Part 29 (1/2)
”Very good. I'll tell the girl to bring them downstairs. Will you be at the front door?”
”Tell the girl?” Gale remarked. ”You don't think it's a girl's job, do you, to move a houseful of furniture?”
”There's no furniture; there is nothing here belonging to Mrs. Eustace beyond her clothing, and some few odds and ends, I suppose?”
”Then you know very little about the matter, Mr. Wallace. Everything beyond that door belongs to Mrs. Eustace; everything in the residence portion of this building is hers absolutely, her own personal private property. Even that lamp on your table is hers. I have it down on my list.”
”Oh, that is nonsense, utter nonsense,” Wallace exclaimed pompously.
”The furniture is the property of the Bank.”
”The furniture is not the property of the Bank. Ask Mr. Harding.”
”He is asleep at present, but----”
”Then he had better get up, because I am about to remove the bed on which he is sleeping. It belongs to Mrs. Eustace; so do the blankets, the sheets, the coverlet, everything, in fact, even to the towels in his room.”
”What absolute preposterous nonsense!” Wallace replied. ”I never heard of such a thing. The Bank always provides furniture for its branches.”
”And does the Bank always allow the wife of a branch manager so much a year for the use of that furniture, napery, linen, cutlery, and the rest?”
”Why ask such a ridiculous question?”
”Because Mrs. Eustace has been paid such an allowance since she has been in Waroona. Refer to the office records. They will show you whether it is so or not.”
Wallace turned to the book-racks, and pulled down the ledger. Running his eye down the index, he saw the item ”Furniture Account.” Opening the book at the page indicated, he read enough to prove to him that Gale's statement was correct.
”Then all I have to say is, that it is extremely unusual,” he said, as he slammed the book, and returned it to its place.
”I am not concerned in that, Mr. Wallace. All I know are the facts. Now that you are also satisfied, you will see the work is hardly what a girl can carry out. I'll send half a dozen men down at once.”
”But,” Wallace exclaimed, looking up aghast, ”you don't mean to say you are going to remove everything?”
”Mrs. Eustace has given me her order to remove all her belongings. That, I understand, includes everything in the living portion of the premises, and the lamp now standing on your table.”
”But what am I to do? What is Harding to do? We cannot sleep on the bare boards and eat our meals raw.”
”I don't see what concern that is of mine. You requested Mrs. Eustace to vacate these premises at once, and she is doing as you asked. It is not for you to complain, surely?”
”It is, under the circ.u.mstances, most decidedly it is. Someone must always be on the premises after what has occurred; but if there is nothing on which to sleep, what can be done? Mrs. Eustace knew the furniture belonged to her and should have said so.”
”I am afraid I cannot agree with you,” Gale replied. ”You should have known the furniture was hers. Your one desire, it seems to me, was to vent on her head the wrath of the Bank at what may, or may not have been, her husband's fault. Whether it added to the trouble she already had did not matter to you in the slightest. But directly you find that your spite recoils on yourself and entails some inconvenience for you, there is a very different tale to tell. Personally I am very glad to think you can be inconvenienced. You had better have Harding called, as I shall be back in half an hour with my men. Oh, by the by, the servant is engaged by Mrs. Eustace, not by the Bank. She will leave with the furniture.”
He enjoyed the look of consternation on Wallace's face. The banker could not deceive himself. Gale held him in a cleft stick.
”But this cannot go on,” he exclaimed. ”Mrs. Eustace must see how unreasonable it is. The Bank is ent.i.tled to at least a month's notice, before the things can be removed.”
”It is the Bank that gave the notice. Mrs. Eustace was told to go at once. Well, she waived her right to demand time and said she would go at once. Now you blame her!”
”Will she sell the furniture?”
”No, she will not.”