"Certainly not, sir!" I cried, turning on him in a passion. "No such thing, sir!" "Excuse me that the will is burned," he corrected himself with much politeness. "I give no reply at present, sir," I replied. "By the way, will you favour me with the address of your client ?" "At present, and for the present, I am afraid I must decline," he answered. "For," I cried, regardless of consequence, "I very much doubt whether you are employed by Miss Ellen Harrington." "Indeed, sir! I regret to hear it. Doubts, sir, are ungenerous," he said, graciously. "Come on, Owen," I said, turning on my heel abruptly, for I heard Vallance clearing his throat, and I dreaded, lest taking courage from my boldness, he was preparing to do something rash. "Good day, Mr. Zooks!" said Rattler, with marked emphasis on the name. "Good day, Mr. Cuttleby. I dare say we shall have the pleasure of a further correspondence with you." "A den of thieves!" cried Vallance, coming to himself, as he closed the green baize door upon the reptile who had fascinated him into silence on the other side of it. "What's that, sir?" demanded Teesor (whom Vallance had forgotten all about), springing from his stool in the outer office, and confronting us with the countenance of a terrier. But Vallance held this jackal in little awe, and meanly revenged himself for his cowardice before the great bloodsucker upon this little snapping thing. "You're a set of blackguards!" he cried. "Jew thieves, or something worse the whole lot of you. And I believe YOU FORGED THE WILL!" "What!" cried Teesor, rushing to his pen, and putting down the words. "There!" he cried, as a gentleman was seen entering, "say that again, will you, before a second witness?" But Vallance strode out and slammed the door behind us, so sharply, that he shut in the cloak in which the client who had just arrived was closely enveloped. "Well," he said, as we descended the staircase, our spirits falling at each stair, " I don't know that we've done much good, Frank." "I am afraid we have not, Val," I replied; "but let us go and see the will." "Ah, to be sure, the will. Confound that beastly little clerk," he said, musing very seriously, " and his witness-those fellows always have witnesses within hearing if you drop a hasty word. What an ill-looking brute he was! Did you see his villanous black eyes, and his great hook nose-like the portraits of Beelzebub? Perhaps the tail was curled up under his cloak!" I paid no attention to the words at the time, but I thought of them afterwards. "Come on, Val," I cried, intent upon an examination of the alleged will, "to Doctors' Commons!" "Ah, to be sure," replied Vallance, reviving, "to Doctors' Commons. I feel safer among doctors than lawyers." But we soon found that the men of Doctors' Commons were something of a lower grade than lawyers-dirtier, rustier, yellower than Mr. Grip or Teesor, but with a strong likeness to that family. Well, the will! The original will was there there could be no doubt of that! By some miracle, Aunt Margaret's will, burned among the papers at Sheffield, had turned up again sound and whole in Doctors' Commons! There was no occasion to go to Mr. Suttleton now. Though Nelly had been paid her annuity regularly as long as she was with us, or we knew where to find her, and had received the legacy left to her by my father's will, I would send the arrears of her income (which she had received already in another form), rather than contend against her, and so I wrote to Rattler and Grip. They seemed to accept the offer with some alacrity for lawyers and lawyers of such a stamp, who generally prefer running up costs to settling a case out of hand. But to think of Nelly doing this! "Are you sure it was her doing?" asked Vallance, as I moaned over the thought. In my secret soul I began to think it was! A month or so after this, there came another letter, addressed to me in the same handwriting "Hallo, Cuttleby! what now? Here's another letter from your Salisbury-buildings friends. Why, you got a receipt from them, didn't you?" said Mr. Owen, handing me the letter. "To be sure I did!" I replied, breaking the seal. I glanced at Vallance, who was in a pitiable condition; for it occurred to him that this letter bore some relation to the actionable, if not criminal words he had spoken of Mr. Rattler to the face of his terrier clerk. But it did not. Yet I do not think it afforded him much relief to hear the contents: "MR. FRANK