A few days later, having watched him leave his office, I interviewed
the poor underpaid soul who served him as clerk. At first I could
get little information from him. But, prompted by the promise of
another situation, he showed me what a scoundrel his employer
really was.
Mr Jackson knew that Mrs Wemysson had gambled her daughter’s money,
and threatened to expose and ruin her if she did not insist upon
Alice marrying him. He forebore to tell her that Mr Wemysson’s
brother, of whom they had not heard for years, had died and left his
niece a fortune of fifty thousand pounds. He, as the family
solicitor, knew all about it, but was keeping the information back
until he had secured the heiress for his wife.
My course was now plain. I paid a visit to Mrs Wemysson and proved
to her that I knew more about her own and her daughter’s affairs
than she did. She was very humble and repentant. She was also
grateful when I undertook to smooth over the ruffled feelings of the
injured lovers.
The latter are now happily married, and have sealed their forgiveness
by augmenting Mrs Wemysson’s fortune to its original amount. They
have, however, taken the precaution to place only the interest at her
disposal. Every Christmas brings me some wonderful presents from Mr
and Mrs Wigan, who will have it that I saved them from lifelong
misery by exposing Mr Jackson’s schemes ere it was too late.
Mr Jackson himself has by this time discovered that shady ways don’t
pay. He has been struck off the rolls, and Lincoln’s Inn Fields
knows him no more.