The Moonstone by Wilkie Collins (top 5 books to read .txt) đ
- Author: Wilkie Collins
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âYou have made it so clear,â I said, âthat I want you to go farther. You have shown me how I entered the room, and how I came to take the Diamond. But Miss Verinder saw me leave the room again, with the jewel in my hand. Can you trace my proceedings from that moment? Can you guess what I did next?â
âThat is the very point I was coming to,â he rejoined. âIt is a question with me whether the experiment which I propose as a means of vindicating your innocence, may not also be made a means of recovering the lost Diamond as well. When you left Miss Verinderâs sitting-room, with the jewel in your hand, you went back in all probability to your own roomâââ
âYes? and what then?â
âIt is possible, Mr. BlakeâI dare not say moreâthat your idea of preserving the Diamond led, by a natural sequence, to the idea of hiding the Diamond, and that the place in which you hid it was somewhere in your bedroom. In that event, the case of the Irish porter may be your case. You may remember, under the influence of the second dose of opium, the place in which you hid the Diamond under the influence of the first.â
It was my turn, now, to enlighten Ezra Jennings. I stopped him, before he could say any more.
âYou are speculating,â I said, âon a result which cannot possibly take place. The Diamond is, at this moment, in London.â
He started, and looked at me in great surprise.
âIn London?â he repeated. âHow did it get to London from Lady Verinderâs house?â
âNobody knows.â
âYou removed it with your own hand from Miss Verinderâs room. How was it taken out of your keeping?â
âI have no idea how it was taken out of my keeping.â
âDid you see it, when you woke in the morning?â
âNo.â
âHas Miss Verinder recovered possession of it?â
âNo.â
âMr. Blake! there seems to be something here which wants clearing up. May I ask how you know that the Diamond is, at this moment, in London?â
I had put precisely the same question to Mr. Bruff when I made my first inquiries about the Moonstone, on my return to England. In answering Ezra Jennings, I accordingly repeated what I had myself heard from the lawyerâs own lipsâand what is already familiar to the readers of these pages.
He showed plainly that he was not satisfied with my reply.
âWith all deference to you,â he said, âand with all deference to your legal adviser, I maintain the opinion which I expressed just now. It rests, I am well aware, on a mere assumption. Pardon me for reminding you, that your opinion also rests on a mere assumption as well.â
The view he took of the matter was entirely new to me. I waited anxiously to hear how he would defend it.
âI assume,â pursued Ezra Jennings, âthat the influence of the opiumâafter impelling you to possess yourself of the Diamond, with the purpose of securing its safetyâmight also impel you, acting under the same influence and the same motive, to hide it somewhere in your own room. You assume that the Hindoo conspirators could by no possibility commit a mistake. The Indians went to Mr. Lukerâs house after the Diamondâand, therefore, in Mr. Lukerâs possession the Diamond must be! Have you any evidence to prove that the Moonstone was taken to London at all? You canât even guess how, or by whom, it was removed from Lady Verinderâs house! Have you any evidence that the jewel was pledged to Mr. Luker? He declares that he never heard of the Moonstone; and his bankersâ receipt acknowledges nothing but the deposit of a valuable of great price. The Indians assume that Mr. Luker is lyingâand you assume again that the Indians are right. All I say, in differing with you, isâthat my view is possible. What more, Mr. Blake, either logically, or legally, can be said for yours?â
It was put strongly; but there was no denying that it was put truly as well.
âI confess you stagger me,â I replied. âDo you object to my writing to Mr. Bruff, and telling him what you have said?â
âOn the contrary, I shall be glad if you will write to Mr. Bruff. If we consult his experience, we may see the matter under a new light. For the present, let us return to our experiment with the opium. We have decided that you leave off the habit of smoking from this moment.â
âFrom this moment?â
âThat is the first step. The next step is to reproduce, as nearly as we can, the domestic circumstances which surrounded you last year.â
How was this to be done? Lady Verinder was dead. Rachel and I, so long as the suspicion of theft rested on me, were parted irrevocably. Godfrey Ablewhite was away travelling on the Continent. It was simply impossible to reassemble the people who had inhabited the house, when I had slept in it last. The statement of this objection did not appear to embarrass Ezra Jennings. He attached very little importance, he said, to reassembling the same peopleâseeing that it would be vain to expect them to reassume the various positions which they had occupied towards me in the past times. On the other hand, he considered it essential to the success of the experiment, that I should see the same objects about me which had surrounded me when I was last in the house.
âAbove all things,â he said, âyou must sleep in the room which you slept in, on the birthday night, and it must be furnished in the same way. The stairs, the corridors, and Miss Verinderâs sitting-room, must also be restored to what they were when you saw them last. It is absolutely necessary, Mr. Blake, to replace every article of furniture in that part of the house which may now be put away. The sacrifice of your cigars will be useless, unless we can get Miss Verinderâs permission to do that.â
âWho is to apply to her for permission?â I asked.