CUTTLEBY, "Salisbury-buildings, Temple. "SIR,-We are instructed by Mr. Septimus Harrington to apply to you, as trustee under the will of Frank Cuttleby, the late acting executor of Mrs. Margaret Harrington, deceased, for a settlement of the accounts of said trust, with detailed statement of all receipts and disbursements, and remittance of balance. Also, that you will be so good as to appoint an early day to attend and transfer the stock in the Bank of England into the names of the new trustees proposed by Mr. Septimus Harrington and the other persons beneficially interested in the will, which names we are prepared to submit to your consideration. "We are, sir, yours obediently, "RATTLER AND GRIP." "Hang it! what can these rascals mean?" I cried. "They mean," replied Vallance, "that they have got a pull upon you; that they will first dismember you, and dine off a joint of you every day, or a chop or steak off you, by way of change; then they will roast you, boil you, stew you, hash you, grill you, fry you, devil you; they will suck the marrow out of your bones, and then stew them down for soup; they will have tit-bits of your liver, your heart, your kidneys; they will sell your skin to their stationer, and then they will throw the offal to that terrier of theirs to finish! My advice is to go to the New Police!" ("The New Police" were a wonderful invention and novelty in those days, and popularly believed to have the power of putting down everything and taking up everything.) " And mine," suggested Mr. Owen, senior, in his quiet way, " is to go to Mr. Suttleton." As usual, I took Mr. Owen's advice, and this time I followed it. Without Vallance to drag me into danger, I went straight to Mr. Suttleton's office, and laid the case before him. "I knew it would turn out so, my dear sir," he said, complacently, "all because your poor father would not take my advice, but persisted in doing an illegal act." "Doing an illegal act, sir!" I repeated, resentfully. "I don't clearly understand you." "Pardon me; it does not always follow that an illegal act is an unjust one; in this case, on the contrary, it was only too just." "That cannot well be, sir, can it?" said I, smiling. "In law it can," he replied. "Well, then, you have no doubt about the authenticity of the will?" "None whatever." " With such a will as that, sir, they can wrench out of you every farthing you are worth." This was pleasant to hear! "But," I cried, "you seem to lose sight of the fact that I paid off Miss Harrington's claim-" "But this is Septimus Harrington, Mr. Cuttleby." "But can they," I cried, boiling over at the cool way in which he tolerated them, "can they have the audacity to demand of me in his name what they know I have paid, and they have received, in hers?" "Pardon me, they can know nothing; this is a distinct case." "Not know that they have given me a receipt in Miss Harrington's name for all the moneys accruing up till this date from Mrs. Harrington's property?" "Ah, I see," said Mr. Suttleton, much edified; "you will take a rational-I mean a literal-view of things. In law they know nothing of this." "Well, but they have a full and detailed statement of the trust accounts. Surely they cannot want that over again!" "Pardon me, they are quite right; this is altogether a new case. Allow me to explain it. Rand G are instructed by A to recover certain moneys from B, in which C has a joint interest. B (that's you, if you please, Mr. Cuttleby), acting imprudently, may I say, without consulting a solicitor, pays said moneys to A. Rand G are then instructed to recover from B, C's share of said moneys. Now what can A's having received them have to do with C's case ?-it can clearly be no answer to it." "No; but it ought to be an answer to Rattler and Grip. Why did they take more than A was entitled to ?" "That was no business of theirs," said Mr. Suttleton. I thought it was, but I confessed myself ignorant of the law. And so my highly respectable and really first-class lawyer, with a character unimpeachable for integrity, actually defended the sharp practice of these scoundrels-at least, he did not propose to get them struck off the rolls. He sat with his head in his hand-not under his arm, as an honest lawyer should-for some minutes, considering. "I'll tell you what," he said at last, "they have in that will a pair of squeezers, by which they can press you as flat as a lemon, or" (the association of ideas was