The Talleyrand Maxim - J. S. Fletcher (best ebook reader ubuntu txt) 📗

CHAPTER XVI

A HEADQUARTERS CONFERENCE

 

By the time she had been admitted to Eldrick’s private room, Nesta had

regained her composure; she had also had time to think, and her present

action was the result of at any rate a part of her thoughts. She was

calm and collected enough when she took the chair which the solicitor

drew forward.

 

“I called on you for two reasons, Mr. Eldrick,” she said. “First, to

thank you for your kindness and thoughtfulness at the time of my

brother’s death, in sending your clerk to help in making the

arrangements.”

 

“Very glad he was of any assistance, Miss Mallathorpe,” answered

Eldrick. “I thought, of course, that as he had been on the spot, as it

were, when the accident happened, he could do a few little things–-”

 

“He was very useful in that way,” said Nesta. “And I was very much

obliged to him. But the second reason for my call is—I want to speak to

you about him.”

 

“Yes?” responded Eldrick. He had already formed some idea as to what was

in his visitor’s mind, and he was secretly glad of the opportunity of

talking to her. “About Pratt, eh? What about him, Miss Mallathorpe?”

 

“He was with you for some years, I believe?” she asked.

 

“A good many years,” answered Eldrick. “He came to us as office-boy, and

was head-clerk when he left us.”

 

“Then you ought to know him—well,” she suggested.

 

“As to that,” replied Eldrick, “there are some people in this world whom

other people never could know well—that’s to say, really well. I know

Pratt well enough for what he was—our clerk. Privately, I know little

about him. He’s clever—he’s ability—he’s a chap who reads a good

deal—he’s got ambitions. And I should say he is a bit—subtle.”

 

“Deceitful?” she asked.

 

“I couldn’t say that,” replied Eldrick. “It wouldn’t be true if I said

so. I think he’s possibilities of strategy in him. But so far as we’re

concerned, we found him hardworking, energetic, truthful, dependable and

honest, and absolutely to be trusted in money matters. He’s had many and

many a thousand pounds of ours through his hands.”

 

“I believe you’re unaware that my mother, for some reason or other,

unknown to me, has put him in charge of her affairs?” asked Nesta.

 

“Yes—Mr. Collingwood told me so,” answered Eldrick. “So, too, did your

own solicitor, Mr. Robson—who’s very angry about it.”

 

“And you?” she said, putting a direct question. “What do you think? Do

please, tell me!”

 

“It’s difficult to say, Miss Mallathorpe,” replied Eldrick, with a smile

and a shake of the head. “If your mother—who, of course, is quite

competent to decide for herself—wishes to have somebody to look after

her affairs, I don’t see what objection can be taken to her procedure.

And if she chooses to put Linford Pratt in that position—why not? As I

tell you, I, as his last—and only—employer, am quite convinced of his

abilities and probity. I suppose that as your mother’s agent, he’ll

supervise her property, collect money due to her, advise her in

investments, and so on. Well, I should say—personally, mind—he’s quite

competent to do all that, and that he’ll do it honestly, I should

certainly say so.”

 

“But—why should he do it at all?” asked Nesta.

 

Eldrick waved his hands.

 

“Ah!” he exclaimed. “Now you ask me a very different question! But—I

understand—in fact, I know—that Pratt turns out to be a relation of

yours—distant, but it’s there. Perhaps your mother—who, of course, is

much better off since your brother’s sad death—is desirous of

benefiting Pratt—as a relation.”

 

“Do you advise anything?” asked Nesta.

 

“Well, you know, Miss Mallathorpe,” replied Eldrick, smiling. “I’m not

your legal adviser. What about Mr. Robson?”

 

“Mr. Robson is so very angry about all this—with my mother,” said

Nesta, “that I don’t even want to ask his advice. What I really do want

is the advice, counsel, of somebody—perhaps more as a friend than as a

solicitor.”

 

“Delighted to give you any help I can—either professionally or as a

friend,” exclaimed Eldrick. “But—let me suggest something. And first of

all—is there anything—something—in all this that you haven’t told to

anybody yet?”

 

“Yes—much!” she answered. “A great deal!”

 

“Then,” said Eldrick, “let me advise a certain counsel. Two heads are

better than one. Let me ask Mr. Collingwood to come here.”

 

He was watching his visitor narrowly as he said this, and he saw a faint

rise of colour in her cheeks. But for the moment she did not answer, and

Eldrick saw that she was thinking.

 

“I can get him across from his chambers in a few minutes,” he said.

“He’s sure to be in just now.”

 

“Can I have a few minutes to decide?” asked Nesta.

 

Eldrick jumped up.

 

“Of course!” he said. “I’ll leave you a while. It so happens I want to

see my partner, I’ll go up to his room, and return to you presently.”

 

Nesta, left alone, gave herself up to deep thought, and to a careful

reckoning of her position. She was longing to confide in some

trustworthy person or persons, for Pratt’s revelations had plunged her

into a maze of perplexity. But her difficulties were many. First of all,

she would have to tell all about the terrible charge brought by Pratt

against her mother. Then about the second which he professed to—or

probably did—hold. What sort of a secret could it be? And supposing her

advisers suggested strong measures against Pratt—what then, about the

danger to her mother, in a twofold direction?

