would have been infinitesimal. No, my lord, why Valdriguez returned to Geralton is an enigma, I grant you, but your explanation does not satisfy me.
human
As long as you acknowledge that Valdriguez's presence here needs an explanation and are willing to work to find that explanation, I don't care whether you accept my theory or not; all I want to get at is the truth.
gpt
The truth, my lord, said the detective, as he rose to take his leave,