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June 9, 2025 26 mins
Delve into an enchanting world of romance and mystery with Late Tenant. This early masterpiece by esteemed British journalist and author Louis Tracy, penning as Gordon Holmes, is sure to captivate you. Known for his thrilling mysteries such as The Albert Gate Mystery and The Postmaster’s Daughter, Tracy dabbles in the romantic genre with a touch of the supernatural. The story weaves together two intense love narratives - one heart-wrenching, the other just beginning - amidst a puzzling mystery. Find a dash of classic British humor and a hint of the supernatural in this engaging tale. - Summary by Kirsten Wever.
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Chapter twenty of The Late Tenant by Gordon Holmes. This
LibriVox recording is in the public domain. David has one
visitor and expects others. David had risen pretty early to
admit his charwoman. Behind her in the outer lobby, he

(00:21):
saw the scared face of the hall porter, who remembered
that a certain loud knocking and difficulty of gaining access
to that flat on one other occasion had been the
prelude to a tragic discovery, though he, not being in
the building at that time, had heard of the affair

(00:42):
only from his mates. David smiled reassurance at him, and
went back to his bedroom to dress. He placed the
portrait and the letter in an inner pocket of his waistcoat,
provided for paper money, and the hour, being in advance
of breakfast, time went out for a stroll. Regent's Park

(01:06):
was delightful that morning. Not spring, but summer was in
the air. Nature to compel man to admire her dainty
contrivances was shutting in the vistas. Already trees and hedge
rows flung their leafy screens across the landscape. So David

(01:26):
wandered on, promising himself many such mornings with Violet, for
it passed his wit to see how Van Hopfeldt could
wriggle out of the testimony of his own picture and
his own handwriting. Hence, instead of being earlier, he was
somewhat later than usual in sitting down to breakfast. And

(01:50):
he was a surprised young man when his charwoman, having
gone to answer a ring at the door, the announcement
came of a lady to see you, sir, A lady.
He gasped, who is she? And he hoped wildly that
it might be Violet? You know her well enough, old boy,

(02:13):
came the high pitched voice of miss Ermine le Strange,
who now appeared in the dining room, a pink faced
vision in a flower garden hat and muslins poof. She cried,
I have not been out for many a day before
the streets were aired, Say young party, that bacon a

(02:33):
egg has a more gratifying scent than violets. I have
come all the way from Chelsea on one cup of tea.
The charwoman, eyeing the visitor askance, admitted that more supplies
could be arranged. Hurry up, then, Fairy, said Miss l Strange,
and don't look so shocked, your master here is the

(02:56):
very goodest young man in London. David said that even
the just man fell seven times a day, but anyhow,
he was delighted to see her. You look, it was
the dry response. I never knew anybody who threw their
heart into their eyes as you do. You will never

(03:19):
get on in London if you don't learn to lie better.
Men you say that sort of thing, you should gush
a little and glear at any rate when you are
talking to a woman. But I mean it, he vowed.
You can't tell how nice it is to have some
frills on the other side of the table. That hat,

(03:39):
now is a picture. The hat is a bad color
to suit you know. Ah, No, it has the gold
of the sun in it. Perhaps I may be phrasing
the words awkwardly, but you look ten years younger this morning,
Miss Lestrange. She turned her eyes to the seat. Ye gods,

(04:02):
she cried, if only I had those ten back again.
Then she gave David a coy glance. I don't mind
betting you have a quid, She said that you are
only pleased to see me here because I bring to
your mind the possibility of another girl being your vizavi

(04:23):
at breakfast now you would make me dumb when I
am most anxious to talk. Oh you can'd it? Wretch?
Why did I come here? Don't you believe that there
are twenty men in London who would give quite a
lot if I honored them by this morning? Call? I

(04:44):
do believe it, said David gravely. And that is just
why you are here and not with one of the twenty.
You are a far more upright little lady than you
profess to be. Miss LaStrange. She actually blushed, for like
most women who are compelled to make up professionally, never

(05:08):
an atom of grease or rouge was on her face.
At other times, David, she said, you are a nice boy.
I wish you were my brother. You would be fine
and dandy as a sister. Well, let's be friends, and
the first sign of friendship is a common alliance. I've

(05:29):
taken your side against stress. What of him? Demanded David warily,
For miss ermine was a slippery customer, he fancied. Now,
no fencing or the alliance is off. You were down
at Rigsworth yesterday, remember, and you came back in a

(05:50):
mighty temper. Not even your pretty violet was all perfection
last evening or was she. Things did go wrong, I admit,
said he, marveling at this attack. Well, I am not
here to pump you, or else I would surprise you
a bit more. No, David, I'm here just because I'm

