That’s over, at any rate,” said Jack, when he had come to the side of
Priscilla in the dining-room. He was smiling, but his face was pale, and
his fingers that held his cigar were twitching. “I didn’t say just what
I meant to say, but I think I said enough.”
“Every word that you said was the right word,” she cried. “You spoke
like a man who knows that a fight has to be faced, and does not fear to
face it. Dearest, you were splendid; only--what do you know about him?
Who has been telling you anything?--that about the woman--who suggested
to you that he had gone to a woman?”
“I have had experience of men of all sorts and conditions. I knew when
I saw the fellow that I had to deal with a man on whom such a shot would
tell. It was a shot, and I hope that it may turn out to have been a
happy one for us. What was the name he mentioned?--someone who he said
had been giving him away?”
“Lyman.”
“Lyman. So it was. We must make a note of that. Lyman is the name of the
man that is ready to give him away. Now, who is Lyman?”
“Lyman is the name of the captain of the barque that was wrecked on the
coast of Nova Scotia. He was among the saved.”
“You knew that? Well, that’s so much. I’m not sure that it’s a great
deal, but the smallest contribution will be thankfully received.”
“Another mystery--that postcard. It was from the gunmakers--about the
last cartridges. What would you have learned if he had recognized the
handwriting of the clerk?”
“That was a little dodge of mine to get from him a piece of undoubted
evidence of his identity. You see, I wasn’t quite certain that he
was the man. There are so many men ready to carry out some scheme of
imposture if they only get the chance. Lord! the cases that I have heard
of! Now, what more likely than that someone on the look-out for a job
should have read the accounts that appeared in the papers of the heroic
death of Marcus Blaydon, and then got hold of the idea that it would pay
to come to me with a story of how he had not been drowned, and with a
demand for his wife or a pretty fair sum to keep away?”
“There can be no doubt that he is Marcus Blaydon--oh, none whatever. I
wish there was even the smallest chance of a chance. But how would the
postcard prove anything?”
“Well, an hour ago I found that card on the mantelpiece, and I gave it a
light coating of gum. By that means I got an excellent impression of his
fingers, and by good luck his thumb also. Now, if I send that card to
the governor of the gaol where the man spent a year, he will tell me,
in the course of a post or two, if he is Marcus Blaydon or Marcus
Aurelius--see?”
She did see. She saw very clearly that the man whose education in a
certain direction she had airily undertaken, possessed some elements
of knowledge in another direction. He had not mis-spent his years of
wandering. He had come to know something of his fellow men and their
ways. She was well aware of the fact that, however resolute, however
brave she might have been in meeting that man face to face at the
critical moment, she would not have succeeded in getting rid of him
as easily as Jack had got rid of him; and her admiration for Jack had
proportionately increased. Women love a man who is successful with
women, but they worship a man who is successful with men.
Priscilla gazed in admiration at the man before her.
“You got the better of him in every way,” she said “He was like a child
in your hands--a foolish boy.”
“We’ll get the better of him in the long run, too, you may be sure of
that,” he said.
The morning’s work had immeasurably increased his admiration for her.
She had only said one word during the whole of that time spent in the
library. If a man esteems a low voice as a most excellent thing in a
woman, he bows down before the wisdom of a woman who has a great deal
to say and yet can keep silent. And surely no woman alive possessed the
wisdom of his Priscilla in this respect. She had done neither coaxing
nor wheedling of the electors of the Nuttingford division; she had
resorted to none of those disgusting flatteries of which the wives or
the sisters of other candidates whom he could name had been guilty
even in bonnie Scotland, where Conscience is understood to be the only
consideration to make her sturdy sons vote this way or that. No; his
Priscilla had won him the election by her silence; and in the same way
she had allowed him to send Marcus Blaydon out of the house.
“You don’t think I was a little too high-handed with him?” said he,
after a thoughtful pause.
She made an expressive motion of negation with both hands.
“The sooner it’s over the sooner to sleep, dear Jack,” she said.
“There’s nothing so dreadful as suspense. We shall never know a moment’s
ease until the thing is over--or, at any rate, begun. The sooner he
begins the better pleased will I be.”
“I don’t think that I gave him any excuse for dallying,” said he,
grimly.
“What will his next step be, do you fancy?” she asked. “Tell me what he
can do beyond making the newspapers publish the story of his escape.
I know how they will do it--with the column headed in big letters,
‘A Modern Enoch Arden.’ They won’t have the sense to see that he has
nothing of Enoch Arden about him.”
“We shall have to face some nasty bits of publicity but we’ll face
them,” said he, resolutely. “He has plainly been in touch with a man of
the law; he had got hold of that legal jargon about conjugal rights. He
will have to appeal to a judge to make an order for you to go to him.”
“But no judge will make such an order--surely not, Jack?”
“You may take it from me that he will get his order.”
“Is such a thing possible?”
“Absolutely certain, I should say.”
“And what then?”
