The Eustace Diamonds (28 page)

His friend was a man a couple of years younger than himself, who had hitherto achieved no success at the Bar, but who was nevertheless a clever, diligent, well-instructed man. He was what the world calls penniless, having an income from his father just sufficient to keep him like a gentleman. He was not much known as a sportsman, his opportunities for shooting not having been great; but he dearly loved the hills and fresh air, and the few grouse which were – or were not – on Lady Eustace's mountains would go as far with him as they would with any man. Before he had consented to come with Frank, he had specially inquired whether there was a gamekeeper, and it was not till he had been assured that there was no officer attached to the estate worthy of such a name, that he had consented to come upon his present expedition. ‘I don't clearly know what a gillie is,' he said, in answer to one of Frank's explanations. ‘If, a gillie means a lad without any breeches on, I don't mind; but
I couldn't stand a severe man got up in well-made velveteens, who would see through my ignorance in a moment, and make known by comment the fact that he had done so.' Greystock had promised that there should be no severity, and Herriot had come. Greystock brought with him two guns, two fishing rods, a manservant, and a huge hamper from Fortnum and Mason's.
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Arthur Herriot, whom the attorneys had not yet loved, brought some very thick boots, a pair of knickerbockers, together with Stone and Toddy's ‘Digest of the Common Law.' The best of the legal profession consists in this; – that when you get fairly at work you may give over working. An aspirant must leam everything; but a man may make his fortune at it, and know almost nothing. He may examine a witness with judgement, see through a case with precision, address a jury with eloquence – and yet be altogether ignorant of law. But he must be believed to be a very pundit before he will get a chance of exercising his judgement, his precision, or his eloquence. The men whose names are always in the newspapers never look at their Stone and Toddy – care for it not at all – have their Stone and Toddy got up for them by their juniors when cases require that reference shall be made to precedents. But till that blessed time has come, a barrister who means success should carry his Stone and Toddy with him everywhere. Greystock never thought of the law now, unless he had some special case in hand; but Herriot could not afford to go out on his holiday without two volumes of Stone and Toddy's Digest in his portmanteau.

‘You won't mind being left alone for the first morning?' said Frank, as soon as they had finished the contents of one of the pots from Fortnum and Mason.

‘Not in the least. Stone and Toddy will carry me through.'

‘I'd go on the mountain if I were you, and get into a habit of steady loading.'

‘Perhaps I will take a turn – just to find out how I feel in the knickerbockers. At what time shall I dine if you don't come back?'

‘I shall certainly be here to dinner,' said Frank, ‘unless the pony fails me or I get lost on the mountain.' Then he started,
and Herriot at once went to work on Stone and Toddy with a pipe in his mouth. He had travelled all night, and it is hardly necessary to say that in five minutes he was fast asleep.

So also had Frank travelled all night, but the pony and the fresh air kept him awake. The boy had offered to go with him, but he had altogether refused; – and, therefore, to his other cares was added that of finding his way. The sweep of the valleys, however, was long and not abrupt, and he could hardly miss his road if he would only make one judicious turn through a gap in a certain wall which lay half way between the cottage and the castle. He was thinking of the work in hand, and he found the gap without difficulty. When through that he ascended the hill for two miles, and then the sea was before him, and Portray Castle, lying, as it seemed to him at that distance, close upon the sea-shore. ‘Upon my word, Lizzie has not done badly with herself,' he said almost aloud, as he looked down upon the fair sight beneath him, and round upon the mountains, and remembered that for her life at least, it was all hers, and after her death would belong to her son. What more does any human being desire of such a property than that?

