As matters stood, my client -- Miss Fairlie not having yet completed her twenty-first year -- Mr Frederick Fairlie, was her guardian. I wrote by that day's post, and put the case before him exactly as it stood, not only urging every argument I could think of to induce him to maintain the clause as I had drawn it, but stating to him plainly the mercenary motive which was at the bottom of the opposition to my settlement of the twenty thousand pounds. The knowledge of Sir Percival's affairs which I had necessarily gained when the provisions of the deed on his side were submitted in due course to my examination, had but too plainly informed me that the debts on his estate were enormous, and that his income, though nominally a large one, was virtually, for a man in his position, next to nothing.
The want of ready money was the practical necessity of Sir Percival's existence, and his lawyer's note on the clause in the settlement was nothing but the frankly selfish expression of it.
Mr Fairlie's answer reached me by return of post, and proved to be wandering and irrelevant in the extreme. Turned into plain English, it practically expressed itself to this effect: ‘Would dear Gilmore be so very obliging as not to worry his friend and client about such a trifle as a remote contingency?
Was it likely that a young woman of twenty-one would die before a man of forty-five, and die without children? On the other hand, in such a miserable world as this, was it possible to over-estimate the value of peace and quietness? If those two heavenly blessings were offered in exchange for such an earthly trifle as a remote chance of twenty thousand pounds, was it not a fair bargain? Surely, yes. Then why not make it?'
I threw the letter away in disgust. Just as it had fluttered to the ground, there was a knock at my door, and Sir Percival's solicitor, Mr Merriman, was shown in. There are many varieties of sharp practitioners in this world, but I think the hardest of all to deal with are the men who overreach you under the disguise of inveterate good-humour. A fat, well-fed, smiling, friendly man of business is of all parties to a bargain the most hopeless to deal with. Mr Merriman was one of this class.
‘And how is good Mr Gilmore?' he began, all in a glow with the warmth of his own amiability. ‘Glad to see you, sir, in such excellent health.
I was passing your door, and I thought I would look in in case you might have something to say to me. Do -- now pray do let us settle this little difference of ours by word of mouth, if we can! Have you heard from your client yet?'
‘Yes. Have you heard from yours?'
‘My dear, good sir! I wish I had heard from him to any purpose -- I wish, with all my heart, the responsibility was off my shoulders; but he is obstinate -- or let me rather say, resolute -- and he won't take it off. ‘‘Merriman, I leave details to you. Do what you think right for my interests, and consider me as having personally withdrawn from the business until it is all over.'' Those were Sir Percival's words a fortnight ago, and all I can get him to do now is to repeat them. I am not a hard man, Mr Gilmore, as you know. Personally and privately, I do assure you, I should like to sponge out that note of mine at this very moment. But if Sir Percival won't go into the matter, if Sir Percival will blindly Leave all his interests in my sole care, what course can I possibly take except the course of asserting them? My hands are bound -- don't you see, my dear sir? -- my hands are bound.'
‘You maintain your note on the clause, then, to the letter?' I said.
‘Yes -- deuce take it! I have no other alternative.' He walked to the fireplace and warmed himself, humming the fag end of a tune in a rich convivial bass voice. ‘What does your side say?' he went on; ‘now pray tell me -- what does your side say?'
I was ashamed to tell him. I attempted to gain time -- nay, I did worse.
My legal instincts got the better of me, and I even tried to bargain.
‘Twenty thousand pounds is rather a large sum to be given up by the lady's friends at two days' notice,' I said.
‘Very true,' replied Mr Merriman, looking down thoughtfully at his boots.
‘Properly put, sir -- most properly put!'
‘A compromise, recognising the interests of the lady's family as well as the interests of the husband, might not perhaps have frightened my client quite so much,' I went on. ‘Come, come! this contingency resolves itself into a matter of bargaining after all. What is the least you will take?'
‘The least we will take,' said Mr Merriman, ‘is nineteen-thousand -- nine -- hundred -- and -- ninety -- nine -- pounds -- nineteen-shillings-and-eleven-pence-three-farthings.
Ha! ha I ha! Excuse me, Mr Gilmore. I must have my little joke.'
‘Little enough,' I remarked. ‘The joke is just worth the odd farthing it was made for.'
Mr Merriman was delighted. He laughed over my retort till the room rang again. I was not half so good-humoured on my side; I came back to business, and closed the interview.
‘This is Friday,' I said. ‘Give us till Tuesday next for our final answer.'
‘By all means,' replied Mr Merriman. ‘Longer, my dear sir, if you like.'
He took up his hat to go, and then addressed me again. ‘By the way,' he said, ‘your clients in Cumberland have not heard anything more of the woman who wrote the anonymous letter, have they?'
‘Nothing more,' I answered. ‘Have you found no trace of her?'
‘Not yet,' said my legal friend. ‘But we don't despair. Sir Percival has his suspicions that Somebody is keeping her in hiding, and we are having that Somebody watched.'
‘You mean the old woman who was with her in Cumberland,' I said.
‘Quite another party, sir,' answered Mr Merriman. ‘We don't happen to have laid hands on the old woman yet. Our Somebody is a man. We have got him close under our eye here in London, and we strongly suspect he had something to do with helping her in the first instance to escape from the Asylum. Sir Percival wanted to question him at once, but I said, ‘‘No.
Questioning him will only put him on his guard -- watch him, and wait.''