University of Virginia Library

25. CHAPTER XXV.
CONCLUSION.

I.

With this chapter closes the story with which we have so long been
trespassing upon our kind reader's patience. We hav emuch to do in a
little space to take care of all our characters, but we trust they will all
have due justice done them.

We have said that our hero resolved to accept the invitation contained
in the anonymous note which he had received, believing it might come
from the female who had addressed the bank in reference to the drafts;
which female had, as we know, a fictitious existence. James had suspected
indeed that the note to the bank might have been penned by Carlton, but
when he received this he believed that then it might really have been written
by a woman. Hoping to obtain some clue to the abettors of the plo;
against him he determined to go to No. —, Dormer Place. A few minutes
before eight he rang the bell and was admitted by the young fair-haired
slave of the mulatto. From the appearance of luxury in the hall he believed
it was the abode of a respectable private family. Giving his name, the
young girl, at once, as if previously instructed, led him to the upper drawing-room
and left him to enter. At first he saw no one, for the apartment was
obscure and objects indistinct. He crossed, as Ellery had done, to the door
whence the light issued, and was met by Isabel with an enchanting smile
upon her features, and eyes brilliant with passionate love.

`I feared you would not come,' she said, with tones that thrilled his bosom,
while he gazed upon her with bewildered surprise; for he recognized the dark-eyed
sewing-girl in all the voluptuous elegance of her present costume.
As she spoke she took his hand and led him as if she would seat him by her
upon the ottoman from which she had risen to meet him.

`It was by you then the note came,' he said gravely, and shrinking back;
for he felt an instinctive alarm at the position in which he found himself.
`Are you not the same person who —'

`Yes, the sewing-girl whose scarf you returned to her. The sewing-girl
who gave you in return her heart. I have sent for you to declare my passion
and to assure you that if you will return it I will lay my life at your feet.
Without you I can never exist. With you I seek no happiness beyond this life.'

`You know not what you say,' he said, with astonishment and pain.
`To you I can be nothing. Why did you write to me? How can I serve
you, or what interest have you in my honor? Why do I find you here surrounded
by luxury.'

`This is my home. I was at the mantua-maker's but a few days, to please
one who has control over me.'

`Who are you?'

`La Isla, the opera-singer.'

`The Jewess?'

`Yes.'

`Why have you sent for me? What do I do! lingering to gaze on your
beauty! I must this instant leave you! If you have unhappily conceived
a passion for me, forget me! Good night.'

`Stay—Oh cruel! Leave me not thus!'

`Ah, I have you at last, my Joseph Surface!' cried Philip, advancing
and confronting him. `You do n't know me, but I know you! You would
seek the ruin of this lady under my protection. I shall detain you; for I
have missed a diamond since you came in and I suspect you have it. I
have already sent off to the police for an officer.'

James stood appalled. He saw at once the whole extent of his danger.
He felt as if his ruin was sealed. Innocent, he was bold. He believed
that this too was part of the conspiracy of the forgeries. The immense
peril his name and character were now in, inspired him with decision. With
a well-directed blow he struck the mulatto down, and springing over his body
he escaped from the room and from the house.

II.

The next day he informed Mr. Weldon of the circumstances. The
Chief of the Police was presently sent for and the suspicions of Mr. Weldon
and James were made known to him. In a word, they unfolded to him
the whole affair of the drafts, and named Ellery as the person on whom
their suspicions rested.

`Still,' said Mr. Weldon, `there is every probability that the persons in
this house are parties; for that two separate conspiracies for ruining James
should be going on at the same time, by persons wholly unconnected with each
other, is improbable.'

The head of the police was an experienced man, and a person of discriminating
judgment. He argued with them; and after some discussion
of the best mode of proceeding, it was decided that the house, No. —, Dormer
Place, should be visited that night with a suitable force, and any suspicious
persons there arrested.

`As to the young girl's being the celebrated opera singer, “La Isla,” is,
I think, improbable,' he said; `this person, La Isla, is more respectable than
the woman who laid the trap for Mr. Daily. Her character I suspect he
can guess at if he tries. As she was once a sewing-girl she is probably
now a kept-mistress of the man who would have arrested Mr. Daily.'

This was also the opinion of Mr. Weldon and James.

III.

The next evening at seven o'clock Carlton Ellery made his appearance
at Clow's according to the previous appointment. He found the mulatto in
his room, with his eye bandaged, and in a sullen mood.

`What has happened, Philip?'

`Nothing.'

`You are savage.'

`Don't make comments on my temper. You have come to see La Isla?'

`Yes.'

`You can't see her,' he answered very positively.

`Why?'

`She says if you will make her your wife on this very visit, you shall see
her, and no other conditions.'

`I will do it. I have made up my mind. I have thought it over. She
has infatuated me. I will marry her; but on a condition.'

`Name it.'

`That it is kept secret till my uncle's death. He has to-day had another
of those paralytic attacks, and wont last long. I should not be surprised if
he gave us the slip before another week.'

IV.

Half an hour after this conversation Isabel Clow was in her drawing-room
dressed for the bridal. Her face was pale, but firm. She was about to
wed for revenge, to humble the pride of one of a race which she knew would
crush her into the dust did they know her Ethiopian origin. She had not
given up James Daily. Love for him was too deeply seated in her heart to
be out-rooted by one rebuff. She gave the present to hatred and looked to
the future, to time and circumstances, to throw around him to whom she had
given her heart, the meshes of her beauty's power.

