GUILTY, OR NOT GUILTY.
Unfortunately for Mr. Furnival, the intruder was Mrs.
Furnival--whether he pleased or whether he did not please. There
she was in his law chamber, present in the flesh, a sight pleasing
neither to her husband nor to her husband's client. She had knocked
at the outside door, which, in the absence of the fag, had been
opened by Mr. Crabwitz, and had immediately walked across the passage
towards her husband's room, expressing her knowledge that Mr.
Furnival was within. Mr. Crabwitz had all the will in the world to
stop her progress, but he found that he lacked the power to stay it
for a moment.
The advantages of matrimony are many and great,--so many and so
great, that all men, doubtless, ought to marry. But even matrimony
may have its drawbacks; among which unconcealed and undeserved
jealousy on the part of the wife is perhaps as disagreeable as any.
What is a man to do when he is accused before the world,--before
any small fraction of the world, of making love to some lady of his
acquaintance? What is he to say? What way is he to look? "My love, I
didn't. I never did, and wouldn't think of it for worlds. I say it
with my hand on my heart. There is Mrs. Jones herself, and I appeal
to her." He is reduced to that! But should any innocent man be so
reduced by the wife of his bosom?
I am speaking of undeserved jealousy, and it may therefore be thought
that my remarks do not apply to Mrs. Furnival. They do apply to
her as much as to any woman. That general idea as to the strange
goddesses was on her part no more than a suspicion: and all women who
so torment themselves and their husbands may plead as much as she
could. And for this peculiar idea as to Lady Mason she had no ground
whatever. Lady Mason may have had her faults, but a propensity to rob
Mrs. Furnival of her husband's affections had not hitherto been one
of them. Mr. Furnival was a clever lawyer, and she had great need of
his assistance; therefore she had come to his chambers, and therefore
she had placed her hand in his. That Mr. Furnival liked his client
because she was good looking may be true. I like my horse, my
picture, the view from my study window for the same reason. I am
inclined to think that there was nothing more in it than that.
"My dear!" said Mr. Furnival, stepping back a little, and letting his
hands fall to his sides. Lady Mason also took a step backwards, and
then with considerable presence of mind recovered herself and put out
her hand to greet Mrs. Furnival.
"How do you do, Lady Mason?" said Mrs. Furnival, without any presence
of mind at all. "I hope I have the pleasure of seeing you very well.
I did hear that you were to be in town--shopping; but I did not for a
moment expect the--gratification of finding you here." And every word
that the dear, good, heart-sore woman spoke, told the tale of her
jealousy as plainly as though she had flown at Lady Mason's cap with
all the bold demonstrative energy of Spitalfields or St. Giles.
"I came up on purpose to see Mr. Furnival about some unfortunate law
business," said Lady Mason.
"Oh, indeed! Your son Lucius did say--shopping."
[Illustration: "Your son Lucius did say--shopping."]
"Yes; I told him so. When a lady is unfortunate enough to be driven
to a lawyer for advice, she does not wish to make it known. I should
be very sorry if my dear boy were to guess that I had this new
trouble; or, indeed, if any one were to know it. I am sure that I
shall be as safe with you, dear Mrs. Furnival, as I am with your
husband." And she stepped up to the angry matron, looking earnestly
into her face.
To a true tale of woman's sorrow Mrs. Furnival's heart could be as
snow under the noonday sun. Had Lady Mason gone to her and told her
all her fears and all her troubles, sought counsel and aid from her,
and appealed to her motherly feelings, Mrs. Furnival would have been
urgent night and day in persuading her husband to take up the widow's
case. She would have bade him work his very best without fee or
reward, and would herself have shown Lady Mason the way to Old
Square, Lincoln's Inn. She would have been discreet too, speaking no
word of idle gossip to any one. When he, in their happy days, had
told his legal secrets to her, she had never gossiped,--had never
spoken an idle word concerning them. And she would have been constant
to her friend, giving great consolation in the time of trouble, as
one woman can console another. The thought that all this might be so
did come across her for a moment, for there was innocence written in
Lady Mason's eyes. But then she looked at her husband's face; and
as she found no innocence there, her heart was again hardened. The
woman's face could lie;--"the faces of such women are all lies," Mrs.
Furnival said to herself;--but in her presence his face had been
compelled to speak the truth.
"Oh dear, no; I shall say nothing of course," she said. "I am
quite sorry that I intruded. Mr. Furnival, as I happened to be in
Holborn--at Mudie's for some books--I thought I would come down and
ask whether you intend to dine at home to-day. You said nothing about
it either last night or this morning; and nowadays one really does
not know how to manage in such matters."