(06:13):
a woman, and as full of mischief as an egg
is full of meat, so that I can't help interfering
in a love affair, though it isn't my own. Did
you know that Strauss brought Jenny to Rigsworth yesterday? Jenny?
Why Jenny? That is what I wanted to know. And

(06:36):
she wouldn't tell me the cat until I got my
iris shut and offered to drag her over the furniture
by the hair of her head. It was no use
her lying to me either. Every time she tried to
think of a plausible tale, I told her it would
hurt to cross the Chiffoniet head first. At last she

(06:58):
owned up, and then I a small bottle. She wanted it,
I assure you, and I got the whole story while
we finished it. But for goodness sake, whoa boy? Don't
rush your fences. I'll tell you everything, so keep calm. First,
the night before last, Strauss comes to me. One moment

(07:22):
broke in. David is this Strauss, and he handed her
the portrait. She looked at it and laughed, Why of
course it is, she said, fancy you keeping his picture
over your heart? Now if it had been Violet or me.
Sorry to have interrupted you, he said, funny idea. Anyhow,

(07:47):
Strauss turned up the night before last and wanted to
borrow Jenny for the whole of next day. It was
beastly awkward, as she was helping me to rehem this
dress and put new sleeves in the bottom. But he
badgered me so that I could hardly refuse, and she
thought for an instant of certain notes crumpled up in

(08:09):
the gold purse which was slung from her neck. So
I packed Jennie off about eight o'clock next morning, yesterday,
that is, I was in a temper all day and
tore two flounces out of my frock and scraped my
shin on the step of a hansom. So when the
Minx came smirking home about midnight to find me making

(08:32):
my own fire, I let her have it. I can't
tell you, but it fairly gave me the needle. When
she wouldn't say what Strauss watered her for. Then the
row sprang up. Yes, you want to smoke, eh, I'd
like a cigarette myself. David was most docile outwardly, when

(08:54):
all of a boil within he awaited her pleasure, saw
her seated in a comfortable chair, joined in her own
admiration of a pair of really pretty feet, and lit
a pipe. Then she continued, there was poisonous trouble for
about five minutes. I might have led her off if

(09:15):
she hadn't said things. Then I frightened her. I believe
I did yak her hat off. At last, she confessed
that Strauss told her that his name now was Van Hupfeldt,
and he wanted her to go down to Rigsworth to
be introduced to two ladies as Sarah gissing Gwen Barnes's maid.

(09:40):
What yelled David, springing to his feet, Oh chuck, it
said miss Lestrange, in a voice of deep disgust. You
nearly made me swallow my cigarette. But the man is
a devil. Sit down, boy, sit down. You men are
all six of one, half a dozen of the other.

(10:02):
Where a woman is concerned, poor things. I wonder how
any of us escape you at all. Still, Strauss is
pretty artful, I admit you. See Jenny having been in
service here could lie so smoothly about Gwen Barnes that
it would be hard to find her out. Did she

(10:24):
do this? Asked David in a fierce excitement. Miss the
Strange laughed again as she selected a fresh cigarette to
replace the spoiled one. Did the cat steal the cream?
Fancy Jenny being offered twenty pounds for a day's prevarication
and refusing it. Why that girl lies for practice? Oh?

(10:49):
Please go on, he groaned. Queer game, isn't it? I
often think the Haypenny papers don't get hold of half
the good things that are going well. Jenny, according to
her own version, spoofed missus mordaunt, and you are Violet
in great shape? What is more? Strauss and a lawyer

(11:12):
man wheedled Ben in designing all sorts of papers, including
a marriage settlement. Will you believe it? The dutch Man
had the cheek to give your Violet the certificates which
Jenny sold to him. David said something under his breath, Yes,
said Miss l Strange, he deserves it. I can't abide

(11:36):
a man who goes in for deceiving a poor girl,
so at my own loss. Mind you, I determined to
come here this morning and give you a friendly tip.
Heaven knows I shall endeavor to repay you, sighed David,
in a perfect heat, now to be out and doing doing.

