WISDOM CONFOUNDED
"Mr. Tracy Darton was in it, sir. He advised, and drew the pleadings.
But he got silk the same time as we did" (Henry meant, as Mr. Norton
Ward did), "and now they've taken you in." Henry's tone was one of
admiring surprise. "And Sir Humphrey Fynes is to lead Mr.
Darton--they're sparing nothing! I gather there's a good deal of feeling
in the case. I've fixed a conference for you, sir, at four-fifteen.
There's one or two points of evidence they want to consult you about."
Thus Henry to Arthur--with the "heavy brief" between them on the table.
Perhaps Henry's surprise and enthusiasm had run away with him a little;
or perhaps he had wanted to make quite sure of lassoing Arthur back. At
any rate, had the brief been Norton Ward's, he would hardly have called
it "heavy"--satisfactory and, indeed, imposing as the fee appeared in
Arthur's eyes. Nor was the case what would generally be known as a
"heavy" one; no great commercial transaction was involved, no
half-a-million or so of money depended on it. None the less, it already
displayed a fair bulk of papers--a voluminous correspondence--and
possessed, as Arthur was soon to discover, great potentialities of
further growth. A very grain of mustard seed for that! It was destined,
as luck would have it (the lawyers' luck, not the clients'), to a
notable career; it engaged the attention of no less than ten of His
Majesty's Judges. It had already been before Pretyman, J., in chambers.
Naresby, J., was to try it (if a glance into the future be allowable).
The Court of Appeal was to send it back for a new trial. The Lord Chief
Justice was to take it to himself. Again the Court of Appeal was to
figure, disagreeing with the judgment pronounced by the Lord Chief
Justice on the findings of the jury. And, at last, four noble and
learned Lords were to upset the Court of Appeal, and restore the
judgment of the Lord Chief Justice--a decision which, at all events, was
final, though Arthur, whose feelings were by that time deeply engaged,
never pretended to consider it right. And then, when the case was
disposed of for good and all, no longer _sub judicibus_ (the plural is
obviously demanded), the newspapers took a turn at it with those
ironical comments with which their ignorance is rashly prone to assail
the mysteries of the Law.
It--that is, the case of _Crewdson v. The Great Southern Railway
Company_--was about a dog, consigned according to the plaintiff's--which
was Arthur's--contention (the real movements of the animal were wrapped
in doubt from the outset) by a certain Startin--who was at that date
butler to the plaintiff, but under notice to leave, and who did a few
days later vanish into space--to his mistress, Miss Crewdson, an elderly
lady of considerable means and of indomitable temper--from Tenterden in
Sussex to its owner at Harrogate, where she was taking the waters.
Though a very small dog, it was a very precious one, both from a
sentimental and from a pecuniary point of view. So it ought to have
been, considering the questions of law and fact which it raised! For in
reply to Miss Crewdson's simple, but determined and reiterated, demand
for her dog or her damages, the Company made answer, first, that they
had never received the dog at Tenterden, secondly that they had duly
delivered the dog at Harrogate, and lastly--but it was a "lastly"
pregnant with endless argument--that they had done all they were bound
to do in regard to the dog, whatever had in truth happened or not
happened to the animal. What actually had, nobody ever knew for certain.
A dog--some dog--got to Harrogate in the end. The Company said this was
Miss Crewdson's dog, if they had ever carried a dog of hers at all; Miss
Crewdson indignantly repudiated it. And there, in the end, the question
of fact rested--for ever unsolved. The House of Lords--though the Lord
Chancellor, basing himself on a comparison of photographs, did indulge
in an _obiter dictum_ that the Harrogate dog, if it were not the
Tenterden dog, was as like as two peas to it ("Of course it was--both
Pekinese! But it wasn't our dog," Arthur muttered indignantly)--found it
unnecessary to decide this question, in view of the fact that, Startin
having disappeared into space, there was no sufficient evidence to
justify a jury in finding that the Company had ever received any dog of
Miss Crewdson's. It was this little point of the eternally doubtful
identity of the Harrogate dog which proved such a godsend to the wits of
the Press; they suggested that the Highest Tribunal in the Land might
have taken its courage in both hands and given, at all events for what
it was worth, its opinion about the Harrogate dog. Was he Hsien-Feng, or
wasn't he? But no. The House of Lords said it was unnecessary to decide
that. It was certainly extremely difficult, and had given two juries an
immensity of trouble.
