Though sorely tried by the ‘pernicketty’ nature of his niece, Steer
had been borne up by the thought that he had only to hold on a little
longer to obtain justice. How he had got her to the starting-post
he really did not know, so pitiably had she ‘jibbed.’ The conviction
that good solid damages would in the end be better for her than
anything else had salved and soothed a conscience really affected by
her nervous distress. Her pale face and reddened eyes on the way to
the court disturbed him, and yet, he knew they were valuable--she
was looking her best for the occasion! It would be all over--he told
her--in an hour, and then she should go to the seaside--what did she
say to Weston-super-Mare (with one syllable)? She said nothing, and he
had entered the Law Courts with his arm through hers, and his upper
lip very long. The sight of the two Bowdens seated on a bench in the
corridor restored the burning in his heart. He marked his niece’s
eyes slide round as they passed young Bowden. Yes! She would take him
even now! He saw Ned shuffle his feet and Bowden grin, and he hurried
her on--not for anything would he forego the five hundred out of that
fellow’s pocket. At that moment the feud between him and his neighbour
showed naked--those young people were but the catspaw of it. The custom
of the court compelled them all presently to be sitting in a row,
divided faction from faction by not more than the breadth of a pig.
Steer’s thin face, racked by effort to follow the patter of the chap
in a wig, acquired a sort of maniacal fixity; but he kept hold of his
niece’s arm, squeezing it half-consciously now and again, and aware of
her shrinking faint look. As for ‘those two fellers,’ there they sat,
like as at an auction, giving nothing away, as if they thought--darn
them--that the case must fail if they sat tight and did nothing. It
seemed unjust to Steer that they should seem unmoved while his niece
was wilting beside him. When she went up, trembling, into the ‘dock,’
a strong scent of camphor floated from Steer, stirred from his clothes
by the heat within him. He could hardly hear her, and they kept telling
her to speak up. He saw tears roll down her cheeks; and the ginger
in his greying hair and beard brightened while he glared at those
Bowdens, who never moved. They didn’t ask her much--not even Bowden’s
counsel--afraid to, he could see! And, vaguely, through his anger and
discomfort, Steer felt that, with her ‘ladylikeness,’ her tears, her
shrinking, she was making a good impression on judge and jury. It
enraged him to see her made to shrink and weep, but it delighted him
too.
She came back to his side and sat down all shrunk into herself.
Bowden’s counsel began outlining the defence, and Steer listened with
his mouth a little open--an outrageous defence--for what did it amount
to but a confession that the feller had played fast and loose! His
client--said counsel--came into court not to defend this action but to
express his regret as an honourable man for having caused the plaintiff
distress, though not, he would submit, any material damage; for, now
that they had seen her in the box, it would be absurd to suppose that
what was called her ‘value in the marriage market’ had deteriorated.
His client had come there to tell them the simple truth that, finding
his feelings towards the plaintiff changed, he had considered it more
honourable, wise and merciful to renounce his engagement before it
was too late, sooner than enter into a union from the start doomed
to an unhappiness, which, the gentlemen of the jury must remember,
would, in the nature of men and things, fall far more heavily on the
plaintiff than on the defendant himself. Though fully admitting his
responsibility for the mistake he had made and the hastiness of which
he had been guilty, the defendant believed they would give him credit
for his moral courage in stopping before it was too late, and saving
the plaintiff from the fiasco of a miserable marriage....
At the words ‘moral courage’ Steer had righted himself in his seat so
suddenly that the Judge was seen to blink. ‘Moral courage!’ Wasn’t
anybody going to tell those dodos there that the feller had been
playing the rip with that cross-bred slut? Wasn’t anybody going to tell
them that Bowden had put his son up to this to spite him--Steer? A
sense of mystification and falsity muddled and enraged him; it was all
bluff and blarney, like selling a horse....
