"You mustn"t go," said Miss Ingate.
"You are my solicitor, whatever mother may say, and you mustn"t go," added Audrey in a soft voice.
The man was entranced. It occurred to him that he would have a tale to tell and to re-tell at his club for years, about "a certain fair client who shall be nameless."
The next minute he had heard a somewhat romantic, if not hysterical, version of the facts of the case, and he was perusing the original doc.u.ments. By chance he read first the letter about the Zacatecas shares.
That Mathew Moze had made a will without his aid was a shock; that Mathew Moze had invested money without his advice was another shock quite as severe. But he knew the status of the Great Mexican Oil Company, and his countenance lighted as he realised the rich immensity of the business of proving the will and devolving the estate; his costs would run to the most agreeable figures. As soon as he glanced at the testament which Mr. Cowl had found, he muttered, with satisfaction and disdain:
"H"m! He made this himself."
And he gazed at it compa.s.sionately, as a cabinetmaker might gaze at a piece of amateur fretwork.
Standing, he read it slowly and with extreme care. And when he had finished he casually remarked, in the cla.s.sic legal phrase:
"It isn"t worth the paper it"s written on."
Then he sat down again, and his neat paunch resumed its niche between his legs. He knew that he had made a tremendous effect.
"But--but----" Miss Ingate began.
"Not worth the paper it"s written on," he repeated. "There is only one witness, and there ought to be two, and even the one witness is a bad one--Aguilar, because he profits under the will. He would have to give up his legacy before his attestation could count, and even then it would be no good alone. Mr. Moze has not even expressly revoked the old will. If there hadn"t been a previous will, and if Aguilar was a thoroughly reliable man, and if the family had wished to uphold the new will, I dare say the Court _might_ have p.r.o.nounced for it. But under the circ.u.mstances it hasn"t the ghost of a chance."
"But won"t the National Reformation Society make trouble?" demanded Miss Ingate faintly.
"Let "em try!" said Mr. Foulger, who wished that the National Reformation Society would indeed try.
Even as he articulated the words, he was aware of Audrey coming towards him from the direction of the door; he was aware of her black frock and of her white face, with its bulging forehead and its deliciously insignificant nose. She held out her hand.
"You are a dear!" she whispered.
Her lips seemed to aim uncertainly for his face. Did they just touch, with exquisite contact, his bristly chin, or was it a divine illusion? ... She blushed in a very marked manner. He blinked, and his happy blinking seemed to say: "Only wills drawn by me are genuine.... Didn"t I tell you Mr. Moze was not a man of business?"
Audrey ran to Miss Ingate.
Mr. Foulger, suddenly ashamed, and determined to be a lawyer, said sharply:
"Has Mrs. Moze made a will?"
"Mother made a will? Oh no!"
"Then she should make one at once, in your favour, of course. No time should be lost."
"But Mrs. Moze is ill in bed," protested Miss Ingate.
"All the more reason why she should make a will. It may save endless trouble. And it is her duty. I shall suggest that I be the executor and trustee, of course with the usual power to charge costs." His face was hard again. "You will thank me later on, Miss Moze," he added.
"Do you mean _now?_" shrilled Miss Ingate.
"I do," said he. "If you will give me some paper, we might go to her at once. You can be one of the witnesses. I could be a witness, but as I am to act under the will for a consideration somebody else would be preferable."
"I should suggest Aguilar," answered Miss Ingate, the corners of her lips dropping.
Miss Ingate went first, to prepare Mrs. Moze.
When Audrey was alone in the study--she had not even offered to accompany her elders to the bedroom--she made a long sound: "Ooo!" Then she gave a leap and stood still, staring out of the window at the estuary. She tried to force her mood to the colour of her dress, but the sense of propriety was insufficient for the task. The magnificence of all the world was unfolding itself to her soul. Events had hitherto so dizzyingly beaten down upon her head that she had scarcely been conscious of feeling. Now she luxuriously felt. "I am at last born," she thought. "Miracles have happened.... It"s incredible.... I can do what I like with mother.... But if I don"t take care I shall die of relief this very moment!"
CHAPTER V
THE DEAD HAND
Audrey was wakened up that night, just after she had gone to sleep, by a touch on the cheek. Her mother, palely indistinct in the darkness, was standing by the bedside. She wore a white wrap over her night attire, and the customary white bandage from which emanated a faint odour of eau-de-Cologne, was around her forehead.
"Audrey, darling, I must speak to you."
Instantly Audrey became the wise directress of her poor foolish mother"s existence.
"Mother," she said, with firm kindness, "please do go back to bed at once.
This sort of thing is simply frightful for your neuralgia. I"ll come to you in one moment."
And Mrs. Moze meekly obeyed; she had gone even before Audrey had had time to light her candle. Audrey was very content in thus being able to control her mother and order everything for the best. She guessed that the old lady had got some idea into her head about the property, or about her own will, or about the solicitor, or about a tombstone, and that it was worrying her.
She and Miss Ingate (who had now returned home) had had a very extensive palaver, in low voices that never ceased, after the triumphant departure of Mr. Foulger. Audrey had cautiously protested; she was afraid her mother would be fatigued, and she saw no reason why her mother should be acquainted with all the details of a complex matter; but the gossiping habit of a quarter of a century was too powerful for Audrey.
In the large parental bedroom the only light was Audrey"s candle. Mrs. Moze was lying on the right half of the great bed, where she had always lain.
She might have lain luxuriously in the middle, with vast s.p.a.ces at either hand, but again habit was too powerful.
The girl, all in white, held the candle higher, and the shadows everywhere shrunk in unison. Mrs. Moze blinked.
"Put the candle on the night-table," said Mrs. Moze curtly.
Audrey did so. The bedroom, for her, was full of the souvenirs of parental authority. Her first recollections were those of awe in regard to the bedroom. And when she thought that on that bed she had been born, she had a very queer sensation.
"I"ve decided," said Mrs. Moze, lying on her back, and looking up at the ceiling, "I"ve decided that your father"s wishes must be obeyed."
"What about, mother?"
"About those shares going to the National Reformation Society. He meant them to go, and they must go to the Society. I"ve thought it well over and I"ve quite decided. I didn"t tell Miss Ingate, as it doesn"t concern her.
But I felt I must tell you at once."
"Mother!" cried Audrey. "Have you taken leave of your senses?" She shivered; the room was very cold, and as she shivered her image in the mirror of the wardrobe shivered, and also her shadow that climbed up the wall and bent at right-angles at the cornice till it reached the middle of the ceiling.
Mrs. Moze replied obstinately:
"I"ve not taken leave of my senses, and I"ll thank you to remember that I"m your mother. I have always carried out your father"s wishes, and at my time of life I can"t alter. Your father was a very wise man. We shall be as well off as we always were. Better, because I can save, and I shall save. We have no complaint to make; I should have no excuse for disobeying your father. Everything is mine to do as I wish with it, and I shall give the shares to the Society. What the shares are worth can"t affect my duty.
Besides, perhaps they aren"t worth anything. I always understood that things like that were always jumping up and down, and generally worthless in the end.... That"s all I wanted to tell you."
Why did Audrey seize the candle and walk straight out of the bedroom, leaving darkness behind her? Was it because the acuteness of her feelings drove her out, or was it because she knew instinctively that her mother"s decision would prove to be immovable? Perhaps both.