THE BLUE DIAMOND (Murder Mystery Classic). Annie Haynes
on speculatively. “We have no idea what it might have been, but I cannot help wondering whether she had quarreled with the man she loved; perhaps he had played her false in some way or other. I don’t think anything could be quite so bad as that, Garth,” with a shy, trustful glance. “I—I know it would make me very miserable.”
Garth Davenant’s eyes were very tender as he looked down at her; he caught her slender fingers in his. “My darling!” he whispered.
Mavis blushed prettily as she drew them away, but she was too thoroughly in earnest to be turned away from her subject.
“So, you see,” she went on after a moment, “that is a reason why I feel that I ought to be especially good to this poor girl. Think of all that she may have suffered before her brain gave way under the strain and left everything a blank. I must do what I can for her; if one is very happy oneself one ought to try to help other people. Don’t you think so, Garth?”
‘Y–es!” Garth hesitated. “Only, Mavis, I cannot help saying that, though things may certainly be capable of a perfectly innocent interpretation the whole affair is so extraordinary that one cannot help regarding it with a certain amount of suspicion. And I cannot bear to think of your being brought into daily contact with a girl who may be little better than an adventuress.”
“Garth!” Mavis cried indignantly. “If you had seen her you could never apply such an expression to her. Why, even Arthur says that she is simply one of the prettiest and sweetest-looking girls he has ever met!”
“Don’t you think that, as I have not seen her, I may possibly be all the better able to look at matters without prejudice on that very account?” Garth suggested mildly.
“Without prejudice, indeed!” Mavis repeated scornfully. “I think mother and Arthur can quite be trusted to look after our companions—Dorothy’s and mine. No, Garth”—as he tried to take her hands again—“I am not pleased with you.’’
There was no one in sight; the big trees of the avenue screened them from sight of the house. Garth ventured to slip one arm around the girl’s waist.
“Aren’t you, Mavis? Won’t you forgive me, if I promise to take this newly-discovered young woman at your valuation for the future?”
For a moment the girl held back stiffly, but Mavis never bore malice; the next moment she had turned to Davenant with her own sunny smile.
“Certainly I will! And, Garth’’—with an effort—“I know I was wrong. I must not expect you always to think as I do, and I know that a barrister must be brought into contact with all sorts of people, and naturally becomes distrustful. We must,” smiling bravely, “agree to differ; that is it, isn’t it?”
Garth drew the slight form closer to him and bent his head until his dark moustache just brushed the soft cheek.
“Darling, you know I—”
“Hallo! You two—”
The sudden shout discomposed them, and they sprang apart, looking considerably startled as Sir Arthur cantered up behind them.
“Many apologies!” he began, laughing at Mavis’s hot cheeks. “I am extremely sorry to disturb you good people, but I have just been over to Chadfield on the chance that they might know something of our mysterious visitor; and I am anxious to get back to hear Dr. Grieve’s report. They told me at his house that he had already come up to see the stranger.”
“Did they know anything at Chadfield?” Mavis interrogated breathlessly.
“Not a word.” Arthur took off his hat and rubbed his forehead. “It’s a queer affair altogether. What do you make of it, Davenant?”
“I should prefer to see the young lady before I commit myself to an opinion,” Garth replied diplomatically, with a glance at Mavis’s averted face.
“Well, I think we have now pretty well exhausted the houses around here,” Sir Arthur went on, walking his horse beside them. “Chadfield was really my last hope. How on earth the girl got into the Park I cannot imagine; no one seems to have seen her, and the lodge-keeper is sure that the gate was locked all the evening.”
Garth made no reply, but as they walked on to the house together his face was very grave. Fond as he was of Mavis’s brother, neither his very real affection for him nor the fact of his relationship to Mavis could disguise from him Arthur’s weakness of will and instability of purpose.
Thus he was doubly inclined to mistrust the introduction, in such extraordinary circumstances, of a new inmate amidst the family at Hargreave Manor. Arthur turned to him as they reached the house.
“You will come in, Garth, and hear what the doctor says?”
After a momentary hesitation Davenant assented, and they entered the house together, just as Dr. Grieve came downstairs.
“Oh, Dr. Grieve, she is better, isn’t she?” Mavis asked, after shaking hands with him. “Can she remember anything yet? Have you found out her name?”
“One at a time, my dear young lady, one at a time! The patient is not in a very satisfactory state, I regret to say. There is a good deal of cerebral excitement, and the action of the heart is weak—decidedly weak!”
Sir Arthur opened the dining-room door.
“Come in, doctor; you must try a glass of my port, and tell us what is the best thing for your patient.”
Jenkins, the butler, produced glasses and a decanter, while the doctor beamed upon them complacently and Mavis fidgeted impatiently.
“Splendid colour, Sir Arthur,” Dr. Grieve remarked appreciatively as after a sip or two he held the glass up to the light and regarded it critically. “I remember Sir Noel laying it down before you were born, or Miss Mavis there,” with a reminiscent chuckle. “Yes, my memory carries me back a long way! I’m not like our young friend upstairs, who has forgotten her own name, poor young thing—can’t even remember where she was yesterday morning! It is a sad case, Sir Arthur.”
“She knows no more this morning, then?” Sir Arthur asked concernedly. “My mother said she recognized her at once, and we thought that a good sign.”
The doctor put the tips of his fingers together and surveyed him over the top of them.
“I dare say. She remembered seeing me last night, for the matter of that; but up to the time you discovered her in the park her mind is a perfect blank. I did not ask her questions, but I applied a few simple tests.”
“And the result?” Sir Arthur’s tone was calm, but an under-current of anxiety ran through it which made Garth glance at him keenly.
“Entirely confirmed my diagnosis of last evening, I regret to say,” Dr Grieve returned. “The very faculty of memory is for the time being entirely dormant, overclouded by some great shock.”
“But she will recover?” Mavis interjected anxiously.
The doctor turned to her with a benign smile.
“Recover her bodily health undoubtedly, my dear Miss Mavis. As for her memory”—after a noticeable pause—“one can but do the best and trust to Time, the great healer. Of one thing you may be assured, absolute rest is the very best thing for her—for some days at any rate—and quite possibly by that time you will have ascertained something definite about her friends. Lady Laura tells me that it is your intention to keep her here for the present.”
“Undoubtedly, it is!” Sir Arthur said with decision. “In fact, as it appears to me, we have no choice in the matter.”
The doctor shrugged his shoulders. “She could be admitted to the Cottage Hospital at Lockford, you know; and for some reasons I am inclined to think it might be the wiser course.”
“Why so?” Sir Arthur’s tone was curt. The little line between his straight brows told that the suggestion had displeased him.
Dr