The Case and Exceptions Part 17

"The Court will not entertain it at present."

"I demand it as a right!"

"Mr. Martin, you forget yourself."

"You are right, but still I demand that this brief be now read."

Martin leaned over the rail and placed the doc.u.ment upon the Judge's desk.

In the pause that followed, the Magistrate's eyes followed these lines indorsed on the cover of the paper thrust before him:

"_Look out for the green-covered order in your hand. Suspect something fraudulent. Parties now in Court watching you. Am talking against time._"

Then the stillness of the room was broken by the Justice speaking in a constrained voice:

"The Court will now adjourn for recess. In the meantime, Mr. Martin, I will consider your brief."

It was some days after the crowd had ceased discussing the way Blagden "got called down by Martin" that the latter wrote a short reply to the former's long epistle.

"_Mr. Martin respectfully acknowledges Judge Blagden's letter of the 10th inst., and is gratified to learn that the warning was not wholly uncalled for. The Justice, however, may rest a.s.sured that he is under no obligation to Mr.

Martin, whose sole concern in the matter was his honour--but not His Honour Charles Blagden._"

AN ABSTRACT STORY.

Williams ought to have known that whenever Meyer wanted a t.i.tle searched he shopped with it until compet.i.tion eliminated the margin of profit.

But whether he knew this or not it was perfectly plain that there was no money in the East Broadway work at the figures he agreed upon. However, year after year the legal arena is gladdened by the advent of certain rosy-cheeked, enthusiastic youths who fancy they can change the instinct of Chatham Square and acquire control of big real estate operators like Meyer, through the simple expedient of doing some of their work for nothing. Moreover, each newcomer thinks he has evolved an entirely novel plan for working up a practice. At first I thought Williams was one of these delightfully optimistic individuals, but subsequent events have demonstrated there was more method in his madness.

Williams was in love with Miss Thornton. Everybody knew it, though, as Parsons said, Miss Thornton didn't seem to know it by heart. The more fool she, I thought, for Williams was a first-rate fellow and a far better man than that doll-faced, shallow chit had any right to expect. I admit it isn't very gallant to speak of a girl in this way, but I sometimes think a little plain truth about the fair s.e.x would make them more fair. Miss Thornton had prettiness enough of a certain kind, she wore her gowns well and looked the girl of good breeding that she was.

But beyond that--well, I never could see what made Williams so desperately in love with her. Therefore when R. Castelez Forbes appeared on the scene, though I sympathised with the discomforted swain, I could not really feel very sorry for him.

Where R. Castelez Forbes came from was more or less of a mystery. Mrs.

Thornton told me she met him on the "Teutonic" and that he had been "awfully kind" to Daisy and her during the pa.s.sage. She had invited him to spend a day or two in the Berkshires, and since then they had seen a good deal of him. To my inquiry as to his business Mrs. Thornton replied that he was "something in the manufacturing line" and she believed "quite a rising young fellow." She was a hopelessly silly woman. Mr.

Thornton was an able man, but too easy going and good-natured to trouble himself about the antecedents of Miss Daisy's callers.

It did not take much to frighten Williams off. He was sensitive as most manly fellows are when in love. But had he possessed far more self-confidence there was quite enough in the situation to have discouraged him. Miss Thornton and Forbes were constantly together, and although no engagement had been announced most people spoke of it as "an understood thing."

Such was the situation when Meyer brought the East Broadway papers to Williams and inquired his fee for searching the t.i.tle.

Williams glanced at the contract of sale for a moment, turned to the last deed in the Abstract and promptly named a figure so low that even Meyer feared to ask for a reduction, although he did insist on the work being finished in a week. The bargain was closed then and there, and everybody who heard of it cursed Williams for cutting prices to a point where neither he nor anyone else could hope to make money.

But the last item in the East Broadway Abstract would have explained to the initiated why Williams undertook the work at losing rates, and it certainly excused him for beginning his investigation of the t.i.tle wrong end foremost. This item read as follows:

} _Warranty Deed, F. & C._ _Reginald C. Forbes_, } _Dated May 1, 1887._ _To_ } _Ack. May 1, 1887._ _Beatrice Gordon Forbes_, } _Rec. May 2, 1887._ } _Cons. $1._

_Conveys premises under examination._

which meant that, at the date named, one Reginald C. Forbes had transferred the East Broadway property to a woman named Forbes at a nominal price. The contract of sale showed that this same Miss or Mrs.

Forbes had agreed to sell the property to Meyer.

Within ten minutes after he had received the papers, Williams was hot upon the trail. Within an hour he had learned all he wished to know.

The Register's Office showed that the deed made by Reginald C. Forbes was recorded at the request of Messrs. Harmon & Headly, and at their offices Williams made his first inquiry.

"Yes, I know Mr. Forbes," replied Mr. Harmon--"at least, I did know him. He was a client of mine some years ago. Why do you ask?"

Williams exhibited the Abstract and pointed out the deed in question.

