ARTHUR'S APPEAL.
Suit was promptly begun by Livingstone on behalf of Sonia for a divorce
from Horace Endicott. Before the papers had been fully made out, even
before the officer had been instructed to serve them on Arthur Dillon,
the lawyer received an evening visit from the defendant himself. As a
suspicious act he welcomed it; but a single glance at the frank face and
easy manner, when one knew the young man's ability, disarmed suspicion.
The lawyer studied closely, for the first time with interest, the man
who might yet prove to be his kinsman. He saw a form inclined to
leanness, a face that might have been handsome but for the sunken
cheeks, dark and expressive eyes whose natural beauty faded in the dark
circles around them, a fine head with dead black hair, and a handsome
beard, streaked with gray. His dress, gentleman-like but of a strange
fashion, the lawyer did not recognize as the bachelor costume of Cherry
Hill prepared by his own tailor. Nothing of the Endicott in face or
manner, nothing tragical, the expression decorous and formal, perhaps a
trifle quizzical, as this was their first meeting since the interview in
London.
"I have called to enter a protest," Arthur began primly, "against the
serving of the papers in the coming Endicott divorce case on your humble
servant."
"As the papers are to be served only on Horace Endicott, I fail to see
how you have any right or reason to protest," was the suave answer.
"I know all about the matter, sir, for very good reasons. For some
months the movements of the two women concerned in this affair have been
watched in my interest. Not long after they left you a few days ago, the
result of their visit was made known to me. To anticipate the
disagreeable consequences of serving the papers on me, I have not
waited. I appeal to you not only as the lawyer of Mrs. Endicott, but
also as one much to blame for the new persecution which is about to fall
upon me."
"I recognize the touch," said Livingstone, unable to resist a smile.
"Mr. Dillon must be audacious or nothing."
"I am quite serious," Arthur replied. "You know part of the story, what
Mrs. Endicott chose to tell you, but I can enlighten you still more. I
appeal to you, as the lady's lawyer, to hinder her from doing mischief;
and again I appeal to you as one to blame in part for the threatened
annoyances. But for the lady who accompanied Mrs. Endicott, I would not
be suspected of relationship with your honored family. But for the
discipline which I helped to procure for that lady, she would have left
me in peace. But for your encouragement of the lady, I would not have
been forced to subject a woman to discipline. You may remember the
effective Sister Claire?"
So true was the surprise that Livingstone blushed with sudden violence.
"That woman was the so-called escaped nun?" he exclaimed.
"Now Mrs. Curran, wife of the detective employed by Mrs. Endicott for
five years to discover her lost husband. She satisfies her noblest
aspirations by dancing in the theaters, ... and a very fine dancer she
is. Her leisure is devoted to plotting vengeance on me. She pretends to
believe that I am Horace Endicott; perhaps she does believe it. Anyway
she knows that persecution will result, and she has persuaded Mrs.
Endicott to inaugurate it. I do not know if you were her selection to
manage the case."
This time Livingstone did not blush, being prepared for any turn of mood
and speech from this singular young man.
"As the matter was described to me," he said, "only a sentimental reason
included you in the divorce proceedings. I can understand Mrs. Curran's
feelings, and to what they would urge a woman of that character. Still,
her statements here were very plausible."
"Undoubtedly. She made her career up to this moment on the plausible.
Let me tell you, if it is not too tedious, how she has pursued this
theory in the face of all good sense."
The lawyer bowed his permission.
"I am of opinion that the creature is half mad, or subject to fits of
insanity. Her husband had talked much of the Endicott case, which was
not good for a woman of her peculiarities. By inspiration, insane
suggestion, she assumed that I was the man sought for, and built up the
theory as you have heard. First, she persuaded her good-natured husband,
with whom I am acquainted, to investigate among my acquaintances for the
merest suspicion, doubt, of my real personality. A long and minute
inquiry, the details of which are in writing in my possession, was made
by the detective with one result: that no one doubted me to be what I
was born."
Livingstone cast a look at him to see the expression which backed that
natural and happy phrase. Arthur Dillon might have borne it.
"She kept at her husband, however, until he had tried to surprise my
relatives, my friends, my nurse, and my mother, ... yes, even my
confessor, into admissions favorable to her mad dream. My rooms, my
papers, my habits, my secrets were turned inside out; Mrs. Endicott was
brought on from Boston to study me in my daily life; for days I was
watched by the three. In the detective's house I was drugged into a
profound sleep, and for ten minutes the two women examined my sleeping
face for signs of Horace Endicott. When all these things failed, Sister
Claire dragged her unwilling husband to California, where I had spent
ten years of my life, and tried hard to find another Arthur Dillon, or
to disconnect me with myself. She proved to her own satisfaction that
these things could not be done. But there is a devil of perversity in
her. She is like a boa constrictor ... I think that's the snake which
cannot let go its prey once it has seized it. She can't let go. In
desperation she is risking her own safety and happiness to make public
her belief that I am Horace Endicott. In spite of the overwhelming
proofs against the theory, and in favor of me, she is bent on bringing
the case into court."
