The Legacy of Cain

The illustrious Masseuse, having much to conceal from her faithful Selina, was well aware that she had only one thing to keep hidden from me; namely, the advantage which she would have gained if her inquiries had met with success.

"I thought I might have got at what I wanted," she told me, "by mesmerizing our reverend friend. He is as weak as a woman; I threw him into hysterics, and had to give it up, and quiet him, or he would have alarmed the house. You look as if you don't believe in mesmerism."

"My looks, Mrs. Tenbruggen, exactly express my opinion. Mesmerism is a humbug!"

"You amusing old Tory! Shall I throw you into a state of trance? No! I'll give you a shock of another kind—a shock of surprise. I know as much as you do about Mr. Gracedieu's daughters. What do you think of that?"

"I think I should like to hear you tell me, which is the adopted child."

"Helena, to be sure!"

Her manner was defiant, her tone was positive; I doubted both. Under the surface of her assumed confidence, I saw something which told me that she was trying to read my thoughts in my face. Many other women had tried to do that. They succeeded when I was young. When I had reached the wrong side of fifty, my face had learned discretion, and they failed.

"How did you arrive at your discovery?" I asked. "I know of nobody who could have helped you."

"I helped myself, sir! I reasoned it out. A wonderful thing for a woman to do, isn't it? I wonder whether you could follow the process?"

My reply to this was made by a bow. I was sure of my command over my face; but perfect control of the voice is a rare power. Here and there, a great actor or a great criminal possesses it.

Mrs. Tenbruggen's vanity took me into her confidence. "In the first place," she said, "Helena is plainly the wicked one of the two. I was not prejudiced by what Selina had told me of her: I saw it, and felt it, before I had been five minutes in her company. If lying tongues ever provoke her as lying tongues provoked her mother, she will follow her mother's example. Very well. Now—in the second place—though it is very slight, there is a certain something in her hair and her complexion which reminds me of the murderess: there is no other resemblance, I admit. In the third place, the girls' names point to the same conclusion. Mr. Gracedieu is a Protestant and a Dissenter. Would he call a child of his own by the name of a Roman Catholic saint? No! he would prefer a name in the Bible; Eunice is his child. And Helena was once the baby whom I carried into the prison. Do you deny that?"

"I don't deny it."

Only four words! But they were deceitfully spoken, and the deceit—practiced in Eunice's interest, it is needless to say—succeeded. Mrs. Tenbruggen's object in visiting me was attained; I had confirmed her belief in the delusion that Helena was the adopted child.

She got up to take her leave. I asked if she proposed remaining in London. No; she was returning to her country patients that night.

As I attended her to the house-door, she turned to me with her mischievous smile. "I have taken some trouble in finding the clew to the Minister's mystery," she said. "Don't you wonder why?"

"If I did wonder," I answered, "would you tell me why?"

She laughed at the bare idea of it. "Another lesson," she said, "to assist a helpless man in studying the weaker sex. I have already shown you that a woman can reason. Learn next that a woman can keep a secret. Good-by. God bless you!"

Of the events which followed Mrs. Tenbruggen's visit it is not possible for me, I am thankful to say, to speak from personal experience. Ought I to conclude with an expression of repentance for the act of deception to which I have already pleaded guilty? I don't know. Yes! the force of circumstances does really compel me to say it, and say it seriously—I declare, on my word of honor, I don't know.

Third period: 1876. HELENA'S DIARY RESUMED.

CHAPTER LII. HELENA'S DIARY RESUMED.

While my father remains in his present helpless condition, somebody must assume a position of command in this house. There cannot be a moment's doubt that I am the person to do it.

In my agitated state of mind, sometimes doubtful of Philip, sometimes hopeful of him, I find Mrs. Tenbruggen simply unendurable. A female doctor is, under any circumstances, a creature whom I detest. She is, at her very best, a bad imitation of a man. The Medical Rubber is worse than this; she is a bad imitation of a mountebank. Her grinning good-humor, adopted no doubt to please the fools who are her patients, and her impudent enjoyment of hearing herself talk, make me regret for the first time in my life that I am a young lady. If I belonged to the lowest order of the population, I might take the first stick I could find, and enjoy the luxury of giving Mrs. Tenbruggen a good beating.