MISS DORNWOOD’S GUARDIAN.
Waddie and I, in the course of our narrative, had fully informed Mr.
Pinkerton in regard to the relations of Nick Van Wolter with Mr.
Overton.
“Now, Captain Penniman, you and I will see Mr. Overton. Waddie, if
you will go to the office of my lawyer, Mr. Bayard, and state to him
all the facts in the case, you will oblige me very much,” said Mr.
Pinkerton. “In about half an hour return with him.”
“I will do so with pleasure,” replied Waddie.
“Perhaps Miss Dornwood had better go with you. She can tell a part of
her story to better advantage than you can.”
Waddie was still better pleased with this arrangement, and they left
the house by the side door, so as not to be seen by Mr. Overton in the
library. I followed Mr. Pinkerton into the presence of the guardian
and his wife. I bowed to them as I entered, but they evidently were
not pleased to see me.
“I am informed that Miss Dornwood, my ward, is in your house, sir,” Mr.
Overton began.
“Not at this moment, though she is within call, and will be here in
half an hour,” replied Mr. Pinkerton.
“You are aware, sir, that I am her legal guardian?”
“I am, sir.”
“Permit me to say, sir, that your conduct in harboring and encouraging
her in her present vicious course is entirely unjustifiable,” continued
Mr. Overton, sternly and severely.
“Permit me to say, sir, that I take an entirely different view of the
matter,” added Mr. Pinkerton, very courteously.
“Then you take a very extraordinary view of it.”
“There is room for some difference of opinion on this subject, and,
until better informed, I shall be obliged to retain my own view.”
“Miss Dornwood ran away from me. Are you aware of this fact, sir?”
“I am; you locked her into her room, and she escaped. With the
assistance of some good friends, she came here, where I purpose to
have her remain as long as she is pleased to do so.”
“Allow me to remind you again, sir, that I am her legal guardian.”
“Allow me to remind you, sir, that you have abused your office.”
“That is a very strong statement, Mr. Pinkerton,” replied the guardian,
who seemed to be surprised at the charge.
“I have no doubt it can be fully proved, Mr. Overton. A young lady
of seventeen is legally an infant, but not morally. The duties of a
guardian are those of a father.”
“I have endeavored to be as a father towards her,” added Mr. Overton,
who was plainly unprepared for the step which Mr. Pinkerton’s remarks
foreshadowed.
“Do you think a father would lock his daughter of seventeen into a room
in a hotel?”
“If she disobeyed him--yes.”
“Or drag her by force through the grounds of a public hotel?”
“The law would justify him in doing so, if she refused to obey his
reasonable commands.”
“Perhaps it would; I will leave that matter in the hands of the
lawyers. Certainly, if the young lady were not absolutely vicious,
the moral sense of the community would not justify either father or
guardian in the use of force.”
“She is absolutely vicious,” answered the guardian, boldly.
“Sir, you insult her!” said Mr. Pinkerton, indignantly. “I know her
well; and a more gentle, modest, and well-behaved girl does not live in
this country.”
“She impudently refused to obey me.”
“Only after you, in the presence of the young gentleman who had
assisted her in her peril and terror, had treated her in the most
outrageous manner; after you had ordered her to the house, like a
child. Your conduct was that of a common bully.”
“Sir!”
“I wish to be entirely frank with you, sir. You have made her life
miserably unhappy by your petty tyranny and contemptible espionage. You
have not treated her with any of the consideration due to a young lady
who has entered her teens,” continued Mr. Pinkerton, calmly.
“Am I to understand, sir, that you intend to remove me from my office
of guardian on these grounds?”
“No, sir, not exactly on those grounds. The law, in most if not all the
states, provides that when a guardian becomes ‘evidently unsuitable’
for the discharge of his duties, he shall be removed.”
“Do you think I am an unsuitable person?” demanded Mr. Overton, who was
very nervous and much alarmed.
“I do so consider you, sir.”
“If you think I am too strict with her, though I have only acted for
her welfare, I will be less so in the future,” said Mr. Overton, who
now seemed disposed to compromise.
“Miss Dornwood says she will never live with you again under any
circumstances, even if she is obliged to earn her own living.”
“Is her will to be the law?”
“She is entitled to be consulted. But here she comes, and on this
subject she may speak for herself. The gentleman with her is Mr.
Bayard, her legal adviser and mine.”
Miss Dornwood, attended by Waddie and the lawyer, entered the library.
Mr. and Mrs. Overton bowed coldly as they entered. The young lady was
very much embarrassed, and seated herself as far from her guardian as
the size of the room would permit.
Mr. Pinkerton informed the legal gentleman what had thus far
transpired. Mr. Bayard, who by this time fully understood the subject,
explained the law, and said that Miss Dornwood could petition the Court
of Probate, or Surrogate, to remove the guardian, and appoint a new one.
“Prepare the papers as soon as convenient, Mr. Bayard,” said Mr.
Pinkerton.
