The White Lie Part 21

Never once in all those months had she been in London. All she saw of it was the red glare upon the night sky. But she was happy enough. London, and especially the neighbourhood of Regent Street, would remind her too vividly of Ralph and of her dear father.

One spring afternoon, while seated at the open window finis.h.i.+ng some needlework destined for a poor family living in a back street off the Hammersmith Broadway, she was chatting merrily with Sister Gertrude.

Over their needlework the rules allowed them to chatter, and in that barely-furnished little room she and Sister Gertrude enjoyed many a pleasant gossip.

Outside, the garden was gay with daffodils and hyacinths, and the trees were just bursting into bud, the fresh green rendered the brighter by the warm suns.h.i.+ne.

Jean concluded her work at last, placed her needle in the cus.h.i.+on, and removed her thimble.

"At last!" she sighed. "I've been over this a whole week," she added.

"Yes; you've been most patient," declared her friend. "Soon you will abandon needlework and be sent out nursing. I heard the Mother Superior talking about it with Sister Lilian after vespers last night. Now that Sister Hannah has gone back to Paris we are one nurse short, and you are to take her place."

"Am I?" cried Jean, with delight, for she had studied long and diligently in the hope that soon outside work would be given her. She was devoted to nursing, and had made herself proficient in most of the subjects.

"Yes. I believe you will hear something in the course of a few days.

But," added Sister Gertrude, "I know another secret. Your friend, the Mother Superior in Paris, is coming here, and ours has been transferred to Antwerp. The change will be announced, I expect, to-morrow."

At this news Jean expressed the greatest satisfaction, for the grave, yet rather hard-faced, directress of the convent at Enghien had been so good and generous that she had become devotedly attached to her. Indeed, to her she owed her life, for in her despondent state on that morning when found in the Tuileries Gardens she had seriously contemplated throwing herself into the Seine.

Jean was therefore loud in praise of the directress from Enghien, and highly delighted at the thought of her coming to take over the direction of the English branch of the Order.

"Here is some paper and string to wrap up your work," Sister Gertrude said at last, handing her an old copy of the _Daily Telegraph_. "I am taking it with me to Hammersmith this evening."

And then she left the room, promising to return in a few minutes.

Alone, Jean, standing at the window, gazed idly at the newspaper, the date of which was a Monday in the previous October.

It was strictly against the rules of the Order to read any newspaper, but as she turned it over, a column headed "Paris Day by Day" caught her eye. The temptation proved too much, and she scanned it down as she had been in the habit of scanning the paper each evening in the days when she had lived at home.

Suddenly a paragraph caught her eye. Her mouth stood open, her eyes started from their sockets as she read. Then she held her breath, placing her left hand to her breast as though to stay the beating of her heart.

Her countenance was blanched to the lips. The words she read were as follows:

"The daring exploits of the notorious criminal, Ansell, alias 'The American,' and Carlier, alias 'The Eel,' are at an end. Yesterday, in Paris, Carlier was sentenced to seven years' hard labour, and Ansell, it will be remembered, was shot by the police while swimming the Seine, but his body was never recovered."

"Dead!" she gasped, white as death. "Shot down by the police--_my husband!_"

She staggered, clutching at the small deal work-table for support, or she would have fallen.

"And Adolphe has been sent to prison for seven years!" she went on, speaking to herself in a low mechanical tone. "Was it for the crime committed on that night, I wonder? Were my fears well-grounded, and did my prediction of discovery come true? Ah, if Ralph had but listened to my appeal!" she cried in agony. "But he is dead--dead! Shot by the police--shot down like an animal. Ah, what an ignominious end!"

The newspaper fell from her fingers. The blow had stunned her.

She stood swaying slightly, her white face turned towards the open window, her eyes staring straight before her--silent, motionless, aghast.

Sister Gertrude entered, but so preoccupied was she that she was utterly unconscious of her presence.

"You are unwell, Jean," she said, in her soft, refined voice, for before entering the convent five years ago she had moved in society, being the daughter of a well-known Paris banker. "Tell me, dear, what ails you?"