"Risking her own safety and happiness?" Livingstone repeated.
"If the wild geese among the Irish could locate Sister Claire, who is
supposed to have fled the town long ago, her life would be taken. If
this suit continues she will have to leave the city forever. Knowing
this the devil in her urges her to her own ruin."
"You have kept close track of her," said Livingstone.
"You left me no choice," was the reply, "having sprung the creature on
us, and then thrown her off when you found out her character. If she had
only turned on her abettors and wracked them I wouldn't have cared."
"You protest then against the serving of these papers on you. Would it
not be better to settle forever the last doubts in so peculiar a
matter?"
"What have I to do with the doubts of an escaped nun, and of Mrs.
Endicott? Must I go to court and stand the odium of a shameful
imputation to settle the doubts of a lunatic criminal and a woman whose
husband fled from her with his entire fortune?"
"It is regrettable," the lawyer admitted with surprise. "As Mrs.
Endicott is perhaps the most deeply interested, I fear that the case
must go on."
"I have come to show you that it will not be to the interest of the two
women that it should go on. In fact I feel quite certain that you will
not serve those papers on me after I have laid a few facts before you."
"I shall be glad to examine them in the interest of my client."
"Having utterly failed to prove me other than I am," Arthur said easily,
while the lawyer watched with increasing interest the expressive face,
"these women have accepted your suggestion to put me under oath as to my
own personality. I would not take affidavit," and his contempt was
evident. "I am not going to permit any public or official attempt to
cast doubt on my good name. You can understand the feeling. My mother
and my friends are not accustomed to the atmosphere of courts, nor of
scandal. It would mean severe suffering for them to be dragged into so
sensational a trial. The consequences one cannot measure beforehand. The
unpleasantness lives after all the parties are dead. Since I can prevent
it I am going to do it. As far as I am concerned Mrs. Endicott must be
content with a simple denial, or a simple affirmation rather, that I am
Arthur Dillon, and therefore not her husband. It is more than she
deserves, because there is not a shred of evidence to warrant her making
a single move against me. She has not been able to find in me a feature
resembling her husband."
"Then, you are prepared to convince Mrs. Endicott that she has more to
lose than to gain by bringing you into her divorce suit?"
"Precisely. Here is the point for her to consider: if the papers in this
suit are served upon me, then there will be no letting-up afterward. Her
affairs, the affairs of this woman Curran, the lives of both to the last
detail, will be served up to the court and the public. You know how that
can be done. I would rather not have it done, but I proffer Mrs.
Endicott the alternative."
"I do not know how strong an argument that would be with Mrs. Endicott,"
said Livingstone with interest.
"She is too shallow a woman to perceive its strength, unless you, as her
lawyer and kinsman, make it plain to her," was the guileless answer.
"Mrs. Curran knows nothing of court procedure, but she is clever enough
to foresee consequences, and her history before her New York fiasco
includes bits of romance from the lives of important people."
Livingstone resisted the inclination to laugh, and then to get angry.
"You think then, that if Mrs. Endicott could be made to see the
possibilities of a desperate trial, the possible exposures of her sins
and the sins of others, that she would not risk it?"
"She has family pride," said Arthur seriously, "and would not care to
expose her own to scorn. I presume you know something about the Endicott
disappearance?"
"Nothing more than the fact, and the failure to find the young man?"
"His wife employed the detective Curran to make the search for Endicott,
and Curran is a Fenian, as interested as myself in such matters. He was
with me in the little enterprise which ended so fatally for Ledwith and
... others." Livingstone was too sore on this subject to smile at the
pause and the word. "Curran told me the details after he had left the
pursuit of Endicott. They are known now to Mrs. Endicott's family in
part. It is understood that she will marry her cousin Quincy Lenox when
she gets a divorce. He was devoted to her before her marriage and is
faithful still, I am told."
Not a sign of feeling in the utterance of these significant words!
"It is not affection, then, which prompts the actions of my client? She
wishes to make sure of the existence or non-existence of her husband
before entering upon this other marriage?"
"Of course I can tell you only what the detective and one other told
us," Arthur said. "When Horace Endicott disappeared, it is said, he took
with him his entire fortune, something over a million, leaving not one
cent to his wife. He had converted his property into cash secretly. Her
anxiety to find him is very properly to get her lawful share in that
property, that is, alimony with her divorce?"
"I see," said Livingstone, and he began to understand the lines and
shadows on this young man's face. "A peculiar, and I suppose thorough,
revenge."
"If the papers are served on me, you understand, then in one fashion or
another Mrs. Endicott shall be brought to court, and Quincy Lenox too,
with the detective and his wife, and a few others. It is almost too much
that you have been made acquainted with the doubts of these people. I
bear with it, but I shall not endure one degree more of publicity. Once
it is known that I am thought to be Horace Endicott, then the whole
world must know quite as thoroughly that I am Arthur Dillon; and also
who these people are that so foolishly pursue me. It cannot but appear
to the average crowd that this new form of persecution is no more than
an outgrowth of the old."