“Nothing. The judge who makes the order has no way of enforcing it. Only
if the man can carry you off he has the law on his side. You had much
better not let him carry you off after he gets his order, Priscilla.”
“Or before it. I suppose that he has the law on his side as matters
stand at present.”
“I suppose he has. But when he gets his order and you refuse to obey it,
he will have a very good chance of getting a divorce.”
“It would be hoping too much to expect that he will do us such a good
turn. So then we shall be the same as before.”
“That’s what I have been thinking; but I’ve also been thinking that
if you made an application to have your marriage to him annulled, the
chances are greatly in favour of your having that application granted.”
“Jack, you are talking like a lawyer. I did not know that you could give
an opinion on these points so definitely.”
“I only speak as a layman, from my recollection of certain cases
that have appeared from time to time in the papers. I may be all
wrong--remember that. We may have to fall back upon something that
Captain Lyman knows, and try for a divorce.”
“That was why you made that shot which showed your knowledge of men such
as he is.”
“I confess that I hoped to get him to commit himself.”
“And he did.”
“Yes; but unfortunately his doing so will not count for anything in a
court of law. We shall have to produce evidence as to the woman--perhaps
even the woman herself. If we find that, immediately after leaving gaol
he went off to her and deserted you--the court would place great stress
upon his desertion of you--we might have a very good chance of getting a
divorce.”
“Only a good chance?”
“It would be a layman’s folly--even a lawyer’s folly--to talk with any
measure of certainty about the result of an action at law. But I am
pretty sure that in an application to have the marriage pronounced null
and void, as the jargon has it, his desertion of you would play a very
important part. Funny, isn’t it?”
“Funny! Funny! Oh, Jack, darling Jack, will not everyone say that it was
the unluckiest day of your life when you met me?”
“You may be sure that some fools will say that, Priscilla, my wife; but
you may be equally sure that people who knew what I was before I met you
and who have continued their acquaintance will say that, whatever may
happen, my meeting you and marrying you were the best things that ever
happened to me. You may be sure that that’s what I say now and what I’ll
ever say. Now, don’t you suggest anything further in that strain. Good
Lord! Didn’t you say that the best thing for bringing out what was best
in a man was a good fight? Well, I feel that I am now facing a conflict
that will develop every ounce of character I possess. That’s all I’ve
got to say just now, except that I’ve wired to Reggie Liscomb to meet
me at his office in London this afternoon--he belongs to Liscomb and
Liscomb, you know, the solicitors--and he will tell us what we should
do, and I’ll tell him to do it without a moment’s delay. But you may
leave that to Liscomb and Liscomb; their motto has always been ‘Thrice
is he arm’d that hath his quarrel just, and four times he that gets his
fist in fust.’ They’ll get their fist in fust, you bet, if only to take
the wind out of the sails of the other side.”
Priscilla had frequently heard of the great firm of Liscomb and Liscomb,
but never had she an idea that one day she would be in a position to
recognize that celerity of action in the conducting of a case which had
frequently resulted in the extrication of a client from a tight place.
“You are going up to London to-day?” she said in surprise. “You don’t
take long to make up your mind, Jack. Why, you had only the night to
think over this dreadful business, and yet you were able to get that man
to commit himself and show his hand, and now you know what is to be done
to give us the best chance of getting rid of him for ever. Jack, I ask
your forgiveness; but I didn’t think you had it in you.”
“Neither did I until lately, Priscilla. It was you who made me think
differently. Six months ago if I had been brought face to face with a
thing like this I should have run away simply to avoid the bother of
it all. But now--well, now I don’t think that you need fear my running
away.”
He went up to town by a train that arrived in good time to allow him to
have a long afternoon with his friend, the junior partner in the great
firm of solicitors who had “handled” some of the most interesting
cases that had ever come before a court of law, and some still more
interesting that they had succeeded in settling without such an appeal
to the judgment of the goddess of Chance. Newspaper readers owed them
more grudges than anyone had a notion of, for the persistence with which
they accomplished settlements, thereby preventing the publication of
columns of piquant details--piquant to a point of unsavouriness. The
public, who like their game high and with plenty of seasoning--and
the atmosphere of the Divorce Court is very conducive to the former
condition--little knew what they lost through the exertions of Messrs.
Liscomb and Liscomb; but Messrs. Liscomb and Liscomb knew, and so did
many a superfluous husband and many a duplicated wife.
But here was a case that could by no possibility be regarded as one that
might be settled out of court. It was bound to move forward from stage
to stage until it came before a judge. Mr. Reginald Liscomb saw that
clearly when Jack had given him an outline of the case which had not yet
advanced to the position of being a case, but which would do so the
very next day, on being “stated” by Messrs. Liscomb and Liscomb to the
eminent advisory counsel whom they kept constantly employed.
