Marie Belloc Lowndes

“ The crowd looking on, especially those wives of substantial citizens of Calais who stood at their windows behind half-closed shutters and drawn blinds, stared down at Jacques de Wissant with pitying, concern. "He has a warm heart, though a cold manner," murmured these ladies to one another; "and just now, you know, he is in great personal anxiety, for his wife—that odd, beautiful Claire with whom he doesn't get on very well—is in Italy, ill of scarlet fever. ”

“ She looked so troubled, so uncomfortable, that Jacques de Wissant leaped to the sudden conclusion that the tidings that he had been at such pains to bring had already been told.
"Ah!" he exclaimed, "then I am too late! Ill news travels fast."
"Ill news?" Madeleine repeated affrightedly. "Is anything the matter? Has anything happened to one of the children? Don't keep me in suspense, Jacques—I am not coldblooded like you!"
"The children are all right," he said shortly. "But there has been, as you evidently know, an accident. The submarine Neptune has gone down." ”

“ Jacques de Wissant was a narrow-built man of forty-six; his clean-shaven, rather fleshy face was very pale; and on this hot August morning he was dressed in a gray frock-coat and a pale yellow waistcoat. On his wife's writing-table lay his tall hat and lemon-colored gloves.
As Mayor of Calais—a position he owed to his historic name and to his wealth—he had to perform civil marriages, and to-day, it being the eve of the Assumption, there were to be a great many weddings celebrated in the Hôtel de Ville. ”

“ There was a touch of hauteur as well as of indignant surprise in the fine old man's voice.
"Admiral," said Jacques de Wissant deliberately, "there was—there is—a woman on board the Neptune."
"A woman in the Neptune? That is quite impossible!" The Admiral got up from his chair. "It is one of our strictest regulations that no stranger be taken on board a submarine without a special permit from the Minister, countersigned by the nearest port-admiral. No such permit has been issued for many months. Commander Dupré was far too conscientious, too loyal an officer, to break this regulation." ”

“ No, Claire had not told him that Marie-Anne was worse. That, doubtless, was why she had looked so unhappy this morning. He felt hurt and angered by his wife's reserve.
"I am sure you will agree with me, Madeleine," he said stiffly—he was glad to gain a little time—"that it would not be wise for Claire to accompany you. After all, she is still quite a young woman, and poor Marie-Anne's disease is most infectious. I have ascertained, too, that there is a regular epidemic raging in Mantua." ”

“ He knew well that if the desperate attempts now being made to raise the Neptune were successful, and if its human freight were rescued living, the fact that there had been a woman on board could not be concealed, it would be known to thousands to-night, and to millions to-morrow morning.
Not only would the amazing story provide newspaper readers with a delightful thrill, but it would be perpetuated in every account of subsequent accidents to submarine craft. Already Jacques de Wissant had seen in that afternoon's local paper an elaborate recital of each former disaster ”

“ Jacques de Wissant had put all his trust in the Admiral, and in the arrangements that the Admiral was making to avoid discovery; but now there came over him a frightful sensation of doubt and fear. How would it be possible for Admiral de Saint Vilquier, unless backed by governmental authority, to elude the vigilance, not only of the Admiralty officials and all those who were directly interested, but also of the journalists who, however much the public interest had slackened in the disaster, still stayed on at Calais in order to be present at the last act of the tragedy? ”

“ And then, suddenly, Jacques de Wissant bethought himself that it was most unlikely that any news of the accident could yet have reached the Chalet des Dunes, the lonely villa on the shore, where Claire was lunching with her sister; but at any moment some casual visitor from the town might come in there with the news. He told himself, uneasily, that it would be well, if possible, to save his wife from such a shock. After all, she and Dupré had been good friends; so much must be admitted—nay, he was now eager to admit it.
He touched the older man on the arm. "I should be grateful. ”

“ But all at once there came a change in her voice, in her manner. "Why, to-day—to-day is our wedding-day! How stupid of me to forget! We must tell Jacqueline and Clairette; it will amuse them."
Jacques de Wissant came forward into the room, and, as he did so, his wife moved abruptly away from where she had been standing, thus maintaining the distance between them. But Claire de Wissant need not have been afraid; her husband had his own strict code of manners, and to this code he ever remained faithful. ”

“ If she had done that, if her sister had allowed her to go alone, or accompanied perhaps by one or another of the officers belonging to the Submarine Flotilla, then he would find it very difficult to forgive Claire. There are things that a woman with any self-respect, especially a woman who is the mother of children, does not do. To this was added a feeling of contemptuous anger for Madeleine Guiard. She ought to have known how to save her sister from such an act of undignified folly. ”

“ All hope that there could be any one still left alive in the Neptune was being gradually abandoned; and yet, that evening there ran a rumor through the town that knocking had been heard in the submarine.
Jacques de Wissant himself drew up the official proclamation in which it was pointed out that it was almost certain that all on board had died at the time of the collision, and that, even if any had survived for a few hours, not one of them could be alive now. ”

“ Money will never really purchase either secrecy or silence. But honor, Monsieur de Wissant, will sometimes—nay, often—do both. Everything will be done by me—so you can assure your unhappy friends—to conceal the fact that Commander Dupré failed in his duty. ”

“ The speaker stopped short, daunted by Jacques de Wissant's look of impatient fatigue. "Has M'sieur le Maire heard the news?" He gathered courage; it is always exciting to be the bearer of news, especially of bad news.
Jacques de Wissant shook his head.
"There has been an accident, M'sieur le Maire—a terrible accident! One of the submarines—they don't yet know which it is—has been struck by the Dover steamer. The craft has sunk in the fairway of the Channel, about two miles out!" ”

“ He hoped with all his heart that the twelve men and the woman now lying beneath the sea had met death at the moment of the collision.
Jacques de Wissant sent home word that for the present he would stay in his town house. All that night the restaurants and cafés remained open, and there was a constant coming and going to the beach, where many people, even among the visitors who were not directly interested in the calamity, arranged to stay, staring out at the dark sea, waiting for news. ”

“ Jacques de Wissant said the words required of him. And then, at the last moment, just as he was on the point of going down the steps leading to the flat-bottomed boat that was about to be rowed to the pontoon, there arose a discussion. The harbor master had promised the representatives of two Paris papers that they should be present when the submarine was first opened.
But the Admiral angrily asserted his supreme authority. "In such matters I can allow no favoritism! It is doubtful if any bodies will be recovered to-night, gentlemen, for the tide is already turning. ”

“ There are things that all men and all women, when tortured by jealousy, well understand, however dull, however unperceptive they may be. Jacques de Wissant believed that he was now justified in his suspicions. ”

“ I do not think, as matters are now, that there is much fear that the truth will ever be discovered."
The old man did not look into Jacques de Wissant's face as he said the comforting words. He had become aware of many things—of Madeleine Guiard's expedition in the submarine the day before the accident, and of her own and her sister's sudden departure for Italy. ”

“ Thus the miserable man tortured himself, turning the knife in his wound. And, though he was waiting impatiently for the Admiral, when the old naval officer was at last ushered in, he would have given many years of his life to postpone their interview. ”

“ He spoke in a dry, matter-of-fact tone. "There will not be room on the pontoon for more than four or five officials, including ourselves. Doubtless some of our newspaper friends will be disappointed,—if one can speak of disappointment in such a connection,—but they will have plenty of opportunities of being present to-morrow and the following nights. I have arranged with the Minister of Marine that the work is to be done only at night."
The Neptune had been towed into the old harbor—the harbor digged out by the English in the days when they held Calais ”