The Coward Behind the Curtain

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Marsh Richard. The Coward Behind the Curtain

CHAPTER I. DOROTHY SETS OFF WITH HER GUARDIAN

CHAPTER II. THE CURTAIN

CHAPTER III. THE COWARD

CHAPTER IV. THE MAN IN THE CHAIR

CHAPTER V. DOROTHY IS LEFT ALONE WITH HERGUARDIAN FOR THE NIGHT

CHAPTER VI. HOW DOROTHY MADE HER EXIT

CHAPTER VII. THE CARAVAN

CHAPTER VIII. MR FRAZER GOES SHOPPING

CHAPTER IX. WHAT THE GIRL TOLD THE MAN

CHAPTER X. WHAT THE CARAVAN LEFT BEHIND

CHAPTER XI. DANGER AHEAD

CHAPTER XII. HEADLINES

CHAPTER XIII. THE VERNONS-PARTICULARLY FRANCES

CHAPTER XIV. STRATHMOIRA

CHAPTER XV. DOROTHY GILBERT OF NEWCASTER

CHAPTER XVI. THE SPREADING OF THE NEWS

CHAPTER XVII. A FRIEND'S ADVICE

CHAPTER XVIII. THE MAN WHO DID IT

CHAPTER XIX. AN INTERLUDE

CHAPTER XX. THE HOUSEBOAT

CHAPTER XXI. WHY HE KILLED HIM

CHAPTER XXII. THE TELEGRAM

CHAPTER XXIII. THE SURGEON AND THE LAWYER

CHAPTER XXIV. TIDINGS

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When they landed in England it was to her as if she had been for years with Mr Emmett, and Billson, and the car; though, in reality, they had only been associated for a very few weeks. She felt as if, during those interminable weeks, the best of her life had gone from her, and already she had grown old, before she was eighteen. She had forgotten how to smile; at night she could not sleep; her head was always aching; her nerves were in such a state of tension that she was beginning to be afraid of the sound of her own voice; the world had become to her a prison from which there was no way out. She had not been to England since she was a small child; returning to it was like coming a strange country. She would have forgotten her own tongue had not so many of the girls in the convent been English. They went up to town on the inevitable motor; on the way she kept looking about her with eyes which, in spite of herself, would grow dim. She had often dreamed of the journey she would make, one day, to London; she had never dreamed that it would be like this. They put up that night in a huge railway station hotel. On the morrow, for once, they parted company with the motor; Mr Emmett took her with him to a midland town by rail. Some race meeting was on; Dorothy had a hazy notion that her guardian had something to do with horses and with racing: it was a subject of which she had heard him speaking more than once. Some horsey acquaintances travelled with him in the same compartment; they played bridge all the way, to Dorothy's relief; she was glad that they should do anything which would keep them from speaking to her.

Mr Emmett took apartments at the principal hotel. There, in the private sitting-room, after a tête-à-tête dinner, he proposed to her again. He was more sober than he sometimes was at that hour; perhaps, on that account, he expressed himself with a clearness which she found appalling. In various fashions he had asked her again and again to marry him since that first time at Aix-les-Bains. She had begun to understand that not only was he a man who would not take No for an answer, but also that he was not likely to stick at anything which would enable him to gain an end he had in view. If she had had any doubts upon that latter point they were dissipated then. He did not so much ask her to be his wife, as tell her that she would have to be his wife; informing her, with complete candour, that if she was not an utter fool she would grasp that fact without any further fuss and nonsense. He added that, when she was his wife, he would give her a good time-an A1 time. There wasn't a better-natured fellow going, if you rubbed him the right way, nor a more generous one-he would give his wife all she wanted, and more, if she was only nice to him-that was all he wanted her to be-nice to him. He had sacks full of money-ask anyone who knew George Emmett if he was a poor man. Why, he thought nothing of lending anyone twenty or thirty thousand pounds, if the security was decent-that was all he asked, decent security; and, he went on with a grin, a chance of making cent. per cent. He might tell her, in confidence, that he had his fingers round the throats of more people than anyone had an idea of-all sorts of people, some of them the highest in the land. He never talked; even when he was drunk he kept his tongue off delicate subjects; but if he were to talk he could mention names, male and female, which would make her sit up straight. There was scarcely a man or woman who had anything to do with horses who did not sometimes find himself, or herself, in a tight corner about settling day. Those were the times they came to him. The number of services he had rendered of that kind-well, they'd fill a book. Everybody knew Georgie Emmett was a friend in need when a bad settlement had to be faced. He winked, and Dorothy shuddered.

.....

"That's all right, Mr Elsey; you leave this to me-this is more in my line than yours." He tackled the waiter, whose expression, as they worried him, became more and more rabbitlike. "You say that Mr Emmett and this young lady dined together?"

"Yes, sir, they did-I waited on them."

.....