(11:56):
He knew not. What is she? Very beautiful? You're violet,
asked his visitor, turning on him with one of her
birdlike movements of the head. That is her sister, said David,
flinging a hand toward the portrait. Ah, I knew Gwen
Barnes saw her in the theater. You know, a nice

(12:18):
girl with nothing to rave about, rather of the clinging sort.
You men prefer that type, I do believe. And now
that you have heard my yarn, you want me to
go eh no, no, no, hurry at all, you, dear David,
mouth all, no eyes all, yes, that's it. Treat me

(12:44):
like an old shoe, bless you. We women worship that
sort of thing until all at once we blaze up. Well,
you will give Strauss a drubbing one of these days,
and I shan't be sorry. I hate pretty men. They
are all affectation and waxy like a barber's doll. Well, Tata,

(13:06):
you are going to have a nice, pleasant day, I
can see, But fair play mind, no telling tales about
your little ermine. I have done more for you to
day than I would do for any other man in creation.
And some day you must bring your Violet to tea.
I promise to be good and talk nice. There now,

(13:29):
ain't I a wonder? And she was gone in a
whirl of flounces and high heels. The last he heard
of her when she declined to let him come to
the door, with that glare in his eye being her
friendly hail to the liftman, Hello Jimmy, like old times

(13:49):
to see you again? How's the wife and the kiddies.
Left to his own devices, David was at his wits
end to know how to act for the best. At last,
he wrote a telegram to Violet. The girl you met
yesterday as Sarah Gussing was not your sister's maid, but

(14:10):
another woman masquerading in her stead. I implore you and
your mother to come to London and meet me in
mister Dibbon's office. He knows the real Sarah Guessing and
will produce her. This was definite enough, and he thought
the introduction of Dibbon's name would be helpful with missus Mordaunt.

(14:32):
Then he rushed off to see Dibbon himself, but learned
from a clerk that the agent would not arrive from
Scotland until six thirty p m. Which is a pity,
said the clerk, ruefully, because a first rate commission has
just come in for him by wire. Some one in
a hurry, said Harcourt, speaking rather to cloak his own

(14:56):
disappointment than out of any commiseration for Dibbon. Loss, I
should think so. Indeed, fifty golden sovereigns sent by a
telegraph just to get him to Portsmouth quick. David heard
and wondered he made a chance shot. I expect that's

(15:17):
my friend Van Hupfeldt, he said A very man, gasped
the clerk. Oh, there's no harm done. Mister Dibbon comes
to King's Cross. I suppose, yes, I shall be there
to meet him. Certainly things were lively at Rigsworth. David

(15:37):
had a serious notion of going there by the next strain,
but he returned to Eddystone Mansions in case there might
be an answer from violent. Sure enough, there he found
the telegram sent in her name by Van Hupfeldt. The
time showed that it was despatched about the same hour

(15:58):
as his own At first his heart danced with the
joy of knowing that she still trusted him. And how
truly wonderful that she mentioned Pangley, a town he had
not named to her. There must indeed have been a
tremendous eruption at dale Manor. Yet it was too bad

(16:20):
that he should be forced to leave London and go
in chase of missus Carter and the baby. Why he
would be utterly cut off from active communication with her
for hours, and it was so vitally important that they
should meet. Of course he would obey, but first he

(16:40):
would await the chance of a reply to his message.
So he telegraphed again, will go to Pangley, tell me
when I can see you. He was his own telegraph messenger.
While he was out, another buff envelope found its way
to his table. Here was the confusion of a fog,

(17:02):
for this screed ran. Miss Violet Mordaunt traveled to London
this morning by the nine eleven train. This is right, friend.
There was no name, but the post office said the
information came from Rigsworth, and the post office indulges in

(17:24):
a cold official accuracy. Somehow, this word from a friend
did strike him as friendly. That made him pread again
and ponder wait till the longer statement signed Violet. He
could not tell, oh sympathetic little sister of the Rigsworth Postmistress,

(17:49):
that you wheedled the grocer's assistant into writing that most
important telegram. It was a piece of utmost daring on
the part of a village made, and perhaps it might
be twisted into an infringement of the Official Secrets Act
or some such terrifying ordinance. But your tender little heart

(18:14):
had gone out to the young man who got no
answer from the lady of the manor, and you knew
quite well that Violet had never sent him to Pangley
to hunt for a missing baby. Anyhow, David was glowering
at both flimsy strips of paper when a letter reached him.

(18:34):
It was marked Express Delivery and had been handed in
at Euston Station soon after twelve o'clock. This time there
could be no doubt whatever that Violet was the writer.
Here was the identical handwriting of the first genuine note
he had received from her, and there was Violet herself

(18:56):
in the phrasing of it, though she was brief and reserved.
Dear David, I am in London for the purpose of
making certain inquiries. I must not see you, if you
can help it, I must be quite quite alone and unaided.
Please pardon my seeming want of confidence in this matter.

