"I have asked the question at last, Miss Covington," Dr. Leeds said, coming forward to shake hands, "and Netta has consented to be my wife."
"I am heartily1 glad. That you would ask her I knew from what you told me; and although I knew nothing of her thoughts in the matter, I felt sure that she would hardly say no. Netta, darling, I am glad. Long ago I thought and hoped that this would come about. It seemed to me that it would be such a happy thing."
"Auntie said just the same thing," Netta said, smiling through her tears, as Hilda embraced her. "As you both knew, you ought to have given me some little hint; then I should not have been taken quite by surprise. I might have pretended that I did not quite know my own mind, and ask for time to think it over, instead of surrendering at once."
"But you did make a condition, Netta," Dr. Leeds laughed.
"Not a condition—a request, if you like, but certainly not a condition."
"Netta said that her heart was greatly set on the work she had always looked forward to, and she hoped that I should let her do something in that way still. Of course I have heard you both talk over that institute a score of times, and I was as much impressed as yourselves with the enormous boon2 that it would be. I should be sorry indeed that the plan should be given[Pg 330] up. I need hardly say that in the half hour we have had together we did not go deeply into it, but we will have a general council about it, as soon as we can get down to plain matter of fact. Netta can talk it over with you, and I can talk it over with her; and then we can hold a meeting, with Miss Purcell as president of the committee."
But matters were not finally settled until the ladies were established at Holmwood with Walter, and Dr. Leeds came down for a short holiday of two or three days. Then the arrangements were made to the satisfaction of all parties. A large house, standing3 in grounds of considerable extent, was to be taken in the suburbs of London, Netta was to be lady superintendent4, her aunt assisting in the domestic arrangements. Miss Purcell insisted that her savings5 should be used for furnishing the house. Hilda was to put in as a loan, for the others would receive it in no other way, five thousand pounds for working capital. She determined6 to take a house near the institute, so that she could run in and out and assist Netta in teaching. Dr. Leeds was to drive up every morning to Harley Street, where his work was over by two o'clock, except when he had to attend consultations7. No arrangements would be necessary about the house, as this was the residence of his partner, and he only had his own set of rooms there. He was steadily8 making his way, and to his surprise already found that the report in the papers of his successful diagnosis9 of the cause of General Mathieson's death had resulted in a considerable addition to his practice, as a number of people consulted him on obscure, and in many cases fanciful, maladies, in which they had come to entertain the idea that they were suffering from the effects of poison.
Now that she was going to assist at the institution and had no intention of entering society again in London, Hilda had no longer any objection to the power she had acquired being known, and, when questioned on the subject of the trial, made no secret of the manner in which[Pg 331] she had made the discovery at the opera, and mentioned that she was going to assist in an institution that was about to be established for teaching the system by which she had benefited to deaf children.
The matter excited considerable interest in medical circles, and by the time that the institution was ready the number of applicants10 was greater than could be entertained. By this time Dr. Leeds and Netta were married. The engagement was a short one, and the wedding took place within two months of their going down into the country with Hilda. Being anxious that as many as possible should participate in the benefits of the system, the doors of the institute were at once opened to outdoor pupils, who were boarded in the neighborhood. Six of Netta's pupils in Hanover were brought over as teachers, and a few weeks from its being opened the institution was in full swing. As Dr. Leeds wished that no profit whatever be made by the undertaking11, in which desire he was cordially joined by his wife and Hilda, the charges were extremely low, except in the case of children of wealthy parents, the surplus in their case being devoted12 to taking in, free of payment, children of the poor.
Before Netta's marriage the interest in the Mathieson case was revived by the appearance of a letter in the principal London papers. All search for the man who had assisted Sanderson in the abduction of the child had been fruitless. He had probably taken steps to receive information of how matters were going on in court, and long before an officer arrived at Rose Cottage with a warrant for his arrest he had left, and the police had failed to find any trace of his subsequent movements. The letter bore the simple heading, "United States," and ran as follows:
"To the Editor.
"Sir: I scarcely know why I write this letter, but I suppose even an habitual13 criminal does not care to remain under an unjust suspicion. I acknowledge that I[Pg 332] come under that category, and that my life has been spent in crime, although never once has suspicion attached to me, until I became mixed up in the Simcoe-Mathieson affair. I wish to state solemnly that I was absolutely ignorant that the name John Simcoe was an assumed one. That was the name he gave me when I first knew him, and I believed that he was, as he represented, the man who had saved General Mathieson's life from a tiger. That he had subsequently lived a rough life in the South Seas I was aware, for he came to me with a message sent by a brother of mine when at the point of death. The man had been a chum of his out there and had gallantly14 carried him off when he had received the wound from which he subsequently died, in a fight with a large body of natives. I have absolute assurance that this was true, for my brother would never have sent anyone to me except under altogether extraordinary circumstances. The man called on me when he first returned to England, but I saw little of him for the first two years, and then he came to me and said that he had looked up General Mathieson, and that the General had taken to him, and put him down in his will for ten thousand pounds. He said that General Mathieson was worth a hundred thousand, and that he had planned to get the whole. Not being in any way squeamish, I agreed at once to help him in any way in my power.
"His plan briefly15 was that he should obtain a fresh will, appointing him sole heir to the General's estate in the event of a boy of six or seven years old dying before he came of age. He had somehow obtained a copy of the General's will, and had notes in the General's handwriting. There were two things to be done, first that he should get instructions for the draft of the will drawn16 up in precise imitation of the General's handwriting, containing all the provisions of the former will, except that he was made heir in place of Miss Covington in the event of his grandson's death. There are a dozen men in London who can imitate handwriting so as to defy[Pg 333] detection, and I introduced him to one of them, who drew up the instructions. Then I introduced him to a man who is the cleverest I know—and I know most of them—at getting up disguises.
