CHAPTER VI

MRS. VRAIN'S STORY

Denzil was much pleased with the courtesy of the detective Link in

permitting him to gain, at first hand, further details of this

mysterious case. With a natural curiosity, engendered by his short

acquaintance with the unfortunate Berwin, he was most anxious to learn

why the man had secluded himself from the world in Geneva Square; who

were the enemies he hinted at as desirous of his death; and in what

manner and for what reason he had met with so barbarous a fate at their

hands. It seemed likely that Mrs. Vrain, who asserted herself to be the

wife of the deceased, would be able to answer these questions in full;

therefore, he was punctual in keeping the appointment at the office of

Link.

He was rather astonished to find that Mrs. Vrain had arrived, and was

deep in conversation with the detective, while a third person, who had

evidently accompanied her, sat near at hand, silent, but attentive to

what was being discussed. As the dead man had been close on sixty years

of age, and Mrs. Vrain claimed to be his wife, Denzil had quite

expected to meet with an elderly woman. Instead of doing so, however,

he beheld a pretty young lady of not more than twenty-five, whose

raiment of widow's weeds set off her beauty to the greatest advantage.

She was a charming blonde, with golden hair and blue eyes, and a

complexion of rose-leaf hue. In spite of her grief her demeanour was

lively and engaging, and her smile particularly attractive, lighting up

her whole face in the most fascinating manner. Her hands and feet were

small, her stature was that of a fairy, and her figure was perfect in

every way.

Altogether, Mrs. Vrain looked like a sylph or a dainty shepherdess of

Dresden china, and should have been arrayed in gossamer robes, rather

than in the deep mourning she affected. Indeed, Lucian considered that

such weeds were rather premature, as Mrs. Vrain could not yet be certain

that the murdered man was her husband; but she looked so charming and

childlike a creature that he forgave her being too eager to consider

herself a widow. Perhaps with such an elderly husband her eagerness was

natural.

From this charming vision Lucian's eyes wandered to the attentive third

person, a rosy-cheeked, plump little man, of between fifty and sixty.

From his resemblance to Mrs. Vrain--for he had the same blue eyes and

pink-and-white complexion--Lucian guessed that he was her father, and

such, indeed, proved to be the case. Link, on Lucian's entrance,

introduced him to the sylph in black, who in her turn presented him to

the silvery-haired, benevolent old man, whom she called Mr. Jabez Clyne.

At the first sound of their voices Lucian detected so pronounced a

twang, and so curious a way of collocating words, as to conclude that

Mrs. Vrain and her amiable parent hailed from the States. The little

lady seemed to pride herself on this, and indicated her republican

origin in her speech more than was necessary--at least, Denzil thought

so. But then, on occasions, he was disposed to be hyper-critical.

"Say, now," said Mrs. Vrain, casting an approving glance on Lucian's

face, "I'm right down glad to see you. Mr. Link here was just saying you

knew my husband, Mr. Vrain."

"I knew him as Mr. Berwin--Mark Berwin," replied Denzil, taking a seat.

"Just think of that now!" cried Mrs. Vrain, with a liveliness rather

subdued in compliment to her apparel; "and his real name was Mark Vrain.

Well, I guess he won't need no name now, poor man," and the widow

touched her bright eyes carefully with a doll's pocket-handkerchief,

which Lucian noted, somewhat cynically, was perfectly dry.

"Maybe he's an angel by this time, Lyddy," said Mr. Clyne, in a

cheerful, chirping voice, "so it ain't no use wishing him back, as I can

see. We've all got to negotiate kingdom-come some time or another."

"Not in the same way, I hope," said Lucian dryly. "But I beg your

pardon, Link, I interrupt your conversation."

"By no means," replied the detective readily. "We had just begun when

you entered, Mr. Denzil."

"And it wasn't much of a talk, anyhow," said Mrs. Vrain. "I was only

replying to some stupid questions."

"Stupid, if you will, but necessary," observed Link, with gravity. "Let

us continue. Are you certain that this dead man is--or rather was--your

husband?"

"I'm as sure as sure can be, sir. Berwin Manor is the name of our place

near Bath, and it looks as though my husband called himself after it

when he changed his colours. And isn't his first name Mark?" pursued the

pretty widow. "Well, my husband was called Mark, too, so there you

are--Mark Berwin."

"Is this all your proof?" asked Link calmly.

"I guess not, though it's enough, I should say. My husband had a mark on

his right cheek--got it fighting a duel with a German student when he

was having a high time as one of the boys at Heidelberg. Then he lost

part of his little finger--left-hand finger--in an accident out West.

What other proof do you want, Mr. Link?"

"The proofs you have given seem sufficient, Mrs. Vrain, but may I ask

when your husband left his home?"

"About a year ago, eh, poppa?"

"You are overdoing it, Lyddy," corrected the father. "Size it up as ten

months, and you'll do."

"Ten months," said Lucian suddenly, "and Mr. Berwin----"

"Vrain!" struck in Lydia, the widow, "Mark Vrain."

"I beg your pardon! Well, Mark Vrain took the house in Geneva Square six

months back. Where was he during the other four?"

"Ask me something easier, Mr. Denzil. I know no more than you do."

