Chapter THIRTY: The Statement of Mrs. Crafton-Bonsor

“My name is Mirabel Hilda Crafton-Bonsor. I am not sure whether that was my late husband’s real name. I believe that it was Michael Murphy. He was of Irish extraction, and when I first met him he was a contractor in the City of Sacramento, in the State of California.

“I was born in the village of Uckfield, Sussex, but came to London when I was aged seven. My parents dying, I lived with an aunt, Mrs. Pawl, of Bayham Street, Camden Town, and entered domestic service at the age of sixteen, going as parlourmaid to Miss Janet Severn, of 104 Manchester Square. Miss Severn was a maiden lady and very eccentric. She had strong views about marriage, and particularly about the marriages of the lower classes.

“The only other person in the house beside Miss Janet and the other servants was Mr. John Severn, Miss Severn’s nephew, and he was only there during vacations. He was a student at Cambridge University. I do not know the College, but I know that it was Cambridge, because I have posted a good many letters from Miss Janet to him and she always read out the address aloud before she gave it to me. I know the college had a religious name.

“Unfortunately, I cannot read or write, and though I have since learnt to write my name on a cheque I can do no more. That explains why I never read of the murder, nor knew the names of the persons concerned. I used to see a lot of Mr. John when he was at home. He was partial to me, for in those days I was a very good-looking girl, but he never made love to me.

“Whilst I was in Manchester Square I met a man who was called Mr. Selim—Abraham Selim. He used to come to the servants’ entrance once a week, and I thought he was one of those people who sell goods to servants on credit. I afterwards found out that he was a moneylender who had a big trade in the West End amongst servants. The cook was heavily in his debt and a house-maid named Rachael was also in debt to him.

“He was not a bad-looking fellow, and when he found that I didn’t want to borrow money, but had a bit of my own in the savings bank (I being a saving kind, and always was), he seemed to be struck on me, and asked if I would go walking with him on my first Sunday out. I said yes, because I’d never had a fellow, and, as I say, he was not at all bad-looking. He met me the next Sunday. We drove to Hampton in a hansom cab. I must say that it was a grand experience for me. He gave me everything of the best and behaved like a gentleman in every way.

“To cut a long story short, he met me a good number of times, and then suggested that we should get married. He said that it would have to be secret, and I should have to stay on in my job for a month or two, as he had certain plans. I didn’t mind that idea, because I was perfectly comfortable with Miss Janet. So one Monday I had the day off, and we were married before the registrar at Brixton, where he lived, and in the evening I went back to Miss Janet’s.

“Then one day he came in a state of great excitement and asked me if I’d ever heard of a gentleman whose name I forget. I told him I’d heard Miss Janet speak of him. He was her brother-in-law, and she was not on speaking terms with him, because he had treated his wife (her sister) badly. He was well off, but from what I heard neither Miss Janet nor Mr. John ever expected a penny from the old man. I told my husband all that I knew, and he seemed very pleased. He asked me if Mr. John ever made love to me, and I was very upset at the question, for I was a respectable girl and did not hold with such things. He pacified me and said that perhaps he could make a fortune if I’d help him. He also said that when he married me he had no idea until I put an X on the register instead of my name that I couldn’t read or write, and that was going to be a handicap to him.

“But I could help him a lot if I could find out where Mr. John went in the evenings. I discovered afterwards that he wanted this information in order to plan a meeting with Mr. John, whom he did not know. I did know that Mr. John was in debt. He’d told me that the cost of living at Cambridge was very heavy and that he had borrowed money, and begged me not to say a word to his aunt.

“I naturally thought that Abraham had got word of this and wanted to do a little business with Mr. John. If I had known what their meeting would lead to I’d have cut my tongue out rather than told Abraham the place where Mr. John spent his evenings—which was in a club in Soho where young gentlemen used to go to gamble.

“About a week after, Selim informed me that he had met Mr. John and had helped him.

“‘Whatever you do, don’t tell him that you know me in any shape or form.’

“I promised, and I wasn’t likely to tell. Miss Janet was very straight-laced, and there would have been trouble for me if she knew that I was married and was masquerading as a single girl. The Severns are a very old family, and have a motto which means class people must never do anything mean. It was in Latin. And there was a bird’s head on the notepaper, holding a snake in its beak. She did explain what it meant, but I’ve forgotten. I don’t know what business he had with Mr. John, but Abraham seemed very pleased when he met me. He had given up calling at the house now and sent a clerk.

