The first to arrive at the office in the afternoon was Elsie herself, carrying a handbag.
"You were going to bring your brother, Elsie," said Mr. Dering. "Where is he? And what is your important business with me? I suppose it is something about this wretched forgery, which really seems destined to finish me off. I have heard of nothing else--I think of nothing else--ever since it happened."
"First, has anything new been discovered?"
"I hardly know," Mr. Dering replied wearily. "They seem to have found the man Edmund Gray; but Checkley has suddenly cooled. Formerly, he clamoured perpetually that we must lose no time in getting a warrant for his arrest; he now wants to put it off and put it off. He was going on very strangely this morning. My dear, I sometimes think that my old clerk is off his head."
"And you yourself--have you had any return of your forgetfulness?"
"Worse--worse.--Every day, worse. I now know when to look for a return of these fits. Every morning I ask myself what I did the day before.
Always there are the same hours of forgetfulness--the morning and the evening. Last night, where was I? Perhaps somebody will find out for me--for I cannot remember."
"Shall I find out for you, Mr. Dering? If I were to tell you where you spent the evening yesterday, would you--would you?----"
"What? How can you find out?"
Elsie bent her head. The moment had almost arrived, and she was afraid.
She had come with the intention of clearing her brother and her lover at the cost of letting her guardian know that he was insane. A dreadful price to pay for their honour. But it had to be paid. And it must be done in the sight of all, so that there should be no possible margin left for malignity or suspicion.
"This business," she said, "concerns the honour of the two men who are dearer to me than all the world beside. Remember that--nothing short of that would make me do what I have been doing--what I am now doing. Their honour--oh! their honour. Think what it means to them. Self-respect, dignity, everything: the happiness of their homes: the pride of their children. Compared with one man"s honour, what matters another man"s humiliation? What matters the loss of that man"s self-respect? What matters his loss of dignity? Their honour, Mr. Dering, think of that--their honour!"
He bowed his head gravely, wondering what was to follow.
"A man"s honour, as you say, Elsie, is the greatest thing in the world to him. Compared with that, another man"s self-respect need not, I should say, as a general principle, be considered at all. Self-respect may be regained unless honour is lost."
"Remember that, then, Mr. Dering, when you hear what I have to say.
Promise me to remember that. Oh! if there were a thousand reasons, formerly, why I would not pain you by a single word, there are ten thousand now--although you understand them not."
"Why, Elsie, you are troubling your little head about trifles. You will not offend me whatever you say."
"It is so important a thing," she went on, "that I have asked my mother and sister and Sir Samuel to meet us here at four o"clock, in order that they, too, may hear as well as you. Athelstan is with George. They have one or two persons to introduce to you."
"All this seems to promise a meeting of some interest, and so far as one may judge from the preamble, of more than common importance. Well, Elsie, I am quite in your hands. If you and your brother between you will kindly produce the forger and give me back my property, I shall be truly grateful."
"You shall see, Mr. Dering. But as for the grat.i.tude----Oh! here is Sir Samuel."
The City knight appeared, large and important. He shook hands with Elsie and his brother, and took up his position on the hearth-rug, behind his brother"s chair. "Well, Elsie," he said, "we are to hear something very important indeed, if one may judge by the tone of your letter, which was imperative."
"Very important indeed, Sir Samuel."
The next to arrive were Mrs. Arundel and Hilda. They wore thick veils, and Hilda was dressed in a kind of half-mourning. They took chairs at the open window, between the historic safe and the equally historic small table. Lastly, George and Athelstan walked in. They received no greetings.
Mr. Dering rose. "Athelstan," he said, "it is eight years since you left us." He held out his hand.
"Presently, Mr. Dering," said Athelstan. He looked round the room. His mother trembled, dropped her head, and put her handkerchief to her eyes, but said nothing. His sister looked out of window. Sir Samuel took no notice of him at all. Athelstan took a chair--the clients" chair--and placed it so as to have his mother and sister at the side. He was not therefore compelled to look at them across the table. He sat down, and remained in silence and motionless.
The Court was now complete. Mr. Dering sat in his chair before his table, expectant, judicial. Sir Samuel stood behind him. Mrs. Arundel and Hilda, the two ladies, sat at the open window. Elsie stood opposite to Mr. Dering, on the other side of the table, her handbag before her.
She looked like Counsel about to open the case for plaintiff.
Athelstan--or plaintiff--naturally occupied the clients" chair on Mr.
Dering"s left; and George, as naturally--the other plaintiff--stood behind him.
"Now, Elsie, if you please," Mr. Dering began.
"I shall want your clerk, Checkley, to be present, if you please."
Mr. Dering touched his bell. The clerk appeared. He stood before them like a criminal, pale and trembling. He looked at his master appealingly. His hands hung beside him. Yet not a word of accusation had been brought against him.
"Lord! Man alive!" cried Sir Samuel, "what on earth has come over you?"
Checkley shook his head sadly, but made no reply.
"I want to ask you a question or two, Checkley," said Elsie, quietly.
"You have told Mr. Dering--you have told Sir Samuel--that you saw my brother furtively put a parcel--presumably the stolen notes--into the safe at the very moment when you were charging him with forgery. Now, consider. That was a very serious thing to say. It was a direct statement of fact. Before, the charge rested on suspicion alone; but this is fact. Consider carefully. You may have been mistaken. Any of us may make a mistake."
"It was true--Gospel truth--I see him place a parcel--along sideways--in the safe. The parcel we found afterwards in the safe containing all the notes." The words were confident; but the manner was halting.
"Very well. Next, you told Sir Samuel that my brother had been living in some low suburb of London with profligate companions, and that he had been even going about in rags and tatters."
"Yes, I did. I told Sir Samuel what I heard. Mr. Carstone told me. You"d better ask him. I only told what I heard."
George went out, and returned, bringing with him Mr. Freddy Carstone. He looked round the room and stared with surprise at Mr. Dering, but said nothing. He had been warned to say nothing, except in answer to questions.
"Now, Mr. Carstone," Elsie asked him, "how long is it since you met my brother after his return to England?"
"About three weeks ago I met him. It was in Holborn. I invited him into the _Salutation_ Tavern."
"Did you tell Mr. Checkley here anything about his way of living?"
"I remember saying, foolishly, that he looked too respectable to have come from America; and I said in joke that I believed he had been in Camberwell all the time."
"Nothing about profligacy?"
"Nothing at all."
"Nothing about rags and tatters?"
"Certainly not. In fact, I knew nothing at all about Athelstan"s life during the eight years that he has been away."
"Have you anything to say, Checkley? You still stick to the parcel story, do you? Very well, and to the Camberwell and profligacy story?"
Checkley made no answer.
"Now, then. There is another question. You made a great point about certain imitations of Mr. Dering"s writing found in a drawer of Athelstan"s table?"
"Well, they were there, in your brother"s hand."
"George, you have something to say on this point."