inevitable) " a pancake. Do you know, Mr. Cuttleby," he added, looking at me for an expression of astonishment, "your poor father once proposed to put this will" (in a subdued voice) "behind the fire he did, indeed!" "And a very excellent suggestion," I replied. "My dear sir!" he cried, much disconcerted. After a pause, which had enabled him, perhaps, to send up a prayer to Themis or Mercury for my conversion and enlightenment, he pro ceeded: "The only way to meet the case is to take a bold step. We must strike in the dark, and trust to the blow telling somewhere. You are sure that that will was safe in your strong-room at Sheffield before the fire?" "I am." "You do not think it is likely that Miss Harrington set these men to work at all?" "I do not think it likely-scarcely possible." "Very well; it is a desperate game, but our only chance, as far as I can see. We will conclude that Mr. Harrington got possession of this will by improper means, and, though that is no answer to his claim, we can hint at severe measures being taken if the claim is persisted in. If you were to pay him the whole of his demands you would clearly be robbing his daughter, who is certainly entitled to some portion of the property, though it is difficult, from what I remember of the will, to discover how much or what precise proportions." True, I had not thought of that. I would fight him to the last hour, for was I not fighting for Nelly's little fortune? Yet, suppose she WERE fighting on the other side? "Forbid the thought!" I cried, with a shudder within myself. "But I need scarcely tell you, Mr. Cuttleby, this is not a case in which I can take an open and prominent part myself. A sharp Old Bailey practitioner is the man to tackle it, and if you determine on letting it go on if they are inclined to press it to an issue, I will instruct the sharpest firm in London." "The sharper the better, Mr. Suttleton." "Regular raspers," he replied, as he showed me out. Poor Vallance! He had done me an ill service, though he little thought it. It had suddenly crossed my mind and distracted it that his wild, and, as he called it, " sporting" allusion to Mrs. Cuttleby, would, if Rattler and Grip were really acting for Nelly, doubtless be told to her -she would think I had been false to her! Hope sank within me. I felt as guilty as if I had indeed deserted poor Nelly for another-for would she not believe I had 179 THINGS DOING, THINGS DONE. A CUE FROM SHAKSPEARE. BY FRANCIS JACOX. CRESSIDA follows high theory in her practice, and is philosopher as well as womanly tactician, when she holds off from the ardent suit of Troilus, and means to murmur No a good many times before he shall bring her to whisper a terminal Yes. Women are angels, wooing,-that is, while being wooed, she says; so at least men account them while the process is going on. But wooing, and won-c'est différent. Let therefore those who are being wooed prolong the process. For, That she was never yet, that ever knew As it is pleasanter to be besought than commanded, let all who side with Cressid be in no hurry to be gained and achieved. Ungained, they are worshipped still. Won, they are no longer wooed. -Women are angels, wooing: THINGS WON ARE DONE, JOY'S SOUL LIES IN THE DOING.* Romeo takes another view of the subject when with an "Ah me!" he reflects-after a reviving dream of his Juliet "how sweet is love itself possessed, when but love's shadows are so rich in joy;"† though it is only by a sort of accommodation that his saying is applicable to our theme. Straightway to the purpose, however, is Gratiano's query: Who rises from a feast with that keen appetite that he sits down ? and the reflection that, after various like examples, is drawn from their teaching: -All things that are, Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.‡ a The Venetian gentleman's is strictly parallel passage to the Trojan Old as Ovid, to go back no further, is the observation, elegantly done into elegiacs, that what the huntsman follows is the prey that flies before him, and that what he has caught he leaves behind-ever on the search for something fresh to be caught, ever more intent on winning than enamoured of what is won. Venator sequitur fugientia, capta relinquit; Ariosto paraphrases Ovid, or perhaps an epigram of Callimachus, in four lines equally trite and tuneful. * Troilus and Cressida, Act I. Sc. 2. Romeo and Juliet, Act V. Sc. 1. † The Merchant of Venice, Act. II. Sc. 5. |