RUMMELSBURG.
Mr. Scarborough again sent for Mr. Grey, but a couple of weeks passed
before he came. At first he refused to come, saying that he would send
his clerk down if any work were wanted such as the clerk might do. And
the clerk did come and was very useful. But Mr. Scarborough persevered,
using arguments which Mr. Grey found himself unable at last to resist.
He was dying, and there would soon be an end of it. That was his
strongest argument. Then it was alleged that a lawyer of experience was
certainly needed, and that Mr. Scarborough could not very well put his
affairs into the hands of a stranger. And old friendship was brought up.
And, then, at last, the squire alleged that there were other secrets to
be divulged respecting his family, of which Mr. Scarborough thought that
Mr. Grey would approve. What could be the "other secrets?" But it ended
in Mr. Grey assenting to go, in opposition to his daughter's advice. "I
would have nothing more to do with him or his secrets," Dolly had said.
"You do not know him."
"I know as much about him as a woman can know of a man she doesn't
know,--and all from yourself. You have said over and over again that he
is a 'rascal!'"
"Not a rascal. I don't think I said he was a rascal."
"I believe you used that very word."
"Then I unsay it. A rascal has something mean about him. Juniper's a
rascal!"
"He cares nothing for his word."
"Nothing at all,--when the law is concerned."
"And he has defamed his own wife."
"That was done many years ago."
"For a fixed purpose, and not from passion," Dolly continued. "He is a
thoroughly bad man. You have made his will for him, and now I would
leave him." After that Mr. Grey declined for a second time to go. But at
last he was persuaded.
On the evening of his arrival he dined with Mountjoy and Merton, and on
that occasion Miss Scarborough joined them. Of course there was much
surmise as to the cause of this farther visit. Merton declared that, as
he had acted as the sick man's private secretary, he was bound to keep
his secret as far as he knew it. He only surmised what he believed to be
the truth, but of that he could say nothing. Miss Scarborough was
altogether in the dark. She, and she alone, spoke of her brother with
respect, but in that she knew nothing.
"I cannot tell what it is," said Mountjoy; "but I suspect it to be
something intended for my benefit and for the utter ruin of Augustus."
Miss Scarborough had now retired. "If it could be possible, I should
think that he intended to declare that all he had said before was
false." To this, however, Mr. Grey would not listen. He was very stout
in denying the possibility of any reversion of the decision to which
they had all come. Augustus was, undoubtedly, by law his father's eldest
son. He had seen with his own eyes copies of the registry of the
marriage, which Mr. Barry had gone across the Continent to make. And in
that book his wife had signed her maiden name, according to the custom
of the country. This had been done in the presence of the clergyman and
of a gentleman,--a German, then residing on the spot, who had himself
been examined, and had stated that the wedding, as a wedding, had been
regular in all respects. He was since dead, but the clergyman who had
married them was still alive. Within twelve months of that time Mr.
Scarborough and his bride had arrived in England, and Augustus had been
born. "Nothing but the most indisputable evidence would have sufficed to
prove a fact by which you were so cruelly wronged," he said, addressing
himself to Mountjoy. "And when your father told me that no wrong could
be done to you, as the property was hopelessly in the hands of the Jews,
I told him that, for all purposes of the law, the Jews were as dear to
me as you were. I do say that nothing but the most certain facts would
have convinced me. Such facts, when made certain, are immovable. If your
father has any plot for robbing Augustus, he will find me as staunch a
friend to Augustus as ever I have been to you." When he had so spoken
they separated for the night, and his words had been so strong that they
had altogether affected Mountjoy. If such were his father's intentions,
it must be by some farther plot that he endeavored to carry it out: and
in his father's plots he would put no trust whatever.
And yet he declared his own purpose as he discussed the matter, late
into the night, with Merton. "I cannot trust Grey at all, nor my father
either, because I do not believe, as Grey believes, this story of the
marriage. My father is so clever, and so resolute in his purpose to set
aside all control over the property as arranged by law, that to my mind
it has all been contrived by himself. Either Mr. Barry has been squared,
or the German parson, or the foreign gentleman, or more probably all of
them. Mr. Grey himself may have been squared, for all I know, though he
is the kindest-hearted gentleman I ever came across. Anything shall be
more probable to me than that I am not my father's eldest son." To all
this Mr. Merton said very little, though no doubt he had his own ideas.
The next morning the three gentlemen, with Mr. Grey's clerk, sat down to
breakfast, solemn and silent. The clerk had been especially entreated to
say nothing of what he had learned, and was therefore not questioned by
his master. But in truth he had learned but little, having spent his
time in the sorting and copying of letters which, though they all bore
upon the subject in hand, told nothing of the real tale. Farther
surmises were useless now, as at eleven o'clock Mr. Grey and Mr. Merton
were to go up together to the squire's room. The clerk was to remain
within call, but there would be no need of Mountjoy. "I suppose I may as
well go to bed," said he, "or up to London, or anywhere." Mr. Grey very
sententiously advised him at any rate not to go up to London.
