Volume I Part 38 (1/2)
”Not a doubt of it, Dinah. All these displays are briefed to them.
They cannot help investing in their client's cause the fervor of their natures, simply because they are human; but they know how to leave all the acrimony of the contest in the wig-box, when they undress and come back to their homes,--the most genial, hearty, and frank fellows in all the world. If human nature were all bad, sister, he who saw it closest would be, I own, most like to catch its corruption, but it is not so, far from it. Every day and every hour reveals something to make a man right proud of his fellow-men.”
Miss Barrington curtly recalled her brother from these speculations to the practical details of their journey, reminding him of much that he had to consult Withering upon, and many questions of importance to put to him. Thoroughly impressed with the perils of a journey abroad, she conjured up a vast array of imaginary difficulties, and demanded special instructions how each of them was to be met. Had poor Peter been--what he certainly was not--a most accomplished casuist, he might have been puzzled by the ingenious complexity of some of those embarra.s.sments.
As it was, like a man in the labyrinth, too much bewildered to attempt escape, he sat down in a dogged insensibility, and actually heard nothing.
”Are you minding me, Peter?” asked she, fretfully, at last; ”are you paying attention to what I am saying?”
”Of course I am, Dinah dear; I'm listening with all ears.”
”What was it, then, that I last remarked? What was the subject to which I asked your attention?”
Thus suddenly called on, poor Peter started and rubbed his forehead.
Vague shadows of pa.s.sport people, and custom-house folk, and waiters, and money-changers, and brigands; insolent postilions, importunate beggars, cheating innkeepers, and insinuating swindlers were pa.s.sing through his head, with innumerable incidents of the road; and, trying to catch a clew at random, he said, ”It was to ask the Envoy, her Majesty's Minister at Brussels, about a washerwoman who would not tear off my s.h.i.+rt b.u.t.tons--eh, Dinah? wasn't that it?”
”You are insupportable, Peter Barrington,” said she, rising in anger. ”I believe that insensibility like this is not to be paralleled!” and she left the room in wrath.
Peter looked at his watch, and was glad to see it was past eight o'clock, and about the hour he meant for his visit to Withering. He set out accordingly, not, indeed, quite satisfied with the way he had lately acquitted himself, but consoled by thinking that Dinah rarely went back of a morning on the dereliction of the evening before, so that they should meet good friends as ever at the breakfast-table. Withering was at home, but a most discreet-looking butler intimated that he had dined that day _tete-a-tete_ with a gentleman, and had left orders not to be disturbed on any pretext ”Could you not at least, send in my name?”
said Barrington; ”I am a very old friend of your master's, whom he would regret not having seen.” A little persuasion aided by an argument that butlers usually succ.u.mb to succeeded, and before Peter believed that his card could have reached its destination, his friend was warmly shaking him by both hands, as he hurried him into the dinner-room.
”You don't know what an opportune visit you have made me, Barrington,”
said he; ”but first, to present you to my friend, Captain Stapylton--or Major--which is it?”
”Captain. This day week, the 'Gazette,' perhaps, may call me Major.”
”Always a pleasure to me to meet a soldier, sir,” said Barrington; ”and I own to the weakness of saying, all the greater when a Dragoon. My own boy was a cavalryman.”
”It was exactly of him we were talking,” said Withering; ”my friend here has had a long experience of India, and has frankly told me much I was totally ignorant of. From one thing to another we rambled on till we came to discuss our great suit with the Company, and Captain Stapylton a.s.sures me that we have never taken the right road in the case.”
”Nay, I could hardly have had such presumption; I merely remarked, that without knowing India and its habits, you could scarcely be prepared to encounter the sort of testimony that would be opposed to you, or to benefit by what might tend greatly in your favor.”
”Just so--continue,” said Withering, who looked as though he had got an admirable witness on the table.
”I'm astonished to hear from the Attorney-General,” resumed Stapylton, ”that in a case of such magnitude as this you have never thought of sending out an efficient agent to India to collect evidence, sift testimony, and make personal inquiry as to the degree of credit to be accorded to many of the witnesses. This inquisitorial process is the very first step in every Oriental suit; you start at once, in fact, by sapping all the enemy's works,--countermining him everywhere.”
”Listen, Barrington,--listen to this; it is all new to us.”
”Everything being done by doc.u.mentary evidence, there is a wide field for all the subtlety of the linguist; and Hindostanee has complexities enough to gratify the most inordinate appet.i.te for quibble. A learned scholar--a Moonshee of erudition--is, therefore, the very first requisite, great care being taken to ascertain that he is not in the pay of the enemy.”
”What rascals!” muttered Barrington.
”Very deep--very astute dogs, certainly, but perhaps not much more unprincipled than some fellows nearer home,” continued the Captain, sipping his wine; ”the great peculiarity of this cla.s.s is, that while employing them in the most palpably knavish manner, and obtaining from them services bought at every sacrifice of honor, they expect all the deference due to the most umblemished integrity.”
”I'd see them--I won't say where--first,” broke out Barrington; ”and I 'd see my lawsuit after them, if only to be won by their intervention.”
”Remember, sir,” said Stapylton, calmly, ”that such are the weapons employed against you. That great Company does not, nor can it afford to, despise such auxiliaries. The East has its customs, and the natures of men are not light things to be smoothed down by conventionalities. Were you, for instance, to measure a testimony at Calcutta by the standard of Westminster Hall, you would probably do a great and grievous injustice.”
”Just so,” said Withering; ”you are quite right there, and I have frequently found myself posed by evidence that I felt must be a.s.sailable. Go on, and tell my friend what you were mentioning to me before he came in.”