The months of January and February slowly wore themselves away, and during the whole of that time Margaret saw her cousin but once, and then she met him at Mr Slow"s chambers. She had gone there to sign some doc.u.ment, and there she had found him. She had then been told that she would certainly lose her cause. No one who had looked into the matter had any doubt of that. It certainly was the case that Jonathan Ball had bequeathed property which was not his at the time he made the will, but which at the time of his death, in fact, absolutely belonged to his nephew, John Ball. Old Mr Slow, as he explained this now for the seventh or eighth time, did it without a tone of regret in his voice, or a sign of sorrow in his eye. Margaret had become so used to the story now, that it excited no strong feelings within her. Her wish, she said, was, that the matter should be settled. The lawyer, with almost a smile on his face, but still shaking his head, said that he feared it could not be settled before the end of April. John Ball sat by, leaning his face, as usual, upon his umbrella, and saying nothing. It did, for a moment, strike Miss Mackenzie as singular, that she should be reduced from affluence to absolute nothingness in the way of property, in so very placid a manner. Mr Slow seemed to be thinking that he was, upon the whole, doing rather well for his client.
"Of course you understand, Miss Mackenzie, that you can have any money you require for your present personal wants."
This had been said to her so often, that she took it as one of Mr Slow"s legal formulas, which meant nothing to the laity.
On that occasion also Mr Ball walked home with her, and was very eloquent about the law"s delays. He also seemed to speak as though there was nothing to be regretted by anybody, except the fact that he could not get possession of the property as quick as he wished. He said not a word of anything else, and Margaret, of course, submitted to be talked to by him rather than to talk herself. Of Lady Ball"s visit he said not a word, nor did she. She asked after the children, and especially after Jack. One word she did say:
"I had hoped Jack would have come to see me at my lodgings."
"Perhaps he had better not," said Jack"s father, "till all is settled. We have had much to trouble us at home since my father"s death."
Then of course she dropped that subject. She had been greatly startled on that day on hearing her cousin called Sir John by Mr Slow. Up to that moment it had never occurred to her that the man of whom she was so constantly thinking as her possible husband was a baronet. To have been Mrs Ball seemed to her to have been possible; but that she should become Lady Ball was hardly possible. She wished that he had not been called Sir John. It seemed to her to be almost natural that people should be convinced of the impropriety of such a one as her becoming the wife of a baronet.
During this period she saw her sister-in-law once or twice, who on those occasions came down to Arundel Street. She herself would not go to Gower Street, because of the presence of Miss Colza. Miss Colza still continued to live there, and still continued very much in arrear in her contributions to the household fund. Mrs Mackenzie did not turn her out, because she would,--so she said,--in such case get nothing. Mrs Tom was by this time quite convinced that the property would, either justly or unjustly, go into the hands of John Ball, and she was therefore less anxious to make any sacrifice to please her sister-in-law.
"I"m sure I don"t see why you should be so bitter against her," said Mrs Tom. "I don"t suppose she told the clergyman a word that wasn"t true."
Miss Mackenzie declined to discuss the subject, and a.s.sured Mrs Tom that she only recommended the banishment of Miss Colza because of her apparent unwillingness to pay.
"As for the money," said Mrs Tom, "I expect Mr Rubb to see to that. I suppose he intends to make her Mrs Rubb sooner or later."
Miss Mackenzie, having some kindly feeling towards Mr Rubb, would have preferred to hear that Miss Colza was likely to become Mrs Maguire. During these visits, Mrs Tom got more than one five-pound note from her sister-in-law, pleading the difficulty she had in procuring breakfast for lodgers without any money for the baker.
Margaret protested against these encroachments, but, still, the money would be forthcoming.
Once, towards the end of February, Mrs Buggins seduced her lodger down into her parlour in the area, and Miss Mackenzie thought she perceived that something of the old servant"s manners had returned to her. She was more respectful than she had been of late, and made no attempts at smart, ill-natured speeches.
"It"s a weary life, Miss, this you"re living here, isn"t it?" said she.
Margaret said that it was weary, but that there could be no change till the lawsuit should be settled. It would be settled, she hoped, in April.
"Bother it for a lawsuit," said Mrs Buggins. "They all tells me that it ain"t any lawsuit at all, really."
"It"s an amicable lawsuit," said Miss Mackenzie.
"I never see such amicableness! "Tis a wonder to hear, Miss, how everybody is talking about it everywheres. Where we was last night--that is, Buggins and I--most respectable people in the copying line--it isn"t only he as does the copying, but she too; nurses the baby, and minds the kitchen fire, and goes on, sheet after sheet, all at the same time; and a very tidy thing they make of it, only they do straggle their words so;--well, they were saying as it"s one of the most remarkablest cases as ever was know"d."