Carlton Ellery appeared attended by Philip, a Romish priest, and a Portuguese
about fifty years of age. They were married; she by the name of
Isabel, which Philip explained by saying that this was the first part of her
name, though seldom used by her, she being only known to the public as
`La Isla.'

Scarcely had the marriage ceremony passed than Philip Clow turned towards
the bridegroom and with a smile of significant and most malignant
triumph, said,

`Well, sir, now who do you think you have taken to wife?'

`Why, the daughter of this Signor,' he answered, glancing at the Portuguese.

`That Portuguese has no daughter. He is a miserable refugee whom I
have chanced to meet here in the city, and whom I have hired to personate
the character of your bride's father. He speaks not three words of English,
and knows not who the bride is he has given away.'

`Is this true! Who is she, then? Have you deceived me? Is she a
Jewess? You told me afterwards that she was not, but of pure Portuguese
blood. Who is she? What means that hellish smile?'

`Ask her. She knows best.'

`Signora!' he cried, turning towards her with a look of mingled dread
and inquiry; `speak! what is this he says? Are you not the daughter of
this Portuguese? Have you deceived me too! Am I the victim of a conspiracy,
Clow?'

`Ask your wife who she is?'

`Who, then, are you?' he demanded, almost beside himself.

`I am the sister of Philip Clow; not a Jewess, but a mulatress!'

This was uttered with a proud, flashing eye, and in a tone full of flendish
triumph and vindictive hatred. The victim turned to Clow.

`Is this so?' he faintly demanded.

`Yes. Thy young wife is of African blood. She is my own sister. I
have drawn you into this marriage to revenge myself upon you for your repeated
insults to me upon my race; and also to elevate my sister to your
own. She married you not because she loved you, but because she hated
you and would degrade you. We hate all who despise us for our blood.
We are at feud with the white race who hold in bondage the children of
our fathers. Thy wife is my sister. Thou art my brother-in-law. Am I
not ennobled by the alliance, or is it thou who art debased?'

Carlton Ellery stood like one in a dreadful waking dream. He looked
from one to the other with a wild glare. The resemblance between the two
forcibly struck him and he wondered he had not before discovered it. Dark
passions were gathering in his breast, and he would have avenged himself
on the spot upon the mulatto, when the heads of Jack Brigs, and his boy
`Little Jack,' were thrust in at the door. Jack had called to see Philip on the

tavern front of his house, to exchange some stolen plate for coin, when, not
finding him in his room, and seeing the door beyond open, he had passed
through in search of him. Clow had neglected, in his anxious solicitude to
bring the marriage to a crisis, to close the communication between the
houses, as he conducted Carlton to the bridal parlor, and Jack, following the
passages, had thus broken in unexpectedly upon the scene. At the same instant
the street door was opened by a master-key, and the Chief of the Police,
attended by Mr. Weldon, our hero, James Daily, and followed by three
police-men, ascended the stairs.

V.

The result of this timely visit, and the accidental discovery of all the guilty
parties together, may easily be conceived. The Police Chief had been examining
the premises during the day and obtaining such intelligence as to
induce him to believe that he would be justifiable in arresting any one he
might find in the house in the evening. He had set his spies, and Clow and
Ellery had been seen to alight from a cab and enter together; for the mulatto
had taken his intended brother-in-law there the second time by the
same round-about way he had at first done. The fact that Ellery was in
the same house where James had been decoyed, was at once communicated
to our hero and Mr. Weldon, and in a short time all the parties we have
named approached the house; for the fact of Ellery's presence there was
clear proof that he was leagued with the female and the man whom James
had knocked down; all three of whom were believed to be the parties who
had committed the forgeries. Hence the boldness with which the Chief of
the Police entered; and the force with which he was seconded. The sight
of Jack Brigs (who was well known to him) showed him that he was likely
to have more game than he had calculated upon. The arrests were not effected
without a struggle. Jack and his boy fought hard, but were overpowered
and ironed. Clow made an effort to escape by the window, but
was arrested by James Daily and firmly held till he could be secured.
Carlton Ellery struck to the right and left, knocked down one of the officers,
and succeeded in reaching the passage communicating with the Inn. He
was followed by the Chief of the Police, but being familiar with the place
he succeeded in getting away; only, however, to be arrested the next day.
Isabel disappeared in the very outset of the contest and was not discovered.

The confessions of Brigs and the boy criminated Ellery in the forgeries,
and clearly established the innocence of our hero. Ellery, rather than come
to a trial, strangled himself in his cell. Clow was convicted of divers offences
and sentenced to imprisonment for life; but attempting to escape on his
way to prison he was shot through the head. Brigs and his boy, in consideration
of becoming evidence for the State, received for their misdemeanors
only seven years for the father, and two years for the son. Of Isabel Clow
nothing more is known with certainty; though it is believed she was the
same individual who a short time since made such a sensation in Paris as an
opera singer under the soubriquet of `La Belle Quadroon.'

Having thus disposed of the less worthy characters of our story, we now
devote a closing sentence to those in whose fate we are more nobly interested.
James's innocence being thus clearly established he became junior partner
with Mr. Weldon, and a few weeks afterwards was married to Grace.
Frederica gently declined the invitation to act as her bridesmaid, and ere
the honeymoon of the happy pair was past, the winding-sheet of the dead
was folded over the broken heart of the lovely bonnet-girl.