"Did you not know where he went on leaving Berwin Manor?"

"Sakes! how should I? Mark and I didn't pull together nohow, so he

kicked over the traces and made tracks for the back of beyond."

"And you might square it, Lyddy, by saying as 'twasn't you who upset the

apple cart."

"Well, I should smile to think so," said Mrs. Vrain vigorously. "I was

as good as pie to that old man."

"You did not get on well together?" said Link sharply.

"Got on as well as a cat hitched along with a dog. My stars! there was

no living with him. If he hadn't left me, I'd have left him--that's an

almighty truth."

"So the gist of all this is that Mr. Vrain left you ten months ago, and

did not leave his address?"

"That's so," said the widow calmly. "I've not seen nor heard of him for

most a year, till pop there tumbled across your paragraph in the

papers. Then I surmised from the name and the missing finger and the

scarred cheek, that I'd dropped right on to Mark. I wouldn't take all

this trouble for any one else; no, sir, not me!"

"My Lyddy does not care about being a grass-widow, gentlemen."

"I don't mind being a grass-widow or a real one, so long as I know how

to ticket myself," said the candid Lydia; "but seems to me there's no

question that Mark's sent in his checks."

"I certainly think that this man who called himself Berwin was your

husband," said Denzil, for Mrs. Vrain's eyes rested on him, and she

seemed to expect an answer.

"Well, then, that means I'm Mr. Vrain's widow?"

"I should say so."

"And entitled to all his pile?"

"That depends on the will," said Lucian dryly, for the light tone of the

pretty woman jarred upon his ear.

"Oh, that's all right," replied Mrs. Vrain, putting a gold-topped

smelling bottle to her nose. "I saw the will made, and know exactly how

I come out. The old man's daughter by his first wife gets the manor and

the rents, and I take the assurance money!"

"Was Mr. Berwin--I beg pardon, Vrain--was he married twice?"

"I should think so!" said Lydia. "He was a widower with a grown-up

daughter when I took him to church. Well, can I get this assurance

money?"

"I suppose so," said Link, "provided you can prove your husband's

death."

"Sakes alive!" cried Mrs. Vrain briskly. "Wasn't he murdered?"

"The man called Berwin was murdered."

"Well, sir," said the rosy-cheeked Clyne, with more sharpness than might

have been expected from his peaceful aspect, "and ain't Berwin Vrain?"

"It would seem so," replied Link coolly. "All your evidence goes to

prove it, yet the assurance company may not be satisfied with the proof.

I expect the grave will have to be opened, and the remains identified."

"Ugh!" said Mrs. Vrain with a shrug, "how disgusting! I mean," she

added, colouring as she saw that Lucian was rather shocked by her

flippancy, "that sorry as I am for the old man, he wasn't a good husband

to me, and corpses a week old ain't pleasant things to look on."

"Lyddy," interposed Clyne, hastening to obliterate, if possible, the

impression made on the two men by this foolish speech, "how you do go

on. But you know your heart is better than your tongue."

"It was, to put up so long with Mr. Vrain," said Lydia resentfully; "but

I'm honest, if I'm nothing else. I guess I'm sorry that Vrain got stuck

like a pig; but it wasn't my fault, and I've done my best to show

respect by wearing black. But it is no good going on in this way,

poppa, for I've no call to excuse myself to strangers. What I want to

know is how I'm going to get the dollars."

"You'll have to see the assurance company about that," said Link coldly;

"my business with you, Mrs. Vrain, is about this murder."

"I know nothing about it," retorted the widow. "I haven't set eyes on

Mark for most a year."

"Have you any idea who killed him?"

"I guess not! How should I?"

"You might know if he had enemies."

"He," said Mrs. Vrain, with supreme contempt, "why, he hadn't backbone

enough for folks to get riz at him! He was half baked!"

"Crazy, that is," remarked Clyne; "always thought the world was against

him, and folks wanted to get quit of him."

"He said he had enemies," hinted Lucian.

"You bet! He no doubt made out that all Europe was against him," said

Clyne. "That was my son-in-law all over. Lyddy and he had a tiff, just

like other married couples, and he clears out to lie low in an

out-of-the-way shanty in Pimlico. I tell you, gentlemen, that Vrain had

a chip out of his head. He fancied things, he did; but no one wanted to

harm him that I know of."

"Yet he died a violent death," said Denzil gravely.

"That's a frozen fact, sir," cried Clyne, "and both Lyddy and I want to

lynch the reptile as did it; but we neither of us know who laid him

out."

"I'm sure I don't," said Mrs. Vrain in a weeping voice. "Every one that

I knew was civil to him; he had no one who wanted to kill him when he

left Berwin Manor. Why he went away, or how he died, I can't say."

"If you want to know how he died," explained Link, "I can tell you. He

was stabbed."

"So the journals said; with a bowie!"

"No, not with a bowie," corrected Lucian, "but with some long, sharp

instrument."

"A dagger?" suggested Clyne.

"I should be even more precise," said Denzil slowly. "I should say a

stiletto--an Italian stiletto."

"A stiletto!" gasped Mrs. Vrain, whose delicate pink colour had faded to

a chalky white. "Oh!--oh! I--I--" and she fainted forthwith.