COUNSEL TAKEN WITH MR. MADGIN.
After her interview with Sergeant Nicholas, Lady Pollexfen dismissed
Janet for the day, and retired to her own rooms, nor was she seen out
of them till the following morning. No one was admitted to see her
save Dance. Janet, after sitting with Sister Agnes all the afternoon,
went down at dusk to the housekeeper's room.
"Whatever did you do to her ladyship this morning?" asked Dance as
soon as she entered. "She has tasted neither bit nor sup since
breakfast, but ever since that old shabby-looking fellow went away she
has lain on the sofa, staring at the wall as if there was some writing
on it she was trying to read but didn't know how. I thought she was
ill, and asked her if I should send for the doctor. She laughed at me
without taking her eyes off the wall, and bade me begone for an old
fool. If there's not a change by morning, I shall just send for the
doctor without asking her leave. Surely you and that old fellow have
bewitched her ladyship between you."
Janet in reply told Dance all that had passed at the morning's
interview, feeling quite sure that in doing so she was violating no
confidence, and that Lady Pollexfen herself would be the first to tell
everything to her faithful old servant as soon as she should be
sufficiently composed to do so. As a matter of course Dance was full
of wonder.
"Did you know Captain Pollexfen?" asked Janet, as soon as the old
dame's surprise had in some measure toned itself down.
"Did I know curly-pated, black-eyed Master Charley?" asked the old
woman. "Ay--who better? These arms, withered and yellow now, then
plump and strong, held him before he had been an hour in the world.
The day he left England I went with her ladyship to see him aboard
ship. As he shook me by the hand for the last time he said, 'You will
never leave my mother, will you, Dance?' And I said, 'Never, while I
live, dear Master Charles,' and I've kept my word."
"Her ladyship has never been like the same woman since she heard the
news of his death," resumed Dance after a pause. "It seemed to sour
her and harden her, and make her altogether different. There had been
a great deal of unhappiness at home for some years before he went
away. He and his father, Sir John--he that now lies so quiet
upstairs--had a terrible quarrel just after Master Charles went into
the army, and it was a quarrel that was never made up in this world.
He was an awful man--Sir John--a wicked man: pray that such a one may
never cross your path. The only happiness he seemed to have on earth
was in making those over whom he had any power, miserable. It was
impossible for my lady to love him, but she tried to do her duty by
him till he and Master Charles fell out. What the quarrel was about I
never rightly understood, but my lady would have it that Master
Charles was in the right and her husband in the wrong. One result was
that Sir John stopped the income that he had always allowed his son,
and took a frightful oath that if Master Charles were dying of
starvation before his eyes, he would not give him as much as a penny
to buy bread with. But her ladyship, who had money in her own right,
said that Master Charles's income should go on as usual. Then she and
Sir John quarrelled; and she left him and came to live at Dupley
Walls, leaving him at Dene Folly; and here she stayed till Sir John
was taken with his last illness and sent for her. He sent for her, not
to make up the quarrel, but to jibe and sneer at her, and to make her
wait on him day and night, as if she were a paid nurse from a
hospital. While this was going on, and after Sir John had been quite
given up by the doctors, news came from India of Master Charles's
death. Well, her ladyship went nigh distracted; but as for the
baronet, it was said, though I won't vouch for the truth of it, that
he only laughed when the news was told him, and said that if he was
plagued as much with corns in the next world as he had been in this,
he should find Master Charles's arm very useful to lean upon. Two
days later he died, and the title, and Dene Folly with it, went to a
far-away cousin, whom neither Sir John nor his wife had ever seen.
Then it was found how the baronet had contrived that his spite should
outlive him--for only out of spite and mean cruelty could he have made
such a will as he did make: that Dupley Walls should not become her
ladyship's absolute property till the end of twenty years, during the
whole of which time his body was to remain unburied, and to be kept
under the same roof with his widow, wherever she might live. The mean,
paltry scoundrel! Perhaps her ladyship might have had the will set
aside, but the would not go to law about it. Thank Heaven! the twenty
years are nearly at an end. Dupley Walls has been a haunted house ever
since that midnight when Sir John was borne in on the shoulders of six
strong men. And now tell me whether her ladyship is not a woman to be
pitied."
At a quarter before eleven next morning Mr. Solomon Madgin, Lady
Pollexfen's agent and general man-of-business, arrived by appointment
at Dupley Walls. Mr. Madgin was indispensable to her ladyship, who had
a considerable quantity of house property in and around Tydsbury,
consisting chiefly of small tenements, the rents of which had to be
collected weekly. Then Mr. Madgin was bailiff for the Dupley Walls
estate, in connexion with which were several small farms or "holdings"
which required to be well looked after in many ways. Besides all this,
her ladyship, having a few spare thousands, had taken of late years to
dabbling in scrip and shares in a small way, and under the skilful
pilotage of Mr. Madgin had hitherto contrived to steer clear of those
rocks and shoals of speculation on which so many gallant argosies are
wrecked. In short, everything except the law-business of the estate
filtered through Mr. Madgin's hands, and as he did his work cheaply
and well, and put up with her ladyship's ill temper without a murmur,
the mistress of Dupley Walls could hardly have found any one who would
have suited her better.
