Part 35 (1/2)
”We had an unpleasant interview, Doctor. I had some ugly truths to tell him and did not spare him.”
”Then I think you had better go before he comes to his senses again.
Tell my man to bring down a mattress, pillows, and blankets. He won't be fit to be moved to-day, and we must make him up a bed here. Directly I see that he is out of immediate danger, I will send over to Fairclose to break the news to his wife. Yes, I will come round and let you know how he is going on as soon as I can leave him.”
Cuthbert nodded and put on his hat and went out. James Harford was standing a few paces from the door.
”He has had a fit,” Cuthbert said, as he joined him.
”I thought that was it when I saw the clerk run down the street without a hat and come back with the doctor two or three minutes later. Will he get over it?”
”The doctor thinks so, and I am sure I most sincerely hope he will do so--it would be a bad business in all ways if he did not. Now, Mr.
Harford, I don't think there is any occasion to detain you here longer; it may be days before I can see him again, and I don't think it will be needful for you to confirm my statements. I fancy the fight is all out of him--it came upon him too suddenly--if he had known that I was here he might have braced himself up, but coming down like an avalanche upon him it stunned him. Now, Mr. Harford, you must permit me to draw a check for ten pounds for your expenses down here; when I come to my own again I shall be able properly to show my grat.i.tude for the inestimable services you have rendered me.”
”I will take the money for my expenses, Mr. Hartington, but I can a.s.sure you that I have no thought or wish for payment of any kind for my share in this business, and am only too glad to have been able to give some little aid towards righting the grievous harm you have suffered, to say nothing of paying off my old score against Brander.”
Half an hour later Dr. Edwardes returned home.
”He is conscious now,” he said to Cuthbert. ”That is to say, vaguely conscious. I have not let him speak a word, but simply told him he had had a fit and must remain absolutely quiet. I don't suppose he has as yet any recollection whatever of what preceded it. I am going to write a note and send it up to Fairclose. I must keep a close watch over him for a bit, for I have taken a good deal of blood from him.”
”I would rather you did not mention to anyone, Doctor, that I was present at the time he had the fit, as things may happen ere long that will set people talking, and if it was known that it was during an interview with me that he had this apoplectic stroke it might give rise to unpleasant surmises--unpleasant not only to him but to me, for--this is also a secret at present--I am going to marry his eldest daughter!”
”You don't say so, Cuthbert. Well, I congratulate you, for she is a charming girl. I need not say that you can rely upon my keeping it quiet until you choose to have it published.”
”Well, Doctor, as it may be some days before I can see Brander again, I will go back to town this evening. I did not see anyone I knew as I went to his office, and I would rather that it should not be known that I am down here. As you are going back there now you might ask Levison to come round here to see me. I will then tell him that neither Brander nor myself would wish it mentioned that I was with him at the time he had that seizure.”
”Then I suppose the fact is, Cuthbert, that while I have been flattering myself your visit was to me, you really came down to see Brander?”
”I am rather afraid, Doctor, that had some influence in bringing me down, but you must forgive me this time.”
”All right, lad, I am glad to have had a glimpse of you again, whatever your motive was in coming down.”
It was ten days before Cuthbert received a letter from the doctor saying that Mr. Brander was now strong enough to see him.
”He has asked to see you several times,” he said, ”but I have told him that I could not permit him to talk. However, he is a good deal stronger now and is downstairs, again, and as I am sure some worry or other is preying on his mind and keeping him back, I told him this morning that I would send for you.”
Cuthbert went down by the next train and was driven over in the doctor's gig to Fairclose. It was strange to him to enter the familiar house as a visitor, and he looked round the library into which he was shown upon giving his name, with a sort of doubt whether the last two years had not been a dream.
He had not much time for thought for the door opened and Mr. Brander entered. Cuthbert was shocked at his appearance. He looked a mere wreck of himself. He walked feebly and uncertainly. His face was pale and the flesh on the cheeks and chin was loose and flabby. He made his way to an armchair and sank wearily into it.
”What are you going to do with me, Cuthbert Hartington?” he asked in a weak voice. ”Does all the world know that I am a forger and a swindler?”
”No one knows it, Mr. Brander, nor need anyone know it. If you make rest.i.tution as far as is in your power, the matter may rest entirely between us. With the evidence in my possession I am in a position to obtain a judge's order striking out my father's name from the list of shareholders of the bank and annulling the sale of Fairclose, of regaining my own, and of securing your punishment for the offences you have committed. The latter part, as I have said, I have no desire to press. I consider that you have been punished sufficiently already, but I must insist upon the restoration of the estates of which I have been wrongfully deprived.”
”And you will say nothing of what I have done?”
”Nothing whatever; it will be for you to offer any reason you choose for resigning Fairclose to me, but there is one other point that I must insist on, namely, that you leave Abchester. Your illness will be a valid excuse for retiring altogether from an active share in the business and of relinquis.h.i.+ng the part you have taken in the affairs of the town. As the senior partner you will doubtless receive a sufficient income from your business to enable you to live in comfort elsewhere, and it will be for your own benefit as much as mine for you to leave the place, for it will be painful for both of us to meet.”
”I cannot give up Fairclose altogether unburdened,” the lawyer said.
”15,000 of the purchase money I found myself. The other 20,000 I raised on mortgages of the estate, and although that mortgage would be invalidated by the proof that I had no power to give it, the mortgagee would, of course, fight the question, and the whole matter would be made public.”
Cuthbert was silent for a minute, not from any great doubt or hesitation, but he did not wish the man to see that he was eager to make terms, for he would at once think that he was not in the position to prove the statement he had made.
”It is a large sum,” he said, ”a very large sum to lose, and then there are two years' rents that you have received.”