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"Grooton!" I called sharply. Grooton appeared. "Is any one at Braster Grange?" I asked. "Not that I have heard of, sir," he answered. "You do not know whether Mrs. Smith-Lessing is expected back?" "I have not heard, sir. They left no servants there not even a caretaker." I stepped back again into the night and took the shortest cut across the park to the house.
After all, our interrogation of the doctor was quite unnecessary. We were admitted at once to the Grange by a neatly-dressed parlour-maid. Mrs. Smith-Lessing was at home, and the girl did not for a moment seem to doubt her mistress's willingness to receive us. As she busied herself poking the fire and opening wider the thick curtains, Ray asked her another question.
Smith-Lessing," I said, struggling to keep my voice firm, though I felt myself trembling, "that this is a profitable discussion for either of us?" "Why not?" she exclaimed almost fiercely. "You have heard his story from enemies. You have judged him from the report of those who were never his friends. He sinned and he repented. Better and worse men than he have done that.
Smith-Lessing," I said, "I regret that I cannot receive you here. My position just now does not allow me to receive visitors." She simply raised her veil and sank into the nearest chair. I was staggered when I saw her face. It was positively haggard, and her eyes were burning. She looked at me almost with horror. "I had to come," she said. "I could not keep away a moment longer.
I believe it is true, too, that she is connected with the French Secret Police. I was there this afternoon you yourself sent me. But I did not tell Mrs. Smith-Lessing the code word, and I know nothing of the disappearance of those documents." Then Ray moved forward and placed deliberately upon the table the roll of papers which I had given up to him a few hours ago.
"The question is," the Duke said quietly, "did she know it?" Then I realized the object of this cross-examination. The colour flared suddenly into my cheeks, and as suddenly left them. The absence of those papers was extraordinary to me. I utterly failed to understand it. "I think I know what you mean, sir," I said. "It is true that Mrs. Smith-Lessing is my stepmother.
"How are you getting home?" she asked. "It is two o'clock, and raining." "I am going to walk," I answered. "But that is absurd," she protested. "I have a closed carriage here. I insist that you let me drive you. It is only common humanity; and you have that great box too." I buttoned up my coat. "Mrs. Smith-Lessing," I said, "you perhaps wish to force me into seeming ungracious.
"After all, this is not such a home of mystery as we expected," I remarked. "Apparently not," he answered. "The little woman is playing a bold game." Then Mrs. Smith-Lessing came in. She came in very quietly, a little pale and wan in this cold evening light. She held out her hand to me with a subdued but charming smile of welcome. "I am so glad that you have come to see me," she said softly.
Behind stood a plainly dressed woman, evidently her maid, carrying a flat dressing-case. There was a brief colloquy between the three. It ended in dressing-case, a pile of books, a reading lamp, and a formidable array of hat-boxes, and milliner's parcels being placed upon the rack and vacant seats in my compartment, and immediately afterwards Mrs. Smith-Lessing herself entered.
The Duke nodded. "Your father," he said slowly, "is in London?" "Yes, sir." "Alone?" I hesitated. Yet perhaps the Duke had a right to know the truth. "He is with the lady who occupied Braster Grange, sir, until last week," I answered. "She passed under the name of Mrs. Smith-Lessing, but I believe that she is in reality my stepmother."
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