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Title: Ghosts Author: Arthur Gask * A Project Gutenberg Australia eBook * eBook No.: 1202381h.html Language: English Date first posted: June 2012 Date most recently updated: June 2012 Produced by: Maurie Mulcahy Project Gutenberg Australia eBooks are created from printed editions which are in the public domain in Australia, unless a copyright notice is included. We do NOT keep any eBooks in compliance with a particular paper edition. Copyright laws are changing all over the world. Be sure to check the copyright laws for your country before downloading or redistributing this file. This eBook is made available at no cost and with almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg Australia License which may be viewed online at http://gutenberg.net.au/licence.htmlGO TO Project Gutenberg Australia HOME PAGE
So, less than a year after their marriage, they had both begun to go their
own ways. Madelaine had been the bright society butterfly, enjoying herself as
best she could, and, with no interference from her husband, making her own
circle of friends.
Then, suddenly, and without the slightest warning, Sir Miles had pulled her
up with a jerk, accused her of unfaithfulness, turned her out of the house, and
had the papers served, naming Dr. Carnarvon as the co-respondent. He claimed
£5,000 damages. Both Lady Hylden and the doctor strenuously denied the
charge, and the cream of the South Australian Bar had been briefed by the
contending parties.
In the course of the proceedings in the court two very different pictures of
Sir Miles had been given. In one he had been held up as an affectionate, very
wronged, and very shocked husband, who had suddenly found himself betrayed by
the one man above all others he should have been able to trust—the family
medical adviser. In the other, he had been portrayed as the neglecting and
unscrupulous husband who, getting tired of his wife and scheming to be rid of
her, had deliberately thrown her as much as possible in the doctor's way, just
biding his time until be thought he had accumulated enough evidence of guilt
against her.
He told the court he had had no suspicions at all until one night, coming
home from a public dinner a good hour before he was expected, he had seen a man
rush out from one of the french windows, and get away by scaling the garden
wall. He had recognised the man as Dr. Carnarvon.
At once instituting inquiries, he had learnt the doctor had been in the
habit of paying secret visits to the house, not coming up openly in his car,
but parking the car in an unfrequented lane some hundreds of yards away.
In the witness box both Lady Hylden and the doctor had denied the secret
visits, and, referring to the particular night when Sir Miles averred he had
recognised the doctor running from the house, Madelaine had sworn she had had
no visitors at all that evening, adding scornfully that, if she had had one,
her husband had certainly been in no condition to recognise who he was, as he,
Sir Miles, had been three-parts intoxicated when he had arrived home.
In the course of the trial, what was considered as one of the strongest
points made by counsel against Madelaine had been that her personal maid, who
had been turned out of the house at the same time as her mistress, had most
mysteriously disappeared directly after she had had been served with a subpoena
to attend the court. If she had been put in the witness box, insisted counsel,
from her would have been dragged the damning admission of the many secret
visits of Dr. Carnarvon. Making matters look even worse, it had been shown that
the day before the girl had disappeared Madelaine had cashed a cheque for
£100.
It was true, Madelaine had explained this cheque by stating she had drawn it
to use at the races. As, however, it was well known she had never taken much
interest in racing, and, indeed, could not mention one single horse on which
she had ever placed more than £1, the explanation had been regarded by
everyone as very weak and unconvincing.
With the adjournment of the court on the fourth afternoon, Judge Bevan-Royal
retired to his private room, and, taking off his wig and disrobing, leant back
tiredly in a big arm-chair, and thoughtfully considered the three parties in
the case. He had met them all socially. Sir Miles he detested, he could not
help admiring the wife, and, from what he had seen of Dr. Carnarvon, he liked
him.
Of course, however, Lady Hylden and the doctor were guilty! There could be
so doubt about that and on the morrow he would grant the petition for the
dissolution of the marriage. But he had no sympathy with the husband, and would
give him no damages. By his neglect and general manner of living he had
contributed to his wife's infidelity. At any rate, he looked a satyr, and,
possibly, nay probably, was every bit as bad as she was.
Had not he, Bevan-Royal, with his own eyes, seen him making up to that young
widow-woman at that garden party the previous week? Yes, he had watched him
ogling her in that horrid way. Perhaps he would marry her next and she would be
wife number four.
He was sorry for Dr. Carnarvon. It would mean utter ruin for him, even if
his name was not removed from the medical register. But then he had gone into
things with his eyes open, and he must take the consequences.
His meditations were interrupted by an attendant knocking on the door and
entering the room. "A young gentleman would like to speak to Your Honor," he
said. "His name is Smith, and he says he comes from England."
"Smith!" exclaimed the judge. "What does he want?"
"He says his business is private, Your Honor, but he'll only keep you a
minute or two."
"Show him in," frowned the judge, and a smart young man in the uniform of
the mercantile marine was ushered in. He was unusually good-looking, with a
smiling, open countenance.
"Judge Bevan-Royal?" he asked. "Then, pardon my troubling you, sir," he went
on, "but I come under peculiar circumstances. My mother died rather suddenly
some six months ago, and I found among her things an old newspaper cutting of
many years back, saying you had been made a judge here in Adelaide. Never
having heard her speak of you, I was curious if she had ever known you, and
thought that if ever I were in Adelaide, I would come and see you to find
out."
The judge's eyes were hooded, and he was regarding his visitor intently.
"What was your mother's Christian name?" he asked after a few moments'
hesitation.
