while these things were happening at mr. boffin's house, eugene wrayburn, with headstone the schoolmaster watching him like a hawk, had never left off trying to find where lizzie hexam had gone. at length, through the "troublesome child" of the little dolls' dressmaker, he learned the name of the village where she was living and went at once to see her.

headstone followed close behind him and when, from his hiding-place, he saw how glad lizzie was to see the lawyer, he went quite mad with jealousy and hate, and that moment he determined to kill wrayburn.

it happened that rogue riderhood was then working on the river that flowed past the village, where he tended a lock. the schoolmaster, in[pg 349] order to turn suspicion from himself in case any one should see him when he did this wicked deed, observing carefully how riderhood was dressed, got himself clothes exactly like the lock tender's, even to a red handkerchief tied around his neck.

in this guise, with murder in his heart, he lay in wait along the riverside till wrayburn passed one evening just after he had bade good night to lizzie hexam. the schoolmaster crept up close behind the lawyer and struck him a fearful crashing blow on the head with a club. wrayburn grappled with him, but headstone struck again and again with the bloody weapon, and still again as the other lay prostrate at his feet, and dragging the body to the bank, threw it into the river. then he fled.

lizzie hexam had not yet turned homeward from the riverside. she heard through the night the sound of the blows, the faint moan and the splash. she ran to the spot, saw the trampled grass, and, looking across the water, saw a bloody face drifting away. she ran to launch a boat, and rowed with all her strength to overtake it.

but for her dreadful life on the river with her father she could not have found the drowning man in the darkness, but she did, and then she saw it was the man she loved. one terrible cry she uttered, then rowed with desperate strokes to the shore and with superhuman strength carried him to a near-by inn.

wrayburn was not dead, but was dreadfully disfigured.[pg 350] for many days he hovered between life and death. jennie wren, the dolls' dressmaker, came, and she and lizzie nursed him. as soon as he could speak he made them understand that before he died he wanted lizzie to marry him. a minister was sent for, and with him came john rokesmith and bella. so the sick man was married to lizzie, and from that hour he began to get better, till before long they knew that he would recover.

meanwhile, not waiting to see the result of his murderous attack, headstone had fled down the river bank to the hut where riderhood lived and there the villainous lock tender let him rest and sleep. as the schoolmaster tossed in his guilty slumber, riderhood noted that his clothes were like his own. he unbuttoned the sleeping man's jacket, saw the red handkerchief, and, having heard from a passing boatman of the attempted murder, he guessed that headstone had done it and saw how he had plotted to lay the crime on him.

when the schoolmaster went away riderhood followed him, watched him change clothes in the bushes and rescued the bloody garments the other threw away.

with these in his hands he faced the schoolmaster one day in his class room and made him promise, under threat of exposure, to come that night to the hut by the lock. headstone was afraid to disobey. when he came, riderhood told him he must[pg 351] give him money at once or he would follow him till he did.

headstone refused and, as the other had threatened, when he started back to london, he found the lock tender by his side. he returned to the hut and the other did the same.

he started again, and again the other walked beside him. then headstone, turning suddenly, caught riderhood around the waist and dragged him to the edge of the lock.

"let go!" said riderhood. "you can't drown me!"

"i can," panted headstone. "and i can drown myself. i'll hold you living and i'll hold you dead. come down!"

riderhood went over backward into the water, and the schoolmaster upon him. when they found them, long afterward, riderhood's body was girdled still with the schoolmaster's arms and they held him tight.

this was the awful end of the two wicked men whom fate had brought into lizzie's life.

all this time, of course, bella had been believing her husband to be very poor. at first he had intended to tell her who he was on the day they were married, but he said to himself: "no, she's so unselfish and contented i can't afford to be rich yet." so he pretended to get a position in the city at small wages. then after a few months he thought it over again, and he said to himself, "she's such a cheerful[pg 352] little housewife that i can't afford to be rich yet." and at last a little baby was born to bella, and then they were so happy that he said, "she's so much sweeter than she ever was that i can't afford to be rich just yet!"

but meantime bella was imagining that mr. boffin was a cruel old miser, and mr. boffin didn't like this, so john agreed that he would tell her all about it.

but first he got bella to describe exactly the kind of house she would like if they were very, very rich, and when she told him, he and mr. boffin had the boffin mansion fixed over in just the way she had said—with a nursery with rainbow-colored walls and flowers on the staircase, and even a little room full of live birds, and a jewel box full of jewels on the dressing-table.

fate, however, had arranged even a greater trial of bella's love for him than all the others. as they walked together on the street one day, they came face to face with a man who had been in the police office on the night the body which every one believed to be john harmon's had lain there. he had seen the entrance of the agitated stranger, and had helped the police in their later vain search for rokesmith. now he at once recognized bella's husband as that man, who the police believed had probably committed the murder.

rokesmith knew the man had recognized him, and when they got home he told bella that he was[pg 353] accused of killing the man the harmon will had bidden her marry.

jennie wren and her "troublesome child"

see page 335

but nothing now could shake her faith in him. "how dare they!" she cried indignantly. "my beloved husband." he caught her in his arms at that, and while he held her thus the officers entered to arrest him.

rokesmith found the matter very easy to explain to the satisfaction of the police, but he told bella nothing as yet, and, trusting and believing in him absolutely, she waited in great wonder. next day he told her he had a new position and that now they must live in the city where he had taken a furnished house for them.

they drove together to see it. strangely enough it seemed to be in the same street as mr. boffin's house, and stranger yet, the coach stopped at mr. boffin's own door. her husband put his arm around her and drew her in, and she saw that everything was covered with flowers. as he led her on she exclaimed in astonishment to see the little room full of birds just as she had wished.

suddenly her husband opened a door and there was mr. boffin beaming and mrs. boffin shedding tears of joy, and folding her to her breast as she said: "my deary, deary, deary, wife of john and mother of his little child! my loving loving, bright bright, pretty pretty! welcome to your house and home, my deary!"

then of course the whole story came out. the[pg 354] mystery was solved and she knew that john rokesmith was the true john harmon and that her husband was really the man the harmon will had picked out for her to marry.

in the splendid boffin house they lived happily for many years, surrounded by bella's children. and they were never so happy as when they welcomed eugene wrayburn with lizzie his wife, or jennie wren, the little dolls' dressmaker.