A Woman's Debt

A Woman's Debt by William Le Queux

"A Woman's Debt" by William Le Queux centers on Richard Croxton, confidential secretary to wealthy financier Rupert Morrice, whose devotion to his late mother's memory led him to raise and favor the young man almost as a son. Richard is in love with Rosabelle Sheldon, Morrice's niece and ward, and Morrice has tacitly approved the match. Circling the household are Archie Brookes, an idle, self-indulgent young man presented as Mrs. Morrice's nephew, and his supposed uncle, the smooth, gambling-addicted Sir George Clayton-Brookes. The plot turns on Morrice's famous safe, a marvel of mechanical ingenuity openable only by two keys and a time-lock formula known solely to Morrice and Richard. When a fortune in French notes, diamonds, and private papers vanishes from it overnight, suspicion falls inescapably on Richard, since only he and Morrice possess the secret. Despite Richard's impassioned denials, Morrice—torn between fury at the apparent betrayal and lingering tenderness for his old love's son—dismisses him from the house rather than prosecute, while forbidding him from Rosabelle. Rosabelle, unshaken in her faith in her lover, defies her uncle's wishes enough to visit Richard at the Petersham cottage of his old nurse, Mrs. Hart, and vows to help clear his name. At Richard's urging, Rosabelle engages private detective Gideon Lane to investigate. Lane's inquiry initially seems to yield a breakthrough: finger-prints on the safe belong to a known professional safe-breaker, "Tubby" Thomas—except Thomas has been serving a prison sentence at Dartmoor for the past two years, making his guilt impossible and deepening rather than solving the mystery. Lane begins probing the household's hidden histories, aided by his resourceful society lieutenant, Reggie Sellars, a seemingly idle man-about-town who is in fact a gifted amateur investigator with wide social connections. Sellars's inquiries in the Sussex village of Brinkstone, drawn from the garrulous old waiter Dobbs, uncover Mrs. Morrice's obscured past: born Lettice Larchester, she endured a hard, impoverished girlhood as the daughter of a dissolute artist given to drink, and as a young woman was assaulted by Archibald Brookes, Sir George's disreputable younger brother, who was later shipped off to Australia and died there unmarried and childless. This discovery demolishes the official story that Archie Brookes is the son of that brother and Mrs. Morrice's sister—since Mrs. Morrice was an only child and the Australian brother left no heir, the "nephew" relationship on both sides is proven a fabrication. Lane also learns, through a cabled inquiry, that the real Archibald Brookes died a bachelor, confirming the deception. Parallel investigation into Sir George reveals him to be a study in contradictions: reputed wealthy, he lives with conspicuous extravagance—expensive dinners, a costly new car—yet is privately in constant financial terror, his bank refusing to honor even a small overdraft, and his banking records showing an income too modest to explain his lifestyle. Through his own resourcefulness Lane learns from Scotland Yard's Inspector MacKenzie that Sir George is already under covert police observation, suspected of colluding with professional criminals in a string of country-house robberies, using his social position to scout targets for confederates. More startling still, Archie Brookes—far from being a gentleman of leisure with his own means—was previously a humble City clerk raised by a minor music-hall actress named Alma Buckley, who, in a further twist traced back to Brinkstone, once was Lettice Larchester's only girlhood friend. Meanwhile Rosabelle, at the Morrice house, accidentally overhears a charged exchange between her aunt and Archie in which he desperately demands money to avert some unnamed disgrace, and Mrs. Morrice admits she has "half ruined herself" indulging him before. Rosabelle brings this to Lane rather than to her uncle, reluctant to provoke a rupture between the Morrices, and Lane—withholding his fuller findings even from her—sends Morrice an anonymous letter designed to provoke him into scrutinizing his wife's secret dealings with the false nephew. By the novel's midpoint, the household's polished surface has given way to a web of concealed identities, financial exploitation, and criminal association: Mrs. Morrice and Sir George are jointly complicit in passing off an impostor as their nephew, for reasons not yet disclosed; Sir George's fortune is likely illusory, propped up by illicit enterprise; and the true thief who despoiled Morrice's supposedly impregnable safe, whose secret memorandum of its mechanism had gone missing two years earlier, remains unidentified. Richard's fate, and his prospects of rehabilitation and marriage to Rosabelle, hinge on Lane's patient unraveling of these intertwined deceptions—a task the cautious detective pursues methodically, certain that the real culprit, and the true nature of the bond between Mrs. Morrice, Sir George, and Archie Brookes, will eventually surface.

By William Le Queux · Genre: Mystery, Crime Thriller, Domestic Drama · 30 chapters · 89,093 words

First lines

"You're a lucky chap, Croxton, to have got the measure of the old man so well. I don't suppose it will be long before you blossom into a partner."

The speaker, Archie Brookes, a slim elegant young fellow, very good-looking but with a somewhat effeminate expression, cast a sidelong glance at his companion as he uttered the remark, to observe covertly what impression it made upon him.

What this Textopian page supports

A Woman's Debt is listed on Textopian as a novel by William Le Queux, dated Date unknown.

This source record anchors work identity, reading entry points, and catalog context for checking claims about the work.

Good citation fit

Discussion starters

Similar titles

Genres

Tags

thriller · mystery · adventure · suspense · British literature · historical fiction · espionage · drama · intrigue · female protagonist · secrets · betrayal

Contents

More by William Le Queux