"Gertrude, sir," was his reply. "She was a hospital nurse."
"Then I did know her," nodded the judge.﹃She nursed me through a very
serious illness, and, the doctors said, saved my life. I have always had most
grateful feelings for her.﹄He frowned. "I wrote to her after I had come out
here, but the letter was returned through the Dead Letter Office. She had gone
away, and left no address."
"She did it on purpose, sir," said the boy. "She didn't want my father to
know where she was. He had been very unkind to her, and she had left him before
I was born. I have never seen him, and do not even know if he is alive."
"Then you are the only child?" said the judge. "How old are you?"
"Twenty-five next birthday, sir," replied the boy. He spoke proudly. "I am
first officer on s.s. Nerbudda."
They chatted on for quite awhile, and, learning the boy would be in Adelaide
until the following afternoon, the judge invited him to dinner at a hotel that
evening, They had a very pleasant meal together, and, in parting, the judge
asked him to write to him occasionally, adding that if ever he could be of any
service to him, he would be most happy to do all he could.
The judge slept badly that night, and the next morning, when he took his
seat on the Bench, it was noticed he was paler than usual. The court was
crowded. Lady Hylden was not present, but both Sir Miles and Dr. Carnarvon
were. Sir Miles looked vindictively confident, but the doctor, though he tried
not to show it, was obviously ill at ease. The spectators, generally, having
little doubt what the judgment was going to be, thought it very plucky on the
doctor's part, to be intending to receive the blow in public.
In a profound and impressive silence, the judge commenced in calm, unhurried
tones. He regretted, he said, that none of the parties to the case had
impressed him very favorably, as, undoubtedly, much of the testimony given had
been exaggerated, even to the point of deliberate falsehood. The petitioner had
exaggerated to support his contention of the respondents' guilt, and they had
exaggerated in their insistence on their innocence.
Referring specifically to the petitioner, the judge went on, it was surely
hard to credit that, if the guilty association of his wife with Dr. Carnarvon
had been continuing for so long, he would have had no suspicions of what was
happening until the full realisation of it came to him on that particular
night—as he put it—with the suddenness of a clap of thunder.
He had admitted, he had allowed—even more than that—that he had
encouraged Dr. Carnarvon to be his wife's escort on many occasions. Himself
engrossed in business matters, he had asked the doctor to deputise for him,
and, in consequence, the two had gone about together to pictures, theatres,
concerts, and other public functions. His contention was that his only motive
had been to give his wife pleasure, and that he was exposing her to danger had
never entered into his mind.
Yet, the petitioner was a shrewd, alert, and far-seeing man, as was
evidenced by his business successes, and, surely, it would have been imagined,
he would have been one of the last persons not to have noticed what was going
on under his very eyes, and seen whither things were leading. Turning to the
matter of the co-respondent's innocence or guilt, the judge said he was faced
with another problem, as he had to ask himself if it were possible, a single,
unattached man of Dr. Carnarvon's age could have been so much in the company of
so attractive a woman as Lady Hylden without any feelings beyond those of mere
friendship being aroused. If so, the question was—with the many
opportunities he had had—had he kept those feelings under wise and proper
control? Was it probable he had?
Coming to the disappearance of Lady Hylden's maid, His Honor said, he was
not putting that in the scales as determining either innocence or guilt, as it
was impossible to say which side her evidence would have favored. Certainly,
placed in the witness-box, her evidence might have gone far to prove the wife's
guilt; on the other hand, however, might it not have helped to establish her
innocence? Without knowing which party to the action—if, indeed, either
party—were responsible for this shameful attempt to impede the course of
justice, he, the judge, would have to ignore the incident altogether.
After speaking for upwards of an hour, he gave his judgment in one short
sentence, which exploded like a bomb in the court. "Viewing all the
circumstances, I am not satisfied the case for the petitioner has been made
out, and therefore do not grant the petition for the dissolution of the
marriage."
For a few seconds a stunned and amazed silence followed, and, then, an
almost audible sigh of relief rippled round. Sir Miles was seen to be
absolutely purple in his fury, while Dr. Carnarvon's face was white and
unsmiling.
That same evening the judge was about to sit down to dinner, when his wife
came in from answering the telephone. "It was Dr. Bentley," she said. "He rang
up to say Sir Miles had a stroke of apoplexy half an hour ago, and passed away
almost at once."
His Honor did not appear to be much interested.﹃Only what might have been
expected,﹄he remarked. "He looked that type of man."
The daughter of the house, the judge's only child, came in. She was a
good-looking girl of 21, and the apple of her father's eye. "Oh, dad," she
exclaimed with animation,﹃I've something which will interest you. Jean
Matthews and I were having lunch today at the Old Grotto cafe, and at a table
near us was such a handsome young officer in Merchant Navy uniform. I did so
admire him, and—﹄she laughed merrily,—"I think he was interested
in me, because he kept looking in our direction."
The judge was examining the pattern of the carpet, but he glanced up
affectionately at her. "And wasn't that quite natural?" he smiled. "Aren't you
worth looking at?"
"But that's not what I want to tell you," she went on. She spoke
impressively. "This boy, dad, was so much like you. He had your shaped head,
your eyes, and his hair was even wavy like yours. The likeness was so
striking."
"Then I must be a type," smiled the judge, and he turned the conversation by
asking her how she was getting on with her golf.
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