John Garstang stood with his back to the fire in his well furnished
office in Bedford Row, tall, upright as a Life Guardsman, but slightly
more prominent about what the fashionable tailor called his client's
chest. He was fifty, but looked by artificial aid, forty. Scrupulously
well-dressed, good-looking, and with a smile which won the confidence of
clients, though his regular white teeth were false, and the high
foreheaded look which some people would have called baldness was so
beautifully ivory white and shiny that it helped to make him look what
he was--a carefully polished man of the world.
The clean japanned boxes about the room, all bearing clients' names, the
many papers on the table, the waste-paper basket on the rich Turkey
carpet, chock full of white fresh letters and envelopes, all told of
business; and the handsome morocco-covered easy chairs suggested
occupancy by moneyed clients who came there for long consultations, such
as would tell up in a bill.
John Garstang was a family solicitor, and he looked it; but he would
have made a large fortune as a physician, for his presence and urbane
manner would have done anyone good.
The morning papers had been glanced at and tossed aside, and the
gentleman in question, while bathing himself in the warm glow of the
fire, was carefully scraping and polishing his well-kept nails, pausing
from time to time to blow off tiny scraps of dust; and at last he took
two steps sideways noiselessly and touched the stud of an electric bell.
A spare-looking, highly respectable man answered the summons and stood
waiting till his principal spoke, which was not until the right hand
little finger nail, which was rather awkward to get at, had been
polished, when without raising his eyes, John Garstang spoke.
"Mr Harry arrived?"
"No, sir."
"What time did he leave yesterday?"
"Not here yesterday, sir."
"The day before?"
"Not here the day before yesterday, sir."
"What time did he leave on Monday?"
"About five minutes after you left for Brighton, sir."
"Thank you, Barlow; that will do. By the way--"
The clerk who had nearly reached the door, turned, and there was again
silence, while a few specks were blown from where they had fallen inside
one of the spotless cuffs.
"Send Mr Harry to me as soon as he arrives."
"Yes, sir," and the man left the room; while after standing for a few
moments thinking, John Garstang walked to one of the tin boxes in the
rack and drew down a lid marked, "Wilton, Number 1."
Taking from this a packet of papers carefully folded and tied up with
green silk, he seated himself at his massive knee-hole table, and was in
the act of untying the ribbon, when the door opened and a short,
thick-set young man of five-and-twenty, with a good deal of French
waiter in his aspect, saving his clothes, entered, passing one hand
quickly over his closely-shaven face, and then taking the other to help
to square the great, dark, purple-fringed, square, Joinville tie,
fashionable in the early fifties.
"Want to see me, father?"
"Yes. Shut the baize door."
"Oh, you needn't be so particular. It won't be the first time Barlow
has heard you bully me."
"Shut the baize door, if you please, sir," said Garstang, blandly.
"Oh, very well!" cried the young man, and he unhooked and set free a
crimson baize door whose spring sent it to with a thud and a snap.
Then John Garstang's manner changed. An angry frown gathered on his
forehead, and he placed his elbows on the table, joined the tips of his
fingers to form an archway, and looked beneath it at the young man who
had entered.
"You are two hours late this morning."
"Yes, father."
"You did not come here at all yesterday."
"No, father."
"Nor the day before."
"No, father."
"Then will you have the goodness to tell me, sir, how long you expect
this sort of thing to go on? You are not of the slightest use to me in
my professional business."
"No, and never shall be," said the young man coolly.
"That's frank. Then will you tell me why I should keep and supply with
money such a useless drone?"
"Because you have plenty, and a lot of it ought to be mine by right."
"Why so, sir? You are not my son."
"No, but I'm my mother's."
"Naturally," said Garstang, with a supercilious smile.
"You need not sneer, sir. If you hadnt deluded my poor mother into
marrying you I should have been well off."
"Your mother had a right to do as she pleased, sir. Where have you
been?"
"Away from the office."
"I know that. Where to?"
"Where I liked," said the young man sulkily, "I'm not a child."
"No, and this conduct has become unbearable. It is time you went away
for good. What do you say to going to Australia with your passage paid
and a hundred pounds to start you?"
"'Tisn't good enough."
"Then you had better execute your old threat and enlist in a cavalry
regiment. I promise you that I will not buy you out."
"Thank you, but it isn't good enough."
"What are you going to do then?"
"Never mind."
Garstang looked up at him sharply, this time from outside the finger
arch.
"Don't provoke me, Harry Dasent, for your own sake. What are you going
to do?"
"Get married."
"Indeed? Well, that's sensible. But are there not enough pauper
children for the parish to keep?"
