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Updated: May 12, 2025
It struck me, too, that Renshawe had conceived a real and ardent passion for the very comely and interesting person before us first prompted, no doubt, by her accidental likeness to the portrait; and that some mental flaw or other caused him to confound her with the Laura who had in early life excited the same emotion in his mind.
My inducement to do so, was partly the cheapness and neatness of the accommodation, partly that the landlord's maternal uncle, a Mr Oxley, was slightly known to me. Henry Renshawe I knew by reputation only, he having left Yorkshire ten or eleven years before, and even that knowledge was slight and vague.
Laughable as the matter was in one sense, there was and the fair widow had noticed as well as myself a serious, menacing expression in the man's eye not to be trifled with; and at her earnest request, we accompanied her to her own apartment, to which Renshawe had threatened soon to return.
'Certainly certainly, sir. I am exceedingly sorry to have intruded, but I am sure you will permit me to have a peep at this wonderful portrait. Renshawe sprang impulsively forward to prevent the doctor reaching it. He was too late; and Dr Garland, turning sharply round with the painting in his hand, literally transfixed him in an attitude of surprise and consternation.
'Quite true, Mr Renshawe, I very imprudently replied, and in much too loud a tone, for we were but a few paces from Mrs Irwin's bedroom door. 'And if, as I suspect, the child has been drowned by you, you will have before long two murders on your head. A choking, bubbling noise came from the wretched man's throat, and his shaking fingers vainly strove to loosen his neck-tie.
'You will not dare to say, will you, that you do not remember this song that these pencil-marks in the margin were not made by you thirteen years ago? he menacingly ejaculated. 'I know nothing about the song, Mr Renshawe, rejoined the young woman with more spirit than she might have exhibited but for my near presence. 'It is really such nonsense.
I was new to such matters at that time unfortunately so, as it proved, or the affair might have had a less painful issue. Tomlins and I remained up, waiting for the return of Mr Renshawe; and as the long, slow hours limped past, the night-silence only broken by the dull moaning, and occasional spasmodic screams of poor Mrs Irwin, I grew very much excited.
Mr Renshawe hesitated for an instant, and then said with reserve, almost dignity of manner: 'I do not know, sir' his face, by the way, was determinedly averted from the cool, searching gaze of the physician 'I do not know, sir, that I am obliged to find you in amusement; and as your presence here was not invited, I shall be obliged by your leaving the room as quickly as maybe.
He vaguely intimated that she, Ellen Irwin, was really Laura somebody else that she had kept company with him, Mr Renshawe, in Yorkshire, before she knew poor George with many other strange things he muttered rather than spoke out; and especially that it was owing to her son reminding her continually of his father, that she pretended not to have known Mr Renshawe twelve or thirteen years ago.
My wife came weeping out of the death-chamber, accompanied by Dr Garland, to whom I forthwith related what had just taken place. He listened with attention and interest; and after some sage observations upon the strange fancies which now and then take possession of the minds of monomaniacs, agreed to see Mr Renshawe at ten the next morning.
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