Blind Love by Wilkie Collins (beginner reading books for adults txt) đ
- Author: Wilkie Collins
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Instead of being received, however, by a gentleman as solemn as the Court of Chancery and as terrible as the Court of Assize, she found an elderly gentleman, of quiet, paternal manners, who held both her hands, and looked as if he was weeping over her bereavement. By long practice this worthy person could always, at a momentâs notice, assume the appearance of one who was weeping with his client.
âMy dear lady!â he murmured. âMy dear lady! This is a terrible time for you.â
She started. She feared that something had come out.
âIn the moment of bereavement, too, to think of business.â
âI have brought you,â she replied curtly, âmy husbandâsâmy late husbandâsâwill.â
âThank you. With your permissionâthough it may detain your ladyshipâI will read it. Humph! it is short and to the point. This will certainly give us little trouble. I fear, however, that, besides the insurances, your ladyship will not receive much.â
âNothing. My husband was always a poor man, as you know. At the time of his death he left a small sum of money only. I am, as a matter of fact, greatly inconvenienced.â
âYour ladyship shall be inconvenienced no longer. You must draw upon us. As regards Lord Harryâs death, we are informed by Dr. Vimpany, who seems to have been his friend as well as his medical adviserââ
âDr. Vimpany had been living with him for some time.â
ââthat he had a somewhat protracted illness?â
âI was away from my husband. I was staying here in Londonâon businessâfor some time before his death. I was not even aware that he was in any danger. When I hurried back to Passy I was too late. My husband wasâwas already buried.â
âIt was most unfortunate. And the fact that his lordship was not on speaking terms with the members of his own familyâpray understand that I am not expressing any opinion on the caseâbut this fact seems to render his end more unhappy.â
âHe had Dr. Vimpany,â said Iris, in a tone which suggested to the lawyer jealousy or dislike of the doctor.
âWell,â he said, âit remains to prove the will and to make our claims against the Insurance Office. I have the policy here. His lordship was insured in the Royal Unicorn Life Insurance Company for the sum of 15,000 pounds. We must not expect to have this large claim satisfied quite immediately. Perhaps the office will take three months to settle. But, as I said before, your ladyship can draw upon us.â
âYou are certain that the Company will pay?â
âAssuredly. Why not? They must pay.â
âOh! I thought that perhaps so large a sumââ
âMy dear Madamââthe man who administered so much real and personal property smiledââfifteen thousand pounds is not what we call a very large sum. Why, if an Insurance Company refused to pay a lawful claim it would cut its own throatâabsolutely. Its very existence depends upon its meeting all just and lawful claims. The death being proved it remains for the Company to pay the insurance into the hands of the person entitled to receive it. That is, in this case, to me, acting for you.â
âYesâI seeâbut I thought that, perhaps, my husband having died abroad there might be difficultyââ
There might, if he had died in Central Africa. But he died in a suburb of Paris, under French law, which, in such matters, is even more careful and exacting than our own. We have the official papers, and the doctorâs certificate. We have, besides, a photograph of the unfortunate gentleman lying on his deathbedâthis was well thought of: it is an admirable likenessâthe sun cannot lieâwe have also a photograph of the newly erected tombstone. Doubt? Dear me, Madam, they could no more raise a doubt as to your husbandâs death than if he were buried in the family vault. If anything should remove any ground for doubt, it is the fact that the only person who benefits by his death is yourself. If, on the other hand, he had been in the hands of persons who had reason to wish for his death, there might have been suspicions of foul play, which would have been matter for the policeâbut not for an insurance company.â
âOh! I am glad to learn, at least, that there will be no trouble. I have no knowledge of business, and I thought thatââ
âNoânoâyour ladyship need have no such ideas. In fact, I have already anticipated your arrival, and have sent to the manager of the company. He certainly went so far as to express a doubt as to the cause of death. Consumption in any form was not supposed to be in your husbandâs family. But Lord Harryâahem!âtried his constitutionâtried his constitition, as I put it.â
He had put it a little differently. What he said was to the following effectââLord Harry Norland, sir, was a devil. There was nothing he did not do. I only wonder that he has lived so long. Had I been told that he died of everything all together, I should not have been surprised. Ordinary rapid consumption was too simple for such a man.â
Iris gave the lawyer her London address, obeyed him by drawing a hundred pounds, half of which she sent to Mr. William Linville, at Louvain, and went home to wait. She must now stay in London until the claim was discharged.