âIs it not possible for you to apply?â
âQuite out of the question. After what has passed between us on the subject of the lost Diamond, I can neither see her, nor write to her, as things are now.â
Ezra Jennings paused, and considered for a moment.
âMay I ask you a delicate question?â he said.
I signed to him to go on.
âAm I right, Mr. Blake, in fancying (from one or two things which have dropped from you) that you felt no common interest in Miss Verinder, in former times?â
âQuite right.â
âWas the feeling returned?â
âIt was.â
âDo you think Miss Verinder would be likely to feel a strong interest in the attempt to prove your innocence?â
âI am certain of it.â
âIn that case, I will write to Miss Verinderâif you will give me leave.â
âTelling her of the proposal that you have made to me?â
âTelling her of everything that has passed between us today.â
It is needless to say that I eagerly accepted the service which he had offered to me.
âI shall have time to write by todayâs post,â he said, looking at his watch. âDonât forget to lock up your cigars, when you get back to the hotel! I will call tomorrow morning and hear how you have passed the night.â
I rose to take leave of him; and attempted to express the grateful sense of his kindness which I really felt.
He pressed my hand gently. âRemember what I told you on the moor,â he answered. âIf I can do you this little service, Mr. Blake, I shall feel it like a last gleam of sunshine, falling on the evening of a long and clouded day.â
We parted. It was then the fifteenth of June. The events of the next ten daysâeveryone of them more or less directly connected with the experiment of which I was the passive objectâare all placed on record, exactly as they happened, in the Journal habitually kept by Mr. Candyâs assistant. In the pages of Ezra Jennings nothing is concealed, and nothing is forgotten. Let Ezra Jennings tell how the venture with the opium was tried, and how it ended.
Extracted from the Journal of Ezra Jennings.
1849.âJune 15.... With some interruption from patients, and some interruption from pain, I finished my letter to Miss Verinder in time for todayâs post. I failed to make it as short a letter as I could have wished. But I think I have made it plain. It leaves her entirely mistress of her own decision. If she consents to assist the experiment, she consents of her own free will, and not as a favour to Mr. Franklin Blake or to me.
June 16th.âRose late, after a dreadful night; the vengeance of yesterdayâs opium, pursuing me through a series of frightful dreams. At one time I was whirling through empty space with the phantoms of the dead, friends and enemies together. At another, the one beloved face which I shall never see again, rose at my bedside, hideously phosphorescent in the black darkness, and glared and grinned at me. A slight return of the old pain, at the usual time in the early morning, was welcome as a change. It dispelled the visionsâand it was bearable because it did that.
My bad night made it late in the morning, before I could get to Mr. Franklin Blake. I found him stretched on the sofa, breakfasting on brandy and soda water, and a dry biscuit.
âI am beginning, as well as you could possibly wish,â he said. âA miserable, restless night; and a total failure of appetite this morning. Exactly what happened last year, when I gave up my cigars. The sooner I am ready for my second dose of laudanum, the better I shall be pleased.â
âYou shall have it on the earliest possible day,â I answered. âIn the meantime, we must be as careful of your health as we can. If we allow you to become exhausted, we shall fail in that way. You must get an appetite for your dinner. In other words, you must get a ride or a walk this morning, in the fresh air.â
âI will ride, if they can find me a horse here. By-the-bye, I wrote to Mr. Bruff, yesterday. Have you written to Miss Verinder?â
âYesâby last nightâs post.â
âVery good. We shall have some news worth hearing, to tell each other tomorrow. Donât go yet! I have a word to say to you. You appeared to think, yesterday, that our experiment with the opium was not likely to be viewed very favourably by some of my friends. You were quite right. I call old Gabriel Betteredge one of my friends; and you will be amused to hear that he protested strongly when I saw him yesterday. âYou have done a wonderful number of foolish things in the course of your life, Mr. Franklin, but this tops them all!â There is Betteredgeâs opinion! You will make allowance for his prejudices, I am sure, if you and he happen to meet?â
I left Mr. Blake, to go my rounds among my patients; feeling the better and the happier even for the short interview that I had had with him.
What is the secret of the attraction that there is for me in this man? Does it only mean that I feel the contrast between the frankly kind manner in which he has allowed me to become acquainted with him, and the merciless dislike and distrust with which I am met by other people? Or is there really something in him which answers to the yearning that I have for a little human sympathyâthe yearning, which has survived the solitude and persecution of many years; which seems to grow keener and keener, as the time comes nearer and nearer when I shall endure and feel no more? How useless to ask these questions! Mr. Blake has given me a new interest in life. Let that be enough, without seeking to know what the new interest is.
June 17th.âBefore breakfast,
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