The Talleyrand Maxim - J. S. Fletcher (best ebook reader ubuntu txt) š
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there has been any forcing? I know one person who wonāt say soāand
thatās your mother herself!ā
Nesta felt unable to answer that assertion. And Pratt smiled
triumphantly and went on.
āSheāll tell youāMrs. Mallathorpeāll tell youāthat sheās very pleased
indeed to have my poor services,ā he said. āShe knows that I shall serve
her well. Sheās glad to do a kind service to a poor relation. And since
I am your motherās relation, Miss Mallathorpe, Iām yours, too. Iām some
degree of cousin to you. You might think rather better, rather more
kindly, of me!ā
āAre you going to tell me anything more than that?ā asked Nesta
steadily. Pratt shrugged his shoulders and waved his hands.
āWhat more can I tell?ā he asked. āThe fact is, thereās a business
arrangement between me and your motherāand you object to it. WellāIām
sorry, but Iāve my own interests to consider.ā
āAre you going to tell me what it was that induced my mother to sign
that paper you got from her the other day?ā asked Nesta.
āCan I say more than that it wasāa business arrangement?ā pleaded
Pratt. āThereās nothing unusual in one party in a business arrangement
giving a power of attorney to another party. Nothing!ā
āVery well!ā said Nesta, rising from the straight-backed chair, and
looking very rigid herself as she stood up. āYou wonāt tell me anything!
SoāI am now going to the police. I donāt know what theyāll do. I donāt
know what they can do. ButāI can tell them what I think and feel about
this, at any rate. For as sure as I am that I see you, thereās something
wrong! And Iāll know what it is.ā
Pratt recognized that she had passed beyond the stage of mere anger to
one of calm determination. And as she marched towards the door he called
her backāas the result of a secondās swift thought on his part.
āMiss Mallathorpe,ā he said. āOblige me by sitting down again. Iām not
in the least afraid of your going to the police. But my experience is
that if one goes to them on errands of this sort, it sets all sorts of
things goingāscandal, and suspicion, and I donāt know what! You donāt
want any scandal. Sit down, if you please, and let us think for a
moment. And Iāll see if I can tell youāwhat you want to know.ā
Nesta already had a hand on the door. But after looking at him for a
second or two, she turned back, and sat down in her old position. And
Pratt, still seated at his desk, plunged his hands in his trousers
pockets, tilted back his chair, and for five minutes stared with knitted
brows at his blotting pad. A queer silence fell on the room. The windows
were double-sashed; no sound came up from the busy street below. But on
the mantelpiece a cheap Geneva clock ticked and ticked, and Nesta felt
at last that if it went on much longer, without the accompaniment of a
human voice, she should suddenly snatch it up, and hurl itāanywhere.
Pratt was in the position of the card-player, who, confronted by a
certain turn in the course of a game which he himself feels sure he is
bound to win, wonders whether he had better not expedite matters by
laying his cards on the table, and asking his opponent if he can
possibly beat their values and combination. He had carefully reckoned up
his own position more than once during the progress of recent events,
and the more carefully he calculated it the more he felt convinced that
he had nothing to fear. He had had to alter his ground in consequence of
the death of Harper Mallathorpe, and he had known that he would have to
fight Nesta. But he had not anticipated that hostilities would come so
soon, or begin with such evident determination on her part. How would it
be, then, at this first stage to make such a demonstration in force that
she would recognize his strength?
He looked up at last and saw Nesta regarding him sternly. But Pratt
smiledāthe quiet smile which made her uneasy.
āMiss Mallathorpe!ā he said. āI was thinking of two things just thenāa
game at cardsāand the science of warfare. In both itās a good thing
sometimes to let your adversary see what a strong hand youāve got. Now,
then, a question, if you pleaseāare you and I adversaries?ā
āYes!ā answered Nesta unflinchingly. āYouāre acting like an enemyāyou
are an enemy!ā
āIāve hoped that you and I would be friendsāgood friends,ā said Pratt,
with something like a sigh. āAnd if I may say so, Iāve no feeling of
enmity towards you. When I speak of us being adversaries, I mean it
ināwell, letās say a sort of legal sense. But now Iāll show you my
handāthat is, as far as I please. Will you listen quietly to me?ā
āIāve no choice,ā replied Nesta bluntly. āAnd I came here to know what
youāve got to say for yourself. Say it!ā
Pratt moved his chair a little nearer to his visitor.
āNow,ā he said, speaking very quietly and deliberately, āIāll go through
what I have to say to you carefully, point by point. I shall ask you to
go back a little way. It is now some time since I discovered a secret
about your mother, Mrs. Mallathorpe. Ah, you start!āit may be with
indignation, but I assure you Iām telling you, and am going to tell you,
the absolute truth. I sayāa secret! No one knows it but myselfānot one
living soul! Except, of course, your mother. I shall not reveal it to
youāunder any consideration, or in any circumstancesābut I can tell
you thisāif that secret were revealed, your mother would be ruined for
lifeāand you yourself would suffer in more ways than one.ā
Nesta looked at him incredulouslyāand yet she began to feel he was
telling some truth. And Pratt shook his head at the incredulous
expression.
