The Mystery of Lincoln's Inn Part 32

"Now, Miss Kitty," said Bennet, roughly; "I do not wish to discuss that with you. Give me your answer! Will you marry me, yes or no? Or is Francis Eversleigh to go to prison?"

"If I marry you, how will that protect Mr. Eversleigh?"

"I will give him a receipt in full for whatever his firm owes me. I will give you the receipt, if you like, and you can give it to him."

"Mr. Bennet," said Kitty, "I shall tell you what I am willing to do. You have told me some strange things; they are so strange that I find a difficulty in believing them. Yet I am afraid," went on the girl, honestly, "that they are true. But surely I have a right to ask that these statements of yours be confirmed. If you will give me till to-morrow--if you will come then, I will give you my answer."

"And pray what will you do in the mean time?"

"I shall speak to Mr. Eversleigh."

"Very well," said Bennet, after a moment's thought. "He will not deny the truth of what I have told you. I agree. I will be here at noon to-morrow for your decision. Only remember that the fate of the Eversleighs is in your hands, as I have said, and in yours alone."

And he turned and left her.

CHAPTER XXIII

On entering the house, Kitty went at once to her own room, though she knew Helen Eversleigh would think it strange, perhaps even unkind. "But she will never imagine why it is," thought the girl; "she will suppose Bennet had something painful to tell me about my father."

Kitty Thornton was a brave woman, and she had brains as well as courage; she sat down in her room, and deliberately set herself to consider the situation in which she now found herself. The conversation with Bennet had occupied but a short while, and she had hardly realized all it meant for her. Now, sitting there quietly, she went over it again. On the face of it, what he had told her about Eversleigh seemed improbable in the extreme, but she recalled the positiveness of his a.s.sertions and the air of truthfulness and certainty with which he had made them. It was clear to her that Bennet believed he did hold the fate of Eversleigh in his hands.

Then she thought of Francis Eversleigh. In her mind's eye she saw him as he had appeared to her in her girlhood--handsome, generous, large-hearted, kindness itself. Her instinct told her that he was not formed of the stuff out of which the thief and the swindler were made.

And she recalled Bennet's words, "Mr. Eversleigh put the blame of the sale on his dead partner Silwood"--Silwood, the man in whose chambers her father's body had been found; yes, Kitty had no doubt whatever that if any one was guilty, he was the criminal. She remembered Silwood's appearance very well, and she contrasted it with that of Eversleigh, to the great advantage of the latter. It was incredible that Eversleigh was a bad man. But though not actually guilty, was he a party to the guilt of Silwood all along, and therefore guilty in that sense? Or had he discovered what Silwood had done only after Silwood's death? Well, she must wait until she had heard what Francis Eversleigh had to say.

For, after all, these were minor points. In all likelihood, she concluded, Eversleigh would confirm Bennet's statements. If so, what then?

And, now, Kitty Thornton had need of all her courage.

The fate of the Eversleighs was in her hands; she could save them, but at what a price!

The sacrifice of her own happiness.

She could save them, but only by condemning herself to misery for the rest of her life.

As she sat thinking, thinking of the wretchedness that must be hers as the wife of Bennet, the poor girl closed her eyes, as if thus she could shut out that blank and dreary prospect. She had no illusions as to the nature of the man. In her heart she called him a bully and a brute, and she knew he was a desperate gambler. Her life with him could be nothing but one long horror.

"I cannot marry him," she said, rebelling against the harshness and bitterness of the dilemma thrust upon her.

"But what then?" she asked herself.

She knew Bennet would keep his word did she refuse to marry him; Francis Eversleigh would be arrested, and he and his family overwhelmed in one common ruin.

"How can I permit it?" she said.

Hitherto she had striven to keep the thought of her lover, Gilbert, out of her mind, so as to be able to reason more clearly, but in its background Gilbert had always been. She loved him with her whole heart, and it was seldom that, consciously or unconsciously, she was not thinking about him. She had looked forward with pride and joy to being his wife. And now?

Bennet had declared that Gilbert's father's ruin would be Gilbert's ruin too.

And she could save him.

"I must, I must," said Kitty, bravely, but her heart was cold as ice.

"Cost me what it may, I must save him from ruin."

She told herself that it was her duty to make this sacrifice for her lover's sake, and she tried to steel herself to the idea. But when she thought of the long and bitter years that lay before her as the wife of Harry Bennet, her courage grew less and less.

"I must not think of _that_," she said; "if I do, I shall break down. I must think, and think only, of saving them from the ruin which threatens them all."

Still the tears would come into her eyes. She wiped them away, however, and when she went down to dinner showed no traces of them. Her eyes were suspiciously bright, and the spots of colour on her cheeks were less brilliant than usual, but her aspect was so little different from what it generally was that even Helen Eversleigh, who looked at her inquiringly when they met, did not observe any change in her appearance.

Francis Eversleigh was at the head of the table, and from time to time he shot a quick glance at her. He had heard from his daughter, Helen, that Bennet had called that afternoon, and he felt sure Bennet had told the girl all. He expected she would speak to him on the subject after dinner, and he dreaded it. What would she say to him? What would she do?

What had she said to Bennet?

Kitty had always been fond of Francis Eversleigh, and as she caught one or two of these glances of his, and knew the secret of his anxiety, she pitied him and smiled at him encouragingly. Like the other members of the Eversleigh household, she had noticed for weeks how poorly he had looked. Now, as she sat at table with him she told herself she knew why it was--he had been carrying in his breast the knowledge of his partner's crime. She felt so sorry for him, that for a time she almost forgot how black her own future was likely to be.

After dinner she and Eversleigh withdrew from the dining-room together, and went into the library. This move excited no surprise in the others, who supposed it accounted for by there being some fresh development with regard to her late father's affairs which required immediate attention.

Eversleigh left it to Kitty to begin the conversation.

"Mr. Bennet was here this afternoon," she said, steadily; "and he told me something which astonished and pained me more than I can express."

Kitty stopped, expecting Eversleigh to speak, but he only looked at her sorrowfully.

"He told me," said Kitty after a pause, "that some house property of his, which was entrusted to your firm, had been sold without his consent or knowledge, and that the money had been misappropriated. Is it true?"

"I regret to have to answer, Kitty, that it is too true," replied Eversleigh, falteringly. "It is only too true," he repeated, shaking his head sadly, "too true."

"Won't you tell me all about it?" asked the girl. "I do so wish to help you if I can," she cried earnestly.

"Kitty, you are, as you always have been, a dear sweet girl," responded Eversleigh, with twitching lips and tears standing in his eyes; "but I am afraid you can do nothing."

"Perhaps I can. But let me know, will you not, how this frightful thing has come about?" she urged.

"It is a dreadful story, a shameful story, Kitty. I have tried to act for the best----"

He broke off with a sob.

"I shall never believe you were guilty of anything criminal!" she exclaimed.

"I did not steal the money; you are right, if that is what you mean, dear; but the law will hold me guilty."

"I did not imagine for a single instant that you had taken any one's money wrongfully. Mr. Bennet said that you told him the money was taken by Mr. Silwood."

"Yes, yes," returned Eversleigh; "that is true."

"Besides yourself and Mr. Bennet and me, does any other person know about this--trouble?"