(19:20):
I am trusting God's help and my own endeavors. But
I want you to oblige me by being away from
your flat to night between midnight and two a m.
That is all. Perhaps I may be able to explain
everything later, Your sincere well wisher, Violet Mordaunt. Then David

(19:44):
ran like a beagle to Euston station, but Violet had
been gone from there nearly an hour, because he found
on inquiry that the nine eleven train from Rigsworth had
arrived at noon. Yet he could not be content unless
he careered about London looking for her, first at Porchester Gardens,

(20:05):
then at Dibbon's office, at which he arrived exactly five
minutes before she did. And he must have driven along
Piccadilly while she was turning into the corner from Regents.
London is the biggest bundle of hay when you want
to find anybody. Amidst the maelstrom of his doubts and fears,

(20:27):
one fact stood out so clearly that he could not
fail to recognize it not Violet alone, but some other
hidden personality most earnestly desired his absence from the flat
that night. In a word, Van Uppfeldt, who knew of
the photograph and the letter being hidden there, had the

(20:50):
strongest possible reason for seeking an opportunity to make an
absolutely unhindered search of every remaining nook and crevice. But
how was Violet's anxiety on this head to be explained?
Was she too wishful to carry out a scrutiny of pictures,
cupboards and ornaments on her own account? Then, with a

(21:15):
sort of intuition, David felt that it was she who
had already visited her sister's late abode at such uncanny
hours of gloom and mystery, that her presence had given
rise to the ghost legend. And with the consciousness that
this was so came a hot flush of shame and

(21:37):
remorse that he had so vilified Violet in his thoughts
on the night of his long run from Chalfhood. It
was she whom he had seen standing at the end
of the corridor on the first night of his ever
memorable tendency of this sorrow laden abode, and no doubt

(21:58):
her earlier efforts at elucidating the dim tragedy which cloaked
her sister's death had led to the eerie experiences of
Miss Lestrange and Jenny Well. Thank goodness, he held nearly
all the threads of this dark business in his hands now,
and it would go hard with Van Hupfeldt if he

(22:20):
crossed his path that night. For David resolved with a
smile which had in it a mixture of grimness and tenderness,
that he would obey the letter of Violet's request, while
decidedly disobeying its spirit. She wished him to be away

(22:41):
from the flat between midnight and two a m. Certainly
he would be away, but not far away, near enough
indeed to know who went into it and who came out,
and some part of their business if he saw fit. Violet,
of course, might come and go as she pleased, not

(23:04):
so Van Hupfeldt or any of his mermidonts. Thereupon, determined
to oppose guile to guile, he dismissed the charwoman long
before the usual time and called the friendly hall porter
into consultation. Jim, he said, when the lift shot up
to his floor in response to a summons, I guess

(23:27):
you want a drink. Jim knew Harcourt's little ways by
this time. Well, sir, he said, stepping forth and unshipping
the motor key. I'm bound to admit that a slight
illubricoition wouldn't be a miss. In fact, it might be
a hit, a palpable hit. Well, step lively. Here's the

(23:50):
whisky now, Jim, listen while I talk. I understand there
is to be a meeting of ghosts here to night.
No not a word yet. Drink steadily, Jim, and it
is up to you and me to attend the convocation.
There is nothing to worry about. These spirits are likely

(24:12):
to be less harmful than those you are imbibing. Indeed,
we may be called on to grab one or two
of them, but they will turn out to be ordinary men.
You're not afraid of a man, Jim, not if he's
a man, sir. But will there be any shootin' ah?

(24:32):
You heard of that. People will talk of bullet marks, sir,
to say nothing of drops of blood. Drops of blood
where all round our front door. They wasn't there overnight,
and next day there was a revolver bullet stuck in
your kitchen skirting board excellent clear proof that our sort

(24:56):
of ghosts will bleed if you punch them hard enough
on the nose. Now, I want your help in three ways.
In the first place, I am going out about seven
and will return about nine. I want you to make
sure that no one enters my flat within those hours. Secondly,

(25:18):
when I come back, I wish to reach this floor
without coming in by the front door. You understand if
any one should be watching my movements, I would like
to be seen leaving the mansions but not returning. Thirdly,
I want you to join me on guard when you

(25:40):
close the front door at midnight, hiding the pair of
us somewhere above so that we can't see without fear
of mistake any persons who may possess keys which fit
my front door. Oh that's it, is it, said the porter,
setting down his glass. Well, i'm your man, sir, Leave

(26:02):
everything to me. When you comes home at nine, just
pop along the other street until you seize a door
leading to a harea. Drop down there, and you'll find
yourself in our basement At twelve sharp. I'll come up
in the lift and fix you up proper. Jim, you're
a treasure, said David end of chapter twenty
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