He rode down to the great doorway – the mountain track which fell on to the road about half a mile from the castle having been plain enough, and there he gave up the pony into the hands of no less a man than Mr Gowran himself. Gowran had watched the pony coming down the mountain side, and had desired to see of what like was ‘her leddyship's' cousin. In telling the whole truth of Mr Gowran, it must be acknowledged that he thought that his late master had made a very great mistake in the matter of his marriage. He could not imagine bad things enough of Lady Eustace, and almost believed that she was not now, and hadn't been before her marriage, any better than she should be. The name of Admiral Greystock, as having been the father of his mistress, had indeed reached his ears; but Andy Gowran was a suspicious man, and felt no confidence even in an admiral – in regard to whom he heard nothing of his having, or having had, a wife. ‘It's my fer-rm opeenion she's jist naebody – and waur,' he had said more than once to his own wife, nodding his head with great emphasis at
the last word. He was very anxious, therefore, to see her ‘leddy-ship's' cousin. Mr Gowran thought that he knew a gentleman when he saw one. He thought, also, that he knew a lady, and that he didn't see one when he was engaged with his mistress. Cousin, indeed! ‘For the matter o' that, ony man that comes the way may be ca'ed a coosin.' So Mr Gowran was on the grand sweep before the garden gate, and took the pony from Frank's hand. ‘Is Lady Eustace at home?' Frank asked. Mr Gowran perceived that Frank was a gentleman, and was disappointed. And Frank didn't come as a man comes who calls himself by a false name, and pretends to be an honest cousin when in fact he is something – oh, ever so wicked! Mr Gowran, who was a stern moralist, was certainly disappointed at Frank's appearance.

Lizzie was in a little sitting-room, reached by a long passage with steps in the middle, at some comer of the castle which seemed a long way from the great door. It was a cheerful little room, with chintz curtains, and a few shelves laden with brightly-bound books, which had been prepared for Lizzie immediately on her marriage. It looked out upon the sea, and she had almost taught herself to think that here she had sat with her adored Florian, gazing in mutual ecstasy upon the ‘wide expanse of glittering waves.' She was lying back in a low arm-chair as her cousin entered, and she did not rise to receive him. Of course she was alone, Miss Macnulty having received a suggestion that it would be well that she should do a little gardening in the moat. ‘Well, Frank?' she said, with her sweetest smile, as she gave him her hand. She felt and understood the extreme intimacy which would be implied by her not rising to receive him. As she could not rush into his arms there was no device by which she could more clearly show to him how close she regarded his friendship.

‘So I am at Portray Castle at last,' he said, still holding her hand.

‘Yes – at the dullest, dreariest, deadliest spot in all Christendom, I think – if Ayrshire be Christendom. But never mind about that now. Perhaps, as you are at the other side of the mountain at the Cottage, we shall find it less dull here at the castle.'

‘I thought you were to be so happy here.'

‘Sit down and we'll talk it over by degrees. What will you have – breakfast or lunch?'

‘Neither, thank you.'

‘Of course you'll stay to dinner?'

‘No, indeed. I've a man there at the Cottage with me, who would cut his throat in his solitude.'

‘Let him cut his throat; – but never mind now. As for being happy, women are never happy without men. I needn't tell any lies to you, you know. What makes me sure that this fuss about making men and women all the same
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must be wrong, is just the fact that men can get along without women, and women can't without men. My life has been a burthen to me. But never mind. Tell me about my lord; – my lord and master.'

‘Lord Fawn?'

‘Who else? What other lord and master? My bosom's own; my heart's best hope; my spot of terra firma; my cool running brook of fresh water; my rock; my love; my lord, my all! Is he always thinking of his absent Lizzie? Does he still toil at Downing Street? Oh, dear; do you remember, Frank, when he told us that – “one of us must remain in town?” '

‘I have seen him.'

‘So you wrote me word.'

‘And I have seen a very obstinate, pig-headed, but nevertheless honest and truth speaking gentleman.'

‘Frank, I don't care twopence for his honesty and truth. If he ill-treats me –' Then she paused; looking into his face she had seen at once by the manner in which he had taken her badinage, without a smile, that it was necessary that she should be serious as to her matrimonial prospects. I suppose I had better let you tell your story,' she said, ‘and I will sit still and listen.'

‘He means to ill-treat you.'

‘And you will let him?'

‘You had better listen, as you promised, Lizzie. He declares that the marriage must be off at once unless you will send those diamonds to Mr Camperdown or to the jewellers.'

