The Vanishing of Betty Varian

“I’ll – I’ll tell.”

“Tell it all, then. Begin at the beginning.”

“The beginning was merely that the Varians were spending the summer here in a little cottage over on the next street to this. Mrs Varian was expecting a confinement but hoped to get back to the city before it took place. However, she was not well, and Mr Varian brought her to the hospital for consultation and treatment. I was her nurse, and I came to know her well, and – to love her. She was a dear lady, and as her first babies had died in infancy she was greatly worried and anxious lest this new baby should be sickly or, worse, should be born dead.

“Mr Varian was the most devoted husband I ever saw. He put up with all his wife’s whims and tantrums, – and she was full of them, – and he indulged and petted her all the time. He was quite as anxious as she for a healthy child, and when they discovered that she must remain here for her confinement, he sent to town for all sorts of things to make her comfortable and happy.

“Well, – the baby was born, – and it was born dead. Mrs Varian did not know it, and when I told Mr Varian, he was so disappointed I thought he would go off his head.

“Now there was another case in the hospital that was a very sad matter. It was Mrs Curtis. She, poor woman, was confined that same night, and her baby was born, fine and healthy. But she didn’t want the child. She was so poor she scarce could keep soul and body together. She had three little children already and her husband had died by accident only a month before. How to care for a new little one, she didn’t know.

“It was Nurse Black who thought of the plan of substituting the lovely Curtis child for the dead Varian baby, and we proposed it to Mr Varian. To our surprise he fairly jumped at it. He begged us to ascertain if Mrs Curtis would agree, saying he would pay her well. Now, Mrs Curtis was only too grateful to be assured of a good home and care for her child, and willingly gave it over to the Varians. But Mrs Varian never knew.

“That was Mr Varian’s idea, and it was an honest and true desire to please his wife and to provide her with a healthy child such as she herself could never bear.

“I think Mr Varian was decided at the last by the piteous cries of Mrs Varian for her baby. When he heard her, he said quickly, ‘Take the Curtis child to her, – and see if she accepts it?’”

“And did she?” asked Zizi, her eyes shining at the dramatic story.

“Oh, she did! She cried out in joy that it was her baby and a beautiful, healthy child, and she was so pleased and happy and contented that she dropped off into a fine, natural sleep and began to get well at once. When she wakened she asked for the child, and so it went on until there was no question what to do. The whole matter was considered settled – ”

“Who knew of the fraud?” asked Wise.

“No one in the world but Mrs Curtis, Mr Varian and we two nurses. Mr Varian paid the poor mother ten thousand dollars, and he gave us a thousand dollars apiece. The authorities of the hospital never knew. They assumed the dead child was Mrs Curtis’ and the living child was Mrs Varian’s.”

“And the doctors?”

“There was but one. I forgot him. Yes, he knew, but he was a greedy scamp, and Mr Varian easily bought him over. He died soon after, anyway.”

“So that now, – what living people know of this thing?”

“Why – you say Mr Varian is dead?”

“Yes.”

“And Mrs Varian never learned the truth?”

“No,” Zizi answered, emphatically, “she never did.”

“And Nurse Black is dead, and the doctor is dead, – why, then nobody knows it – oh, yes, Mrs Curtis, of course.”

“She, too, is dead,” Wise said.

“Then nobody knows it but we three here. Unless of course, Mr Varian or Mrs Curtis told.”

“Mr Varian never did,” Wise said, – “as to Mrs Curtis I can’t say.”

“Oh, she’d never tell,” Mrs Briggs declared. “She was honest in the whole matter. She said she didn’t know how she’d support her three children, let alone a fourth. And, she was glad and thankful to have it brought up among rich and kind people. She never would have let it go unless she had been sure of their kindness and care, but we told her what fine people the Varians were and she was satisfied.”

“Were there adoption papers taken out?”

Mrs Briggs stared at Wise’s question.

“Why, no; it wasn’t an adoption, it was a substitution. How could there be an adoption? Mrs Varian thought it her own child, – the authorities of the hospital thought the living child was Mrs Varian’s. The matter was kept a perfect secret.”

“And I think it was all right,” Zizi defended. “So long as Mr Varian knew, so long as Mrs Curtis was satisfied, I don’t see where any harm was done to anybody.”

“I don’t either, miss,” said Mrs Briggs eagerly. “I’m gratified to hear you say that, and I hope, sir, you feel the same way about it.”

“Why, I scarcely know what to say,” Wise returned. “It depends on whether you view the whole thing from a judicial – ”

“Or from a viewpoint of common sense and kind-heartedness!” Zizi said. “I think it was fine, – and I’m only sorry for poor Mr Varian who had to bear the weight of his secret all alone through life.”

“Oh, Zizi, that would explain the pearls!” Wise cried.

“Of course it does! He had to leave them to a Varian, – and Betty wasn’t a Varian, – oh, Penny, what a situation! That poor man!”

“And it explains a lot of other things,” Wise said, thoughtfully. “Well, Mrs Briggs, we’ll be going now. As to this matter, I think I can say, if you’ll continue to keep it secret, we will do the same, at least for the present. Did you never tell anybody? Not even your husband?”

“I never did. It was the only secret I ever kept from my husband, he’s dead now this seven year, poor man, – but I felt I couldn’t tell him. It wasn’t my secret. When I took Mr Varian’s money, I promised never to tell about the child. And I kept my word. Until now,” she added, and Wise said,

“You had to tell now, Mrs Briggs, if you hadn’t told willingly and frankly, I could have brought the law to bear on your decision.”

“That’s what I thought, sir. Please tell me of the child? Is she now a fine girl?”

Wise realized that up in this far away hamlet the news of Betty Varian’s disappearance had not become known, so he merely said,

“I’ve never seen her, but I’m told she is a fine and lovely girl. Her mother is a charming woman.”

“I’m glad you say so, sir, for though I was sorry for her, she was a terror for peevishness and fretting. Yet, after she got the little girl she seemed transformed, she was that happy and content.”

Back to the inn went Pennington Wise and Zizi.

“The most astonishing revelation I ever heard,” was Wise’s comment, as he closed the door of Zizi’s sitting room and sat down to talk it over.

“Where do you come out?”

“At all sorts of unexpected places. Now, Zizi, have you realized yet that Lawrence North married that Mrs Curtis?”

“You’re sure?”

“Practically; he married a widow named Curtis, who formerly lived in Greenvale, Vermont. I’ve not struck any other. And besides, it connects North with this whole Varian case and I’m sure he is mixed up in it.”

“But how?”

“That’s the question. But here’s a more immediate question, Zizi. Are we to tell Mrs Varian what we have learned from the nurse up here?”

“How can we help telling her?”