The Crystal Stopper - Maurice Leblanc (best ereader for epub .txt) 📗

she wore a wedding-ring. Seeing a locket hanging from her bodice, he stooped and, turning it, found a miniature photograph representing a man of about forty and a lad⁠—a stripling rather⁠—in a schoolboy’s uniform. He studied the fresh, young face set in curly hair:

“It’s as I thought,” he said. “Ah, poor woman!”

The hand which he took between his grew warmer by degrees. The eyes opened, then closed again. She murmured:

“Jacques⁠ ⁠…”

“Do not distress yourself⁠ ⁠… it’s all right he’s asleep.”

She recovered consciousness entirely. But, as she did not speak, Lupin put questions to her, to make her feel a gradual need of unbosoming herself. And he said, pointing to the locket:

“The schoolboy is Gilbert, isn’t he?”

“Yes,” she said.

“And Gilbert is your son?”

She gave a shiver and whispered:

“Yes, Gilbert is my son, my eldest son.”

So she was the mother of Gilbert, of Gilbert the prisoner at the Santé, relentlessly pursued by the authorities and now awaiting his trial for murder!

Lupin continued:

“And the other portrait?”

“My husband.”

“Your husband?”

“Yes, he died three years ago.”

She was now sitting up. Life quivered in her veins once more, together with the horror of living and the horror of all the ghastly things that threatened her. Lupin went on to ask:

“What was your husband’s name?”

She hesitated a moment and answered:

“Mergy.”

He exclaimed:

“Victorien Mergy the deputy?”

“Yes.”

There was a long pause. Lupin remembered the incident and the stir which it had caused. Three years ago, Mergy the deputy had blown out his brains in the lobby of the Chamber, without leaving a word of explanation behind him; and no one had ever discovered the slightest reason for that suicide.

“Do you know the reason?” asked Lupin, completing his thought aloud.

“Yes, I know it.”

“Gilbert, perhaps?”

“No, Gilbert had disappeared for some years, turned out of doors and cursed by my husband. It was a very great sorrow, but there was another motive.”

“What was that?” asked Lupin.

But it was not necessary for Lupin to put further questions. Madame Mergy could keep silent no longer and, slowly at first, with all the anguish of that past which had to be called up, she told her story:

“Twenty-five years ago, when my name was Clarisse Darcel and my parents living, I knew three young men at Nice. Their names will at once give you an insight into the present tragedy: they were Alexis Daubrecq, Victorien Mergy and Louis Prasville. The three were old acquaintances, had gone to college in the same year and served in the same regiment. Prasville, at that time, was in love with a singer at the opera-house at Nice. The two others, Mergy and Daubrecq, were in love with me. I shall be brief as regards all this and, for the rest, as regards the whole story, for the facts tell their own tale. I fell in love with Victorien Mergy from the first. Perhaps I was wrong not to declare myself at once. But true love is always timid, hesitating and shy; and I did not announce my choice until I felt quite certain and quite free. Unfortunately, that period of waiting, so delightful for those who cherish a secret passion, had permitted Daubrecq to hope. His anger was something horrible.”

Clarisse Mergy stopped for a few seconds and resumed, in a stifled voice:

“I shall never forget it⁠ ⁠… The three of us were in the drawing-room. Oh, I can hear even now the terrible words of threat and hatred which he uttered! Victorien was absolutely astounded. He had never seen his friend like this, with that repugnant face, that bestial expression: yes, the expression of a wild beast⁠ ⁠… Daubrecq ground his teeth. He stamped his feet. His bloodshot eyes⁠—he did not wear spectacles in those days⁠—rolled in their sockets; and he kept on saying, ‘I shall be revenged⁠ ⁠… I shall be revenged⁠ ⁠… Oh, you don’t know what I am capable of!⁠ ⁠… I shall wait ten years, twenty years, if necessary⁠ ⁠… But it will come like a thunderbolt⁠ ⁠… Ah, you don’t know!⁠ ⁠… To be revenged⁠ ⁠… To do harm⁠ ⁠… for harm’s sake⁠ ⁠… what joy! I was born to do harm⁠ ⁠… And you will both beseech my mercy on your knees, on your knees, yes, on your knees⁠ ⁠…’ At that moment, my father entered the room; and, with his assistance and the footman’s, Victorien Mergy flung the loathsome creature out of doors. Six weeks later, I married Victorien.”

“And Daubrecq?” asked Lupin, interrupting her. “Did he not try⁠ ⁠…”

“No, but on our wedding-day, Louis Prasville, who acted as my husband’s best man in defiance of Danbrecq’s opposition, went home to find the girl he loved, the opera-singer, dead, strangled⁠ ⁠…”

“What!” said Lupin, with a start. “Had Daubrecq⁠ ⁠…”

“It was known that Daubrecq had been persecuting her with his attentions for some days; but nothing more was known. It was impossible to discover who had gone in or out during Prasville’s absence. There was not a trace found of any kind: nothing, absolutely nothing.”

“But Prasville⁠ ⁠…”

“There was no doubt of the truth in Prasville’s mind or ours. Daubrecq had tried to run away with the girl, perhaps tried to force her, to hustle her and, in the course of the struggle, maddened, losing his head, caught her by the throat and killed her, perhaps without knowing what he was doing. But there was no evidence of all this; and Daubrecq was not even molested.”

“And what became of him next?”

“For some years we heard nothing of him. We knew only that he had lost all his money gambling and that he was travelling in America. And, in spite of myself, I forgot his anger and his threats and was only too ready to believe that he had ceased to love me and no longer harboured his schemes of revenge. Besides, I was so happy that I did not care to think of anything but my happiness, my love, my husband’s political career, the health of my son Antoine.”

“Antoine?”

“Yes, Antoine is Gilbert’s real name. The unhappy boy has at least succeeded in concealing his identity.”

Lupin asked, with some hesitation:

“At what period did⁠ ⁠… Gilbert⁠ ⁠… begin?”

“I cannot tell you