"I told you that I should return to Birmingham this afternoon; I
shall dine there," said Mr. Furnival, very sulkily.
"Oh, very well. I certainly knew that you were going out of town.
I did not at all expect that you would remain at home; but I thought
that you might, perhaps, like to have your dinner before you
went. Good morning, Lady Mason; I hope you may be successful in
your--lawsuit." And then, curtsying to her husband's client, she
prepared to withdraw.
"I believe that I have said all that I need say, Mr. Furnival,"
said Lady Mason; "so that if Mrs. Furnival wishes--," and she also
gathered herself up as though she were ready to leave the room.
"I hardly know what Mrs. Furnival wishes," said the husband.
"My wishes are nothing," said the wife, "and I really am quite sorry
that I came in." And then she did go, leaving her husband and the
woman of whom she was jealous once more alone together. Upon the
whole I think that Mr. Furnival was right in not going home that day
to his dinner.
As the door closed somewhat loudly behind the angry lady--Mr.
Crabwitz having rushed out hardly in time to moderate the violence of
the slam--Lady Mason and her imputed lover were left looking at each
other. It was certainly hard upon Lady Mason, and so she felt it.
Mr. Furnival was fifty-five, and endowed with a bluish nose; and she
was over forty, and had lived for twenty years as a widow without
incurring a breath of scandal.
"I hope I have not been to blame," said Lady Mason in a soft, sad
voice; "but perhaps Mrs. Furnival specially wished to find you
alone."
"No, no; not at all."
"I shall be so unhappy if I think that I have been in the way. If
Mrs. Furnival wished to speak to you on business I am not surprised
that she should be angry, for I know that barristers do not usually
allow themselves to be troubled by their clients in their own
chambers."
"Nor by their wives," Mr. Furnival might have added, but he did not.
"Do not mind it," he said; "it is nothing. She is the best-tempered
woman in the world; but at times it is impossible to answer even for
the best-tempered."
"I will trust you to make my peace with her."
"Yes, of course; she will not think of it after to-day; nor must you,
Lady Mason."
"Oh, no; except that I would not for the world be the cause of
annoyance to my friends. Sometimes I am almost inclined to think that
I will never trouble any one again with my sorrows, but let things
come and go as they may. Were it not for poor Lucius I should do so."
Mr. Furnival, looking into her face, perceived that her eyes were
full of tears. There could be no doubt as to their reality. Her eyes
were full of genuine tears, brimming over and running down; and the
lawyer's heart was melted. "I do not know why you should say so," he
said. "I do not think your friends begrudge any little trouble they
may take for you. I am sure at least that I may so say for myself."
"You are too kind to me; but I do not on that account the less know
how much it is I ask of you."
"'The labour we delight in physics pain,'" said Mr. Furnival
gallantly. "But, to tell the truth, Lady Mason, I cannot understand
why you should be so much out of heart. I remember well how brave and
constant you were twenty years ago, when there really was cause for
trembling."
"Ah, I was younger then."
"So the almanac tells us; but if the almanac did not tell us I should
never know. We are all older, of course. Twenty years does not go by
without leaving its marks, as I can feel myself."
"Men do not grow old as women do, who live alone and gather rust as
they feed on their own thoughts."
"I know no one whom time has touched so lightly as yourself, Lady
Mason; but if I may speak to you as a friend--"
"If you may not, Mr. Furnival, who may?"
"I should tell you that you are weak to be so despondent, or rather
so unhappy."
"Another lawsuit would kill me, I think. You say that I was brave and
constant before, but you cannot understand what I suffered. I nerved
myself to bear it, telling myself that it was the first duty that I
owed to the babe that was lying on my bosom. And when standing there
in the Court, with that terrible array around me, with the eyes of
all men on me, the eyes of men who thought that I had been guilty of
so terrible a crime, for the sake of that child who was so weak I
could be brave. But it nearly killed me. Mr. Furnival, I could not
go through that again; no, not even for his sake. If you can save me
from that, even though it be by the buying off of that ungrateful
man--"
"You must not think of that."
"Must I not? ah me!"
"Will you tell Lucius all this, and let him come to me?"
"No; not for worlds. He would defy every one, and glory in the fight;
but after all it is I that must bear the brunt. No; he shall not know
it;--unless it becomes so public that he must know it."