āItās quite so!ā he said. āYouāll begin to believe itāfrom other
things. Now, it was in connection with this that I paid a visit to
Normandale Grange one evening some months ago. Perhaps you never heard
of that? I was alone with your mother for some time in the study.ā
āI have heard of it,ā she answered.
āVery good,ā said Pratt. āBut you havenāt heard that your mother came to
see me at my rooms here in Barfordāmy lodgingsāthe very next night! On
the same business, of course. But she didāI know how she came, too.
Secretlyāheavily veiledānaturally, she didnāt want anybody to know.
Are you beginning to see something in it, Miss Mallathorpe?ā
āGo on with yourāstory,ā answered Nesta.
āI go on, then, to the day before your brotherās death,ā continued
Pratt. āNamely, a certain Friday. Now, if you please, Iāll invite you to
listen carefully to certain factsāwhich are indisputable, which I can
prove, easily. On that Friday, the day before your brotherās death, Mrs.
Mallathorpe was in the shrubbery at Normandale Grange which is near the
north end of the old footbridge. She was approached by Hoskins, an old
woodman, who has been on the estate a great many yearsāyou know him
well enough. Hoskins told Mrs. Mallathorpe that the footbridge between
the north and south shrubberies, spanning the cut which was made there a
long time since so that a nearer road could be made to the stables, was
in an extremely dangerous conditionāso dangerous, in fact, that in his
opinion, it would collapse under even a moderate weight. I impress this
fact upon you strongly.ā
āWell?ā said Nesta.
āHoskins,ā Pratt went on, āurged upon Mrs. Mallathorpe the necessity of
having the bridge closed at once, or barricaded. He pointed out to her
from where they stood certain places in the bridge, and in the railing
on one side of it, which already sagged in such a fashion, that he, as a
man of experience, knew that planks and railings were literally rotten
with damp. Now what did Mrs. Mallathorpe do? She said nothing to
Hoskins, except that sheād have the thing seen to. But she immediately
went to the estate carpenterās shop, and there she procured two short
lengths of chain, and two padlocks, and she herself went back to the
footbridge and secured its wicket gates at both ends. I beg you will
bear that in mind, too, Miss Mallathorpe.ā
āI am bearing everything in mind,ā said Nesta resolutely. āDonāt be
afraid that I shall forget one word that you say.ā
āI hear that sneer in your voice,ā answered Pratt, as he turned,
unlocked a drawer, and drew out some papers. āBut I think you will soon
learn that the sneer at what Iām telling you is foolish. Mrs.
Mallathorpe had a set purpose in locking up those gatesāas you will see
presently. You will see it from what I am now going to tell you. Oblige
me, if you please, by looking at that letter. Do you recognize your
motherās handwriting?ā
āYes!ā admitted Nesta, with a sudden feeling of apprehension. āThat is
her writing.ā
āVery good,ā said Pratt. āThen before I read it to you, Iāll just tell
you what this letter is. It formed, when it was written, an invitation
from Mrs. Mallathorpe to meāan invitation to walk, innocently, into
what she knewāknew, mind you!āto be a death-trap! She meant me to
fall through the bridge!ā
PRATT OFFERS A HAND
For a full moment of tense silence Nesta and Pratt looked at each other
across the letter which he held in his outstretched handālooked
steadily and with a certain amount of stern inquiry. And it was Nestaās
eyes which first gave wayābeaten by the certainty in Prattās. She
looked aside; her cheeks flamed; she felt as if something were rising in
her throatāto choke her.
āI canāt believe that!ā she muttered. āYouāreāmistaken! Ohāutterly
mistaken!ā
āNo mistake!ā said Pratt confidently. āI tell you your mother meant
meāme!āto meet my death at that bridge. Hereās the proof in this
letter! Iāll tell you, first, when I received it: then Iāll read you
whatās in it, and if you doubt my reading of it, you shall read it
yourselfābut it wonāt go out of my hands! And first as to my getting
it, for thatās important. It reached me, by registered post, mind you,
on the Saturday morning on which your brother met his death. It was
handed in at Normandale village post-office for registration late on the
Friday afternoon. Andāby whom do you think?ā
āIādonāt know!ā replied Nesta faintly. This merciless piling up of
details was beginning to frighten herāalready she felt as if she
herself were some criminal, forced to listen from the dock to the
opening address of a prosecuting counsel. āHow should I know?āhow can I
think?ā
āIt was handed in for registration by your motherās maid, Esther
Mawson,ā said Pratt with a dark look. āIāve got her evidence, anyway!
And that was all part of a planājust as a certain something that was
enclosed was a part of the same planāa plot. And now Iāll read you the
letterāand youāll bear it in mind that I got it by first post that
Saturday morning. This is what itāwhat your motherāsays:ā
āI particularly wish to see you again, at once, about the matter
between us and to have another look at that document. Can you
come here, bringing it with you, tomorrow, Saturday afternoon,
by the train which leaves soon after two oāclock? As I am most
anxious that your visit should be private and unknown to any one
here, do not come to the house. Take the path across
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