All these remarkable developments, all these delightful ramifications,
now lay within the ambit of the red tape which Arthur, left alone,
feverishly untied. He had to be at it; he could not wait. Not only was
there the conference at four-fifteen, but he was all of an itch to know
what he was in for and what he might hope for, divided between a craven
fear of difficulty above his powers and a soaring hope of opportunity
beyond his dreams.
After three hours' absorbed work he was still on the mere fringe of the
case, still in the early stages of that voluminous correspondence, when
Miss Crewdson was tolerably, and the Company obsequiously, polite--and
no dog at all was forthcoming, to correspond to the dog alleged to have
been consigned from Tenterden. A dog was being hunted for all over two
railway systems; likely dogs had been sighted at Guildford, at
Peterborough, and at York. The letters stiffened with the arrival of the
Harrogate dog--ten days after the proper date for the arrival of the dog
from Tenterden. "Not my dog," wrote Miss Crewdson positively, and added
an intimation that future correspondence should be addressed to her
solicitors. Messrs. Wills and Mayne took up the pen; in their hands and
in those of the Company's solicitors the letters assumed a courteous but
irrevocably hostile tone. Meanwhile the unfortunate Harrogate dog was
boarded out at a veterinary surgeon's--his charges to abide the result
of the action; that doubt as to his identity would survive even the
result of the action was not then foreseen.
Arthur broke off for lunch with a tremendous sense of interest, of zest,
and of luck--above all, of luck. He had not been called two years yet;
he had no influential backing; such a little while ago work had seemed
so remote, in hours of depression, indeed, so utterly out of the
question. Then the tiny glimmer of Mr. Tiddes, now the glowing rays of
_Crewdson v. The Great Southern Railway Company_! It was not the moment,
even if he had been the man, for a measured sobriety of anticipation; it
was one of those rare and rich hours of youth when everything seems
possible and no man's lot is to be envied.
And he owed it to Wills and Mayne--unaccountably and mysteriously still!
The picture of old Mr. Mayne, with his winking eye, rose before his
mind. A strange incarnation of Fortune! A very whimsical shape for a
man's Chance to present itself in! He gave up the mystery of how Mr.
Mayne had ever heard of him originally, but he hugged to his heart the
thought that he must have conducted the Tiddes case with unexampled
brilliancy. Only thus could he account for Mr. Mayne's persistent
loyalty.
So, after lunch, back to the dog--the Harrogate dog, that Tichborne
Claimant of a Pekinese dog!
Four o'clock struck. With a sudden return of fear, with a desperate
resolve to seem calm and not over-eager, Arthur prepared to face Mr.
Mayne. He wished to look as if cases like _Crewdson v. The Great
Southern Railway Company_ were an everyday occurrence.
Punctually at four-fifteen, a knock at the outer door--and footsteps!
Henry threw open the door of his room. "Mr. Thomas Mayne to see you,
sir." Henry's manner was very important.
"Oh, show him in, please," said Arthur. It struck him, with a sudden
pang, that the bareness of his table was glaringly horrible. Not even,
as it chanced, any of Norton Ward's briefs which, turned face-downwards,
might have dressed it to some degree of decency!
"This way, sir, please," said Henry, with his head over his shoulder.
Timidly, rather apologetically, with a shy yet triumphant smile on his
melancholy face, Mr. Claud Beverley entered.
Instantaneously, at the mere sight of him, before Henry had finished
shutting the door, the truth flashed into Arthur's mind, amazing yet
supremely obvious; and his mind, thus illuminated, perceived the meaning
of things hitherto strange and unaccountable--of Wills and Mayne's
interest and loyalty, of old Mr. Mayne's presence at the first night, of
Mr. Claud Beverley's promise to do him a good turn, no less than of that
budding author's bitter references to "the office," which so hampered
and confined the flight of his genius. He had been so fierce, too, when
Ayesha Layard threatened to betray his identity! Arthur fell back into
the chair from which he had just risen to receive his visitor, and burst
into a fit of laughter--at Mr. Beverley, at himself, at the way of the
world and the twists of fortune. "By Jove, it's you!" he spluttered out,
in mirthful enjoyment of the revelation.