"I recall the transaction," continued the old lawyer, after a moment's thought. "Forbes conveyed the property to his wife for one dollar, in consideration of her releasing him from alimony and dower rights.--Yes, she obtained a divorce from him some time in '86 or '87. I think you'll find her agreement on record, but perhaps Forbes didn't record it. I haven't seen him for years, and don't know what's become of him.--Do I remember what name the initial C stood for? Yes, I believe I do. It had a Spanish sound. Something like Castilian. Castelez? Yes--that was it."

Williams thanked Mr. Harmon and went home to work his way through a maze of tangled thoughts to the conclusion that his duty to his neighbour, Miss Thornton, was to love her far better than himself.

His reasoning was something like this: Miss Thornton had been cruelly deceived. She had honoured a scamp by receiving his attention. Perhaps she had even given him her love. But in any case, humiliation was to be her portion. The blow to her self-esteem she could not escape--but might he not save her pride the lasting sting of even a partial publicity? How could this best be done? To speak to a man of Forbes' character would be a waste of words and give no protection to the girl. Mr. and Mrs.

Thornton were in Bermuda, and every moment's delay must add insult to the injury. The girl's chaperone was a foolish hysterical old aunt whose idea of action in emergency would probably begin and end in a telegram.

What if he undertook the task himself? He was a rival and she might not believe him? There was no chance for disbelief. If she required proofs--they were at hand. His knowledge of her humiliation would make her hate the sight of his face, and she would never forget or forgive it? He would still have saved her something of bitterness, and for this there was no sacrifice he would not make.

Now I do not propose to argue that Williams took the wisest course even if Mr. and Mrs. Thornton were in Bermuda--I am not prepared to say he was not quixotic--I am ready to admit he was disqualified from acting either as tale-bearer or guardian, but I do maintain that in taking upon himself the responsibility of putting the girl in possession of the facts, he showed far more moral courage than nine out of ten men would display under similar circ.u.mstances.

Had Miss Thornton's mind been built upon broader lines, she would have appreciated the admirable tact with which Williams handled the whole subject and understood the delicacy and deference which disclosed the truth so gradually that she seemed to discover it for herself. But Miss Thornton's mind was somewhat self-centred, and as she heard his story her pretty face showed nothing but its prettiness. She listened to the words of the man, but took no note of his quiet, sympathetic tone.

Suddenly the situation dawned upon her. Her cheeks flushed, her hands, which had been clasped behind her shapely head, fell, and she sat there in the half light of the cozy drawing-room gazing before her without seeing the pained and tenderly anxious glance of the man who stood looking down at her.

"Good night, Miss Thornton.--Won't you even say good-bye?"

There was no answer from the girl who, with elbows on knees and her chin in her hands, stared into the fading fire as though unconscious of his presence.

"Good-bye, then, Miss Thornton, and--and G.o.d keep you--dear!"

Now it may be true, as her garrulous old aunt told me, that Miss Thornton was discovered in the drawing-room that night weeping bitterly, but if so, I venture to a.s.sert her tears were those of anger--the tears of a spoilt child. However, the point is not what I think, but what Williams thought. He left the Thorntons' house firmly convinced that he had wholly failed in his mission and succeeded only in making the woman he loved hate him. But as he lay awake brooding over the situation the possibility presented itself that the girl might go to Forbes with the story and a.s.sert her loyalty by offering to marry him then and there.

Such things had happened before. As he thought it over, the possibility became a fear, and the fear a resolution to protect the girl, not only against Forbes, but if necessary against herself. The step he took was theoretically quite as impossible as his original action. But to attempt the impossible is sometimes to achieve it.

Early the next morning Williams looked up Pierce & Butler, the attorneys who had represented Mrs. Forbes in the divorce proceedings, obtained her address, and straightway called upon the lady herself. His interview was short, but at its close he made another extraordinary move. He telegraphed Meyer that the East Broadway business was to be closed within twenty-four hours. Seeing that he had not up to that time made any adequate examination of the t.i.tle, his action must have seemed somewhat rash to his clerks--especially as he spent most of the intervening hours, not at the Register's office, but in the building of the green lamps on Mulberry Street known as Police Headquarters.

As a result of this, the first callers at Williams' offices on the following morning were afforded singular accommodations. One of them was stationed behind the portieres, another was supplied with a seat in a closet, and another was ensconced in a coat-cupboard.

Then Williams sat down at the big table in the t.i.tle-closing room and waited for Meyer and the other parties to the purchase and sale of the property. They came promptly.

Meyer arrived first, accompanied by Jacobs, his confidential clerk, for that prudent Hebrew never did anything without one of his own people being present as a witness; then Mr. Winter, the real estate broker, dropped in, and when finally Mr. August Stein, Attorney-at-law, introduced himself and his client Mrs. Forbes. Williams showed no surprise that Mr. Stein's client did not in any way resemble the Mrs.

Forbes he had interviewed only the day before.

Mr. Stein was a nervous, active little man who spoke in the sharp brisk tones of one who has much to do and but little time to do it in.

"Now, Mr. Williams, you are all ready, I hope. I have another appointment at 11.30. You found everything clear? Of course--of course.

It isn't everyone who can carry East Broadway property free and clear.--No, indeed, Mrs. Forbes."