Читать книгу She Came Back - Dora Amy Elles - Страница 11

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“I expressed no opinion,” said Mr. Codrington.

“You mean you expressed no opinion to her.” Philip’s tone was dry in the extreme. “You’re making it quite clear to me that I haven’t got a leg to stand on.”

“I haven’t said that. What I do want to put before you is the undoubted advantage of a private settlement. This sort of case brings down the maximum of notoriety upon the people who engage in it. I do not know any family in England who would dislike it more.”

“I don’t propose to accept Annie Joyce as a wife merely to avoid seeing my name in the papers.”

“Quite so. But I would like to point out that those are not the alternatives. I made no comment on the suggestion of a family council, but I think you would do well to consider it. Quite apart from its being desirable to avoid washing the family linen in public, the plan has other advantages. A private inquiry of that nature could be held immediately—a dishonest claimant being thereby deprived of the opportunity of gathering information and getting up a case. Then at a private inquiry the claimant would not be protected, as in court, by the strict application of the rules of evidence. Anybody will be able to ask her anything, and the fact that Anne is not only willing but anxious to submit herself to this test—”

“Anne?” Philip’s voice was bleak.

“My dear Philip, what am I to call her? If it comes to that, both the girls were baptized Anne.” The words came out a little more warmly than he intended. He checked himself. “You mustn’t think that I don’t feel for your position. I feel for it so much that I am bound to hold my own feelings in check. I would like your permission to discuss the whole matter with Trent. You haven’t met him, have you? He came in as a partner just before the war. Some kind of connection of old Sunderland, who was the senior partner in my father’s time. Rather remote, but it is pleasant to keep up these old ties.” Partly in order to relieve the tension, he continued to talk about Pelham Trent. “A very able fellow—I’m lucky to have him. Not forty yet, but he’s in the Fire Service, so he hasn’t been called up. Of course he is only available every third day—they do forty-eight hours on and twenty-four off—but it’s a good deal better than nothing. I would really be glad if you would let me talk this matter over with him. He has a very good brain, and he is sound—very sound. A pleasant fellow too. Mrs. Armitage and Lyndall saw quite a lot of him when they were in town just before you came home. Lyndall came in for a few hundred pounds from an Armitage cousin, and he handled the business for her.”

“Oh, tell him anything you like.” Philip’s tone was a weary one. “We shall be lucky if it doesn’t have to go farther than that.”

Mr. Codrington regarded him with gravity.

“I was about to draw your attention to that aspect of the case. If this affair can be settled inside the family, a great deal of most undesirable publicity will be avoided. Quite apart from everything else, can you at this moment afford to be involved in a cause célèbre? You are just taking up a new job. Will that particular kind of limelight be acceptable at the War Office?”

He got an impatient shake of the head. He continued in a manner which had settled into being equable again.

“I think you may put it this way. The family are going to be a great deal more on the spot than any jury when it comes to the kind of thing that has to be looked out for in a case like this. They’ll know all the ropes, and if she makes a slip, they won’t miss it. If she passes the family, you can be perfectly sure that she would pass with any jury in the world.”

Philip walked up and down in silence. Presently he came over to the writing-table, leaned on it, and said,

“I agree to a meeting of the family. Perry’s interests are involved—any doubt as to whether I’ve got a legal wife or not would affect him. He is one of the people who have to be satisfied. He and his wife must come. Then there’s Aunt Milly, and Theresa’s sister Inez—and why on earth Cousin Maude should have given those two aggravating women Spanish names—”

Mr. Codrington nodded.

“It used to annoy your father.”

“Prophetic probably—they’ve always been a damned nuisance in the family. But I suppose Inez had better come.”

“She will probably be a great deal more troublesome if she doesn’t.”

“Then of course there is Uncle Thomas—and, I suppose, Aunt Emmeline.”

Mr. Codrington looked down his nose.

“Mrs. Jocelyn would certainly wish to be present.”

Philip gave a short laugh.

“Wild horses wouldn’t keep her away! Well, that’s about the lot. Archie and Jim are somewhere in Italy, but they’re a long way off on the family tree, and in view of the fact that Perry is married, and that Uncle Thomas has four boys all safely under military age, they don’t really come into it.”

“No, I hardly think we need take them into consideration. And there are no relations of Anne’s on her mother’s side.”

“And no Joyces?”

Mr. Codrington shook his head.

“There was only the one son by the Joyce connection. Roger Joyce’s wife died when Annie was five years old. There were no other children, and he did not marry again. Your father made Mrs. Joyce an allowance, but refused to continue it to Roger. He was a weak, inoffensive creature, rather fond of drawing the long bow about his grand relations.”

“What did he do?”

“We got him a job as a clerk in a shipping office. He was the sort of man who gets into a rut and stays there—no initiative, no ambition.”

“And his wife?”

“A teacher in an elementary school—an only child and an orphan. So, you see, there is no one to invite on the Joyce side.”

Philip straightened up.

“Well then, there we are, all set. You’d better get everyone together as soon as you can. But look here, I’m only consenting to this because it’s the best chance we’ve got of tripping her up. If she brings a case, she’ll have the next few months to find out anything she doesn’t already know—you said that yourself.”

“Wait! She won’t bring a case against you. She told me to tell you that.”

“Bunkum! She wants to get her hands on Anne’s money. In the eyes of the law Anne is dead. She’d be bound to do whatever you have to do to get back on the map again. You’ve told her that already, haven’t you?”

“If unopposed, it would be a mere formality.”

“And I’d be bound to oppose it.”

“Unless the proceedings before the family council happened to convince you.”

Philip shook his head.

“They won’t do that. But if she breaks down, there would be an end to it that way.”

“And if she doesn’t—what are you going to do then? I told you her terms—six months under the same roof.”

“Why?”

“She wants a chance of convincing you. She told me quite frankly that she wanted to try and save the marriage.”

“The marriage ended when Anne died.”

Mr. Codrington made an impatient movement.

“I am putting her terms to you. If there is no reconciliation by the end of six months, she is willing to divorce you.”

Philip laughed.

Mr. Codrington said gravely,

“Think it over. You might find yourself in a very difficult position if she were legally admitted to be Anne Jocelyn, and you were neither reconciled nor divorced. Supposing you desire to remarry, she could prevent your doing so.” He paused and added—“indefinitely.”

They were alone together, the deep red curtains drawn, a red glow from the wood fire on the hearth, a single overhead light shining down upon the writing-table with its scattered papers. For a moment both men were seeing an unseen third between them—Lyndall, little and slight, with her cloudy dark hair and her cloudy eyes—grey eyes, but quite different from the Jocelyn grey. Lyndall’s eyes were smudged with brown and green. They were soft and childish. They had no defences. If she was hurt, they showed it. If she loved anyone, they showed that too. If they grieved, tears rose to brighten them. She was pale because she had been ill. Her colour had been coming back. Now it was all gone again.

Philip walked over to the fire and stood there looking down.