"Then you acknowledge the Countess"s marriage, of course," said the Serjeant.
"Pardon me, Serjeant, we acknowledge nothing. As a matter of course she is the Countess till it be proved that another wife was living when she was married."
"Quite as a matter of course," said the Serjeant.
"Quite as a matter of course, if that will make the case stronger,"
continued Sir William. "Her marriage was formal and regular. That she believed her marriage to be a righteous marriage before G.o.d, I have never doubted. G.o.d forbid that I should have a harsh thought against a poor lady who has suffered so much cruel treatment."
"Why have things been said then?" asked the Serjeant, beginning to throw about his left arm.
"If I am not mistaken," said Mr. Mainsail, "evidence has been prepared to show that the Countess is a party to a contemplated fraud."
"Then you are mistaken, Mr. Mainsail," said Sir William. "I admit at once and clearly that the lady is not suspected of any fraud.
Whether she be actually the Countess Lovel or not it may,--I fear it must,--take years to prove, if the law be allowed to take its course."
"We think that we can dispose of any counter-claim in much less time than that," said the Serjeant.
"It may be so. I myself think that it would not be so. Our evidence in favour of the lady, who is now living some two leagues out of Palermo, is very strong. She is a poor creature, old, ignorant,--fairly well off through the bounty of the late Earl, but always craving for some trifle more,--unwilling to come to this country,--childless, and altogether indifferent to the second marriage, except in so far as might interfere with her hopes of getting some further subsidy from the Lovel family. One is not very anxious on her behalf. One is only anxious,--can only be anxious,--that the vast property at stake should not get into improper hands."
"And that justice should be done," said Mr. Hardy.
"And that justice should be done of course, as my friend observes.
Here is a young man who is undoubtedly Earl of Lovel, and who claims a property as heir to the late Earl. And here is a young lady, I am told very beautiful and highly educated, who is the daughter of the late Earl, and who claims that property believing herself to be his legitimate heiress. The question between them is most intricate."
"The onus probandi lies with you, Mr. Solicitor," said the Serjeant.
"We acknowledge that it does, but the case on that account is none the less intricate. With the view of avoiding litigation and expense, and in the certainty that by such an arrangement the enjoyment of the property will fall to the right owner, we propose that steps shall be taken to bring these two young people together. The lady, whom for the occasion I am quite willing to call the Countess, the mother of the lady whom I hope the young Earl will make his own Countess, has not been sounded on this subject."
"I should hope not," said the Serjeant.
"My excellent friend takes me up a little short," said Sir William, laughing. "You gentlemen will probably consult together on the subject, and whatever may be the advice which you shall consider it to be your duty to give to the mother,--and I am sure that you will feel bound to let her know the proposition that has been made; I do not hesitate to say that we have a right to expect that it shall be made known to her,--I need hardly remark that were the young lady to accept the young lord"s hand we should all be in a boat together in reference to the mother"s rank, and to the widow"s claim upon the personal property left behind him by her late husband."
And so the Solicitor-General had made his proposition, and the conference was broken up with a promise that Mr. Flick should hear from Mr. Goffe upon the subject. But the Serjeant had at once made up his mind against the compromise now proposed. He desired the danger and the dust and the glory of the battle. He was true to his clients" interests, no doubt,--intended to be intensely true; but the personal, doggish love of fighting prevailed in the man, and he was clear as to the necessity of going on. "They know they are beat," he said to Mr. Goffe. "Mr. Solicitor knows as well as I do that he has not an inch of ground under his feet." Therefore Mr. Goffe wrote the following letter to Messrs. Norton and Flick:--
Raymond"s Buildings, Gray"s Inn, 1st July, 183--.
DEAR SIRS,
In reference to the interview which took place at the chambers of the Solicitor-General on the 27th ult., we are to inform you that we are not disposed, as acting for our clients, the Countess of Lovel and her daughter the Lady Anna Lovel, to listen to the proposition then made.
Apart from the very strong feeling we entertain as to the certainty of our client"s success,--which certainly was not weakened by what we heard on that occasion,--we are of opinion that we could not interfere with propriety in suggesting the marriage of two young persons who have not as yet had any opportunity of becoming acquainted with each other. Should the Earl of Lovel seek the hand of his cousin, the Lady Anna Lovel, and marry her with the consent of the Countess, we should be delighted at such a family arrangement; but we do not think that we, as lawyers,--or, if we may be allowed to say so, that you as lawyers,--have anything to do with such a matter.
We are, dear Sirs, Yours very faithfully,
GOFFE AND GOFFE.
Messrs. Norton and Flick.
"Balderdash!" said Sir William, when he had read the letter. "We are not going to be done in that way. It was all very well going to that Serjeant as he has the case in hand, though a worse messenger in an affair of love--"
"Not love, as yet, Mr. Solicitor," said Mr. Flick.
