She asked no more questions; she was satisfied. Passing one thin hand restlessly over her face she sank back almost lifeless in her chair.
CHAPTER XXVI.
THE RULE OF THREE BECOMES THE RULE OF ONE
It was plain to them all before the day was over that the discoveries of the morning had hastened the end of the impostor who had passed so long as old Bartlett Bayre.
She would not suffer Bayre himself to come again into her presence, nor would she allow the name of her cousin’s widow to be mentioned before her. Arbitrary and eccentric to the last, she made a favour of permitting Olwen to wait upon her, and when, on the following morning before daylight, she passed quietly away, only Olwen and Madame Portelet were in the room.
Nobody could help feeling that her death was the best way, for herself as well as for others, out of the difficult position in which she had placed herself; and when the doctor and the lawyer, who were summoned from Guernsey, not in time to see her in life but in time to learn the extraordinary story while she lay dead in the great dark room, met Bartlett Bayre and the two ladies in one of the saloons downstairs, there was much discussion as to the best way of making known the truth to the world.
For it could not be kept hidden. Already, as they knew, there were rumours abroad in Guernsey, spread by the Vazons; and now the burial of Miss Ford and the re-burial of old Bartlett Bayre would of necessity set folk talking.
It was arranged that these gentlemen should take upon themselves the responsibility of giving the whole truth of the strange tale to the little world of the islands. And they could only hope, for the sake of the family credit, that it would not get into the English newspapers.
When the will came to be read it was found, as Bayre already partly knew, that the estate and collection of old Bartlett Bayre had been left to his son, who was to remain during his minority in the guardianship of his first cousin, Bartlett Bayre, junior.
In his care also the precious collection was left, and it was expressly stated that Miss Ford (of whose indifference to his collection the old man complained) should leave the château and retire to a house belonging to her cousin in Guernsey.
There was no mention whatever of his young wife in the will of the old gentleman; he had treated her as if she did not exist.