Tom Mayne--such was he henceforth to be to Arthur, however the world
might best know him--advanced to the table and--timidly still--sat down
by it. "I swore to get it for you--and I have! Tracy Darton's taking
silk gave me the chance. I had an awful job, though; the governor
thought you hadn't enough experience, and he was rather upset about your
being away--you remember that time? But I stuck to him, and I brought
him round. I managed it!"
In mirth and wonder Arthur forgot to pay his thanks. "But why the deuce
didn't you tell me, old man? Why have you been playing this little game
on me all this while?"
"Oh, well, I--I didn't know whether I could bring it off." His timidity
was giving way to gratification, as he saw what a success his coup had
with Arthur. "Besides I thought it was rather--well, rather interesting
and dramatic."
"Oh, it is--most uncommonly--both interesting and dramatic," chuckled
Arthur. "If you knew how I've wondered who in the devil's name Wills and
Mayne were!"
"Yes, that's just what I thought you'd be doing. That was the fun of
it!"
"And it turns out to be you! And I wondered why your governor was at the
first night!"
"I thought you might see him. I was rather afraid that might give it
away. But he insisted on coming."
"Give it away! Lord, no! It no more entered my head than----!" A simile
failed him. "Did nobody know who you were? Not Joe? Not the Sarradets?"
"None of them--except Ayesha Layard. She knew who I was, because we once
did a case for her."
Arthur was gazing at him now in an amusement which had grown calmer but
was still intense.
"Well, I was an ass!" he said softly. Then he remembered what he ought
to have done at first. "I say, I'm most tremendously obliged to you, old
fellow."
"Well, you came to the rescue. We were absolutely stuck up for the rest
of the money--couldn't go on without it, and didn't know where to get
it. Then you planked it down--and I tell you I felt it! You gave me my
chance, and I made up my mind to give you one if I could. It's only your
being at the Bar that made it possible--and my being in the office, of
course."
"But it wasn't much of a chance I gave you, unfortunately."
"You mean because it was a failure? Oh, that makes no difference. I was
on the wrong tack. I say, Lisle, my new play's fixed. We're rehearsing
now. The Twentieth Society's going to do it on Sunday week, and, if it's
a go, they're going to give me a week at Manchester. If that's all
right, I ought to get a London run, oughtn't I?" His voice was very
eager and excited. "If I do, and if it's a success"--(How the "Ifs"
accumulated!)--"I shall chuck the office!"
It was his old climax, his old hope, aspiration, vision. Arthur heard it
again, had heard him working up to it through that procession of "Ifs,"
with a mixture of pity and amusement. Would the new play do the trick,
would "real life" serve him better than the humours of farce? Would that
"success" ever come, or would all Tom Mayne's life be a series of vain
efforts to chuck an office ultimately unchuckable, a long and futile
striving to end his double personality, and to be nobody but Claud
Beverley? Full of sympathy, Arthur wondered.
"It's bound to be a success, old chap. Here, have a cigarette, and tell
me something about it."
Eagerly responding to the invitation, the author plunged into an
animated sketch of his plot, a vivid picture of the subtleties of his
heroine's character and the dour influence of her environment: the drama
was realistic, be it remembered. Arthur listened, nodding here and
there, now murmuring "Good!" now "By Jove!" now opening his eyes wide,
now smiling. "Oh, jolly good!" he exclaimed over the situation at the
end of the First Act.
Meanwhile _Crewdson v. The Great Southern Railway Company_ lay on the
table between them, unheeded and forgotten. It too, had it been animate,
might have mused on the twists of Fortune. This afternoon at least it
might have expected to hold the pride of place undisputed in Arthur
Lisle's chambers!
But not until the scenario of the drama had been sketched out to the
very end, not until Arthur's murmurs of applause died away, did Claud
Beverley turn again into Tom Mayne. And the transformation was woefully
incomplete; for it was with a sad falling-off in interest, indeed in a
tone of deep disgust, that he said, "Well, I suppose we must get back to
that beastly case!"
Arthur laughed again. What a way to talk of his precious brief, pregnant
with all those wonderful possibilities! What an epithet for the barque
that carried Cæsar and his fortunes! But his laugh had sympathy and
understanding in it. Across the narrow table sat another Cæsar--and
there was a barque that carried his fortunes, and was to set sail within
a short space on a stormy and dangerous voyage, over a sea beset with
shoals.