‘And by what law or rule does he justify himself in a decision
so monstrous? Is he prepared to prove that the property is not my own?'

‘If you ask my opinion as a lawyer, I doubt whether any such proof can be shown. But as a man and a friend I do advise you to give them up.'

‘Never!'

‘You must, of course, judge for yourself; – but that is my advice. You had better, however, hear my whole story.'

‘Certainly,' said Lizzie. Her whole manner was now changed. She had extricated herself from the crouching position in which her feet, her curl, her arms, her whole body had been so arranged as to combine the charm of her beauty with the charm of proffered intimacy. Her dress was such as a woman would wear to receive her brother, and yet it had been studied. She had no gems about her but what she might well wear in her ordinary life, and yet the very rings on her fingers had not been put on without reference to her cousin Frank. Her position had been one of lounging ease, such as a woman might adopt when all alone, giving herself all the luxuries of solitude; – but she had adopted it in special reference to cousin Frank. Now she was in earnest, with business before her; and though it may be said of her that she could never forget her appearance in presence of a man whom she desired to please, her curl, and rings, and attitude were for the moment in the background. She had seated herself on a common chair, with her hands upon the table, and was looking into Frank's face with eager, eloquent, and combative eyes. She would take his law, because she believed in it; but, as far as she could see as yet, she would not take his advice unless it were backed by his law.

‘Mr Camperdown,' continued Greystock, ‘has consented to prepare a case of opinion, though he will not agree that the Eustace estate shall be bound by that opinion.'

‘Then what's the good of it?'

‘We shall at least know, all of us, what is the opinion of some lawyer qualified to understand the circumstances of the case.'

‘Why isn't your opinion as good as that of any lawyer?'

‘I couldn't give an opinion; – not otherwise than as a private friend to you, which is worth nothing, unless for your private guidance. Mr Camperdown –'

‘I don't care one straw for Mr Camperdown.'

‘Just let me finish.'

‘Oh, certainly; – and you mustn't be angry with me, Frank. The matter is so much to me; isn't it?'

‘I won't be angry. Do I look as if I were angry? Mr Camperdown is right.'

‘I daresay he may be – what you call right. But I don't care about Mr Camperdown a bit.'

‘He has no power, nor has John Eustace any power to decide that the property which may belong to a third person shall be jeopardised by any arbitration. The third person could not be made to lose his legal right by any such arbitration, and his claim, if made, would still have to be tried.'

‘Who is the third person, Frank?'

‘Your own child at present.'

‘And will not he have it any way?'

‘Camperdown and John Eustace say that it belongs to him at present. It is a point that, no doubt, should be settled.'

‘To whom do you say that it belongs?'

‘That is a question I am not prepared to answer.'

‘To whom do you think that it belongs?'

‘I have refused to look at a single paper on the subject, and my opinion is worth nothing. From what I have heard in conversation with Mr Camperdown and John Eustace, I cannot find that they make their case good.'

‘Nor can I,' said Lizzie.

‘A case is to be prepared for Mr Dove.'

‘Who is Mr Dove?'

‘Mr Dove is a barrister, and no doubt a very clever fellow. If his opinion be such as Mr Camperdown expects, he will at once proceed against you at law for the immediate recovery of the necklace.'

‘I shall be ready for him,' said Lizzie, and as she spoke all her little feminine softnesses were for the moment laid aside.

‘If Mr Dove's opinion be in your favour –'

‘Well,' said Lizzie – ‘what then?'

‘In that case Mr Camperdown, acting on behalf of John Eustace and young Florian –'

‘How dreadful it is to hear of my bitterest enemy acting on behalf of my own child!' said Lizzie, holding up her hands piteously. ‘Well?'

‘In that case Mr Camperdown will serve you with some notice that the jewels are not yours – to part with them as you may please.'

‘But they will be mine.'

‘He says not; – but in such case he will content himself with taking steps which may prevent you from selling them.'

‘Who says that I want to sell them?' demanded Lizzie indignantly.