One topic of conversation naturally thrust itself forward in front of allothers. In Vienna the previous day they had learned of the mysteriousvanishing of a world-famous picture from the walls of the Louvre.
"A dramatic disappearance of that sort is sure to produce a crop ofimitations," said the Journalist.
"It has had a lot of anticipations, for the matter of that," said theWine-brother.
"Oh, of course there have been thefts from the Louvre before."
"I was thinking of the spiriting away of human beings rather thanpictures. In particular I was thinking of the case of my aunt, CrispinaUmberleigh."
"I remember hearing something of the affair," said the Journalist, "but Iwas away from England at the time. I never quite knew what was supposedto have happened."
"You may hear what really happened if you will respect it as aconfidence," said the Wine Merchant. "In the first place I may say thatthe disappearance of Mrs. Umberleigh was not regarded by the familyentirely as a bereavement. My uncle, Edward Umberleigh, was not by anymeans a weak-kneed individual, in fact in the world of politics he had tobe reckoned with more or less as a strong man, but he was unmistakablydominated by Crispina; indeed I never met any human being who was notfrozen into subjection when brought into prolonged contact with her. Somepeople are born to command; Crispina Mrs. Umberleigh was born tolegislate, codify, administrate, censor, license, ban, execute, and sitin judgement generally. If she was not born with that destiny sheadopted it at an early age. From the kitchen regions upwards every onein the household came under her despotic sway and stayed there with thesubmissiveness of molluscs involved in a glacial epoch. As a nephew on afooting of only occasional visits she affected me merely as an epidemic,disagreeable while it lasted, but without any permanent effect; but herown sons and daughters stood in mortal awe of her; their studies,friendships, diet, amusements, religious observances, and way of doingtheir hair were all regulated and ordained according to the august lady'swill and pleasure. This will help you to understand the sensation ofstupefaction which was caused in the family when she unobtrusively andinexplicably vanished. It was as though St. Paul's Cathedral or thePiccadilly Hotel had disappeared in the night, leaving nothing but anopen space to mark where it had stood. As far as was known nothing wastroubling her; in fact there was much before her to make lifeparticularly well worth living. The youngest boy had come back fromschool with an unsatisfactory report, and she was to have sat injudgement on him the very afternoon of the day she disappeared--if it hadbeen he who had vanished in a hurry one could have supplied the motive.Then she was in the middle of a newspaper correspondence with a ruraldean in which she had already proved him guilty of heresy, inconsistency,and unworthy quibbling, and no ordinary consideration would have inducedher to discontinue the controversy. Of course the matter was put in thehands of the police, but as far as possible it was kept out of thepapers, and the generally accepted explanation of her withdrawal from hersocial circle was that she had gone into a nursing home."
"And what was the immediate effect on the home circle?" asked theJournalist.
"All the girls bought themselves bicycles; the feminine cycling craze wasstill in existence, and Crispina had rigidly vetoed any participation init among the members of her household. The youngest boy let himself goto such an extent during his next term that it had to be his last as faras that particular establishment was concerned. The elder boyspropounded a theory that their mother might be wandering somewhereabroad, and searched for her assiduously, chiefly, it must be admitted,in a class of Montmartre resort where it was extremely improbable thatshe would be found."
"And all this while couldn't your uncle get hold of the least clue?"
"As a matter of fact he had received some information, though of course Idid not know of it at the time. He got a message one day telling himthat his wife had been kidnapped and smuggled out of the country; she wassaid to be hidden away, in one of the islands off the coast of Norway Ithink it was, in comfortable surroundings and well cared for. And withthe information came a demand for money; a lump sum of 2000 pounds was tobe paid yearly. Failing this she would be immediately restored to herfamily."
The Journalist was silent for a moment, and them began to laugh quietly.
"It was certainly an inverted form of holding to ransom," he said.
"If you had known my aunt," said the Wine Merchant, "you would havewondered that they didn't put the figure higher."
"I realise the temptation. Did your uncle succumb to it?"