“It is a strange thing that the clerk had never seen Abraham, and I afterwards found out that although Selim said that he had met Mr. John they had never been face to face. It was just about that time that Abraham began to be very secretive. I found this out when Mr. John told me that he had done a very good stroke of business with a man who had written to him.

“‘He thinks I am going to inherit an estate,’ he said. ‘I told him there was no hope, but he insisted on lending me all the money I wanted.’

“I told Abe this when I saw him, but he only laughed. I remember the evening I told him very well. It was a Sunday, and we had met at a restaurant near King’s Cross. I want to say that although I had been married to him over a month he and I had never met except, so to speak, in public. He never kissed me in his life.

“It had been raining very heavily, and when we came out of the restaurant he put me in a hansom and told the driver to drop me at the corner of Portman Square. It was about ten o’clock when I paid the cabman—Abraham always gave me plenty of money—and I had the shock of my life when I turned away from the cab and almost ran into the arms of Miss Janet. She didn’t say anything then, but when I got home she sent for me.

“She said she couldn’t understand how a respectable girl could ride in a hansom cab, and where did I get the money from? I told her that I had money saved and that a friend paid for the cab. She didn’t like it a bit, I could see that, and I knew that I should get notice next pay day.

“‘Please wait up for Mr. John,’ she said. ‘He’s dining with some friends, but he will not be later than eleven.’

“I was glad to see the back of her when she went upstairs to bed. Mr. John did not come in until past twelve and I could see with half an eye that he had been drinking. I had laid a little supper for him in the breakfast-room and I waited on him.

“He was what we call in America ‘fresh’ called me his darling little girl, and told me that he was going to buy me a pearl brooch.

“And then, before I knew what was happening, he had taken me in his arms and was kissing me. I struggled with him, but he was very strong, and he had his lips against mine when the door opened—and there was Miss Janet.

“She gave me one look and pointed to the door and I went, and glad I was to go. I fully expected the next morning to be packed off bag and baggage, especially as Miss Janet had sent up word to say that I was not on any account to do any work. At about ten o’clock she sent for me to the drawing-room.

“I shall never forget her sitting there in her black alpaca, with her little white lace cap and her beautiful hands folded on her lap. She had lovely hands; all we servants used to admire them.

“‘Hilda,’ she said, ‘my nephew has done you a great wrong, how great I have not enquired. I understand now why you have so much money and showed the cook five golden sovereigns only last week. But that is beside the point. You are a young girl in my house and under my protection. I have a great responsibility, both to God and my fellows, and I have arranged that my nephew shall do the honourable thing and marry you.’

“I simply couldn’t speak. In the first place, I’d started the crying the moment she began to talk, and in a second place her words struck me all of a heap. I wanted to tell her that I was already married and had my certificate to prove it. At least I hadn’t got it, but Abraham had. I think it was remembering this that shut me up.

“‘I have spoken to my nephew and I have sent a note to my lawyer giving him the necessary particulars in order that he may get a licence from the bishop. You will be married at St. Paul’s Marylebone, on Thursday next.’

“And with that she sort of waved me out of the room. When Miss Janet moved her hand that way nobody breathing would have the courage to argue with her. When I came to my senses I wanted to go back and tell her the truth, and I asked if I could see her. But the other parlourmaid came back to say that Miss Janet was feeling poorly and that I could have the day off.

“I went straight away to find Abraham. He had a little office above Ashlar’s, the tobacconist. Ashlar became a rich man after, I believe, and has a building named after him. Abe was there, for a wonder, but it was a long time before he unlocked the door and let me in. He told me that he never saw clients personally and was rather annoyed with me for coming. But when I told him the fix I was in he sort of changed his tone. I said that I should have to tell Miss Janet, but he wouldn’t hear of it.

“‘I always thought something like this might happen,’ he said. ‘Now, Hilda, you’ve got to be a good girl and do something for me. I’ve treated you very well, and it is now your turn to help me.’

“When I found what it was he wanted me to do I couldn’t believe my ears. I was to marry Mr. John!

“‘But how can I when I’m already married?’ I said. ‘I should get put in prison.’

“‘Nobody will ever know,’ he said. ‘You were married to me in another part of the town. I promise you that you shall leave him at the church and never see him again. Do this for me, Hilda, and I will give you a hundred pounds.’

“He said that if I married Mr. John we should both be rich for life, but he didn’t say why. He was always a wonderful talker, and he confused me so that I didn’t know whether I was on my head or my heels. He made black look white as the saying goes, and the long and the short of it was that I consented. I suppose I was a weak fool, but I admired his cleverness and his education so much that I simply didn’t think for myself.

