Part 18 (2/2)
”A quaint old c.o.c.k. I found him highly amusing. We entertained one another for quite a long time with cross questions and crooked answers; I affecting eager curiosity, he replying with a defensive att.i.tude of universal ignorance. It was a most diverting encounter.”
”He needn't have been so close,” Miss Bellingham remarked, ”seeing that all the world will be regaled with our affairs before long.”
”They are proposing to take the case into Court, then?” said Thornd.y.k.e.
”Yes,” said Mr. Bellingham. ”Jellicoe came to tell me that my cousin, Hurst, has instructed his solicitors to make the application and to invite me to join him. Actually he came to deliver an ultimatum from Hurst--But, I mustn't disturb the harmony of this festive gathering with litigious discords.”
”Now, why mustn't you?” asked Thornd.y.k.e. ”Why is a subject in which we are all keenly interested to be _tabu_? You don't mind telling us about it, do you?”
”No, of course not. But what do you think of a man who b.u.t.tonholes a doctor at a dinner-party to retail a list of his ailments?”
”It depends on what his ailments are,” replied Thornd.y.k.e. ”If he is a chronic dyspeptic and wishes to expound the virtues of Doctor Snaffler's Purple Pills for Pimply People, he is merely a bore. But if he chances to suffer from some rare and choice disease, such as Trypanosomiasis or Acromegaly, the doctor will be delighted to listen.”
”Then are we to understand,” Miss Bellingham asked, ”that we are rare and choice products, in a legal sense?”
”Undoubtedly,” replied Thornd.y.k.e. ”The case of John Bellingham is, in many respects, unique. It will be followed with the deepest interest by the profession at large, and especially by medical jurists.”
”How gratifying that should be to us!” said Miss Bellingham. ”We may even attain undying fame in textbooks and treatises; and yet we are not so very much puffed up with our importance.”
”No,” said her father; ”we could do without the fame quite well, and so, I think, could Hurst. Did Berkeley tell you of the proposal that he made?”
”Yes,” said Thornd.y.k.e; ”and I gather from what you say that he has repeated it.”
”Yes. He sent Jellicoe to give me another chance, and I was tempted to take it; but my daughter was strongly against any compromise, and probably she is right. At any rate, she is more concerned than I am.”
”What view did Mr. Jellicoe take?” Thornd.y.k.e asked.
”Oh, he was very cautious and reserved, but he didn't disguise his feeling that I should be wise to take a certainty in lieu of a very problematical fortune. He would certainly like me to agree, for he naturally wishes to get the affair settled and pocket his legacy.”
”And have you definitely refused?”
”Yes; quite definitely. So Hurst will apply for permission to presume death and prove the will, and Jellicoe will support him; he says he has no choice.”
”And you?”
”I suppose I shall oppose the application, though I don't quite know on what grounds.”
”Before you take any definite steps,” said Thornd.y.k.e, ”you ought to give the matter very careful consideration. I take it that you have very little doubt that your brother is dead. And if he is dead, any benefit that you may receive under the will must be conditional on the previous a.s.sumption or proof of death. But perhaps you have taken advice?”
”No, I have not. As our friend the Doctor has probably told you, my means--or rather, the lack of them--do not admit of my getting professional advice. Hence my delicacy about discussing the case with you.”
”Then do you propose to conduct your case in person?”
”Yes; if it is necessary for me to appear in Court, as I suppose it will be, if I oppose the application.”
Thornd.y.k.e reflected for a few moments, and then said gravely:
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