THE first amazement and alarm produced by this discovery deprived me of my presence of mind.Without stopping to think what I ought to do first, I ran back to the servants' hall, calling out that something had happened to my master.
All the household hurried directly into the Red Room, Josephine among the rest.I was first brought to my senses, as it were, by observing the strange expression of her countenance when she saw the bed-gown and the empty room.All the other servants were bewildered and frightened.She alone, after giving a little start, recovered herself directly.A look of devilish satisfaction broke out on her face, and she left the room quickly and quietly, without exchanging a word with any of us.I saw this, and it aroused my suspicions.There is no need to mention what they were, for, as events soon showed, they were entirely wide of the mark.
Having come to myself a little, I sent them all out of the room except the coachman.We two then examined the place.
The Red Room was usually occupied by visitors.It was on the ground floor, and looked out into the garden.We found the window-shutters, which I had barred overnight, open, but the window itself was down.The fire had been out long enough for the grate to be quite cold.Half the bottle of brandy had been drunk.
The carpet-bag was gone.There were no marks of violence or struggling anywhere about the bed or the room.We examined every corner carefully, but made no other discoveries than these.
When I returned to the servants' hall, bad news of my mistress was awaiting me there.The unusual noise and confusion in the house had reached her ears, and she had been told what had happened without sufficient caution being exercised in preparing her to hear it.In her weak, nervous state, the shock of the intelligence had quite prostrated her.She had fallen into a swoon, and had been brought back to her senses with the greatest difficulty.As to giving me or anybody else directions what to do under the e mbarrassing circumstances which had now occurred, she was totally incapable of the effort.
I waited till the middle of the day, in the hope that she might get strong enough to give her orders; but no message came from her.At last I resolved to send and ask her what she thought it best to do.Josephine was the proper person to go on this errand;but when I asked for Josephine, she was nowhere to be found.The housemaid, who had searched for her ineffectually, brought word that her bonnet and shawl were not hanging in their usual places.
The parlor-maid, who had been in attendance in my mistress's room, came down while we were all aghast at this new disappearance.She could only tell us that Josephine had begged her to do lady's-maid's duty that morning, as she was not well.
Not well! And the first result of her illness appeared to be that she had left the house!
I cautioned the servants on no account to mention this circumstance to my mistress, and then went upstairs myself to knock at her door.My object was to ask if I might count on her approval if I wrote in her name to the lawyer in London, and if Iafterward went and gave information of what had occurred to the nearest justice of the peace.I might have sent to make this inquiry through one of the female servants; but by this time, though not naturally suspicious, I had got to distrust everybody in the house, whether they deserved it or not.
So I asked the question myself, standing outside the door.My mistress thanked me in a faint voice, and begged me to do what Ihad proposed immediately.
I went into my own bedroom and wrote to the lawyer, merely telling him that Mr.James Smith had appeared unexpectedly at the Hall, and that events had occurred in consequence which required his immediate presence.I made the letter up like a parcel, and sent the coachman with it to catch the mail on its way through to London.
The next thing was to go to the justice of the peace.The nearest lived about five miles off, and was well acquainted with my mistress.He was an old bachelor, and he kept house with his brother, who was a widower.The two were much respected and beloved in the county, being kind, unaffected gentlemen, who did a great deal of good among the poor.The justice was Mr.Robert Nicholson, and his brother, the widower, was Mr.Philip.
I had got my hat on, and was asking the groom which horse I had better take, when an open carriage drove up to the house.It contained Mr.Philip Nicholson and two persons in plain clothes, not exactly servants and not exactly gentlemen, as far as I could judge.Mr.Philip looked at me, when I touched my hat to him, in a very grave, downcast way, and asked for my mistress.I told him she was ill in bed.He shook his head at hearing that, and said he wished to speak to me in private.I showed him into the library.One of the men in plain clothes followed us, and sat in the hall.The other waited with the carriage.
"I was just going out, sir," I said, as I set a chair for him, "to speak to Mr.Robert Nicholson about a very extraordinary circumstance--""I know what you refer to," said Mr.Philip, cutting me short rather abruptly; "and I must beg, for reasons which will presently appear, that you will make no statement of any sort to me until you have first heard what I have to say.I am here on a very serious and a very shocking errand, which deeply concerns your mistress and you."His face suggested something worse than his words expressed.My heart began to beat fast, and I felt that I was turning pale.
"Your master, Mr.James Smith," he went on, "came here unexpectedly yesterday evening, and slept in this house last night.Before he retired to rest he and your mistress had high words together, which ended, I am sorry to hear, in a threat of a serious nature addressed by Mrs.James Smith to her husband.They slept in separate rooms.This morning you went into your master's room and saw no sign of him there.You only found his nightgown on the bed, spotted with blood.""Yes, sir," I said, in as steady a voice as I could command.
"Quite true."