She waited six weeks. At the end of that time she learned from her solicitors that the company had settled, and that they, the lawyers, had paid to her bankers the sum of 15,000 pounds being the whole of the insurance.
Acting, then, on her husbandâs instructions, she sought another bank and opened an account for one William Linville, gentleman, residing abroad. She gave herself as a reference, left the usual signature of William Linville, and paid to his account a cheque for 8,000 pounds. She saw the manager of her own bank, explained that this large cheque was for an investment, and asked him to let her have 2,000 pounds in bank notes. This sum, she added, was for a special purpose. The manager imagined that she was about to perform some act of charity, perhaps an expiatory work on behalf of her late husband.
She then wrote to Dr. Vimpany, who was in Paris, making an appointment with him. Her work of fraud and falsehood was complete.
âThere has been no trouble at all,â she wrote to her husband; âand there will not be any. The insurance company has already settled the claim. I have paid 8,000 pounds to the account of William Linville. My own bankerâwho knows my fatherâbelieves that the money is an investment. My dear Harry, I believe that, unless the doctor begins to worry usâwhich he will do as soon as his money is all goneâa clear course lies before us. Let us, as I have already begged you to do, go straight away to some part of America, where you are certain not to be known. You can dye your hair and grow a beard to make sure. Let us go away from every place and person that may remind us of time past. Perhaps, in time, we may recover something of the old peace andâcan it ever be?âthe old self-respect.â
There was going to be trouble, however, and that of a kind little expected, impossible to be guarded against. And it would be trouble caused by her own act and deed.
THE trouble was made by Iris herself.
In this wayâ
She saw Fannyâs advertisement. Her first impulse was to take her back into her service. But she remembered the necessity for concealment. She must not place herselfâshe realised already the fact that she had done a thing which would draw upon her the vengeance of the lawâand her husband in the power of this woman, whose fidelity might not stand the shock of some fit of jealousy, rage, or revenge for fancied slight. She must henceforth be cut off altogether from all her old friends.
She therefore answered the letter by one which contained no address, and which she posted with her own hand at the General Post Office. She considered her words carefully. She must not say too much or too little.
âI enclose,â she said, âa bank note for ten pounds to assist you. I am about to travel abroad, but must, under existing circumstances, dispense with the services of a maid. In the course of my travels I expect to be in Brussels. If, therefore, you have anything to tell me or to ask of me, write to me at the Poste Restante of that city, and in the course of six mouths or so I am tolerably sure to send for the letter. In fact, I shall expect to find a letter from you. Do not think that I have forgotten you or your faithful services, though for a moment I am not able to call you to my side. Be patient.â
There was no address given in the letter. This alone was mysterious. If Lady Harry was in London and the letter was posted at the General Post Officeâwhy should she not give her address? If she was abroad, why should she hide her address? In any case, why should she do without a maidâshe who had never been without a maidâto whom a maid was as necessary as one of her hands? Oh! she could never get along at all without a maid. As for Irisâs business in London and her part in the conspiracy, of course Fanny neither knew nor suspected.
She had recourse again to her only friendâMrs. Vimpanyâto whom she sent Lady Harryâs letter, and imploring her to lay the whole before Mr. Mountjoy.
âHe is getting so much stronger,â Mrs. Vimpany wrote back, âthat I shall be able to tell him every thing before long. Do not be in a hurry. Let us do nothing that may bring trouble upon her. But I am sure that something is going onâsomething wicked. I have read your account of what has happened over and over again. I am as convinced as you could possibly be that my husband and Lord Harry are trading on the supposed death of the letter. We can do nothing. Let us wait.â
Three days afterwards she wrote again.
âThe opportunity for which I have been waiting has come at last. Mr. Mountjoy is, I believe, fully recovered. This morning, seeing him so well and strong, I asked him if I might venture to place in his hands a paper containing a narrative.
ââIs it concerning Iris?â he asked.
ââIt has to do with Lady Harryâindirectly.â
âFor a while he made no reply. Then he asked me if it had also to do with her husband.
ââWith her husband and with mine,â I told him.
âAgain he was silent.
âAfter a bit he looked up and said, âI had promised myself never again to interfere in Lady Harry Norlandâs affairs. You wish me to read this document, Mrs. Vimpany?
ââCertainly; I am most anxious that you should read it and should advise upon it.â
ââWho wrote it?â
ââFanny Mere, Lady Harryâs maid.â
ââIf it is only to tell me that her husband is a villain,â he said, âI will not read it.â
ââIf you were enabled by
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