"He had already ascertained17 that the General had on one occasion been for a minute or two in the offices of Messrs. Halstead & James. They would, therefore, have a vague, and only a vague, remembrance of him. He had obtained a photograph of the General, who was about his own height and figure, and although there was no facial resemblance, the man, by the aid of this photograph, converted him into a likeness18 of the General that would pass with anyone who had seen him but once casually19. So disguised, he went to the offices of these solicitors20, told a plausible21 story, and gave them the written instructions. In the meantime he had been practicing the General's signature, and being a good penman had got to imitate it so accurately22 that I doubt if any expert would have suspected the forgery23. The lawyers were completely deceived, and he had only to go there again three days later, in the same disguise, and sign the will.
"So much for that. Then came the General's seizure24. I most solemnly declare that I had no shadow of suspicion that it was not a natural fit, and that if I had had such a suspicion I should have chucked the whole thing over at once, for though, as I have said, an habitual criminal, that is to say, one who plans and directs what may be called sensational25 robberies, I have always insisted that the men who have worked under me should go unprovided with arms of any kind, and in no case in which I have been concerned has a drop of blood been shed. As to the carrying off of the boy, it was entirely26 managed by me. I had agents, men on whom I could rely, as a word of mine would have sent them to penal27 servitude for life. We knew that suspicion would fall upon Simcoe, and that it was important that he should be able to account for every hour of his time. Therefore, on the day the child was carried away he went down to Stowmarket,[Pg 334] while I managed the affair and took the child down to the place where he was hidden in the Essex marshes28. It was I also who made the arrangements by which the body of the child about the same age, who had died in the workhouse, was placed in the canal in some of the clothes the missing heir had worn when taken away. I owe it to myself to say that in all this there was no question of payment between this man and myself. I am well off, and I acted simply to oblige a man who had stood by the side of my brother to death. Whether his name was Simcoe or Sanderson mattered nothing to me; I should have aided him just the same. But I did believe that it was Simcoe, and that, having risked his life to save that of General Mathieson, he had as good a right as another to his inheritance. He never hinted to me that it would be a good thing if the child was got rid of altogether. He knew well enough that if he had done so I would not only have had nothing to do with it, but that I would have taken steps to have put a stop to his game altogether. Now I have only to add that, having fairly stated the part that I bore in this affair, I have nothing more to say, except that I have now retired29 from business altogether, and that this is the last that the world will hear of William Sanderson's accomplice30."
For four or five years Hilda Covington devoted much of her time to assisting Netta Leeds in her work, but at the end of that time she married. Her husband was a widower31, whose wife had died in her first confinement32. His name was Desmond. He sold out of the army, and Hilda never had reason to regret that she had played the part of a gypsy woman at Lady Moulton's fête.
Walter grew up strong and healthy, and is one of the most popular men of his county. His early love for the water developed, and he served his time as a midshipman in one of Her Majesty's ships, and passed as a lieutenant33. He then retired from the service and bought a fine yacht, which he himself commanded. His friends were never able to understand why he allowed[Pg 335] his nominal34 skipper, William Nibson, to take his wife on board, and gave up two cabins for their accommodation. The barge35 Walter passed into the hands of Joshua, who, for many years, sailed her most successfully. He is now an elderly man, and his four sons are skippers of as many fine barges36, all his own property.
THE END.
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1
heartily
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| adv.衷心地，诚恳地，十分，很 | |
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boon
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| n.恩赐，恩物，恩惠 | |
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standing
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| n.持续，地位；adj.永久的，不动的，直立的，不流动的 | |
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superintendent
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| n.监督人，主管，总监；(英国)警务长 | |
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savings
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| n.存款，储蓄 | |
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determined
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| adj.坚定的；有决心的 | |
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consultations
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| n.磋商（会议）( consultation的名词复数 )；商讨会；协商会；查找 | |
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steadily
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| adv.稳定地；不变地；持续地 | |
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diagnosis
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| n.诊断，诊断结果，调查分析，判断 | |
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applicants
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| 申请人，求职人( applicant的名词复数 ) | |
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undertaking
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| n.保证，许诺，事业 | |
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devoted
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| adj.忠诚的，忠实的，热心的，献身于...的 | |
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habitual
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| adj.习惯性的；通常的，惯常的 | |
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gallantly
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| adv. 漂亮地，勇敢地，献殷勤地 | |
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briefly
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| adv.简单地，简短地 | |
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drawn
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| v.拖，拉，拔出；adj.憔悴的，紧张的 | |
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ascertained
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| v.弄清，确定，查明( ascertain的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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likeness
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| n.相像，相似（之处） | |
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casually
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| adv.漠不关心地，无动于衷地，不负责任地 | |
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solicitors
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| 初级律师( solicitor的名词复数 ) | |
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plausible
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| adj.似真实的，似乎有理的，似乎可信的 | |
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accurately
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| adv.准确地，精确地 | |
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forgery
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| n.伪造的文件等，赝品，伪造（行为） | |
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seizure
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| n.没收；占有；抵押 | |
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sensational
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| adj.使人感动的，非常好的，轰动的，耸人听闻的 | |
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entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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penal
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| adj.刑罚的；刑法上的 | |
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marshes
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| n.沼泽，湿地( marsh的名词复数 ) | |
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retired
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| adj.隐退的，退休的，退役的 | |
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accomplice
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| n.从犯，帮凶，同谋 | |
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widower
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| n.鳏夫 | |
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confinement
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| n.幽禁，拘留，监禁；分娩；限制，局限 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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nominal
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| adj.名义上的；(金额、租金)微不足道的 | |
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barge
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| n.平底载货船，驳船 | |
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barges
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| 驳船( barge的名词复数 ) | |
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