"I mean it to be love, and I"m not going to be put off by Serjeant Bluestone. We must get to the lady by some other means. Do you write to that tailor down at Keswick, and say that you want to see him."
"Will that be regular, Sir William?"
"I"ll stand the racket, Mr. Flick." Mr. Flick did write to Thomas Thwaite, and Thomas Thwaite came up to London and called at Mr.
Flick"s chambers.
When Thomas Thwaite received his commission he was much rejoiced.
Injustice would be done him unless so much were owned on his behalf.
But, nevertheless, some feeling of disappointment which he could not a.n.a.lyze crept across his heart. If once the girl were married to Earl Lovel there would be an end of his services and of his son"s. He had never really entertained an idea that his son would marry the girl.
As the reader will perhaps remember, he had warned his son that he must seek a sweetheart elsewhere. He had told himself over and over again that when the Countess came to her own there must be an end of this intimacy,--that there could be nothing in common between him, the radical tailor of Keswick, and a really established Countess.
The Countess, while not yet really established, had already begged that his son might be instructed not to call her daughter simply by her Christian name. Old Thwaite on receiving this intimation of the difference of their positions, though he had acknowledged its truth, had felt himself bitterly aggrieved, and now the moment had come. Of course the Countess would grasp at such an offer. Of course it would give her all that she had desired, and much more than she expected.
In adjusting his feelings on the occasion the tailor thought but little of the girl herself. Why should she not be satisfied? Of the young Earl he had only heard that he was a handsome, modest, gallant lad, who only wanted a fortune to make him one of the most popular of the golden youth of England. Why should not the girl rejoice at the prospect of winning such a husband? To have a husband must necessarily be in her heart, whether she were the Lady Anna Lovel, or plain Anna Murray. And what espousals could be so auspicious as these? Feeling all this, without much of calculation, the tailor said that he would do as he was bidden. "We have sent for you because we know that you have been so old a friend," said Mr. Flick, who did not quite approve of the emissary whom he had been instructed by Sir William to employ.
"I will do my best, sir," said Mr. Thwaite, making his bow. Thomas Thwaite, as he went along the streets alone, determined that he would perform this new duty imposed upon him without any reference to his son.
CHAPTER VIII.
IMPOSSIBLE!
"They sent for me, Lady Lovel, to bid me come to your ladyship and ask your ladyship whether you would consent to a marriage between the two young people." It was thus that the tailor repeated for the second time the message which had been confided to him, showing the gall and also the pride which were at work about his heart by the repeated t.i.tles which he gave to his old friend.
"They desire that Anna should marry the young lord!"
"Yes, my lady. That"s the meaning of it."
"And what am I to be?"
"Just the Countess Lovel,--with a third of the property as your own.
I suppose it would be a third; but you might trust the lawyers to settle that properly. When once they take your daughter among them they won"t scrimp you in your honours. They"ll all swear that the marriage was good enough then. They know that already, and have made this offer because they know it. Your ladyship needn"t fear now but what all the world will own you as the Countess Lovel. I don"t suppose I"ll be troubled to come up to London any more."
"Oh, my friend!" The e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n she made feeling the necessity of saying something to soothe the tailor"s pride; but her heart was fixed upon the fruition of that for which she had spent so many years in struggling. Was it to come to her at last? Could it be that now, now at once, people throughout the world would call her the Countess Lovel, and would own her daughter to be the Lady Anna,--till she also should become a countess? Of the young man she had heard nothing but good, and it was impossible that she should have fear in that direction, even had she been timorous by nature. But she was bold and eager, hopeful in spite of all that she had suffered, full of ambition, and not p.r.o.ne to feminine scruples. She had been fighting all her life in order that she and her daughter might be acknowledged to be among the aristocrats of her country. She was so far a loving, devoted mother that in all her battles she thought more of her child than of herself. She would have consented to carry on the battle in poverty to the last gasp of her own breath, could she thereby have insured success for her surviving daughter. But she was not a woman likely to be dismayed at the idea of giving her girl in marriage to an absolute stranger, when that stranger was such a one as the young Earl Lovel. She herself had been a countess, but a wretched, unacknowledged, poverty-stricken countess, for the last half of her eventful life. This marriage would make her daughter a countess, prosperous, accepted by all, and very wealthy. What better end could there be to her long struggles? Of course she would a.s.sent.
"I don"t know why they should have troubled themselves to send for me," said the tailor.
"Because you are the best friend that I have in the world. Whom else could I have trusted as I do you? Has the Earl agreed to it?"
"They didn"t tell me that, my lady."
"They would hardly have sent, unless he had agreed. Don"t you think so, Mr. Thwaite?"