CHAPTER XIV.

Pelter opens his mind.

"Take a glass of claret. This is '34. Maybe you'd like some port better?"

"No, thanks, this will do very nicely," said the accommodating attorney. "Thirty-four? So it is, egad! and uncommon fine too."

"I hope you can give me a day or two--not business, of course--I mean by way of holiday," said Sir Jekyl. "A little country air will do you a world of good--set you up for the term."

Mr. Pelter smiled, and shook his head shrewdly.

"Quite out of the question, Sir Jekyl, I thank you all the same--business tumbling in too fast just now--I daren't stay away another day--no, no--ha, ha, ha! no rest for us, sir--no rest for the wicked. But this thing, you know, looks rather queerish, we thought--a little bit urgent: the other party has been so sly; and no want of money, sir--the sinews of war--lots of tin there."

"Yes, of course; and lots of tin here, too. I fancy fellows don't like to waste money only to hold their own; but, egad, if it comes to be a pull at the long purse, all the worse for them," threw in the Baronet.

"And their intending, you know, to set up this marriage," continued the attorney without minding; "and that Herbert Strangways being over here with the young pretender, as we call him, under his wing; and Strangways is a deuced clever fellow, and takes devilish sound view of a case when he lays his mind to it. It was he that reopened that great bankruptcy case of Onslow and Grawley, you remember."

Sir Jekyl assented, but did not remember.

"And a devilish able bit of chess-play that was on both sides--no end of concealed property--brought nearly sixty thousand pounds into the fund, egad! The creditors passed a vote, you remember--spoke very handsomely of him. Monstrous able fellow, egad!"

"A monstrous able fellow he'll be if he gets my property, egad! It seems to me you Pelter and Crowe are half in love with him," said Sir Jekyl, flushed and peevish.

"We'll hit him a hard knock or two yet, for all that--ha, ha!--or I'm mistaken," rejoined old Mr. Pelter.

"Do you know him?" inquired Sir Jekyl; and the servant at the same time appearing in answer to his previous summons, he said--

"Go to the parlour and tell Mr. Doocey--you know _quietly_--that I am detained by business, but that we'll join them in a little time in the drawing-room."

So the servant, with a reverence, departed.

"I say, _do_ you?"

"Just a little. Seven years ago, when I was at Havre, he was stopping there too. A very gentlemanlike man--sat beside him twice at the table d'hôte. I could see he knew d--d well who I was--wide awake, very agreeable man, very--wonderful well-informed. Wonderful ups and downs that fellow's had--clever fellow--ha, ha, ha!--I mentioned you, Sir Jekyl; I wanted to hear if he'd say anything--fishing, hey? Old file, you know"--and the attorney winked and grinned agreeably at Sir Jekyl. "Capital claret this--cap-i-tal, by Jupiter! It came in natural enough. We were talking of England, you see. He was asking questions; and so, talking of country gentlemen, and county influence, and parliamentary life, you know, I brought in _you_, and asked him if he knew Sir Jekyl Marlowe." Another wink and a grin here. "I asked, a bit suddenly, you know, to see how he'd take it. Did not show, egad! more than that decanter--ha, ha, ha!--devilish cool dog--monstrous clever fellow--not a bit; and he said he did not know you--had not that honour; but he knew a great deal of you, and he spoke very handsomely--upon my honour--quite au--au--handsomely of you, he did."

"Vastly obliged to him," said Sir Jekyl; but though he sneered I think he was pleased. "You don't recollect what he said, I dare say?"

"Well, I can_not_ exactly."

"Did he mention any unpleasantness ever between us?" continued Sir Jekyl.

"Yes, he said there had, and that he was afraid Sir Jekyl might not remember his name with satisfaction; but he, for his part, liked to forget and forgive--that kind of thing, you know, and young fellows being too hot-headed, you know. I really--I don't think he bears you personally any ill-will."

"There has certainly been time enough for anger to cool a little, and I really, for my part, never felt anything of the kind towards him; I can honestly say _that_, and I dare say he knows it. I merely want to protect myself against--against madmen, egad!" said Sir Jekyl.

"I think that copy of a marriage settlement you showed me had no names in it," he resumed.

"No, the case is all put like a moot point, not a name in it. It's all nonsense, too, because every man in my profession knows a copying clerk never has a notion of the meaning of anything--letter, deed, pleading--nothing he copies--not an iota, by Jove!"

"Finish the bottle; you must not send it away," said Sir Jekyl.

"Thanks, I'm doing very nicely; and now as they may open fire suddenly, I want to know"--here the attorney's eyes glanced at the door, and his voice dropped a little--"any information of a confidential sort that may guide us in--in----"

"Why, I fancy it's _all_ confidential, isn't it?" answered Sir Jekyl.

"Certainly--but aw--but--I meant--you know--there was aw--a--there was a talk, you know, about a deed. Eh?"

"I--I--_yes_, I've heard--I know what you mean," answered Sir Jekyl, pouring a little claret into his glass. "They--those fellows--they lost a deed, and they were d--d impertinent about it; they wanted--you know it's a long time ago--to try and slur my poor father about it--I don't know exactly how, only, I think, there would have been an action for slander very likely about it, if it had not stopped of itself."

Sir Jekyl sipped his claret.

"I shan't start till three o'clock train to-morrow, if you have anything to say to me," said the attorney, looking darkly and expectingly in Sir Jekyl's face.

"Yes, I'll think over everything. I'd like to have a good talk with you in the morning. You sleep here, you know, of course."

"Very kind. I hope I shan't be in your way, Sir Jekyl. Very happy."

Sir Jekyl rang the bell.

"I shan't let you off to-morrow, unless you really can't help it," he said; and, the servant entering, "Tell Mrs. Sinnott that Mr. Pelter remains here to-night, and would wish--_do_ you?--to run up to your room. Where's your luggage?"

"Precious light luggage it is. I left it at the hotel in the town--a small valise, and a----"

"Get it up here, do you mind, and let us know when Mr. Pelter's room is ready."

"Don't be long about dressing; we must join the ladies, you know, in the drawing-room. I wish, Pelter, there was no such thing as business; and that all attorneys, except you and Crowe, of course, were treated in this and the next world according to their deserts," an ambiguous compliment at which Pelter nodded slyly, with his hands in his pockets.

"You'll have to get us all the information you can scrape together, Sir Jekyl. You see they may have evidence of that deed--I mean the lost one, you know--and proving a marriage and the young gentleman legitimate. It may be a serious case--upon my word a _very_ serious case--do you see? And term begins, you know, immediately so there really is no time to lose, and there's no harm in being ready."

"I'll have a long talk with you about it in the morning, and I am devilish glad you came--curse the whole thing!"

The servant here came to say that Mr. Pelter's room was ready, and his luggage sent for to the town.

"Come up, then--we'll look at your room."

So up they went, and Pelter declared himself charmed.

"Come to my room, Mr. Pelter--it's a long way off, and a confoundedly shabby crib; but I've got some very good cigars there," said Sir Jekyl, who was restless, and wished to hear the attorney more fully on this hated business.