With the robust common-sense characteristic--counsel went on--of plain
and honest men, the jury would realise that one could not have things
both ways in this world--however it might be in the next. The sad
records of the divorce court showed what was the outcome of hasty and
ill-considered marriages. They gave one to think furiously, indeed,
whether these actions for breach of promise, with their threat of
publicity, were not responsible for much of the work of that dismal
tribunal. He would submit that where you had, as here, a young man,
admitting his error and regretting it, yet manly enough to face this
ordeal in order to save the plaintiff, and in less degree himself, of
course, from a life of misery, that young man was entitled if not to
credit, at least to just and considerate treatment at the hands of his
fellow-citizens, who had themselves all been young and perhaps not
always as wise as Solomon. Let them remember what young blood was--a
sunny lane in that beautiful Western county, the scent of honeysuckle,
a pretty girl--and then let them lay their hands on their hearts and
say that they themselves might not have mistaken the emotions of a
moment for a lifelong feeling.
“Don’t let us be hypocrites, gentlemen, and pretend that we always
carry out that to which in moments of midsummer madness we commit
ourselves. My client will tell you quite simply, for he is a simple
country youth, that he just made a mistake which no one regrets more
than he, and then I shall leave it in your hands--confident that, sorry
as we all are for the disappointment of this charming girl, you will
assess the real values of the case with the instinct of shrewd and
understanding men.”
“Well, I’m darned!”
“H’sh! Silence in the court!”
The mutter which had been riven from Steer by counsel’s closing words,
by no means adequately expressed feelings which grew with every
monosyllable from that ‘young ruffian’ answering the cunning questions
of his advocate.
With his sleek, bullet head he looked sheepish enough, but the thing
was being made so easy for him--that was what seemed villainous to
Steer, that and the sight of Bowden’s face, unmoved, the breadth of
two pigs away. When his own counsel began to cross-examine, Steer
became conscious that he had made a hideous mistake. Why had he not
caused his lawyer to drag in the girl Pansy? What on earth had he been
about to let his natural secretiveness, his pride in his niece, prevent
his using the weapon which would have alienated every sympathy from
that young rascal. He tingled with disappointed anger. So the fellow
was not to be shown up properly! It was outrageous. And then suddenly
his ears pricked. “Now, young man,” counsel was saying, “don’t you
think that in days like these you can serve your country better than by
going about breaking girls’ hearts?... Kindly answer that question!...
Don’t waste his lordship’s time. Yes? Speak up, please!”
“I’m workin’ the land--I’m growin’ food for you to eat!”
“Indeed! The jury will draw their own conclusions as to what sort of
leniency they can extend to a young man in your position.”
And Steer’s lips relaxed. That was a nasty one!
Then came the speeches from counsel on both sides, and everything was
said over again, but Steer had lost interest; disappointment nagged
at him, as at a man who has meant to play a fine innings--and gets
out for seven. Now the Judge was saying everything that everybody
had said and a little more besides. The jury must not let themselves
this, and let themselves that. Defendant’s counsel had alluded to the
divorce court--they must not allow any such consideration to weigh
with them. While the law was what it was breach of promise actions
must be decided on their merits. They would consider this, and they
would consider that, and return a verdict, and give damages according
to their consciences. And out the jury filed. Steer felt lonely while
they were absent. On one side of him were those Bowdens whom he wanted
to make sweat, on the other his niece whom, to judge from her face, he
_had_ made sweat. He was not a lover of animals, but a dog against his
legs would have been a comfort during that long quarter of an hour,
while those two enemies of his so stolidly stared before them. Then the
jury came back, and the sentiment in his heart stuttered into a form he
could have sent through the post: ‘O Lord! make them sweat. Your humble
servant, J. Steer.’
“We find for the plaintiff with damages three hundred pounds.”
Three hundred! And costs--with costs it would come to five! And
Bowden had no capital; he was always on the edge of borrowing to get
through--yes, it would push him hard! And grasping his niece’s arm
Steer rose and led her out by the right-hand door, while the Bowdens
sought the left. In the corridor his lawyer came up. The fellow hadn’t
half done his job! And Steer was about to say so, when those two
fellers passed, walking as though over turnips, and he heard Bowden say:
“Think he’ll get that stickin’ plaster--let ’im wait an’ see!”
He was about to answer, when the lawyer laid hold of his lapel.
“Get your niece away, Mr. Steer; she’s had enough.” And without sense
of conquest, with nothing but a dull irritable aching in his heart,
Steer took her arm and walked her out of the precincts of the law.