"Yes, but I am not going to marry a pauper. You have my money and will
not disgorge it, so I must have somebody's else."
"Indeed! Then you are going to look out for a lady with money?"
"No. I have already found one."
"Anyone I know?"
"Oh, yes."
"Who is it, pray?"
"Katherine Wilton."
Garstang's eyes contracted, and he gazed at his stepson for some moments
in silence. Then a contemptuous smile dawned upon his lip.
"I was not aware that you were so ambitious, Harry. But the lady?"
"Oh, that will be all right."
"Indeed! May I ask when you saw her last?"
"Yesterday evening at dinner."
"You have been down to Northwood?"
"Yes; I was there two days."
"Did your Uncle Wilton invite you down?"
"No, but Claud did, for a bit of shooting."
"Humph!" ejaculated Garstang thoughtfully, and the young man stood
gazing at him intently. Then his manner changed, and he took one of the
easy chairs, drew it forward, and seated himself, to sit leaning
forward, and began speaking confidentially.
"Look here, step-father," he half-whispered, "I've been down there
twice. I suspected it the first time; yesterday I was certain. They're
playing a deep game there."
"Indeed?"
"Yes. I saw through it at once. They're running Claud for the stakes."
"Please explain yourself, my good fellow; I do not understand racing
slang."
"Well, then, they mean Claud to marry Kate, and I'm not going to stand
by and see that done."
"By the way, I thought Claud was your confidential friend."
"So he is, up to a point; but it's every man for himself in a case like
this. I'm in the race myself, and I mean to marry Kate Wilton myself.
It's too good a prize to let slip."
"And does the lady incline to my stepson's addresses?"
"Well, hardly. I've had no chance. They watched me like cats do mice,
and she has been so sickly that it would be nonsense to try and talk to
her."
"Then your prospects are very mild indeed."
"Oh, no, they're not. This is a case where a man must play trumps, high
and at once. I may as well speak out, and you'll help me. There's no
time shilly-shallying. If I hesitate my chance would be gone. I shall
make my plans, and take her away."
"With her consent, of course."
"With or without," said the young man, coolly.
"How?"
"Oh, I'll find a means. Girls are only girls, and they'll give way to a
stronger will. Once I get hold of her she'll obey me, and a marriage
can soon be got through."
"But suppose she refuses?"
"She'll be made," said the young man, sharply. "The stakes are worth
some risk."
"But are you aware that the law would call this abduction?"
"I don't care what the law calls it if I get the girl."
"And it would mean possibly penal servitude."
"Well, I'm suffering that now, situated as I am. There, father, never
mind the law. Don't be squeamish; a great fortune is at stake, and it
must come into our family, not into theirs."
"You think they are trying that?"
"Think? I'm sure. Claud owned to as much, but he's rather on somewhere
else. Come, you'll help me? It would be a grand coup."
"Help you? Bah! you foolish young ass! It is impossible. It is
madness. You don't know what you are talking about. The girl could
appeal to the first policeman, and you would be taken into custody. You
and Claud Wilton must have been having a drinking bout, and the liquor
is still in your head. There, go to your own room, and when you can
talk sensibly come back to me."
"I can talk sensibly now. Will you help me with a couple of hundred
pounds to carry this through? I should want to take her for a couple of
months on the Continent, and bring her back my wife."
"Two hundred pounds to get you clapped in a cell at Bow Street."
"No; to marry a hundred and fifty thousand pounds."
"No, no, no. You are a fool, a visionary, a madman. It is impossible,
and I shall feel it my duty to write to James Wilton to forbid, you the
house."
"Once more; will you help me?"
"Once more, no. Now go, and let me get on with my affairs. Someone
must work."
"Then you will not?"
"No."
"Then listen to me: I've made up my mind to it, and do it. I will, at
any cost, at any risk. She shan't marry Claud Wilton, and she shall
marry me. Yes, you may smile, but if I die for it I'll have that girl
and her money."
"But it would cost two hundred pounds to make the venture, sir. Perhaps
you had better get that first. Now please go."
The young man rose and looked at him fiercely for a few minutes, and
Garstang met his eyes firmly.
"No," he said, "that would not do, Harry. The law fences us round
against robbery and murder, just as it does women against abduction.
You are not in your senses. You were drinking last night. Go back home
and have a long sleep. You'll be better then."
The young man glanced at him sharply and left the room.
Ten minutes spent in deep thought were passed by Garstang, who then
rose, replaced the papers in the tin case, and crossed and rang the
bell.
"Send Mr Harry here."
"He went out as soon as he left your room, sir."
"Thank you; that will do." Then, as the door closed upon the clerk,
Garstang said softly:
"So that's it; then it is quite time to act."