The hour came, and Mr. Grey, with Merton and the clerk, disappeared
up-stairs. They were summoned by Miss Scarborough, who seemed to feel
heavily the awful solemnity of the occasion. "I am sure he is going to
do something very dreadful this time," she whispered to Mr. Grey, who
seemed himself to be a little awe-struck, and did not answer her.
At two o'clock they all met again at lunch and Mr. Grey was silent, and
in truth very unhappy. Merton and the clerk were also silent, as was
Miss Scarborough,--silent as death. She, indeed, knew nothing, but the
other three knew as much as Mr. Scarborough could or would tell them.
Mountjoy was there also, and in the middle of the meal broke out
violently: "Why the mischief don't you tell me what it is that my father
has said to you?"
"Because I do not believe a word of his story," said Mr. Grey.
"Oh, Mr Grey!" ejaculated Miss Scarborough.
"I do not believe a word of his story," repeated Mr. Grey. "Your
father's intelligence is so high, and his principles so low, that there
is no scheme which he does not think that he cannot carry out against
the established laws of his country. His present tale is a made-up
fable."
"What do you say, Merton?" asked Mountjoy.
"It looks to me to be true," said Merton. "But I am no lawyer."
"Why don't you tell me what it is?" said Mountjoy.
"I cannot tell you," said Grey, "though he commissioned me to do so.
Greenwood there will tell you." Greenwood was the name of the clerk.
"But I advise you to take him with you to your own room. And Mr. Merton
would, I am sure, go with you. As for me, it would be impossible that I
should do credit in the telling of it to a story of which I do not
believe a single word."
"Am I not to know?" asked Miss Scarborough, plaintively.
"Your nephew will tell you," said Mr. Grey,--"or Mr. Merton; or Mr.
Greenwood can do so, if he has permission from Mr. Scarborough. I would
rather tell no one. It is to me incredible." With that he got up and
walked away.
"Now then, Merton," said Mountjoy, rising from his chair.
"Upon my word I hardly know what to do," said Merton.
"You must come and tell me this wonderful tale. I suppose that in some
way it does affect my interests?"
"It affects your interests very much."
"Then I think I may say that I certainly shall believe it. My father at
present would not wish to do me an injury. It must be told, so come
along. Mr. Greenwood had better come also." Then he left the room, and
the two men followed him. They went away to the smoking-room, leaving
Mr. Grey with Miss Scarborough. "Am I to know nothing about it?" said
Miss Scarborough.
"Not from me, Miss Scarborough. You can understand, that I cannot tell
you a story which will require at every word that I should explain my
thorough disbelief in your brother. I have been very angry with him, and
he has been more energetic than can have been good for him."
"Ah me! you will have killed him among you!"
"It has been his own doing. You, however, had better go to him. I must
return to town this evening."
"You will stay for dinner?"
"No. I cannot stay for dinner. I cannot sit down with Mountjoy,--who has
done nothing in the least wrong,--because I feel myself to be altogether
opposed to his interests. I would rather be out of the house." So
saying he did leave the house, and went back to London by train that
afternoon.
The meeting that morning, which had been very stormy, cannot be given
word by word. From the moment in which the squire had declared his
purpose, the lawyer had expressed his disbelief in all that was said to
him. This Mr. Scarborough had at first taken very kindly; but Mr. Grey
clung to his purpose with a pertinacity which had at last beaten down
the squire's good-humor, and had called for the interference of Mr.
Merton. "How can I be quiet?" the squire had said, "when he tells me
everything I say is a lie?"
"It is a lie!" said Mr. Grey, who had lost all control of himself.
"You should not say that, Mr. Grey," said Merton.
"He should spare a man on his death-bed, who is endeavoring to do his
duty by his children," said the man who thus declared himself to be
dying.
"I will go away," said Mr. Grey, rising. "He has forced me to come here
against my will, and has known,--must have known,--that I should tell him
what I thought. Even though a man be dying, a man cannot accept what he
says on a matter of business such as this unless he believe him. I must
tell him that I believe him or that I do not. I disbelieve the whole
story, and will not act upon it as though I believed it." But even after
this the meeting was continued, Mr. Grey consenting to sit there and to
hear what was said to the end.
The purport of Mr. Scarborough's story will probably have been
understood by our readers. It was Mr. Scarborough's present intention to
make it understood that the scheme intended for the disinheritance of
Mountjoy had been false from the beginning to the end, and had been
arranged, not for the injury of Mountjoy, but for the salvation of the
estate from the hands of the Jews. Mountjoy would have lost nothing, as
the property would have gone entirely to the Jews had Mr. Scarborough
then died, and Mountjoy been taken as his legitimate heir. He was not
anxious, he had declared, to say anything on the present occasion in
defence of his conduct in that respect. He would soon be gone, and he
would leave men to judge him who might do so the more honestly when they
should have found that he had succeeded in paying even the Jews in full
the moneys which they had actually advanced. But now things were again
changed, and he was bound to go back to the correct order of things.
