CHAPTER XXXV.
_M._ Check to your queen!
_N._ Nay, your own king is bare, And moving so, you give yourself checkmate.
When Jermyn entered the room, Harold, who was seated at his librarytable examining papers, with his back toward the light and his facetoward the door, moved his head coldly. Jermyn said an ungracious"Good-morning,"--as little as possible like a salutation to one whomight regard himself as a patron. On the attorney's handsome face therewas a black cloud of defiant determination slightly startling to Harold,who had expected to feel that the overpowering weight of temper in theinterview was on his own side. Nobody was ever prepared beforehand forthis expression of Jermyn's face, which seemed as strongly contrastedwith the cold impenetrableness which he preserved under the ordinaryannoyance of business as with the bland radiance of his lighter moments.
Harold himself did not look amiable just then, but his anger was of thesort that seeks a vent without waiting to give a fatal blow; it was thatof a nature more subtly mixed than Jermyn's--less animally forcible,less unwavering in selfishness, and with more of high-bred pride. Helooked at Jermyn with increased disgust and secret wonder.
"Sit down," he said curtly.
Jermyn seated himself in silence, opened his greatcoat, and took somepapers from a side pocket.
"I have written to Makepeace," said Harold, "to tell him to take theentire management of the election expenses. So you will transmit youraccounts to him."
"Very well. I am come this morning on other business."
"If it's about the riot and the prisoners, I have only to say that Ishall enter into no plans. If I am called on, I shall say what I knowabout that young fellow Felix Holt. People may prove what they can aboutJohnson's damnable tricks, or yours either."
"I am not come to speak about the riot. I agree with you in thinkingthat quite a subordinate subject." (When Jermyn had the black cloud overhis face, he never hesitated or drawled, and made no Latin quotations.)
"Be so good, then, as to open your business at once," said Harold, in atone of imperious indifference.
"That is precisely what I wish to do. I have here information from aLondon correspondent that you are about to file a bill against me inChancery." Jermyn, as he spoke, laid his hand on the papers before him,and looked straight at Harold.
"In that case, the question for you is, how far your conduct as thefamily solicitor will bear investigation. But it is a question which youwill consider quite apart from me."
"Doubtless. But prior to that there is a question which we must considertogether."
The tone in which Jermyn said this gave an unpleasant shock to Harold'ssense of mastery. Was it possible that he should have the weaponwrenched out of his hand?
"I shall know what to think of that," he replied, as haughtily as ever,"when you have stated what the question is."
"Simply, whether you will choose to retain the family estates, or layyourself open to be forthwith legally deprived of them."
"I presume you refer to some underhand scheme of your own, on a par withthe annuities you have drained us by in the name of Johnson," saidHarold, feeling a new movement of anger. "If so, you had better stateyour scheme to my lawyers, Dymock and Halliwell."
"No. I think you will approve of my stating in your own ear first ofall, that it depends on my will whether you remain an important landedproprietor in North Loamshire, or whether you retire from the countrywith the remainder of the fortune you have acquired in trade."
Jermyn paused, as if to leave time for this morsel to be tasted.
"What do you mean?" said Harold, sharply.
"Not any scheme of mine; but a state of the facts resulting from thesettlement of the estate made in 1729: state of the facts which rendersyour father's title and your own title to the family estates utterlyworthless as soon as the claimant is made aware of his right."
"And you intend to inform him?"
"That depends. I am the only person who has the requisite knowledge. Itrests with you to decide whether I shall use that knowledge against you;or whether I shall use it in your favor by putting an end to theevidence that would serve to oust you in spite of your 'robust title ofoccupancy.'"
Jermyn paused again. He had been speaking slowly, but without the leasthesitation, and with a bitter definiteness of enunciation. There was amoment or two before Harold answered, and then he said abruptly--
"I don't believe you."
"I thought you were more shrewd," said Jermyn, with a touch of scorn. "Ithought you understood that I had had too much experience to waste mytime in telling fables to persuade a man who has put himself into theattitude of my deadly enemy."
"Well, then, say at once what your proofs are," said Harold, shaking inspite of himself, and getting nervous.
"I have no inclination to be lengthy. It is not more than a few weekssince I ascertained that there is in existence an heir of the Bycliffes,the old adversaries of your family. More curiously, it is only a fewdays ago--in fact, only since the day of the riot--that the Bycliffeclaim has become valid, and that the right of remainder accrues to theheir in question."
"And how, pray?" said Harold, rising from his chair, and making a turnin the room, with his hands thrust in his pockets. Jermyn rose too, andstood near the hearth, facing Harold, as he moved to and fro.
"By the death of an old fellow who got drunk and was trampled to deathin the riot. He was the last of that Thomas Transome's line, by thepurchase of whose interest your family got its title to the estate. Yourtitle died with him. It was supposed that the line had become extinctbefore--and on that supposition the old Bycliffes founded their claim.But I hunted up this man just about the time the last suit was closed.His death would have been of no consequence to you if there had not beena Bycliffe in existence; but I happen to know that there is, and thatthe fact can be legally proved."
