On his way out,he noticed that the door of the bed-chamber on the opposite side of the passage stood open.Since Miss Letitia's death the room had not been used.Well within view stood the washhand-stand to which Emily had alluded.The doctor advanced to the house door--reflected--hesitated--and looked toward the empty room.
It had struck him that there might be a second drawer which Emily had overlooked.Would he be justified in setting this doubt at rest?If he passed over ordinary scruples it would not be without excuse.Miss Letitia had spoken to him of her affairs,and had asked him to act (in Emily's interest)as co-executor with her lawyer.The rapid progress of the illness had made it impossible for her to execute the necessary codicil.But the doctor had been morally (if not legally)taken into her confidence--and,for that reason,he decided that he had a right in this serious matter to satisfy his own mind.
A glance was enough to show him that no second drawer had been overlooked.
There was no other discovery to detain the doctor.The wardrobe only contained the poor old lady's clothes;the one cupboard was open and empty.On the point of leaving the room,he went back to the washhand-stand.While he had the opportunity,it might not be amiss to make sure that Emily had thoroughly examined those old boxes and bottles,which she had alluded to with some little contempt.
The drawer was of considerable length.When he tried to pull it completely out from the grooves in which it ran,it resisted him.
In his present frame of mind,this was a suspicious circumstance in itself.He cleared away the litter so as to make room for the introduction of his hand and arm into the drawer.In another moment his fingers touched a piece of paper,jammed between the inner end of the drawer and the bottom of the flat surface of the washhand-stand.With a little care,he succeeded in extricating the paper.Only pausing to satisfy himself that there was nothing else to be found,and to close the drawer after replacing its contents,he left the cottage.
The cab was waiting for him.On the drive back to his own house,he opened the crumpled paper.It proved to be a letter addressed to Miss Letitia;and it was signed by no less a person than Emily's schoolmistress.Looking back from the end to the beginning,Doctor Allday discovered,in the first sentence,the name of--Miss Jethro.
But for the interview of that morning with his patient he might have doubted the propriety of making himself further acquainted with the letter.As things were,he read it without hesitation.
"DEAR MADAM--I cannot but regard it as providential circumstance that your niece,in writing to you from my house,should have mentioned,among other events of her school life,the arrival of my new teacher,Miss Jethro.
"To say that I was surprised is to express very inadequately what I felt when I read your letter,informing me confidentially that I had employed a woman who was unworthy to associate with the young persons placed under my care.It is impossible for me to suppose that a lady in your position,and possessed of your high principles,would make such a serious accusation as this,without unanswerable reasons for doing so.At the same time I cannot,consistently with my duty as a Christian,suffer my opinion of Miss Jethro to be in any way modified,until proofs are laid before me which it is impossible to dispute.
"Placing the same confidence in your discretion,which you have placed in mine,I now inclose the references and testimonials which Miss Jethro submitted to me,when she presented herself to fill the vacant situation in my school.
"I earnestly request you to lose no time in instituting the confidential inquiries which you have volunteered to make.
Whatever the result may be,pray return to me the inclosures which I have trusted to your care,and believe me,dear madam,in much suspense and anxiety,sincerely yours,AMELIA LADD."It is needless to describe,at any length,the impression which these lines produced on the doctor.
If he had heard what Emily had heard at the time of her aunt's last illness,he would have called to mind Miss Letitia's betrayal of her interest in some man unknown,whom she believed to have been beguiled by Miss Jethro--and he would have perceived that the vindictive hatred,thus produced,must have inspired the letter of denunciation which the schoolmistress had acknowledged.
He would also have inferred that Miss Letitia's inquiries had proved her accusation to be well founded--if he had known of the new teacher's sudden dismissal from the school.As things were,he was merely confirmed in his bad opinion of Miss Jethro;and he was induced,on reflection,to keep his discovery to himself.
"If poor Miss Emily saw the old lady exhibited in the character of an informer,"he thought,"what a blow would be struck at her innocent respect for the memory of her aunt!"
