The Mystery Of An Old Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

felt sure. And then it suddenly flashed upon her. The man who had been standing in the garden, gazing in at the window, was Robert Carew. He was greatly changed, all the youth had gone out of his face, but she was certain that it was he. And as she thought of him and Aunt Nell, the tears began to fall fast, and Miss Lane heard a little choking sob.
    She bent quickly over her. "Marjorie, I shall be sorry I told you. Dear child, you must not be unhappy over it."
    It was on Marjorie's lips to tell her that she had seen Robert Carew that afternoon, but she kept the words back. She remembered how he had hurried away. He had evidently wished to remain unknown, and she would not betray him. And before she could speak, her aunt went hastily on: "No one blamed him, no one could have blamed him. But he felt it right for us to part. And my mother insisted on it. He went away, and sometime afterwards we heard he had left England. I think he went to try and find his father. He would not believe him guilty, Marjorie."
    Marjorie looked quickly up. "Oh, Aunt Nell, do you think—?"
    Miss Lane interrupted her. "I fear there can be no doubt, Marjorie. Robert's love for his father blinded him. And perhaps by this time he thinks as we thought. It is sixteen years since we saw him."
    The tone in which she said this was quiet, but intensely sad; it pierced Marjorie's loving heart. She caught her aunt's hand, holding it close against her face with an inarticulate murmur of pity and love. Oh, if only she could do something to bring back Aunt Nell's lost happiness! If only the mystery surrounding Mr. Carew's fate could be solved and he could be proved an innocent man!

 
     
     
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 4
     
     
    marjorie leaves home
     
     
    It was on a bright sunshiny March morning that Marjorie and her father started for St. Mawan. They drove to Driscombe in time for the early coach, which, however, only availed them for the first stage of their journey. At Tresco, a small town on the Plymouth
    Road, Mr. Drew hired a post-chaise, and they drove by cross country roads to Bodmin, whence, as it was market-day, Tregelles's van would take them to St. Mawan, if Mr. Bulteel had not been able to meet them with his trap.
    Marjorie was delighted with Bodmin, which seemed a sort of metropolis to her. As she walked up the long hilly street, past the town-hall and the numerous shops, she felt the same elation a girl feels now on seeing Regent Street for the first time. And her eyes were busy at work as they passed the windows of the mantua-makers, where the latest fashions from Plymouth were displayed. Marjorie was not over-fond of dress, but it gratified her to see that her pelisse was just the right length, and that her mother had been right in putting three instead of two ostrich plumes on her bonnet.
    They were half-way up the street when Marjorie noticed a little crowd gathered round the arched gateway of the principal inn. They were waiting for the mail-coach from Plymouth, her father told her. It came in daily at this hour.
    "Do let us stop and see it," Marjorie begged eagerly. "It may bring some news from the war, father."
    The rector smiled at her eagerness, but was not at all loth to stop. He did not join the little throng of sightseers about the inn, however, but stood on the opposite side of the street, looking into the bookshop, where a tempting row of tall folios had caught his eye behind the small-paned windows; till presently there came the cheerful sound of a horn, and the mail-coach, the scarlet body and yellow wheels all splashed with mud, rattled gaily over the paved street and drew up at the inn, true to its time to a moment.
    There was only one inside passenger, a man of middle height, with thin sloping shoulders. He got slowly out and went up the steps of the inn, leaning on his stick. He wore a pair of large blue spectacles, and was apparently in feeble health. One of the outside passengers was known to the rector, a prosperous