Then they glared at each other mildly, for the passions of yesterday
were still warm. Livingstone's mood had changed, however. He felt
speculatively certain that Horace Endicott sat before him, and he knew
Sonia to be a guilty woman. As his mind flew over the humiliating events
which connected him with Dillon, consolation soothed his wounded heart
that he had been overthrown perhaps by one of his own, rather than by
the Irish. The unknown element in the contest had given victory to the
lucky side. He recalled his sense of this young fellow's superiority to
his environment. He tried to fathom Arthur's motive in this visit, but
failed. As a matter of fact Arthur was merely testing the thoroughness
of his own disappearance. His visit to Livingstone the real Dillon would
have made. It would lead the lawyer to believe that Sonia, in giving up
her design, had been moved by his advice and not by a quiet, secret
conversation with her husband. Livingstone quickly made up his mind that
the divorce suit would have to be won by default, but he wished to learn
more of this daring and interesting kinsman.
"The decision must remain with Mrs. Endicott," he said after a pause. "I
shall tell her, before your name is mixed up with the matter, just what
she must expect. If she has anything to fear from a public trial you are
undoubtedly the man to bring it out."
"Thank you."
"I might even use persuasion ..."
"It would be a service to the Endicott family," Arthur said earnestly,
"for I can swear to you that the truth will come out, the scandal which
Horace Endicott fled to avoid and conceal forever."
"Did you know Endicott?"
"Very well indeed. I was his guide in California every time he made a
trip to that country."
"I might persuade Mrs. Endicott," said the lawyer with deeper interest,
"for the sake of the family name, to surrender her foolish theory. It is
quite clear to any one with unbiased judgment that you are not Horace
Endicott, even if you are not Arthur Dillon. I knew the young man
slightly, and his family very well. I can see myself playing the part
which you have presented to us for the past five years, quite as
naturally as Horace Endicott would have played it. It was not in
Horace's nature, nor in the Endicott nature to turn Irish so
completely."
Arthur felt all the bitterness and the interest which this shot implied.
"I had the pleasure of knowing Endicott well, much better than you,
sir," he returned warmly, "and while I know he was something of a
good-natured butterfly, I can say something for his fairness and
courage. If he had known what I know of the Irish, of their treatment by
their enemies at home and here, of English hypocrisy and American
meanness, of their banishment from the land God gave them and your
attempt to drive them out of New York or to keep them in the gutter, he
would have taken up their cause as honestly as I have done."
"You are always the orator, Mr. Endi ... Dillon."
"I have feeling, which is rare in the world," said Arthur smiling. "Do
you know what this passion for justice has done for me, Mr. Livingstone?
It has brought out in me the eloquence which you have praised, and
inspired the energy, the deviltry, the trickery, the courage, that were
used so finely at your expense.
"I was like Endicott, a wild irresponsible creature, thinking only of my
own pleasure. Out of my love for one country which is not mine, out of a
study of the wrongs heaped upon the Irish by a civilized people, I have
secured the key to the conditions of the time. I have learned to despise
and pity the littleness of your party, to recognize the shams of the
time everywhere, the utter hypocrisy of those in power.
"I have pledged myself to make war on them as I made war on you; on the
power that, mouthing liberty, holds Ireland in slavery; on the powers
that, mouthing order and peace, hold down Poland, maintain Turkey, rob
and starve India, loot the helpless wherever they may. I was a harmless
hypocrite and mostly a fool once. Time and hardship and other things,
chiefly Irish and English, have given me a fresh start in the life of
thought. You hardly understand this, being thoroughly English in your
make-up.
"You love good Protestants, pagans who hate the Pope, all who bow to
England, and that part of America which is English. You can blow about
their rights and liberties, and denounce their persecutors, if these
happen to be French or Dutch or Russian. For a Pole or an Irishman you
have no sympathy, and you would deny him any place on the earth but a
grave. Liberty is not for him unless he becomes a good English
Protestant at the same time. In other words liberty may be the proper
sauce for the English goose but not for the Irish gander."
"I suppose it appears that way to you," said Livingstone, who had
listened closely, not merely to the sentiments, but to the words, the
tone, the idiom. Could Horace Endicott have ever descended to this view
of his world, this rawness of thought, sentiment, and expression? So
peculiarly Irish, anti-English, rich with the flavor of the Fourth Ward,
and nevertheless most interesting.
"I shall not argue the point," he continued. "I judge from your
earnestness that you have a well-marked ambition in life, and that you
will follow it."
"My present ambition is to see our grand cathedral completed and
dedicated as soon as possible, as the loudest word we can speak to you
about our future. But I fear I am detaining you. If during the next few
days the papers in the divorce case are not served on me, I may feel
certain that Mrs. Endicott has given up the idea of including me in the
suit?"
"I shall advise her to leave you in peace for the sake of the Endicott
name," said Livingstone politely.
Arthur thanked him and departed, while the lawyer spent an hour enjoying
his impressions and vainly trying to disentangle the Endicott from the
Dillon in this extraordinary man.