“I’ve often wondered whether he did this to get rid of me, but that doesn’t seem right, because there was no reason why he should have married me at all. I think now that he wanted a pretty girl in the house who was so bound up with him that she would do what he told her to do. I don’t think he ever expected Mr. John would ask me to marry him, but perhaps he foresaw something worse than that. There wasn’t a meaner, more cold-blooded villain in the world than Abraham Selim.

“On the day before the marriage I went to see Miss Janet.

“‘Hilda,’ she said, ‘to-morrow you will marry my nephew. I need not tell you that I am not boasting of this marriage, and I advise you to keep your own counsel. Now as to the future, it is not reasonable to expect that Mr. John, who is a gentleman, will want to introduce a girl like you to his friends. You are totally uneducated, and, if your manners are nice, your terrible Cockney accent is impossible.’

“It is strange how I remember every single word that Miss Janet said, though it is over thirty years ago. I felt very upset and crushed by her words, but I did pluck up enough spirit to ask her what she intended doing.

“‘I am going to send you to a first-class establishment where neglected educations are improved. You will be there until you are twenty-two, and by that time you will be fit to take your place by your husband’s side without humiliating him or yourself.’

“In a way this fitted in with what Abraham had promised me. In fact, I thought that he had arranged it, but I can see now that, if he had a plan, this was Miss Janet’s own.

“Not until I walked into St. Paul’s Church on the Thursday did I see Mr. John. I don’t know now what passed between him and his aunt. I do know that he was very pale and very stand-offish, though polite. There were only about four people in the church, and the ceremony was over quicker than I expected. I had learnt to write my own name, so I didn’t disgrace him by putting my mark. Why he married me I don’t know. I am prepared to take an oath on the Bible that there was nothing between us but that kissing of his, and then he wasn’t quite himself. But marry me he did. Perhaps the Latin motto of the family and the bird’s head had something to do with it. It seems silly to me even now. Before I came to the church Miss Janet gave me £50 and the address I was to go to. It was in Victoria Drive, Eastbourne. She also wrote out the times of the trains.

“I just said good-bye to Mr. John and walked out of the church, leaving him and his friend—Miss Janet did not come—and I never saw him again.

“Abraham had arranged to meet and take me to dinner (or lunch, as it was; it was dinner to me in those days).

“Sure enough, there he was, waiting for me outside the King’s Cross restaurant, and when we got inside I told him just what had occurred.

“‘Let me have the certificate,’ he said, and I gave him my new marriage lines. We did not talk very much more about the marriage, though I was a little nervous. I didn’t want to go to Eastbourne, and, what was more, I never intended going. But I was dependent on Abraham. I knew he would have a plan for me. He had. But it wasn’t as I had hoped and prayed—that we should go into the country somewhere (which he’d promised when I agreed to marry Mr. John) and begin our married life in reality.

“When we had nearly finished the meal he pulled out a big envelope from his pocket.

“‘I’ve got you a good berth—first-class. If you keep your mouth shut nobody will know that you’re a domestic servant. There’s £500 in notes, and you will have two days to get yourself some clothes.’

“I was bewildered. I didn’t know what he was talking about.

“‘You’re going to America,’ he said. ‘I have got you some letters of introduction from my friend, Mr. Merry—something.’ It may have been Merrivan. I think it was. I understood from him that Mr. Merrivan was a client. ‘They’ll get you a job,’ he said, ‘and you have all that money.’

“‘But I don’t want to go, and I won’t go,’ I almost shouted at him. I knew that I spoke so loudly that the people in the restaurant turned round and looked at us.

“That made him mad. I’ve never seen a man who could look so like a devil as he did. It frightened me.

“‘You’ll either go or I’ll call a policeman and give you in charge for having committed bigamy.’

“I just hadn’t the strength to fight him. I left by a ship called the _Lucania_ for New York. From New York I went to a place called Denver City, where one of my letters was addressed to. I was in a situation for a year. They do not call you a ‘servant,’ but a ‘help.’ I was a ‘help’ for thirteen months, and then I had an offer to go as working housekeeper to Mr. Bonsor, who was a widower with one child that died. When Mr. Bonsor asked me to marry him I had to tell him the truth, and he said a marriage more or less made no difference to him. He had independent views about religion.

“I never saw Abraham again, but I know that he wrote to the place where I was working in Denver asking what had become of me. The people did not know. That was seven years after I arrived in the United States. I have not heard of Mr. John, but I know that Miss Janet died a month after I left from pneumonia. I found this out by a notice Mr. Bonsor saw in an English paper.”