Mr. Solomon Madgin was a little dried-up man, about sixty years old.
His tail-coat and vest of rusty black were of the fashion of twenty
years ago. He wore drab trowsers, and shoes tied with bows of black
ribbon. His head, bald on the crown, had an ample fringe of white hair
at the back and sides, and was covered, when he went abroad, with a
beaver hat, very fluffy and much too tall for him, and which, once
upon a time, had probably been nearly as white as his hair, but was
now time-worn and weather-stained to one uniform and consistent drab.
Round his neck he always wore a voluminous cravat of unstarched muslin
fastened in front with an old-fashioned pearl brooch, above which
protruded the two spiked points of a very stiff and pugnacious-looking
collar. A strong alpaca umbrella, unfashionably corpulent, was his
constant companion. Mr. Madgin's whiskers were shaved off in an exact
line with the end of his nose. His eyebrows were very white and bushy,
and could serve on occasion as a screen to the greenish crafty-looking
eyes below them, which never liked to be peered into too closely. The
ordinary expression of his thin dried-up face was one of hard worldly
shrewdness; but there was a lurking _bonhommie_ in his smile which
seemed to imply that, away from business, he might possibly mellow
into a boon companion.
Mr. Madgin had to wait a few minutes this morning before Lady
Pollexfen could receive him. When he was ushered into her sitting-room
he was surprised to find that she and Miss Holme were not alone; that
a plainly-dressed man, who looked almost as old as Mr. Madgin himself,
was seated at the table. After one suspicious glance at the stranger,
Mr. Madgin made his bow to the ladies and walked up to the table with
his bag of papers.
"You can put all those things away for the day, Mr. Madgin," said her
ladyship. "A far more important matter claims our attention just now.
In the first place, I must introduce to you Sergeant Nicholas, many
years ago servant to my son, Captain Pollexfen, who died in India.
(Sergeant, this is Mr. Madgin, my man of business.) The sergeant, who
has only just returned to England, told me yesterday a very curious
story which I am desirous that he should repeat in your presence
to-day. The story relates to a diamond of great value, said to have
been stolen from the body of my son immediately after death, and I
shall require you to give me your opinion as to the feasibility of its
recovery. You will take such notes of the narrative as you may think
necessary, and the sergeant will afterwards answer, to the best of his
ability, any questions you may choose to put to him." Then turning to
the old soldier, she added: "You will be good enough, sergeant, to
repeat to Mr. Madgin such parts of your narrative of yesterday as have
any reference to the diamond. Begin with my son's dying message.
Repeat word for word, as closely as you can remember, all that was
told you by the sycee Rung. Describe as minutely as possible the
personal appearance of M. Platzoff; and detail any other points that
bear on the loss of the diamond."
So the sergeant began, but the repetition of a long narrative not
learnt by heart is by no means an easy matter, especially when they to
whom it was first told hear it for the second time, but rather as
critics than as ordinary listeners. Besides, the taking of notes was a
process that smacked of a court-martial and tended to flurry the
narrator, making him feel as if he were upon his oath and liable to be
browbeat by the counsel for the other side. He was heartily glad when
he got to the end of what he had to tell. The postscript to Captain
Pollexfen's letter was then read by Miss Holme.
Mr. Madgin took copious notes as the sergeant went on, and afterwards
put a few questions to him on different points which he thought not
sufficiently clear. Then he laid down his pen, rubbed his hands, and
ran his fingers through his scanty hair. Lady Pollexfen rang for her
butler, and gave the sergeant into his keeping, knowing that he could
not be in better hands. Then she said:--"I will leave you, Mr. Madgin,
for half an hour. Go carefully through your notes, and let me have
your opinion when I come back as to whether, after so long a time, you
think it worth while to institute any proceedings for the recovery of
the diamond."
So Mr. Madgin was left alone with what he called his "considering
cap." As soon as the door was closed behind her ladyship, he
tilted back his chair, stuck his feet on the table, buried his
hands deep in his pockets, and shut his eyes, and so remained for full
five-and-twenty minutes. He was busy consulting his notes when Lady
Pollexfen re-entered the room. Mr. Madgin began at once.