And then, with some further pressing of the hand, and further words
of encouragement which were partly tender as from the man, and partly
forensic as from the lawyer, Mr. Furnival permitted her to go,
and she found her son at the chemist's shop in Holborn as she had
appointed. There were no traces of tears or of sorrow in her face as
she smiled on Lucius while giving him her hand, and then when they
were in a cab together she asked him as to his success at Liverpool.
"I am very glad that I went," said he, "very glad indeed. I saw the
merchants there who are the real importers of the article, and I have
made arrangements with them."
"Will it be cheaper so, Lucius?"
"Cheaper! not what women generally call cheaper. If there be anything
on earth that I hate, it is a bargain. A man who looks for bargains
must be a dupe or a cheat, and is probably both."
"Both, Lucius. Then he is doubly unfortunate."
"He is a cheat because he wants things for less than their value; and
a dupe because, as a matter of course, he does not get what he wants.
I made no bargain at Liverpool,--at least, no cheap bargain; but
I have made arrangements for a sufficient supply of a first-rate
unadulterated article at its proper market price, and I do not fear
but the results will be remunerative." And then, as they went home in
the railway carriage the mother talked to her son about his farming
as though she had forgotten her other trouble, and she explained to
him how he was to dine with Sir Peregrine.
"I shall be delighted to dine with Sir Peregrine," said Lucius, "and
very well pleased to have an opportunity of talking to him about his
own way of managing his land; but, mother, I will not promise to be
guided by so very old-fashioned a professor."
Mr. Furnival, when he was left alone, sat thinking over the interview
that had passed. At first, as was most natural, he bethought himself
of his wife; and I regret to say that the love which he bore to her,
and the gratitude which he owed to her, and the memory of all that
they had suffered and enjoyed together, did not fill his heart with
thoughts towards her as tender as they should have done. A black
frown came across his brow as he meditated on her late intrusion,
and he made some sort of resolve that that kind of thing should be
prevented for the future. He did not make up his mind how he would
prevent it,--a point which husbands sometimes overlook in their
marital resolutions. And then, instead of counting up her virtues,
he counted up his own. Had he not given her everything; a house such
as she had not dreamed of in her younger days? servants, carriages,
money, comforts, and luxuries of all sorts? He had begrudged her
nothing, had let her have her full share of all his hard-earned
gains; and yet she could be ungrateful for all this, and allow her
head to be filled with whims and fancies as though she were a young
girl,--to his great annoyance and confusion. He would let her know
that his chambers, his law chambers, should be private even from her.
He would not allow himself to become a laughing-stock to his own
clerks and his own brethren through the impertinent folly of a woman
who owed to him everything;--and so on! I regret to say that he never
once thought of those lonely evenings in Harley Street, of those
long days which the poor woman was doomed to pass without the only
companionship which was valuable to her. He never thought of that vow
which they had both made at the altar, which she had kept so loyally,
and which required of him a cherishing, comforting, enduring love.
It never occurred to him that in denying her this he as much broke
his promise to her as though he had taken to himself in very truth
some strange goddess, leaving his wedded wife with a cold ceremony
of alimony or such-like. He had been open-handed to her as regards
money, and therefore she ought not to be troublesome! He had done his
duty by her, and therefore he would not permit her to be troublesome!
Such, I regret to say, were his thoughts and resolutions as he sat
thinking and resolving about Mrs. Furnival.
And then, by degrees, his mind turned away to that other lady,
and they became much more tender. Lady Mason was certainly both
interesting and comely in her grief. Her colour could still come and
go, her hand was still soft and small, her hair was still brown and
smooth. There were no wrinkles in her brow though care had passed
over it; her step could still fall lightly, though it had borne a
heavy weight of sorrow. I fear that he made a wicked comparison--a
comparison that was wicked although it was made unconsciously.
But by degrees he ceased to think of the woman and began to think of
the client, as he was in duty bound to do. What was the real truth
of all this? Was it possible that she should be alarmed in that way
because a small country attorney had told his wife that he had found
some old paper, and because the man had then gone off to Yorkshire?
