A woman's debt

by William Le Queux

In disjointed sentences, the dreadful story came out; it was evident that this young man Granger did not relish his task and had only undertaken it out of loyalty to his friend and compassion for his wife.

Graham Darcy, the elegant-mannered, immaculately dressed young man who threw money about like water, who lived at the most expensive hotels and posed as a man of fortune, was in reality a member, a prominent member, of a gang of high-class “crooks,” who preyed upon society, carrying out their nefarious schemes here and on the Continent. Darcy was his real name, professionally he was known by several aliases.

The police had tracked him down, and two days ago he had been arrested in Edinburgh on a charge of forgery. Funds would be at his disposal for the purpose of obtaining the most skilful counsel for his defence, but Granger was very hopeless as to the result. The evidence was too strong, conviction was almost a certainty. The sentence he was likely to receive depended upon the attitude of the judge: it might be anything from five to ten years’ penal servitude. Granger himself admitted that he was a member of the same confederacy, but not involved in this particular transaction, and therefore for the moment had nothing to fear.

Having delivered himself of these terrible tidings, he proceeded to give what he hoped would bring considerable comfort to the crushed and broken-hearted young woman. Darcy had been a prudent fellow, he had not, like so many criminals, spent his ill-gotten gains as fast as he had acquired them. He had a very nice little nest-egg put by in case of accidents. This nest-egg, amounting to the sum of over five thousand pounds, was in the custody of Granger, who was prepared to hand it over to the unhappy woman and advise her as to the best means of investing it. Dishonest as they were to the rest of the world, these “crooks” were evidently capable of fair dealing with each other.

As soon as she had recovered from the first effects of this stunning shock, Lettice sent for her faithful friend Alma Buckley, who had entertained grave suspicions for some time, without however anticipating such a tragic dénouement as this. The situation, bad as it was in any circumstances, was further aggravated by the fact that the unfortunate young woman was an expectant mother; her baby, the child of a felon, would be born in about three months from then.

The shrewd and resourceful Alma took a firm grasp of the situation, and mapped out her plans for the future. The miserable victim was at present too dazed to think, and left everything in the capable hands of her friend.

“We were a couple of idiots to be taken in by his flashiness. We knew nothing about the man except what he told us himself, and that absence of relatives and friends, except those half-dozen men who came here, seemed to me to look more and more ‘fishy’ every time I thought it over. Well, it’s no use bewailing the past, we’ve got to make the best of the future. If I can help it, you’re not going under because of one hideous mistake.”

Thus the encouraging Alma, who proceeded to unfold her plans for the future.

“You must get out of here as soon as you can. I’ll find you a little furnished flat where you can hide yourself for a bit; when the time comes, you’ll go into a nursing home. Later on we’ll find a good home for the child, under an assumed name, where you can go and see it at regular intervals, and satisfy yourself that it is being well looked after. You’re young and have all your life before you. You must drop the name of Darcy, forget you were ever married, and start again as Lettice Larchester. It’s lucky that you know hardly anybody, except those pals of his who are never likely to see you again, and wouldn’t round on you if they did. Keep clear of my crowd, in six months they’ll forget there was ever such a person. As a matter of fact, guessing you’d want to drop them, I haven’t even mentioned your married name, just said you had married a ‘swell.’ Oh Lord, what a couple of raw fools we were!”

And a grim smile overspread the young woman’s comely features, she was only a girl then, as she recalled the days in Paris and the impression made upon them by the elegant Darcy.