Part 54 (1/2)
”I know what my father would have done in such a case,” she continued, with her tranquil smile recovered: ”he would just have ridden up to his solicitor's office, demanded the implement of robbery, brought it home, and set it upon the hall fire, in the presence of the whole of his family and household. But now we live in such a strictly lawful age that no crime can be stopped, if only perpetrated legally. And you say that Mr. More--something, 'Moresharp,' I think it was, knows of that iniquitous production?”
”Madam, we can not be certain; but I have reason to suspect that Mr.
Mordacks has got wind of that unfortunate deed of appointment.”
”Supposing that he has, and that he means to use his knowledge, he can not force the doc.u.ment from your possession, can he?”
”Not without an order. But by filing affidavit, after issue of writ in ejectment, they may compel us to produce, and allow attested copy to be taken.”
”Then the law is disgraceful to the last degree, and it is useless to own anything. That deed is in your charge, as our attorney, I suppose, sir?”
”By no other right, madam: we have twelve chestfuls, any one or all of which I am bound to render up to your order.”
”Our confidence in you is unshaken. But without shaking it we might order home any particular chest for inspection?”
”Most certainly, madam, by giving us receipt for it. For antiquarian uses, and others, such a thing is by no means irregular. And the oldest of all the deeds are in that box--charters from the crown, grants from corporations, records of a.s.say by arms--warrants that even I can not decipher.”
”A very learned gentleman is likely soon to visit us--a man of modern family, who spends his whole time in seeking out the stories of the older ones. No family in Yorks.h.i.+re is comparable to ours in the interest of its annals.”
”That is a truth beyond all denial, madam. The character of your ancient race has always been a marked one.”
”And always honorable, Mr. Jellicorse. Undeviating principle has distinguished all my ancestors. Nothing has ever been allowed to stand between them and their view of right.”
”You could not have put it more clearly, Mistress Yordas. Their own view of right has been their guiding star throughout. And they never have failed to act accordingly.”
”Alas! of how very few others can we say it! But being of a very good old family yourself, you are able to appreciate such conduct. You would like me, perhaps, to sign the order for that box of ancient--cartularies--is not that the proper word for them? And it might be as well to state why they happen to be wanted--for purposes of family history.”
”Madam, I will at once prepare a memorandum for your signature and your sister's.”
The mind of Mr. Jellicorse was much relieved, although the relief was not untempered with misgivings. He sat down immediately at an ancient writing-table, and prepared a short order for delivery, to their trusty servant Jordas, of a certain box, with the letter C upon it, and containing t.i.tle-deeds of Scargate Hall estate.
”I think it might be simpler not to put it so precisely,” my lady Philippa suggested, ”but merely to say a box containing the oldest of the t.i.tle-deeds, as required for an impending antiquarian research.”
Mr. Jellicorse made the amendment; and then, with the prudence of long practice, added, ”The order should be in your handwriting, madam; will it give you too much trouble just to copy it?” ”How can it signify, if it bears our signatures?” his client asked, with a smile at such a trifle; however, she sat down, and copied it upon another sheet of paper. Then Mr. Jellicorse, beautifully bowing, drew near to take possession of his own handwriting; but the lady, with a bow of even greater elegance, lifted the cover of the standing desk, and therein placed both ma.n.u.scripts; and the lawyer perceived that he could say nothing.
”How delightful it is to be quit of business!” The hostess now looked hospitable. ”We need not recur to this matter, I do hope. That paper, whatever it is, will be signed by both of us, and handed over to you, in your legal head-quarters, to-morrow. We must have the pleasure of sending you home in the morning, Mr. Jellicorse. We have bought a very wonderful vehicle, invented for such roads as ours, and to supersede the jumping-car. It is warranted to traverse any place a horse can travel, with luxurious ease to the pa.s.sengers, and safety of no common description. Jordas will drive you; your horse can trot behind; and you can send back by it whatever there may be.”
Mr. Jellicorse detested new inventions, and objected most strongly to any experiment made in his own body. However, he would rather die than plead his time of life in bar, and his faith in the dogman was unlimited. And now the gentle Mrs. Carnaby, who had gracefully taken flight from ”horrid business,” returned in an evening dress and with a sweetly smiling countenance, and very nearly turned the Jellicorsian head, snowy as it was, with soft attentions and delicious deference.
”I was treated like a prince,” he said next day, when delivered safe at home, and resting among his rather dingy household G.o.ds. ”There never could have been a more absurd idea than that notion of yours about my being put into wet sheets, Diana. Why, I even had my night-cap warmed; and a young woman came, with a blush upon her face, and a question whether I would be pleased to sleep in a gross of Naples stockings! Ah, to my mind, after all, it proves what I have always said--that there is nothing like old blood.”
”Nothing like old blood for being made a fool of,” his wife replied, with a coa.r.s.eness which made him s.h.i.+ver, after Mrs. Carnaby. ”They know what they are about, I'll lay a penny. Some roguery, no doubt, that they seek to lead you into. That is what their night-caps and stockings mean.
How low it is to make a foreground of them!”
”Hush, my dear! I can not bear such want of charity. And what is even worse, you expose me to an action at law, with heavy damages.”
The lawyer had sundry little qualms of conscience, which were deepened by his wife's sagacious words; and suddenly it struck him that the new-fangled vehicle which had brought him home so quietly from Scargate had shown a strange inability to stand still for more than two minutes at his side door. So much had he been hurried by the apparent straits of his charioteer that he ran out with box C without ever stopping to make an inventory of its contents--as he intended to do--or even looking whether the all-important deed was there. In fact, he had scarcely time to seal up the key in a separate package, hand it to Jordas, and take the order (now become a receipt) from the h.o.r.n.y fist of the dogman, before Marmaduke, rendered more das.h.i.+ng by snow-drift, was away like a thunder-bolt--if such a thing there be, and if it has four legs.
”How could I have helped doing as I have done?” he whispered to himself, uncomfortably. ”Here are two ladies of high position, and they send a joint order for their property. By-the-bye, I will just have a look at that order, now that there is no horse to jump over me.” Upon going to the day file, he found the order right, transcribed from his own amended copy, and bearing two signatures, as it should do. But it struck him that the words ”Eliza Carnaby” were written too boldly for that lady's hand; and the more he looked at them, the more he was convinced of it. That was no concern of his, for it was not his duty, under the circ.u.mstances of the case, to verify her signature. But this conviction drove him to an uncomfortable conclusion--”Miss Yordas intends to destroy that deed without her sister's knowledge. She knows that her sister's nerve is weaker, and she does not like to involve her in the job. A very brave, sisterly feeling, no doubt, and much the wiser course, if she means to do it. It is a bold stroke, and well worthy of a Yordas. But I hope, with all my heart, that she never can have thought of it. And she kept that order in my handwriting to make it look as if the suggestion came from me! And I am as innocent as any lamb is of the frauds that shall come to be written on his skin. The duty of attorney toward client prevents me from opening my lips upon the matter. But she is a deep woman, and a bold one too. May the Lord direct things aright!