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Page 128
"We crossed over to the States, and Colin's family who had heard of his
marriage--some friend of Se�or Menendez had told them--would not know
us. It meant that Colin, who would have been a rich man, was very poor.
It made no difference. He was splendid. And I was so happy it was all
like a dream. He made me forget I was to blame for his troubles. Then
we were in Washington--and I saw Se�or Menendez in the hotel!
"Oh, my heart stopped beating. For me it seemed like the end of
everything. I knew, I knew, he was following me. But he had not seen
me, and without telling Colin the reason, I made him leave Washington,
He was glad to go. Wherever we went, in America, they seemed to find
out about my mother. I got to hate them, hate them all. We came to
England, and Colin heard about this house, and we took it.
"At last we were really happy. No one knew us. Because we were strange,
and because of Ah Tsong, they looked at us very funny and kept away,
but we did not care. Then Sir James Appleton sold Cray's Folly."
She looked up quickly.
"How can I tell you? It must have been by Ah Tsong that he traced me to
Surrey. Some spy had told him there was a Chinaman living here. Oh, I
don't know how he found out, but when I heard who was coming to Cray's
Folly I thought I should die.
"Something I must tell you now. When I had told my story to Colin, one
thing I had not told him, because I was afraid what he might do. I had
not told him the name of the man who had caused me to suffer so much.
On the day I first saw Se�or Menendez walking in the garden of Cray's
Folly I knew I must tell my husband what he had so often asked me to
tell him--the name of the man. I told him--and at first I thought he
would go mad. He began to drink--do you know? It is a failing in his
family. But because I knew--because I knew--I forgave him, and hoped,
always hoped, that he would stop. He promised to do so. He had given up
going out each day to drink, and was working again like he used to
work--too hard, too hard, but it was better than the other way."
She stopped speaking, and suddenly, before I could divine her
intention, dropped upon her knees, and raised her clasped hands to me.
"He did not, he did not kill him!" she cried, passionately. "He did
not! O God! I who love him tell you he did not! You think he did. You
do--you do! I can see it in your eyes!"
"Believe me, Mrs. Camber," I answered, deeply moved, "I don't doubt
your word for a moment."
She continued to look at me for a while, and then turned to Val
Beverley.
"_You_ don't think he did," she sobbed, "do you?"
She looked such a child, such a pretty, helpless child, as she knelt
there on the carpet, that I felt a lump rising in my throat.
Val Beverley dropped down impulsively beside her and put her arms
around the slender shoulders.
"Of course I don't," she exclaimed, indignantly. "Of course I don't.
It's quite unthinkable."
"I know it is," moaned the other, raising her tearful face. "I love him
and know his great soul. But what do these others know, and they will
never believe _me_."
"Have courage," I said. "It has never failed you yet. Mr. Paul Harley
has promised to clear him by to-night."
"He has promised?" she whispered, still kneeling and clutching Val
Beverley tightly. She looked up at me with hope reborn in her beautiful
eyes. "He has promised? Oh, I thank him. May God bless him. I know he
will succeed."
I turned aside, and walked out across the hall and into the empty
study.
CHAPTER XXXII
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