Lord Arthur Savile’s Crime by Oscar Wilde. Part 2.
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Chapter 2 | A Bloody Crime
Lord Arthur Savile stood by the fire and his face was as white as stone. For the first time in his rich and careless life he felt deeply unhappy. Could Mr Podgers really see something terrible in his hand? Was it a bloody crime or something worse? Couldn’t he escape from it in some way?
Suddenly Mr Podgers came back into the room. When he saw Lord Arthur his face went green. For a minute both men were silent.
‘The Duchess has left one of her gloves here. She asked me to bring it to her,’ said Mr Podgers at last. ‘Ah, I see it on that chair! Good night!’
‘Mr Podgers, wait! Could you answer a question before you go? What did you see in my hand? I must know.’
‘Why do you think I saw more than I told you. Lord Arthur?’
‘I know that you did, and I’ll pay you a hundred pounds if you tell me what it was. What is your address? I’ll send you the money tomorrow.’
Mr Podgers’ green eyes looked suddenly interested.
‘Here is my visiting card,’ he said, and he gave a small card to Lord Arthur, who read it:
MR SEPTIMUS R. PODGERS PALMIST
103A WEST MOON STREET
‘I am there from ten until four,’ said Mr Podgers.
‘Be quick, now!’ said Lord Arthur. ‘What do you see here?’ He held out his hand.
Mr Podgers closed the door.
‘Very well, Lord Arthur. Please sit down.’
Ten minutes later, with a white face and wild eyes, Lord Arthur ran out of Bentinck House and down the street.
The night was very cold and windy, but his hands were hot and his face was on fire. He ran on and on. A policeman looked at him with interest when he ran past. Then a poor old man came up to ask him for some money, but when he looked into Lord Arthur’s face, he felt afraid and he left the young man alone and didn’t speak to him.
Suddenly Lord Arthur stopped under a street light and looked down at his hands. He thought he saw red blood on them and gave a cry.
Murder! That is what the palmist had told him. Murder! The night knew it. The wind whispered it in his ear. The dark corners of the street were full of it and the houses along the street laughed about it.
First he came to the park where he listened to the silent trees. ‘Murder! Murder! I’m going to murder someone!’ he said to himself, shaking terribly. He felt a strong need to stop someone in the street and tell them everything.
Then he left the park, crossed Oxford Street and walked on down poor, narrow streets. Two women in bright cheap dresses laughed at him when he walked past them. Now and again he heard shouts and cries from the houses and he saw poor old people sitting in dark corners of the street.
At the corner of Rich Street he saw two men reading a poster. He crossed the street to look at it. It said:
HAVE YOU SEEN THIS MAN?
We are looking for a murderer. Can you help us to find a man of between thirty and forty, wearing a black coat, grey trousers and a brown hat, and with a scar near his right eye?
Police Reward £50
He read the poster many times and thought of the murderer running from the police. Perhaps one day they were going to put his name on a murder poster? The thought made him feel ill and he turned and hurried on. When the sun came up he found himself in Piccadilly Circus. From there he walked slowly home to Belgrave Square, looking up at the beautiful red sky. ‘I hope that there won’t be a storm later in the day,’ he said to himself.
By the time he got to Belgrave Square the sky was a light blue and the birds were beginning to sing in the gardens.
When Lord Arthur woke up it was twelve o’clock and the sun was high in the sky. A servant brought him a cup of hot chocolate in bed. He drank it and then he got ready for his morning bath. He got into the deep water quickly and lay back in it. Then he put his head right under the water to wash away the terrible thoughts of the night before. When he got out of the bath he felt happier.
After breakfast he lay on the window seat and smoked a cigarette. On a table near him was a large photograph of Sybil Merton. She was so beautiful, with her fine small head, her soft mouth, and her dark eyes.
He couldn’t marry Sybil with a future murder waiting to happen. But what could he do about it? He thought a lot and at last he had the answer. He decided to murder someone first and then to marry Sybil. But who could he murder? Murderers, of course, usually kill their enemies, but Lord Arthur didn’t really have any enemies. In the end he wrote down the names of all his friends and family on a piece of paper. After looking at this list for some time, he chose Lady Clementina Beauchamp, or Lady Clem, as she was called by everybody. Lady Clem was a dear old lady who lived in Curzon Street. She was one of his cousins on his mother’s side of the family and was just the right person to murder, he decided.
Next Lord Arthur sent his servant to West Moon Street with a hundred pounds to pay Mr Podgers. After that he went out to the flower shop and bought some flowers to send to Sybil. Then he went to the library to read some books about different poisons.
He chose poison as the best way to murder Lady Clem. It was quiet and clean. After all, he didn’t want his name in the newspapers. Sybil’s parents weren’t very modern in their way of thinking and perhaps they wouldn’t like their daughter to marry a murderer if the police caught him.
In the end he found out about a poison called aconitine. The books explained that it worked fast, and didn’t hurt you when it killed you. He wrote down how much aconitine you needed to kill someone and then he left the library and went to Saint James’s Street to buy some.