"I must confess," he said, "that the case which your ladyship has
submitted to me seems, from what I can see of it at present, to be
surrounded with difficulties. Still, I am far from counselling your
ladyship to despair entirely. The few points which, at the first
glance, present themselves as requiring for solution are these:--Who
was the M. Platzoff who is said to have stolen the diamond? and what
position in life did he really occupy? Is he alive or dead? If alive,
where is he now living? If he did really steal the diamond, are not
the chances as a hundred to one that he disposed of it long ago? But
even granting that we were in a position to answer all these
questions; suppose even that this M. Platzoff were living in Tydsbury
at the present moment, and that fact were known to us, how much nearer
should we be to the recovery of the diamond than we are now? Your
ladyship must please to bear in mind that as the case is now we have
not an inch of legal ground to stand upon. We have no evidence that
would be worth a rush in a court of law that M. Platzoff really
purloined the diamond. We have no trustworthy evidence that the
diamond itself ever had an existence."
"Surely, Mr. Madgin, my son's letter is sufficient to prove that
fact."
"Sufficient, perhaps, in conjunction with the other evidence, to prove
it in a moral sense, but certainly not in a legal one," said Mr.
Madgin, quietly, but decisively. "Your ladyship must please to bear in
mind that Captain Pollexfen in his letter makes no absolute mention of
the diamond by name; he merely writes of it vaguely under certain
initials, and, if called upon, how could you prove that he intended
those initials to stand for the words _Great Mogul Diamond_, and not
for something altogether different? If M. Platzoff were your
ladyship's next-door neighbour, and you knew for certain that he had
the diamond still in his possession, you could only get it from him as
he himself got it from your son--by subterfuge and artifice. Your
ladyship will please to observe that I have put forward no opinion in
the case. I have merely offered a statement of plain facts as they
show themselves on the surface. With those facts before you it rests
with your ladyship to decide what further steps you wish taken in the
matter."
"My good Madgin, do you know what it is to hate?" demanded Lady
Pollexfen. "To hate with a hatred that dwarfs all other passions of
the soul, and makes them pigmies by comparison? If you know this, you
know the feeling with which I regard M. Platzoff. If you want the key
to the feeling, you have it in the fact that his accursed hands robbed
my dead son: even then you must have a mother's heart to feel all that
I feel." She paused for a moment as if to recover breath; then she
resumed. "See you, Mr. Solomon Madgin, I have a conviction, an
intuition, call it what you will, that this Russian scoundrel is still
alive. That is the first fact you have got to find out. The next is,
where he is now residing. Then you will have to ascertain whether he
has the diamond still in his possession, and if so, by what means it
can be recovered. Only recover it for me--I ask not how or by what
means--only put into my hands the diamond that was stolen off my son's
breast as he lay dead; and the day you do that, my good Madgin, I will
present you with a cheque for five thousand pounds!"
Mr. Madgin sat like one astounded; the power of reply seemed taken
from him. "Go now," said Lady Pollexfen, after a few moments.
"Ordinary business is out of the question today. Go home and carefully
digest what I have just said to you. That you are a man of resources,
I know well; had you not been so, I would not have employed you in
this matter. Come to me to-morrow, next day, next week--when you like;
only don't come barren of ideas; don't come without a plan, likely or
unlikely, of some sort of a campaign."
Mr. Madgin rose and swept his papers mechanically into his bag. "Your
ladyship said five thousand pounds, if I mistake not?" he stammered
out.
"A cheque for five thousand pounds shall be yours on the day you bring
me the diamond. Is not my word sufficient, or do you wish to have it
under bond and seal?" she asked with some hauteur.
"Your ladyship's word is an all-sufficient bond," answered Mr. Madgin,
with sweet humility. He paused with the handle of the door in his
hand. "Supposing I were to see my way to carry out your ladyship's
wishes in this respect," he said deferentially, "or even to carry
out a portion of them only, still it could not be done without
expense--not without considerable expense, maybe."
"I give you carte-blanche as regards expenses," said her ladyship with
decision.
Then Mr. Madgin gave a farewell duck of the head, and went. He took
his way homeward through the park, like a man walking in his sleep.
With wide-open eyes, and hat well set on the back of his head, with
his blue bag in one hand, and his umbrella under his arm, he trudged
onward, even after he got into the busy streets of the little town,
without seeing anything or anybody. What he saw, he saw
introspectively. On the one hand glittered the tempting bait held out
by Lady Pollexfen; on the other loomed the dark problem that had to be
solved before he could call the golden apple his.
"The most arrant wild-goose chase that ever I heard of in all my
life," he muttered to himself, as he halted at his own door. "Not a
single ray of light anywhere--not one."
"Popsey," he called out to his daughter, when he got inside, "bring
the decanter of gin, some cold water, an ounce of bird's-eye, and a
clean churchwarden, into the office; and don't let me be disturbed by
any one for four hours."