Nothing could be more natural than her anxiety, supposing her to be
aware of some secret which would condemn her if discovered;--but
nothing more unnatural if there were no such secret. And she must
know! In her bosom, if in no other, must exist the knowledge whether
or no that will were just. If that will were just, was it possible
that she should now tremble so violently, seeing that its justice
had been substantially proved in various courts of law? But if it
were not just--if it were a forgery, a forgery made by her, or with
her cognizance--and that now this truth was to be made known! How
terrible would that be! But terrible is not the word which best
describes the idea as it entered Mr. Furnival's mind. How wonderful
would it be; how wonderful would it all have been! By whose hand in
such case had those signatures been traced? Could it be possible that
she, soft, beautiful, graceful as she was now, all but a girl as she
had then been, could have done it, unaided,--by herself?--that she
could have sat down in the still hour of the night, with that old man
on one side and her baby in his cradle on the other, and forged that
will, signatures and all, in such a manner as to have carried her
point for twenty years,--so skilfully as to have baffled lawyers and
jurymen and resisted the eager greed of her cheated kinsman? If so,
was it not all wonderful! Had not she been a woman worthy of wonder!
And then Mr. Furnival's mind, keen and almost unerring at seizing
legal points, went eagerly to work, considering what new evidence
might now be forthcoming. He remembered at once the circumstances of
those two chief witnesses, the clerk who had been so muddle-headed,
and the servant-girl who had been so clear. They had certainly
witnessed some deed, and they had done so on that special day. If
there had been a fraud, if there had been a forgery, it had been so
clever as almost to merit protection! But if there had been such
fraud, the nature of the means by which it might be detected became
plain to the mind of the barrister,--plainer to him without knowledge
of any circumstances than it had done to Mr. Mason after many of such
circumstances had been explained to him.
But it was impossible. So said Mr. Furnival to himself, out
loud;--speaking out loud in order that he might convince himself.
It was impossible, he said again; but he did not convince himself.
Should he ask her? No; it was not on the cards that he should do
that. And perhaps, if a further trial were forthcoming, it might be
better for her sake that he should be ignorant. And then, having
declared again that it was impossible, he rang his bell. "Crabwitz,"
said he, without looking at the man, "just step over to Bedford
Row, with my compliments, and learn what is Mr. Round's present
address;--old Mr. Round, you know."
Mr. Crabwitz stood for a moment or two with the door in his hand, and
Mr. Furnival, going back to his own thoughts, was expecting the man's
departure. "Well," he said, looking up and seeing that his myrmidon
still stood there.
Mr. Crabwitz was not in a very good humour, and had almost made up
his mind to let his master know that such was the case. Looking at
his own general importance in the legal world, and the inestimable
services which he had rendered to Mr. Furnival, he did not think that
that gentleman was treating him well. He had been summoned back to
his dingy chamber almost without an excuse, and now that he was in
London was not permitted to join even for a day the other wise men of
the law who were assembled at the great congress. For the last four
days his heart had been yearning to go to Birmingham, but had yearned
in vain; and now his master was sending him about town as though he
were an errand-lad.
"Shall I step across to the lodge and send the porter's boy to Round
and Crook's?" asked Mr. Crabwitz.
"The porter's boy! no; go yourself; you are not busy. Why should I
send the porter's boy on my business?" The fact probably was, that
Mr. Furnival forgot his clerk's age and standing. Crabwitz had been
ready to run anywhere when his employer had first known him, and Mr.
Furnival did not perceive the change.
"Very well, sir; certainly I will go if you wish it;--on this
occasion that is. But I hope, sir, you will excuse my saying--"
"Saying what?"
"That I am not exactly a messenger, sir. Of course I'll go now, as
the other clerk is not in."
"Oh, you're too great a man to walk across to Bedford Row, are you?
Give me my hat, and I'll go."
"Oh, no, Mr. Furnival, I did not mean that. I'll step over to Bedford
Row, of course;--only I did think--"
"Think what?"
"That perhaps I was entitled to a little more respect, Mr. Furnival.
It's for your sake as much as my own that I speak, sir; but if the
gentlemen in the Lane see me sent about like a lad of twenty, sir,
they'll think--"
"What will they think?"
"I hardly know what they'll think, but I know it will be very
disagreeable, sir;--very disagreeable to my feelings. I did think,
sir, that perhaps--"
"I'll tell you what it is, Crabwitz, if your situation here does not
suit you, you may leave it to-morrow. I shall have no difficulty in
finding another man to take your place."
"I am sorry to hear you speak in that way, Mr. Furnival, very
sorry--after fifteen years, sir--."
"You find yourself too grand to walk to Bedford Row!"
"Oh, no. I'll go now, of course, Mr. Furnival." And then Mr. Crabwitz
did go, meditating as he went many things to himself. He knew his own
value, or thought that he knew it; and might it not be possible to
find some patron who would appreciate his services more justly than
did Mr. Furnival?