Adeline's reasons for going to Putney in their trouble had to avail with
Suzette against the prejudice they had always felt towards him. In the
tangible and immediate pressure that now came upon them they were glad
to be guided by his counsel; they both believed it was dictated by a
knowledge of law and a respect for justice, and by no regard for them.
They had a comfort in it for this reason, and they freely relied upon
it, as in some sort the advice of an honest and faithful enemy. They
remembered that the last evening he was with them, their father had
spoken leniently of Putney's infirmity, and admiringly of his wasted
ability. Now each step they took was at his suggestion. They left the
great house before the creditors were put in possession of the personal
property, and went to live in the porter's lodge at the gate of the
avenue, which they furnished with the few things they could claim for
their own out of their former belongings, and from the ready money
Suzette had remaining in her name at the bank. They abandoned everything
of value in the house they had left, even to their richer dresses and
their jewels: they preferred to do this, and Putney approved; he saw
that it saved them more than it cost them in their helpless pride.
The Newtons continued in their quarters unmolested; the furniture was
theirs and the building belonged to the Northwick girls, as the Newtons
called them. Mrs. Newton went every day to help them to get going in
their new place, and Elbridge and she lived there for a few weeks with
them, till they said they should not be afraid to stay alone. He stood
guard over their rights, as far as he could ascertain them in the
spoliation that had to come. He locked the avenue gate against the
approach of those who came to the assignee's sale, and made them enter
and take away their purchases by the farm road; and in all lawful ways
he rendered himself obstructive and inconvenient.
His deference to the law was paid entirely through Putney, whose
smartness inspired Elbridge with a respect he felt for no other virtue
in man. Putney arranged with him to take the Northwick place and manage
it on shares for the Northwick girls; he got for him two of the old
horses which Elbridge wanted for his work, and one of the cheaper cows.
The rest of the stock was sold to gentleman farmers round about, who had
fancies for costly cattle: the horses, good, bad and indifferent, were
sent to a sale-stable in Boston. The greenhouses were stripped of all
that was valuable in them, and nothing was left upon the place, of its
former equipment, except the few farm implements, a cart or two, and an
ancient carryall that Putney bid off for Newton's use.
Then, when all was finished, he advertised the house to let for a term
of years, and failing a permanent tenant before the season opened, he
rented it to an adventurous landlady, who proposed to fill it with
summer boarders, and who engaged to pay a rental for it monthly, in
advance, that would enable the Northwick girls to live on, in the
porter's lodge, without fear of want. For the future, Putney imagined a
scheme for selling off some of the land next the villas of South
Hatboro', in lots to suit purchasers. That summer sojourn had languished
several years in uncertainty of its own fortunes; but now, by a caprice
of the fashion which is sending people more and more to the country for
the spring and fall months, it was looking up decidedly. Property had so
rapidly appreciated there, that Putney thought of asking so much a foot
for the Northwick lands, instead of offering it by the acre.
In proposing to become a land operator, in behalf of his clients, he had
to reconcile his practice with theories he had held concerning unearned
land-values; and he justified himself to his crony, Dr. Morrell, on the
ground that these might be justly taken from such rich and idle people
as wanted to spend the spring and fall at South Hatboro'. The more land
at a high price you could get into the hands of the class South Hatboro'
was now attracting, and make them pay the bulk of the town tax, the
better for the land that working men wanted to get a living on. In
helping the Northwick girls to keep all they could out of the clutches
of their father's creditors, he held that he was only defending their
rights; and any fight against a corporation was a kind of holy war. He
professed to be getting on very comfortably with his conscience, and he
promised that he would not let it worry other people. To Mr. Gerrish he
made excuses for taking charge of the affairs of two friendless women,
when he ought to have joined Gerrish in punishing them for their
father's sins, as any respectable man would. He asked Gerrish to
consider the sort of fellow he had always been, drinking up his own
substance, while Gerrish was thriftily devouring other people's houses,
and begged him to make allowance for him.
The anomalous relation he held to the Northwicks afforded him so much
excitement and enjoyment, that he passed his devil's dividend, as he
called his quarterly spree. He kept straight longer than his fellow
citizens had known him to do for many years. But Putney was one of those
men who could not be credited by people generally with the highest
motives. He too often made a mock of what people generally regarded as
the highest motives; he puzzled and affronted them; and as none of his
most intimate friends could claim that he was respectable in the
ordinary sense of the word, people generally attributed interested
motives, or at least cynical motives, to him. Adeline Northwick profited
by a call she made upon Dr. Morrell for advice about her dyspepsia, to
sound him in regard to Putney's management of her affairs; and if the
doctor's powders had not so distinctly done her good, she might not have
been able to rely upon the assurance he gave her, that Putney was acting
wisely and most disinterestedly toward her and her sister.
"He has such a strange way of talking, sometimes," she said.
But she clung to Putney, and relied upon him in everything, not so much
because she implicitly trusted him, as because she knew no one else to
trust. The kindness that Mr. Hilary had shown for them in the first of
their trouble, had, of course, become impossible to both the sisters. He
had, in fact, necessarily ceased to offer it directly, and Sue had
steadily rejected all the overtures Louise made her since they last met.
Louise wanted to come again to see her; but Sue evaded her proposals; at
last she would not answer her letters; and their friendship outwardly
ceased. Louise did not blame her; she accounted for her, and pitied and
forgave her; she said it was what she herself would do in Sue's place,
but probably if she had continued herself, she would not have done what
Sue did, even in Sue's place. She remembered Sue with a tender constancy
when she could no longer openly approach her without hurting more than
she helped; and before the day of the assignee's sale came, she thought
out a scheme which Wade carried into effect with Putney's help. Those
things of their own that the sisters had meant to sacrifice, were bidden
off, and restored to them in such a way that it was not possible for
them to refuse to take back the dresses, the jewels, the particular
pieces of furniture which Louise associated with them.
Each of the sisters dealt with the event in her sort; Adeline simply
exulted in getting her things again; Sue gave all hers into Adeline's
keeping, and bade her never let her see them.