The Project Gutenberg eBook, The House of Whispers, by William Le Queux

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Title: The House of Whispers

Author: William Le Queux

Release Date: January 14, 2004 [eBook #10718]

Language: English

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS***

E-text prepared by Juliet Sutherland, Annika Feilbach, and Project Gutenberg Distributed Proofreaders

THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS

By

WILLIAM LE QUEUX

1910

CONTENTS

CHAPTER I THE LAIRD OF GLENCARDINE

CHAPTER II FROM OUT THE NIGHT

CHAPTER III SEALS OF DESTINY

CHAPTER IV SOMETHING CONCERNING JAMES FLOCKART

CHAPTER V THE MURIES OF CONNACHAN

CHAPTER VI CONCERNS GABRIELLE'S SECRET

CHAPTER VII CONTAINS CURIOUS CONFIDENCES

CHAPTER VIII CASTING THE BAIT

CHAPTER IX REVEALS A MYSTERIOUS BUSINESS

CHAPTER X DECLARES A WOMAN'S LOVE

CHAPTER XI CONCERNS THE WHISPERS

CHAPTER XII EXPLAINS SOME CURIOUS FACTS

CHAPTER XIII WHAT FLOCKART FORESAW

CHAPTER XIV CONCERNS THE CURSE OF THE CARDINAL

CHAPTER XV FOLLOWS FLOCKART'S FORTUNES

CHAPTER XVI SHOWS A GIRL'S BONDAGE

CHAPTER XVII DESCRIBES A FRENCHMAN'S VISIT

CHAPTER XVIII REVEALS THE SPY

CHAPTER XIX SHOWS GABRIELLE DEFIANT

CHAPTER XX TELLS OF FLOCKART'S TRIUMPH

CHAPTER XXI THROUGH THE MISTS

CHAPTER XXII BY THE MEDITERRANEAN

CHAPTER XXIII WHICH SHOWS A SHABBY FOREIGNER

CHAPTER XXIV "WHEN GREEK MEETS GREEK"

CHAPTER XXV SHOWS GABRIELLE IN EXILE

CHAPTER XXVI THE VELVET PAW

CHAPTER XXVII BETRAYS THE BOND

CHAPTER XXVIII THE WHISPERS AGAIN

CHAPTER XXIX CONTAINS A FURTHER MYSTERY

CHAPTER XXX REVEALS SOMETHING TO HAMILTON

CHAPTER XXXI DESCRIBES A CURIOUS CIRCUMSTANCE

CHAPTER XXXII OUTSIDE THE WINDOW

CHAPTER XXXIII IS ABOUT THE MAISON LÉNARD

CHAPTER XXXIV SURPRISES MR. FLOCKART

CHAPTER XXXV DISCLOSES A SECRET

CHAPTER XXXVI IN WHICH GABRIELLE TELLS A STRANGE STORY

CHAPTER XXXVII INCREASES THE INTEREST

CHAPTER XXXVIII "THAT MAN'S VOICE!"

CHAPTER XXXIX CONTAINS THE CONCLUSION

THE HOUSE OF WHISPERS

CHAPTER I

THE LAIRD OF GLENCARDINE

"Why, what's the matter, child? Tell me."

"Nothing, dad—really nothing."

"But you are breathing hard; your hand trembles; your pulse beats quickly. There's something amiss—I'm sure there is. Now, what is it? Come, no secrets."

The girl, quickly snatching away her hand, answered with a forced laugh, "How absurd you really are, dear old dad! You're always fancying something or other."

"Because my senses of hearing and feeling are sharper and more developed than those of other folk perhaps," replied the grey-bearded old gentleman, as he turned his sharp-cut, grey, but expressionless countenance to the tall, sweet-faced girl standing beside his chair.

No second glance was needed to realise the pitiful truth. The man seated there in his fine library, with the summer sunset slanting across the red carpet from the open French windows, was blind.

Since his daughter Gabrielle had been a pretty, prattling child of nine, nursing her dolly, he had never looked upon her fair face. But he was ever as devoted to her as she to him.

Surely his was a sad and lonely life. Within the last fifteen years or so great wealth had come to him; but, alas! he was unable to enjoy it. Until eleven years ago he had been a prominent figure in politics and in society in London. He had sat in the House for one of the divisions of Hampshire, was a member of the Carlton, and one year he found his name among the Birthday Honours with a K.C.M.G. For him everybody predicted a brilliant future. The Press gave prominence to his speeches, and to his house in Park Street came Cabinet Ministers and most of the well-known men of his party. Indeed, it was an open secret in a certain circle that he had been promised a seat in the Cabinet in the near future.

Then, at the very moment of his popularity, a terrible tragedy had occurred. He was on the platform of the Albert Hall addressing a great meeting at which the Prime Minister was the principal speaker. His speech was a brilliant one, and the applause had been vociferous. Full of satisfaction, he drove home that night to Park Street; but next morning the report spread that his brilliant political career had ended. He had suddenly been stricken by blindness.

In political circles and in the clubs the greatest consternation was caused, and some strange gossip became rife.

It was whispered in certain quarters that the affliction was not produced by natural causes. In fact, it was a mystery, and one that had never been solved. The first oculists of Europe had peered into and tested his eyes, but all to no purpose. The sight had gone for ever.

Therefore, full of bitter regrets at being thus compelled to renounce the stress and storm of political life which he loved so well, Sir Henry Heyburn had gone into strict retirement at Glencardine, his beautiful old Perthshire home, visiting London but very seldom.

He was essentially a man of mystery. Even in the days of his universal popularity the source of his vast wealth was unknown. His father, the tenth Baronet, had been sadly impoverished by the depreciation of agricultural property in Lincolnshire, and had ended his days in the genteel quietude of the Albany. But Sir Henry, without betraying to the world his methods, had in fifteen years amassed a fortune which people guessed must be considerably over a million sterling.

From a life of strenuous activity he had, in one single hour, been doomed to one of loneliness and inactivity. His friends sympathised, as indeed the whole British public had done; but in a month the tragic affair and its attendant mysterious gossip had been forgotten, as in truth had the very name of Sir Henry Heyburn, whom the Prime Minister, though his political opponent, had one night designated in the House as "one of the most brilliant and talented young men who has ever sat upon the Opposition benches."

In his declining years the life of this man was a pitiful tragedy, his filmy eyes sightless, his thin white fingers ever eager and nervous, his hours full of deep thought and silent immobility. To him, what was the benefit of that beautiful Perthshire castle which he had purchased from Lord Strathavon a year before his compulsory retirement? What was the use of the old ancestral manor near