The Argosy — page 213: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

198 The Sapphire Cross. keep up in him a constant irritation against his wife. The man- servant, whom I have hunted up and interrogated, can testify that on the very morning of the murder the Count received a letter which seemed to disturb him greatly. The servant saw him reading it, and noticed the effect produced. Of course, he would not guess that it referred to the Countess, but we have very good reason to suppose that it did. ‘The cook also now relates that while the servants were at dinner on the same day, he, looking down into his master’s bed- room through the open window of the kitchen (placed, as you may remember, in the upper storey and on the opposite side of the court), saw Count Cioronski rush out of his wife’s bedroom into his own, with the gesture and air of a man violently excited. Between the extra quantity of wine which he had drunk, the agitation of the mur- der, and the general conviction of the painter’s guilt, the cook thought no more of this incident until cross-examined by me.” ‘And to what, do you think, does it point?” ‘'To the strong probability of a quarrel between husband and wife, just at the time when the servants were not there to witness it. I pass now to the curious coincidence of the Count’s left-handedness, with the conclusion so strongly suggested by the position of the sofa and the manner in which the door opens: namely, that the pistol was fired with the left hand.” Here the King’s Proctor interrupted with some irritation. ‘That is the weakest point of your argument,” he said. ‘‘ You as- sume, in spite of probability, that the murderer was standing in the lumber-room, and fired from behind the door. Next, that he escaped through the other exit of the same room on to the landing, and down the dark staircase past the deaf porter’s lodge. We assume, from the disappearance of the jewels, that he was in the same room with his victim, and after murdering her. fled through the antechamber door. Our assumption, to say the least of it, is more plausible than yours.” Signor Renzo leaned back in his chair with the quietly triumphant expression of a man about to play his trump-card. ‘“T do not agree with you,” he said. ‘‘ For Count Cioronski, im- mediately after the report of the pistol had echoed through the house, was met creeping stealthily down stairs in the dark, by a man who was ascending with the purpose of asking for money.” The lawyer then rapidly related how Tito, failing to find his friend, had thought of applying to the Countess ; had hurried to her dwelling, and entered it just as the shot was fired; had brushed against a per- son descending; had struck a light, and recognised the Count. ‘The latter, in an agitated manner, asked him his business, and on learning it emptied his purse into his hand, and promised him future help on the express condition that he should never reveal the secret of their meeting. ‘“Umph !” said the King’s Proctor. He would not have owned to it for the world, but, secretly, he was EMMI KS, (E00)