"Well, you see, he had to think of others as well as himself. For thefamily to have gone back into the Crispina thraldom after having tastedthe delights of liberty would have been a tragedy, and there were evenwider considerations to be taken into account. Since his bereavement hehad unconsciously taken up a far bolder and more initiatory line inpublic affairs, and his popularity and influence had increasedcorrespondingly. From being merely a strong man in the political worldhe began to be spoken of as the strong man. All this he knew would bejeopardised if he once more dropped into the social position of thehusband of Mrs. Umberleigh. He was a rich man, and the 2000 pounds ayear, though not exactly a fleabite, did not seem an extravagant price topay for the boarding-out of Crispina. Of course, he had severe qualms ofconscience about the arrangement. Later on, when he took me into hisconfidence, he told me that in paying the ransom, or hush-money as Ishould have called it, he was partly influenced by the fear that if herefused it the kidnappers might have vented their rage and disappointmenton their captive. It was better, he said, to think of her being wellcared for as a highly-valued paying-guest in one of the Lofoden Islandsthan to have her struggling miserably home in a maimed and mutilatedcondition. Anyway he paid the yearly instalment as punctually as onepays a fire insurance, and with equal promptitude there would come anacknowledgment of the money and a brief statement to the effect thatCrispina was in good health and fairly cheerful spirits. One report evenmentioned that she was busying herself with a scheme for proposed reformsin Church management to be pressed on the local pastorate. Another spokeof a rheumatic attack and a journey to a 'cure' on the mainland, and onthat occasion an additional eighty pounds was demanded and conceded. Ofcourse it was to the interest of the kidnappers to keep their charge ingood health, but the secrecy with which they managed to shroud theirarrangements argued a really wonderful organisation. If my uncle waspaying a rather high price, at least he could console himself with thereflection that he was paying specialists' fees."
"Meanwhile had the police given up all attempts to track the missinglady?" asked the Journalist.
"Not entirely; they came to my uncle from time to time to report on clueswhich they thought might yield some elucidation as to her fate orwhereabouts, but I think they had their suspicions that he was possessedof more information than he had put at their disposal. And then, after adisappearance of more than eight years, Crispina returned with dramaticsuddenness to the home she had left so mysteriously."
"She had given her captors the slip?"
"She had never been captured. Her wandering away had been caused by asudden and complete loss of memory. She usually dressed rather in thestyle of a superior kind of charwoman, and it was not so very surprisingthat she should have imagined that she was one; and still less thatpeople should accept her statement and help her to get work. She hadwandered as far afield as Birmingham, and found fairly steady employmentthere, her energy and enthusiasm in putting people's rooms in ordercounterbalancing her obstinate and domineering characteristics. It wasthe shock of being patronisingly addressed as 'my good woman' by acurate, who was disputing with her where the stove should be placed in aparish concert hall that led to the sudden restoration of her memory. 'Ithink you forget who you are speaking to,' she observed crushingly, whichwas rather unduly severe, considering she had only just remembered itherself."
"But," exclaimed the Journalist, "the Lofoden Island people! Who hadthey got hold of?"
"A purely mythical prisoner. It was an attempt in the first place bysome one who knew something of the domestic situation, probably adischarged valet, to bluff a lump sum out of Edward Umberleigh before themissing woman turned up; the subsequent yearly instalments were anunlooked-for increment to the original haul.
"Crispina found that the eight years' interregnum had materially weakenedher ascendancy over her now grown-up offspring. Her husband, however,never accomplished anything great in the political world after herreturn; the strain of trying to account satisfactorily for an unspecifiedexpenditure of sixteen thousand pounds spread over eight yearssufficiently occupied his mental energies. Here is Belgrad and anothercustom house."
zpostcode
Recruit
weather
mreligion
Yellowpages
sport
constellation
shopping
name
game
directory
literature
Word
tour
furnish
Lottery
tftnews
lyrics
News
digital
car
dir
Edu
Finance
