"Well, _that's_ over!" said Roger, returning to the dining-room and
mopping his brow. "Upon my word, Jose, that nasty varmint gave me quite a
turn for the moment, he spoke so confident."
"Tut, tut!" ejaculated Mr. Jose, pacing the room with his hands clasped
beneath his coat-tails.
"Do you know," Roger continued musingly, "I'm not altogether sorry the
woman showed her hand. Sooner or later she had to be got rid of, and a
thing like that is easier done when your blood's up. But Lord! could
anyone have thought such wickedness was to be found in the world!"
The lawyer rounded on him impatiently. "Mr. Stephen," said he, in the
very words the widow had used two minutes before, "you're very foolish
man, if you'll excuse my saying it."
"Certainly," Roger assured him. "But be dashed to me if I see why."
"Because, sir, you're on the wrong side of the law. Your father executed
that will, and it's genuine; or the vermin--as you call him--would never
have taken that line with me."
"I daresay. But what of that?"
"What of that? Why, you've cut yourself off from compromise--that's all.
You don't think a fellow of that nature--I say nothing of the woman--will
meet you on any reasonable terms after the way you've behaved!"
"Compromise? Terms? Why, dang it all, Jose! You're not telling me the
old fool could will away Steens, that has passed as freehold from father
to son these two hundred years and more?"
"The law allows it," began Mr. Jose; but his outraged client cut him short.
"The law allows it!" he mimicked. "How soon d'ye think they'll get the
country to allow it? Why, the thing's monstrous--'tis as plain as the
nose on your face!"
"Oh, you'll get sympathy, no doubt!"
"Sympathy? What the devil do I want with sympathy? I want my rights,
and I've got 'em. What's more, I'll keep 'em--you see! Man, if that limb
of Satan dared to come back, d'ye think the whole countryside wouldn't
uphold me? But he won't; he won't dare. You heard him squeal, surely?"
"Drat the very name of politics!" exclaimed Mr. Jose so inconsequently
that Roger had good excuse for staring.
"I don't take ye, Jose."
"No, I daresay not. I was thinking of Sir John. He's up at Westminster
speechifying against corruption and Long Parliaments, and, the
pamphleteers say, doing ten men's work to save the State; but for your
sake I wish he was home minding the affairs of his parish. For I do
believe he'd be for you at the bottom of his heart, and, if he used his
influence, we might come to a settlement."
"'Settlement'?" Roger well-nigh choked over the word. He took three
paces across the room and three paces back. His face twitched with fury,
but for the moment he held himself in rein. "Look here, Jose, are you my
lawyer or are you not? What in thunder do I want with Sir John?
Right's right, and I'm going to stand on it. You _know_ I'm in the right,
and yet, like a cowardly attorney, at the first threat you hum and haw and
bethink you about surrender. I don't know what _you_ call it, sir, but
_I_ call it treachery. 'Settlement?' I've a damned good mind to believe
they've bought you over!"
Mr. Jose gathered up his papers. "After that speech, Mr. Stephen, it
don't become me to listen to more. As your father's friend I'm sorry for
you. You're an ill-used man, but you're going to be a worse-used one, and
by your own choice. I wish indeed I may prove mistaken, but my warning
is, you have set your feet in a desperate path. Good-day, sir."
And so Roger Stephen quarrelled with his wisest friend.