The Woman in White - The Original Classic Edition. Collins Wilkie

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СКАЧАТЬ again no difficulty could arise with Sir Percival's legal adviser. The income

       would be at the wife's disposal, and the principal would go to her aunt or her cousin on her death.

       All preliminary explanations being now cleared out of the way, I come at last to the real knot of the case--to the twenty thousand pounds.

       This sum was absolutely Miss Fairlie's own on her completing her twenty-first year, and the whole future disposition of it depended, in the first instance, on the conditions I could obtain for her in her marriage-settlement. The other clauses contained in that document were of a formal kind, and need not be recited here. But the clause relating to the money is too important to be passed over. A few lines will be sufficient to give the necessary abstract of it.

       My stipulation in regard to the twenty thousand pounds was simply this: The whole amount was to be settled so as to give the in-come to the lady for her life--afterwards to Sir Percival for his life--and the principal to the children of the marriage. In default of issue, the principal was to be disposed of as the lady might by her will direct, for which purpose I reserved to her the right of making a will. The effect of these conditions may be thus summed up. If Lady Glyde died without leaving children, her half-sister Miss Halcombe, and any other relatives or friends whom she might be anxious to benefit, would, on her husband's death, divide among them such shares of her money as she desired them to have. If, on the other hand, she died leaving children, then their interest, naturally and necessarily, superseded all other interests whatsoever. This was the clause--and no one who reads it can fail, I think, to agree

       with me that it meted out equal justice to all parties.

       We shall see how my proposals were met on the husband's side.

       At the time when Miss Halcombe's letter reached me I was even more busily occupied than usual. But I contrived to make leisure

       for the settlement. I had drawn it, and had sent it for approval to Sir Percival's solicitor, in less than a week from the time when Miss

       Halcombe had informed me of the proposed marriage.

       After a lapse of two days the document was returned to me, with notes and remarks of the baronet's lawyer. His objections, in general, proved to be of the most trifling and technical kind, until he came to the clause relating to the twenty thousand pounds. Against this there were double lines drawn in red ink, and the following note was appended to them--

       "Not admissible. The PRINCIPAL to go to Sir Percival Glyde, in the event of his surviving Lady Glyde, and there being no issue." That is to say, not one farthing of the twenty thousand pounds was to go to Miss Halcombe, or to any other relative or friend of

       Lady Glyde's. The whole sum, if she left no children, was to slip into the pockets of her husband.

       The answer I wrote to this audacious proposal was as short and sharp as I could make it. "My dear sir. Miss Fairlie's settlement. I maintain the clause to which you object, exactly as it stands. Yours truly." The rejoinder came back in a quarter of an hour. "My dear sir. Miss Fairlie's settlement. I maintain the red ink to which you object, exactly as it stands. Yours truly." In the detestable slang of

       the day, we were now both "at a deadlock," and nothing was left for it but to refer to our clients on either side.

       As matters stood, my client--Miss Fairlie not having yet completed her twenty-first year--Mr. Frederick Fairlie, was her guardian. I

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       wrote by that day's post, and put the case before him exactly as it stood, not only urging every argument I could think of to induce him to maintain the clause as I had drawn it, but stating to him plainly the mercenary motive which was at the bottom of the opposition to my settlement of the twenty thousand pounds. The knowledge of Sir Percival's affairs which I had necessarily gained when the provisions of the deed on HIS side were submitted in due course to my examination, had but too plainly informed me that the debts on his estate were enormous, and that his income, though nominally a large one, was virtually, for a man in his position, next

       to nothing. The want of ready money was the practical necessity of Sir Percival's existence, and his lawyer's note on the clause in the

       settlement was nothing but the frankly selfish expression of it.

       Mr. Fairlie's answer reached me by return of post, and proved to be wandering and irrelevant in the extreme. Turned into plain English, it practically expressed itself to this effect: "Would dear Gilmore be so very obliging as not to worry his friend and client about such a trifle as a remote contingency? Was it likely that a young woman of twenty-one would die before a man of forty five, and

       die without children? On the other hand, in such a miserable world as this, was it possible to over-estimate the value of peace and quietness? If those two heavenly blessings were offered in exchange for such an earthly trifle as a remote chance of twenty thousand pounds, was it not a fair bargain? Surely, yes. Then why not make it?"

       I threw the letter away in disgust. Just as it had fluttered to the ground, there was a knock at my door, and Sir Percival's solicitor, Mr. Merriman, was shown in. There are many varieties of sharp practitioners in this world, but I think the hardest of all to deal with are the men who overreach you under the disguise of inveterate good-humour. A fat, well fed, smiling, friendly man of business is of all parties to a bargain the most hopeless to deal with. Mr. Merriman was one of this class.

       "And how is good Mr. Gilmore?" he began, all in a glow with the warmth of his own amiability. "Glad to see you, sir, in such excellent health. I was passing your door, and I thought I would look in in case you might have something to say to me. Do--now pray do let us settle this little difference of ours by word of mouth, if we can! Have you heard from your client yet?"

       "Yes. Have you heard from yours?"

       "My dear, good sir! I wish I had heard from him to any purpose--I wish, with all my heart, the responsibility was off my shoulders;

       but he is obstinate--or let me rather say, resolute--and he won't take it off. 'Merriman, I leave details to you. Do what you think

       right for my interests, and consider me as having personally withdrawn from the business until it is all over.' Those were Sir Percival's words a fortnight ago, and all I can get him to do now is to repeat them. I am not a hard man, Mr. Gilmore, as you know. Personally and privately, I do assure you, I should like to sponge out that note of mine at this very moment. But if Sir Percival won't go into the matter, if Sir Percival will blindly leave all his interests in my sole care, what course can I possibly take except the course of asserting them? My hands are bound--don't you see, my dear sir?--my hands are bound."

       "You maintain your note on the clause, then, to the letter?" I said.

       "Yes--deuce take it! I have no other alternative." He walked to the fireplace and warmed himself, humming the fag end of a tune in

       a rich convivial bass voice. "What does your side say?" he went on; "now pray tell me--what does your side say?"

       I was ashamed to tell him. I attempted to gain time--nay, I did worse. My legal instincts got the better of me, and I even tried to bargain.

       "Twenty thousand pounds is rather a large sum to be given up by the lady's friends at two days' notice," I said.

       "Very true," replied Mr. Merriman, looking down thoughtfully at his boots. "Properly put, sir--most properly put!"

       "A compromise, recognising the interests of the lady's family as well as the interests of the husband, might not perhaps have frightened my СКАЧАТЬ