Jean started, and stared at her in amazement.

"I--I--oh, there is nothing," she faltered. "I don't feel very well--that's all."

The newspaper lay on the floor, where it had fallen from her white, nerveless fingers.

In Jean's face was a hard, haggard look, and Sister Gertrude, a woman of the world, noted it, and wondered what could have affected her in those few moments of her absence.

"Tell me, dear, how you feel? Can I get you anything?" she asked her friend, to whom she was so much attached.

"Nothing, thanks," was her reply, with a great effort. "I shall be quite well soon, I hope."

Sister Gertrude advanced towards her, and, placing her hand upon the girl's shoulder tenderly, said:

"You will soon be all right again, dear, I hope. But why keep your secret? Why not confide in me?"

"Secret!" she echoed. "It is no secret!"

"Then why not tell me the truth right out? What has upset you?"

Jean clenched her teeth. How could she confess that she was the wife of a notorious thief--a man who had been shot like a dog by the police?

No. Her secret was hers, and it should remain so. Her past from that moment was buried. None, save the Mother Superior at Enghien and the two sisters who had found her in the Tuileries Gardens, knew the truth. And none should now know.

"Really, you are a little too solicitous of my welfare," she laughed, well feigning amus.e.m.e.nt at the situation. "I am quite well now. Quite well, I a.s.sure you."

And picking up the old copy of the newspaper, she resumed the wrapping up of the parcel of underclothing which she had made with her own hands for charitable purposes.

And the big bell having clanged out for tea in the refectory, Jean and Sister Gertrude pa.s.sed arm-in-arm through the long stone corridor to the big, vaulted hall, where all the inmates of the convent had a.s.sembled and the Mother Superior was presiding over the four s.h.i.+ning tea-urns at the top table.

But Jean sat silent and thoughtfully sipping her tea, heedless of all about her.

Her mind was full of that terse announcement which she had read, the obituary notice of the notorious thief known in Paris as "The American"--the man whom she loved and who was her husband.

She was thinking, too, of _Fil-en-Quatre_, the shock-headed, rather uncouth Parisian loafer--the man who had been sentenced to seven years'

hard labour. That meant Cayenne, without a doubt--drudgery at Devil's Island, that ill-governed penal settlement established by the Republic of France.

She remembered him. Ah, how often he had sympathised with her! How frequently he had uttered cheering words to her in secret, although he had never once betrayed his friend's real profession, nor had he ever once spoken of the great and fervent affection which he had borne her.

Though he was a thief, a scoundrel of the underworld of Paris, ingenious, unscrupulous, and even dangerous if cornered, he was nevertheless loyal and honest towards his friend, and behaved as a gentleman towards his friend's wife.

Yes, Adolphe Carlier, though a thief, was still a gentleman in the true sense of the word.

The weeks went by, and poor Jean, a widow in secret--for she told no one of what had occurred--was sent forth daily in the poorer districts of London on her mission to the sick, to whom she carried food and delicacies prepared by the kind hands of the sisters.

The slums she visited in Clerkenwell and other places often reminded her of those last few days of her married life, those days before she parted for ever from "Le Costaud." Where men feared to venture, and where no police-constable cared to go alone, she went without fear, down into the deepest depths of the unknown underworld of London, and through months she worked hard each day amid the most sordid and poverty-stricken surroundings, returning each night to the convent f.a.gged and hungry. But now that she knew the bitter truth, her whole life was devoted to her work of mercy and to her religious duties. Her sweetness of disposition, her calm patience, her soft voice, and her cheerful manner all endeared her to those whom she tended with such unremitting care.

Thus she pa.s.sed the long summer days in the stifling slums of London.

So devoted was she, and so hard did she work, that at last a serious illness was threatened, in consequence of which she was sent by the Mother Superior to the West of England branch of the Order, who had a small convent at Babbacombe, near Torquay, and in the latter town, in better air, she continued her labours.