Her Majesty's Minister Part 9

So saying, I scribbled a line on the back of a card, and told the man to take a cab down to the Rue du Havre, where the doctor occupied rooms over a hosier's shop a stone's throw from the bustling Gare St. Lazare.

A very curious mystery was evidently connected with this startling discovery, and I was anxious that my friend, d.i.c.k Deane, one of my old chums of Rugby days, should a.s.sist me in clearing it up.

The Countess de Foville, whose calmness had been so remarkable while speaking with me before we entered the death-chamber, had now given way to a flood of emotion. She sank back into her chair, and, burying her face in her hands, cried bitterly.

I tried to obtain some further information from her, but all that escaped her was:

"My poor Yolande! My poor daughter!" Finding that my endeavours to console her were futile, I went forth and made inquiries of the three frightened maidservants regarding what had occurred.

One of them, a dark-eyed Frenchwoman in frilled cap, whom I had seen on my previous visit, said, in answer to my questions:

"Jean discovered the poor mademoiselle in the pet.i.t salon about a quarter of an hour after m'sieur had left. She was lying upon her face near the window, quite rigid. He shouted; we all rushed in, and on examining her found that she was already dead."

"But was there no sign of a struggle?" I inquired, leading the way to the room indicated.

"The room was just as m'sieur sees it now," she answered, with a wave of her hand.

I glanced around, but as far as I could distinguish it was exactly as I had left it.

"There was no mark of violence--nothing to show that mademoiselle had been the victim of foul play?"

"Nothing, m'sieur."

Could it have been a case of suicide? I wondered. Yolande's words before I had taken leave of her were desponding, and almost led me to believe that she had taken her life rather than face the man Wolf who had so suddenly arrived in Paris--the man who exercised upon her some mysterious influence, the nature of which I could not guess.

"It was not more than fifteen minutes after I had left, you say?" I inquired.

"No, m'sieur, not more."

"Mademoiselle had no other visitor?"

"No, m'sieur. Of that we are all certain."

"And the Countess, where was she during the time I was here?"

"She was out driving. She did not return till about five minutes after we had made the terrible discovery."

"And how did madame act?"

"She ordered us to carry poor mademoiselle to her room. Poor madame!

She bore the blow with wonderful fort.i.tude."

That remark caused me to p.r.i.c.k up my ears.

"I don't quite understand," I said. "Did she not give way to tears?"

"No, m'sieur; she shed no tears, but sat erect, motionless as a statue.

She appeared unable to realise that poor mademoiselle was actually dead.

At last she rang, and sent Jean to you."

"You are absolutely certain that mademoiselle had no visit or after I left?"

"Absolutely."

"It would, moreover, not be possible for anyone to enter or leave without your knowledge?" I suggested.

"M'sieur understands me perfectly. Mademoiselle must have fallen to the floor lifeless immediately after I had let you out. She made no sound, and had Jean not entered with her letters, which the concierge had brought, my poor young mistress might be lying there now."

The average Frenchwoman of the lower cla.s.s is always dramatic wherever a domestic calamity is concerned, and this worthy bonne was no exception.

She punctuated all her remarks with references to the sacred personages of the Roman Catholic religion.

"You haven't searched the room, I suppose?"

"No, m'sieur. Madame gave orders that nothing was to be touched."

This reply was eminently satisfactory. I glanced again around the place, now dim in the falling twilight, and ordered her to throw back the sun-shutters.

The woman went to the window and opened them, admitting a flood of mellow light, the last crimson of the glorious afterglow. Up from the boulevard came the dull roar of the traffic, mingling with the sound of distant bells ringing the Ave Maria. The bonne--an Alsatian, from her accent--crossed herself from force of habit, and retreated towards the door.

"You may go," I said. "I will remain here until the doctor arrives."

"Bien, m'sieur," answered the woman, disappearing and closing the door after her.

My object in dismissing her was to make a thorough search of the apartment, in order to discover whether any of Yolande's private possessions were there. She had been denounced by Kaye and Anderson as a spy, and it occurred to me that I might possibly discover the truth.

But she was dead. The painful fact seemed absolutely incredible.

The room was not a large one, but well furnished, with considerable taste and elegance. There was the broad, silk-covered couch, upon which Yolande had sat in the full possession of health and spirits only a couple of hours before; the skin rug, upon which her tiny foot had been stretched so coquettishly; the small table, by which she had stood supporting herself after I had made the fatal announcement that Wolf was in Paris.

As I stood there the whole of that strangely dramatic scene occurred to me. Yet she was dead--dead! She had died with her secret in her heart.

At any moment d.i.c.k Deane might arrive, but I desired to be the first to make an examination of the room, and with that object crossed to the little escritoire of inlaid olive-wood, one of those rather gimcrack pieces of furniture manufactured along the Ligurian coast for unsuspecting winter visitors. It was the only piece of incongruous furniture in the room, all the rest being genuine Louis Quatorze.

One or two letters bearing conspicuous coats-of-arms were lying there, but all were notes of a private nature from one or other of her friends.

One was an invitation to Vichy from the Baronne Deland, wife of the great Paris financier; another, signed "Rose," spoke of the gaiety of Cairo and the dances at Shepheard's during the past winter; while a third, also in French, and bearing no signature, made an appointment to meet her in the English tea-shop in the Rue Royale on the following day at five o'clock.

That note, written upon plain paper of business appearance, had apparently been left by hand. Who, I wondered, was the person who had made that appointment? To me the writing seemed disguised, and probably, owing to the thickness of the up-strokes, had been penned by a male hand. There was a mistake in the orthography, too, the word "plaisir" being written "plasir." This showed plainly that no Frenchman had written it.

I placed the letter in my pocket, and, encouraged by it, continued my investigations.

In the tiny letter-rack was a note which the unfortunate girl had written immediately before being struck down. It was addressed to "Baronne Maillac, Chateau des Grands Sablons, Seine et Marne." The little escritoire contained four small drawers; the contents of each I carefully scrutinised. They were, however, mostly private letters of a social character--some from persons whom I knew well in Society.

Suddenly, from the bottom of one of the smaller drawers, I drew forth several sheets of plain octavo paper of a pale yellow shade. There were, perhaps, half-a-dozen sheets, carefully wrapped in a sheet of plain blue foolscap. I opened them, and, holding one up to the light, examined the water-mark.

Next instant the truth was plain. That paper was the official paper used in French Government offices for written reports. How came it in her possession, if the accusation against her were untrue?

I held it in my hand, glaring at it in bewilderment. Sheet by sheet I examined it, but there was no writing upon it. Apparently it was her reserve store of paper, to be used as wanted. In the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs everything is methodical, especially the preparation of the dossiers. A certain dossier had once fallen into Kaye's hands, and it contained sheets of exactly similar paper to that which I held in my hand.

Eagerly I continued my search, striving to discover some writing which might lead me to a knowledge of the truth, but I found nothing. I had completed an examination of the whole of the contents of the drawers, when it occurred to me that there might be some other drawer concealed there. Years ago I had been offered an escritoire of this pattern in Genoa, and the sun-tanned fellow who endeavoured to induce me to purchase it had shown behind the centre drawer in the table a cunningly contrived cavity where private correspondence might be concealed.