“We have never had anything quite on all fours with this,” said the
junior partner. “What we want is a decree of nullity--that’s plain
enough. But shall we get it? Well, that’s not quite so plain. As a
matter of fact several things may seem plain, but as a matter of law
there’s nothing that can be so described. What’s the man going to do? Is
he going to do anything? Does he fancy that there’s money in it? Did he
suggest that when he came to you to-day? Mind you tell me everything.
The man that conceals anything from his lawyer is as great a fool as the
man that hides something from his doctor, only the lawyer is the more
important. After all, your doctor only deals with your body and its
ailments.”
“Whereas you look after--no, not exactly one’s soul--one’s
reputation--more important still,” said Jack.
“You put it very well,” assented Mr. Liscomb modestly--as modestly as
was consistent with an inherent desire for strict accuracy.
“You compliment me,” said Jack. “You may be sure that I’ll keep nothing
back--especially if it tells against the other man.”
“Don’t bother about that so much as about what tells against yourself.
At present what might tell against you is the indecent haste in the
marriage--within three months of the report of the husband’s death by
drowning. A judge may think that was not a sufficient time.”
“But the man would not be more thoroughly dead at the end of a year than
he would have been at the end of three months.”
“No; but there was only a report of his death. The question that a
judge will ask is this: Did the lady exercise a reasonable amount
of precaution in satisfying herself that her husband was dead before
entering into a second contract of marriage? That’s a very important
question, as you can understand. If the court didn’t consider this point
very closely, you can see how easy it would be for a man and his wife
to get a decree of nullity by the one publishing a report of his or her
death in a newspaper. If the proof of the publication of such a report
were to be accepted as justification for a second marriage after a
brief interval, the time of the court would be fully occupied in issuing
decrees of nullity.”
“I see--yes--there’s something in that. But the circumstances of
this case are not quite the same, are they? The first marriage was no
marriage, so far as the--the actualities of marriage are concerned: the
man was arrested within five minutes of the signing of the register;
besides, the fellow had made fraudulent representations.”
“Fraudulent representations are punishable by imprisonment, but they are
not held to invalidate a marriage. But as you say, this particular case
is not on all fours with any that has come under my notice. We were
talking about the question of money, however. Did the man make any
suggestion about your paying him any money?”
Jack made him aware of the points in the interview bearing upon money,
and Mr. Liscomb took a note of them. No, the fellow could not be called
a blackmailer: the suggestion of the twenty-five thousand pounds had
not come from him; but he had clearly shown his hand. On the whole,
Mr. Liscomb, speaking for himself, and subject to the correction of Sir
Edward, the eminent perpetually-retained counsel learned in the law,
and, more important still, in the idiosyncrasies of judges and the
idiotcies of juries, was of the belief that, taking the peculiarities
of the case into account, a decree of nullity might be obtained; but
failing this a divorce might be tried for.
“In the meantime it is advisable that Mrs.--that the lady should go back
to her father’s house. You will, of course, see that this is so.”
“I see nothing of the sort,” said Jack. “She holds that she is my wife,
and I hold that I am her husband, and so we mean to stand by one another
whatever may happen. Besides, the father would hand her over to Blaydon
the day she went to him; and I don’t know what you think of it, but it
seems to me that just now Blaydon occupies a pretty strong position. If
he were to get his hands on her, and hold her as his wife, where should
we be then? How could he be hindered from putting her aboard a ship and
carrying her off to the South Seas?”
Mr. Liscomb shook his head.
“We should have to serve a writ of _habeas corpus_ and-----”
“Don’t trouble yourself further on this score,” said Jack. “We are
together now, and we mean to remain together. Take that as final.”
“Very unwise! You’ll have difficulty getting the divorce. But in an
exceptional case, possibly--anyhow, we’ll make a move to-morrow, under
the advice of Sir Edward, of course. We’ll be first in the field, at any
rate. So far as I can see just now, we shall enter our case at once and
trust to have it heard early in the Michaelmas sittings.”
“What, not before October?” cried Jack.
“Most likely November, with luck, but probably December,” replied Mr.
Liscomb with the complacency of a lawyer for whom time means money. “You
may rely on our losing no time. By the way, has the man anything to gain
by holding on to the lady--I mean, of course, something in addition to
the companionship of the lady?”
“Her father is well off--a wealthy farmer,” said Jack.
“Heavens! this is indeed an exceptional case--a wealthy farmer nowadays!
And you have reason to believe that if she went to the custody of her
father he would hand her over to the man?”
“He would do his best in that way--he would not succeed, because his
daughter is stronger than he is; but he would only force her to run back
to me.”
“I should have thought that the old man would kick him out of his
house--a blackguard who was fool enough to get caught. But I’ve had
experience of fathers--mostly Scotch--who believe so desperately in the
sacredness of the marriage bond that they would force a woman to live
with the man she has married even though he has just returned from penal
servitude for trying to murder her.”
“So far as I can gather from my wife, her father is something like
that.”
“My wife!” murmured Mr. Liscomb, smiling very gently, when his client
had gone away. “My wife!”