"I don"t see that I shall be any the better because it"s talked about."
"Well, Miss Margaret, I"m not so sure of that. It"s my belief that if one only gets talked about enough, one may have a"most anything one chooses to ask for."
"But I don"t want to ask for anything."
"But if what we heard last night is all true, there"s somebody else that does want to ask for something, or, as has asked, as folks say."
Margaret blushed up to the eyes, and then protested that she did not know what Mrs Buggins meant.
"I never dreamed of it, my dear; indeed, I didn"t, when the old lady come here with her tantrums; but now, it"s as plain as a pikestaff.
If I"d a" known anything about that, my dear, I shouldn"t have made so free about Buggins; indeed, I shouldn"t."
"You"re talking nonsense, Mrs Buggins; indeed, you are."
"They have the whole story all over the town at any rate, and in the lane, and all about the courts; and they declare it don"t matter a toss of a halfpenny which way the matter goes, as you"re to become Lady Ball the very moment the case is settled."
Miss Mackenzie protested that Mrs Buggins was a stupid woman,--the stupidest woman she had ever heard or seen; and then hurried up into her own room to hug herself in her joy, and teach herself to believe that what so many people said must at last come true.
Three days after this, a very fine, private carriage, with two servants on a hammer cloth, drove up to the door in Arundel Street, and the maid-servant, hurrying upstairs, told Miss Mackenzie that a beautifully-dressed lady downstairs was desirous of seeing her immediately.
CHAPTER XXVI
Mrs Mackenzie of Cavendish Square
"My dear," said the beautifully-dressed lady, "you don"t know me, I think;" and the beautifully-dressed lady came up to Miss Mackenzie very cordially, took her by the hand, smiled upon her, and seemed to be a very good-natured person indeed. Margaret told the lady that she did not know her, and at that moment was altogether at a loss to guess who the lady might be. The lady might be forty years of age, but was still handsome, and carried with her that easy, self-a.s.sured, well balanced manner, which, if it be not overdone, goes so far to make up for beauty, if beauty itself be wanting.
"I am your cousin, Mrs Mackenzie,--Clara Mackenzie. My husband is Walter Mackenzie, and his father is Sir Walter Mackenzie, of Incharrow. Now you will know all about me."
"Oh, yes, I know you," said Margaret.
"I ought, I suppose, to make ever so many apologies for not coming to you before; but I did call upon you, ever so long ago; I forget when, and after that you went to live at Littlebath. And then we heard of you as being with Lady Ball, and for some reason, which I don"t quite understand, it has always been supposed that Lady Ball and I were not to know each other. And now I have heard this wonderful story about your fortune, and about everything else, too, my dear; and it seems all very beautiful, and very romantic; and everybody says that you have behaved so well; and so, to make a long story short, I have come to find you out in your hermitage, and to claim cousinship, and all that sort of thing."
"I"m sure I"m very much obliged to you, Mrs Mackenzie--"
"Don"t say it in that way, my dear, or else you"ll make me think you mean to turn a cold shoulder on me for not coming to you before."
"Oh, no."
"But we"ve only just come to town; and though of course I heard the story down in Scotland--"
"Did you?"
"Did I? Why, everybody is talking about it, and the newspapers have been full of it."
"Oh, Mrs Mackenzie, that is so terrible."
"But n.o.body has said a word against you. Even that stupid clergyman, who calls you the lamb, has not pretended to say that you were his lamb. We had the whole story of the Lion and the Lamb in the _Inverary Interpreter_, but I had no idea that it was you, then. But the long and the short of it is, that my husband says he must know his cousin; and to tell the truth, it was he that sent me; and we want you to come and stay with us in Cavendish Square till the lawsuit is over, and everything is settled."
Margaret was so startled by the proposition, that she did not know how to answer it. Of course she was at first impressed with a strong idea of the impossibility of her complying with such a request, and was simply anxious to find some proper way of refusing it. The Incharrow Mackenzies were great people who saw much company, and it was, she thought, quite out of the question that she should go to their house. At no time of her career would she have been, as she conceived, fit to live with such grand persons; but at the present moment, when she grudged herself even a new pair of gloves out of the money remaining to her, while she was still looking forward to a future life pa.s.sed as a nurse in a hospital, she felt that there would be an absolute unfitness in such a visit.
"You are very kind," she said at last with faltering voice, as she meditated in what words she might best convey her refusal.
"No, I"m not a bit kind; and I know from the tone of your voice that you are meditating a refusal. But I don"t mean to accept it. It is much better that you should be with us while all this is going on, than that you should be living here alone. And there is no one with whom you could live during this time so properly, as with those who are your nearest relatives."
"But, Mrs Mackenzie--"
"I suppose you are thinking now of another cousin, but it"s not at all proper that you should go to his house;--not as yet, you know.