“The petition must be presented to the court having jurisdiction in the
cause when the will of Mr. Dornwood was admitted to probate. Perhaps
Mr. Overton would prefer to resign his office of guardian, which it is
competent for him to do,” added the lawyer.
“No, sir; I don’t intend to do that,” replied Mr. Overton.
“Such a course might be best for you.”
“Gentlemen, you speak to me as though I were a monster, and not a
gentleman; as though I were guilty of some base crime,” protested Mr.
Overton.
“That is precisely the view I take of it, after listening to Miss
Dornwood’s statement, and that of Mr. Wimpleton.”
“Sir, do you mean to insult me? I am not on trial.”
“You are not, but you ought to be,” coolly retorted the legal gentleman.
“If there is any law in the land--”
“Plenty of it,” interposed the cool lawyer. “As the attorney of Miss
Dornwood, I only hope you will commence the proceedings. You are
excited, sir. Pray keep calm.”
“Can I keep calm while I am charged with a base crime?” fumed Mr.
Overton, rising from his chair, and pacing the room in his wrath.
“I see that you do not understand the case. Let me refresh your memory,
and point out to you the bearings of some of your actions. In the first
place, you went to the Cataract House with a couple of bank robbers.”
“Only one, sir,” I suggested.
“With one, then; that is just as bad.”
“But he was an impostor, and I did not know that he was not what he
represented himself to be,” replied the guardian.
“I think you did. You must have known that he was a common blackleg,
for you saw him plying his trade in a gambling saloon at Cape May. You
had an understanding with him, after you had seen him at the gambling
table,--not as a visitor, but as one who was plundering a victim,--that
he should marry your ward, and that he was to accept, as her dowry in
full, fifty thousand dollars, though the young lady’s fortune was four
times that amount. You made this bargain with the blackleg and bank
robber.”
Mr. Overton was very red, and then very pale. His limbs were shaky, and
he was obliged to resume his chair. He attempted to defend himself, and
declared that the testimony of a bank robber against a gentleman in his
position would prove nothing.
“I grant that it is a very poor kind of testimony,” replied Mr. Bayard.
“But, so far as it can be confirmed by other witnesses, it will be
useful. Did you not tell Miss Dornwood that you would not consent to
her marriage with any other person than this bank robber and blackleg?”
“The gentleman came to me as an English lord, and I thought it was a
good match for her.”
“Lord Palsgrave!” laughed the lawyer. “You knew very well that he was
not a lord. You do not answer my question, Mr. Overton.”
“I am not on trial.”
“Will Miss Dornwood answer?”
“He did tell me that I could marry only Lord Palsgrave with his
consent,” replied she, with a blush; and it was plain enough that she
had never thought of marrying anybody.
“Do you intend to drag all this matter into the court?” demanded Mr.
Overton.
“Undoubtedly; and we intend to examine Mr. Dornwood’s will very
critically, especially that part of it relating to the consent of the
guardian to Miss Dornwood’s marriage. We believe it has been tampered
with.”
Mr. Overton appeared to be stunned by this declaration. Doubtless, like
all other evil-doers, he supposed that his deeds were entirely covered,
and that no one suspected him of anything wrong. He was unable again
to regain his self-possession, and Mr. Bayard restated the grounds on
which he proposed to proceed.
“I will resign,” gasped he, at last, after his wife had whispered in
his ear.
“That is the most prudent step you can take,” added the lawyer.
“I wish you to understand that I do not resign because I have done
anything wrong, but because I do not wish to have my name publicly
connected with a bank robber. I did not know what he was,” protested
Mr. Overton.
“Yon can put any construction you please upon your own conduct,” said
Mr. Bayard. “It will be necessary for you to render an account of all
your expenditures as the guardian of Miss Dornwood, and deliver her
property into the hands of your successor.”
“That’s a gratuitous insult,” replied the crestfallen guardian.
But a time was fixed for the transaction of this important business,
and Mr. Overton agreed to be present with his resignation. He and his
wife departed sadder and wiser than they came. As there was no doubt
in the minds of any of us that he had intended to rob his ward of the
greater portion of her fortune, we did not pity him.
Waddie devoted himself assiduously to Miss Dornwood during the rest of
our stay at Mr. Pinkerton’s, and it was quite late in the evening when
we returned to Middleport. The next day we went up the lake again, and
Waddie sailed the Raven down to Centreport. After this he went down
the lake as far as Ruoara about every day. At the end of a fortnight,
however, when Mr. Pinkerton and Miss Dornwood went to her residence
to attend the proceedings at the Surrogate Court, Waddie consented to
finish the vacation with me in the upper waters of the lake. Tommy
Toppleton went with us this time; Tom Walton was again able to take his
place at the helm, and we had a splendid time.
We were obliged to attend court at the examination of the bank robbers,
who were fully committed for trial. Subsequently they were convicted,
and sentenced to twenty years in the penitentiary.
Mr. Pinkerton was appointed the guardian of Miss Dornwood, after the
resignation of Mr. Overton; and the Raven plied very regularly between
Ruoara and Centreport.