"Well, anyhow, here's jolly good luck to _Jephthah's Daughter_!" he
said. Such was the title of Mr. Claud Beverley's play of real life.
But when they did at last get back to the neglected case, and Tom Mayne
elbowed out Claud Beverley, a very good head Tom showed himself to have,
however melancholy again its facial aspect. They wrestled with their
points of evidence for an hour, Arthur sending to borrow Norton Ward's
'Taylor,' and at the end Tom Mayne remarked grimly, "That's a double
conference, I think!"
"Some of it really belongs to _Jephthah's Daughter_," said Arthur with a
laugh.
"We may as well get something out of her, anyhow!"--and Tom Mayne
absolutely laughed.
Making an appointment to meet and dine, accepting an invitation to come
and see _Jephthah's Daughter_, full of thanks, friendliness, and
sympathetic hopes for the friend who had done him such a good turn,
inspired with the thought of the work and the fight which lay before
him--in fact, in a state of gleeful excitement and goodwill towards the
world at large, Arthur accompanied his friend to the door and took leave
of him--indeed of both of him; gratitude to Tom Mayne, hopes for Claud
Beverley, were inextricably blended.
And it so fell out--what, indeed, was not capable of happening
to-day?--that, as his friend walked down the stairs with a last wave of
his arm, Mr. Norton Ward, K.C., walked up them, on his return from a
consultation with Sir Robert Sharpe.
"Who's that?" he asked carelessly, as he went into chambers, followed by
Arthur, and they reached the place--half room, half hall--which Henry
and the boy (the Junior Clerk was his own title for himself) inhabited.
"Only one of my clients," said Arthur, with assumed grandeur, but unable
to resist grinning broadly.
"One won't be able to get up one's own stairs for the crowd, if you go
on like this," observed Norton Ward. "Oh, look here, Henry! I met Mr.
Worthing--of the Great Southern office, you know--over at Sir Robert's.
There's a case coming in from them to-night, and they want a
consultation at half-past five to-morrow. Just book it, will you?"
He turned to go into his own room.
But Arthur had lingered--and listened. "A case from the Great Southern?
Do you know what it's about?"
Norton Ward smiled--rather apologetically. He liked it to be considered
that he was in only really "heavy" cases now. "Well, it's something
about a dog, I believe, Arthur." He added, "An uncommonly valuable dog,
I'm told, though."
A valuable dog indeed--for one person in that room, anyhow!
"A dog!" cried Arthur. "Why, that's my case! I'm in it!"
Norton Ward grinned; Arthur grinned; but most broadly of all grinned
Henry. Clerk's fees from both sides for Henry, to say nothing of the
dramatic interest of civil war, of domestic struggle!
"Do you mean you're for the plaintiff? How in thunder did you get hold
of it?"
"That's my little secret," Arthur retorted triumphantly. It was not
necessary to tell all the world the train of events which led up to his
brief in _Crewdson v. The Great Southern Railway Company_.
"Well, I congratulate you, old chap," said Norton Ward heartily. Then he
grinned again. "Come and dine to-morrow, and we'll try to settle it."
"Settle it be----! Not much!" said Arthur. "But I'll dine all right."
Norton Ward went off into his room, laughing.
That was an awful idea--settling! Even though advanced in jest, it had
given him a little shock. But he felt pretty safe. He had read Miss
Crewdson's letters; she was most emphatically not a settling woman! Her
dog, her whole dog, and nothing but her dog, was what Miss Crewdson
wanted.
Arthur sat down before his fire and lit his pipe. He abandoned himself
to a gratified contemplation of the turn in his fortunes. A great moment
when a young man sees his chosen profession actually opening before him,
when dreams and hopes crystallize into reality, when he plucks the first
fruit from branches which a little while ago seemed so far out of reach!
This moment it was now Arthur's to enjoy. And there was more. For he was
not only exulting; he was smiling in a sly triumph. What young man does
not smile in his sleeve when the Wisdom of the Elders is confounded? And
what good-natured Elder will not smile with him--and even clap his
hands?
"It's my own fault if that thousand pounds I put in the farce doesn't
turn out the best investment of my life!" thought Arthur.