The Best Holiday Mysteries for Christmas Time - Джером К. Джером

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listlessly sat down on the one chair in her small bedroom, thinking (it was her only thought now,) of what new plan could be adopted to rouse her grandfather on the morrow; and still mourning over the broken mask, as the one fatal obstacle to every effort she could try. Thus she sat for some minutes, languid and dreamy — when, suddenly, a startling and a wonderful change came over her, worked from within. She bounded up from her chair, as dead-pale and as dead-still as if she had been struck to stone. Then, a moment after, her face flushed crimson, she clasped her hands violently together, and drew her breath quick. And then, the paleness came once more — she trembled all over — and knelt down by the bedside, hiding her face in her hands.

      When she rose again, the tears were rolling fast over her cheeks. She poured out some water, and washed them away. A strange expression of firmness — a glow of enthusiasm, beautiful in its brightness and purity — overspread her face, as she took up her candle, and left the room.

      She went to the very top of the house, where the carpenter slept; and knocked at his door.

      ‘Are you not gone to bed yet, Martin?’ — she whispered — (the old joke of calling him ‘Julius Caesar’ was all over now!)

      He opened the door in astonishment, saying he had only that moment got upstairs.

      ‘Come down to the drawing-room, Martin,’ she said; looking brightly at him — almost wildly, as he thought. ‘Come quick! I must speak to you at once.’

      He followed her downstairs. When they got into the drawing-room, she carefully closed the door; and then said: —

      ‘A thought has come to me, Martin, that I must tell you. It came to me just now, when I was alone in my room; and I believe God sent it!’

      She beckoned to him to sit by her side; and then began to whisper in his ear — quickly, eagerly, without pause.

      His face began to turn pale at first, as hers had done, while he listened. Then it flushed, then grew firm like hers, but in a far stronger degree. When she had finished speaking, he only said, it was a terrible risk every way — repeating ‘every way’ with strong emphasis; but that she wished it; and therefore it should be done.

      As they rose to separate, she said tenderly and gravely: —

      ‘You have always been very good to me, Martin: be good, and be a brother to me more than ever now — for now I am trusting you with all I have to trust.’

      Years afterwards when they were married, and when their children were growing up around them, he remembered Annie’s last look, and Annie’s last words, as they parted that night.

      IX

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      The next morning, when the old man was ready to get out of bed and be dressed, it was not the honest carpenter who came to help him as usual, but a stranger — the landlady’s brother. He never noticed this change. What thoughts he had left, were all preoccupied. The evening before, from an affectionate wish to humour him in the caprice which had become the one leading idea of his life, Annie had bought for him a bottle of cement. And now, he went on murmuring to himself, all the while he was being dressed, about the certainty of his succeeding at last in piecing together the broken fragments of the mask, with the aid of this cement. It was only the glue, he said, that had made him fail hitherto; with cement to aid him, he was quite certain of success.

      The landlady and her brother helped him down into the drawing-room. Nobody was there; but on the table, where the breakfast things were laid, was placed a small note. He looked round inquisitively when he first saw that the apartment was empty. Then, the only voice within him that was not silenced — the voice of his heart — spoke, and told him that Annie ought to have been in the room to meet him as usual.

      ‘Where is she?’ he asked eagerly.

      ‘Don’t leave me alone with him, James,’ whispered the landlady to her brother, ‘there’s bad news to tell him.’

      ‘Where is she?’ he reiterated; and his eye got a wild look, as he asked the question for the second time.

      ‘Pray, compose yourself, sir; and read that letter,’ said the landlady, in soothing tones; ‘Miss Annie’s quite safe, and wants you to read this.’ She handed him the letter.

      He struck it away; so fiercely that she started back in terror. Then he cried out violently for the third time:

      ‘Where is she?’

      ‘Tell him,’ whispered the landlady’s brother, ‘tell him at once, or you’ll make him worse.’

      ‘Gone, sir,’ said the woman — ’gone away; but only for three days. The last words she said were, tell my grandfather I shall be back in three days; and give him that letter with my dearest love. Oh, don’t look so, sir — don’t look so! She’s sure to be back.’

      He was muttering ‘gone’ several times to himself, with a fearful expression of vacancy in his eyes. Suddenly, he signed to have the letter picked up from the ground; tore it open the moment it was given to him; and began to try to read the contents.

      The letter was short, and written in very blotted unsteady characters. It ran thus: —

      ‘Dearest Grandfather, — I never left you before in my life; and I only go now to try and serve you, and do you good. In three days, or sooner, if God pleases, I will come back, bringing something with me that will gladden your heart, and make you love me even better than ever. I dare not tell you where I am going, or what I am going for — you would be so frightened, and would perhaps send after me to fetch me back; but believe there is no danger! And oh, dear dear grandfather, don’t doubt your little Annie; and don’t doubt I will be back as I say, bringing something to make you forgive me for going away without your leave. We shall be so happy again, if you will only wait the three days! He — you know who — goes with me, to take care of me. Think, dear grandfather, of the blessed Christmas time that will bring us all together again, happier than ever! I can’t write any more, but that I pray God to bless and keep you, till we meet again! — ANNIE WRAY.’

      He had not read the letter more than half through, when he dropped it, uttering the one word, ‘gone’, in a shrill scream, that it made them shudder to hear. Then, it seemed as if a shadow, an awful, indescribable shadow, were stealing over his face. His fingers worked and fidgeted with an end of the tablecloth close by him; and he began to speak in faint whispering tones.

      ‘I’m afraid I’m going mad; I’m afraid something’s frightened me out of my wits,’ he murmured, under his breath. ‘Stop! let me try if I know anything. There now! there! That’s the breakfast table: I know that. There’s her cup and saucer; and there’s mine. Yes! and that third place, on the other side, whose is that? — whose, whose, whose? Ah! my God! my God! I am mad! I’ve forgotten that third place!’ He stopped, shivering all over. Then, the moment after, he shrieked out — ’Gone! who says she’s gone? It’s a lie; no, no, it’s a cruel joke put upon me. Annie! I won’t be joked with. Come down, Annie! Call her, some of you! Annie! they’ve broken it all to pieces — the plaster won’t stick together again! You can’t leave me, now they’ve broken it all to pieces! Annie! Annie! come and mend it! Annie! little Annie!’

      He called on her name for the last time, in tones of entreaty unutterably plaintive; then sank down on a chair, moaning; then became silent — doggedly silent — and fiercely suspicious of everything. In that mood he remained, till his strength began to fail him; and then he let them lead him to the sofa. When he lay down, he fell off quickly into a heavy, feverish slumber.

      Ah, Annie! Annie! carefully as you watched him, you knew but little of his illness; you never foreboded such a result of your absence as this; or, brave and loving as your purpose was in leaving him, you would have shrunk from the fatal necessity of quitting his bedside for three days together!

      Mr Colebatch came in shortly after

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