 

Would it be better, wiser, if she kept all this to herself at present,

and waited for events to develop? But at the mere thought of that, she

shrank, feeling mentally and physically afraid—to keep all that

knowledge to herself, to brood over it in secret, to wonder what it all

meant, what lay beneath, what might develop, that was more than she felt

able to bear. And when Eldrick came back she looked at him and nodded.

 

“I should like to talk to you and Mr. Collingwood,” she said quietly.

 

Collingwood came across to Eldrick’s office at once. And to these two

Nesta unbosomed herself of every detail that she could remember of her

interview with Pratt—and as she went on, from one thing to another, she

saw the men’s faces grow graver and graver, and realized that this was a

more anxious matter than she had thought.

 

“That’s all,” she said in the end. “I don’t think I’ve forgotten

anything. And even now, I don’t know if I’ve done right to tell you all

this. But—I don’t think I could have faced it—alone!”

 

“My dear Miss Mallathorpe!” said Eldrick earnestly. “You’ve done the

wisest thing you probably ever did in your life! Now,” he went on,

looking at Collingwood, “just let us all three realize what is to me a

more important fact. Nobody would be more astonished than Pratt to know

that you have taken the wise step you have. You agree, Collingwood?”

 

“Yes!” answered Collingwood, after a moment’s reflection. “I think so.”

 

“Miss Mallathorpe doesn’t quite see what we mean,” said Eldrick, turning

to Nesta. “We mean that Pratt firmly believed, when he told you what he

did, that for your mother’s sake and your own, you would keep his

communication a dead secret. He firmly believed that you would never

dare to tell anybody what he told you. Most people—in your

position—wouldn’t have told. They’d have let the secret eat their lives

out. You’re a wise and a sensible young woman! And the thing is—we

must let Pratt remain under the impression that you are keeping your

knowledge to yourself. Let him continue to believe that you’ll remain

silent under fear. And let us meet his secret policy with a secret

strategy of our own!”

 

Again he glanced at Collingwood, and again Collingwood nodded assent.

 

“Now,” continued Eldrick, “just let us consider matters for a few

minutes from the position which has newly arisen. To begin with. Pratt’s

account of your mother’s dealings about the footbridge is a very clever

and plausible one. I can see quite well that it has caused you great

pain; so before I go any further, just let me say this to you—don’t you

attach one word of importance to it!”

 

Nesta uttered a heartfelt cry of relief.

 

“Oh!” she exclaimed. “If you knew how thankful I should be to know that

it’s all lies—that he was lying! Can I really think that—after what I

saw?”

 

“I won’t ask you to think that he’s telling lies—just now,” answered

Eldrick, with a glance at Collingwood, “but I’ll ask you to believe that

your mother could put a totally different aspect and complexion on all

her actions and words in connection with the entire affair. My

impression, of course,” he went on, with something very like a wink at

Collingwood, “is that Mrs. Mallathorpe, when she wrote that letter to

Pratt, intended to have the bridge mended first thing next morning, and

that something prevented that being done, and that when she was seen

about the shrubberies in the afternoon, she was on her way to meet Pratt

before he could reach the dangerous point, so that she could warn him.

What do you say, Collingwood?”

 

“I should say,” answered Collingwood, regarding the solicitor earnestly,

and speaking with great gravity of manner, “that that would make an

admirable line of defence to any charge which Pratt was wicked enough to

prefer.”

 

“You don’t think my mother meant—meant to–-” exclaimed Nesta, eagerly

turning from one man to the other. “You—don’t?”

 

“There is no evidence worth twopence against your mother!” replied

Eldrick soothingly. “Put everything that Pratt has said against her

clear out of your mind. Put all recent events out of your mind! Don’t

interfere with Pratt—just now. The thing to be done about Pratt is

this—and it’s the only thing. We must find out—exactly, as secretly as

possible—what this secret is of which he speaks. What is this hold on

Mrs. Mallathorpe? What is this document to which he refers? In other

words, we must work back to some point which at present we can’t see. At

least, I can’t see it. But—we may discover it. What do you say,

Collingwood?”

 

“I agree entirely,” answered Collingwood. “Let Pratt rest in his fancied

security. The thing is, certainly, to go back. But—to what point?”

 

“That we must consider later,” said Eldrick. “Now—for the present, Miss

Mallathorpe,—you are, I suppose, going back home?”

 

“Yes, at once,” answered Nesta. “I have my car at the Crown Hotel.”

 

“I should just like to know something,” continued Eldrick again, looking

at Collingwood as if for approval. “That is—Mrs. Mallathorpe’s present

disposition towards affairs in general and Pratt in particular. Miss

Mallathorpe!—just do something which I will now suggest to you. When

you reach home, see your mother—she is still, I understand, an invalid,

though evidently able to transact business. Just approach her gently and

kindly, and tell her that you are a little—should we say

uncomfortable?—about certain business arrangements which you hear she

has made with Mr. Pratt, and ask her, if she won’t talk them over with

you, and give you her full confidence. It’s now half-past twelve,”

continued Eldrick, looking at his watch. “You’ll be home before lunch.

See your mother early in the afternoon, and then telephone, briefly, the

result to me, here, at four o’clock. Then—Mr.