"No!" shouted Mr. Grey.
"To the correct order of things," he went on. Mountjoy Scarborough was,
he declared, undoubtedly legitimate. And then he made Merton and the
clerk bring forth all the papers, as though he had never brought forth
any papers to prove the other statement to Mr. Grey. And he did expect
Mr. Grey to believe them. Mr. Grey simply put them all back,
metaphorically, with his hand. There had been two marriages, absolutely
prepared with the intent of enabling him at some future time to upset
the law altogether, if it should seem good to him to do so.
"And your wife?" shouted Mr. Grey.
"Dear woman! She would have done anything that I told her,--unless I had
told her to do what was absolutely wrong."
"Not wrong!"
"Well, you know what I mean. She was the purest and best of women." Then
he went on with his tale. There had been two marriages, and he now
brought forth all the evidence of the former marriage. It had taken
place in a remote town, a village in the northern part of Prussia,
whither she had been taken by her mother to join him. The two ladies had
both been since long dead. He had been laid up at the little Prussian
town under the plea of a bad leg. He did not scruple to say now that the
bad leg had been pretence, and a portion of his scheme. The law, he
thought, in endeavoring to make arrangements for his property,--the
property which should have been his own,--had sinned so greatly as to
drive a wise man to much scheming. He had begun scheming early in the
business. But for his bad leg the old lady would not have brought her
daughter to be married at so out-of-the-way a place as Rummelsburg, in
Pomerania. He had travelled about and found Rummelsburg peculiarly
fitted for his enterprise. There was a most civil old Lutheran clergyman
there, to whom he had made himself peculiarly acceptable. He had now
certified copies of the registry at Rummelsburg, which left no loop-hole
for doubt. But he had felt that probably no inquiry would have been made
about what had been done thirty years ago at Rummelsburg, had he himself
desired to be silent on the subject. "There will be no difficulty," he
said, "in making the Rummelsburg marriage known to all the world."
"I think there will;--very great difficulty," Mr. Grey had said.
"Not the least. But when I had to be married in the light of day, after
Mountjoy's birth, at Nice, in Italy, then there was the difficulty. It
had to be done in the light of day; and that little traveller with his
nurse were with us. Nice was in Italy then, and some contrivance was, I
assure you, necessary. But it was done, and I have always had with me
the double sets of certificates. As things have turned up, I have had to
keep Mr. Grey altogether in the dark as regards Rummelsburg. It was very
difficult; but I have succeeded."
That Mr. Grey should have been almost driven to madness by such an
outrage as this was a matter of course. But he preferred to believe that
Rummelsburg, and not Nice, was the myth. "How did your wife travel with
you during the whole of that year?" he had asked.
"As Mrs. Scarborough, no doubt. But we had been very little in society,
and the world at large seemed willing to believe almost anything of me
that was wrong. However, there's the Rummelsburg marriage, and if you
send to Rummelsburg you'll find that it's all right,--a little white
church up a corner, with a crooked spire. The old clergyman is, no
doubt, dead, but I should imagine that they would keep their registers."
Then he explained how he had travelled about the world with the two sets
of certificates, and had made the second public when his object had been
to convert Augustus into his eldest son. Many people then had been found
who had remembered something of the marriage at Nice, and remembered to
have remembered something at the time of having been in possession of
some secret as to the lady. But Rummelsburg had been kept quite in the
dark. Now it was necessary that a strong light should be thrown on the
absolute legality of the Rummelsburg marriage.
He declared that he had more than once made up his mind to destroy those
Rummelsburg documents, but had always been deterred by the reflection
that, when they were once gone, they could not be brought back again. "I
had always intended," he had said, "to burn the papers the last thing
before my death. But as I learned Augustus's character, I made quite
certain by causing them to be sealed up in a parcel addressed to him, so
that if I had died by accident they might have fallen into proper hands.
But I see now the wickedness of my project, and, therefore, I give them
over to Mr. Grey." So saying he tendered the parcel to the attorney.
Mr. Grey, of course, refused to take, or even to touch, the Rummelsburg
parcel. He then prepared to leave the room, declaring it would be his
duty to act on the part of Augustus, should Augustus be pleased to
accept his services. But Mr. Scarborough, almost with tears, implored
him to change his purpose. "Why should you set two brothers by the
ears?" At this Mr. Grey only shook his head incredulously. "And why ruin
the property without an object?"
"The property will come to ruin."
"Not if you will take the matter up in the proper spirit. But if you
determine to drive one brother to hostility against the other, and
promote unnecessary litigation, of course the lawyers will get it all."
Then Mr. Grey left the room, boiling with anger in that he, with his
legal knowledge and determination to do right, had been so utterly
thrown aside; while Mr. Scarborough sank exhausted by the effort he had
gone through.