For a minute or two Harold did not speak, but continued to pace theroom, while Jermyn kept his position, holding his hands behind him. Atlast Harold said, from the other end of the room, speaking in a scornfultone--
"That sounds alarming. But it is not to be proved simply by yourstatement."
"Clearly. I have here a document, with a copy which will back mystatement. It is the opinion given on the case more than twenty yearsago, and it bears the signature of the Attorney-General and the firstconveyancer of the day."
Jermyn took up the papers he had laid on the table, opening them slowlyand coolly as he went on speaking, and as Harold advanced toward him.
"You may suppose that we spared no pains to ascertain the state of thetitle in the last suit against Maurice Christian Bycliffe, whichthreatened to be a hard run. This document is the result of aconsultation it gives an opinion which must be taken as a finalauthority. You may cast your eyes over that, if you please; I will waityour time. Or you may read the summing-up here," Jermyn ended, holdingout one of the papers to Harold, and pointing to a final passage.
Harold took the paper with a slight gesture of impatience. He did notchoose to obey Jermyn's indication, and confine himself to thesumming-up. He ran through the document. But in truth he was too muchexcited really to follow the details, and was rather acting thanreading, till at once he threw himself into his chair and consented tobend his attention on the passage to which Jermyn had pointed. Theattorney watched him as he read and twice re-read:--
To sum up----we are of opinion that the title of the present possessors of the Transome estate can be strictly proved to rest solely upon a base fee created under the original settlement of 1729, and to be good so long only as issue exists of the tenant in tail by whom that base fee was created. We feel satisfied by the evidence that such issue exists in the person of Thomas Transome, otherwise Trounsem, of Littleshaw. But upon his decease without issue we are of opinion that the right in remainder of the Bycliffe family will arise, which right would not be barred by any statute of limitation.
When H
arold's eyes were on the signatures to this document for the thirdtime, Jermyn said--
"As it turned out, the case being closed by the death of the claimant,we had no occasion for producing Thomas Transome, who was the old fellowI told you of. The enquiries about him set him agog, and after they weredropped he came into this neighborhood, thinking there was somethingfine in store for him. Here, if you like to take it, is a memorandumabout him. I repeat that he died in the riot. The proof is ready. And Irepeat, that, to my knowledge, and mine only, there is a Bycliffe inexistence; and that I know how the proof can be made out."
Harold rose from his chair again, and again paced the room. He was notprepared with any defiance.
"And where is he--this Bycliffe?" he said at last, stopping in his walk,and facing round toward Jermyn.
"I decline to say more till you promise to suspend proceedings againstme."
Harold turned again, and looked out of the window, without speaking, fora moment or two. It was impossible that there should not be a conflictwithin him, and at present it was a very confused one. At last he said--
"This person is in ignorance of his claim?"
"Yes."
"Has been brought up in an inferior station?"
"Yes," said Jermyn, keen enough to guess part of what was going on inHarold's mind. "There is no harm in leaving him in ignorance. Thequestion is a purely legal one. And, as I said before, the completeknowledge of the case, as one of evidence, lies exclusively with me. Ican nullify the evidence, or I can make it tell with certainty againstyou. The choice lies with you."
"I must have time to think of this," said Harold, conscious of aterrible pressure.
"I can give you no time unless you promise me to suspend proceedings."
"And then, when I ask you, you will lay the details before me?"
"Not without a thorough understanding beforehand. If I engage not to usemy knowledge against you, you must engage in writing that on beingsatisfied by the details, you will cancel all hostile proceedingsagainst me, and will not institute fresh ones on the strength of anyoccurrences now past."
"Well, I must have time," said Harold, more than ever inclined to thrashthe attorney, but feeling bound hand and foot with knots that he was notsure he could ever unfasten.
"That is to say," said Jermyn, with his black-browed persistence, "youwill write to suspend proceedings."
Again Harold paused. He was more than ever exasperated, but he wasthreatened, mortified, and confounded by the necessity for an immediatedecision between alternatives almost equally hateful to him. It was withdifficulty that he could prevail on himself to speak any conclusivewords. He walked as far as he could from Jermyn--to the other end of theroom--then walked back to his chair and threw himself into it. At lasthe said, without looking at Jermyn, "I agree--I must have time."
"Very well. It is a bargain."
"No further than this," said Harold, hastily, flashing a look atJermyn--"no further than this, that I require time, and therefore I giveit to you."
"Of course. You require time to consider whether the pleasure of tryingto ruin me--me to whom you are really indebted--is worth the loss of theTransome estates. I shall wish you good-morning."
Harold did not speak to him or look at him again, and Jermyn walked outof the room. As he appeared outside the door and closed it behind him,Mrs. Transome showed her white face at another door which opened on alevel with Harold's in such a way that it was just possible for Jermynnot to see her. He availed himself of that possibility, and walkedstraight across the hall, where there was no servant in attendance tolet him out, as if he believed that no one was looking at him who couldexpect recognition. He did not want to speak to Mrs. Transome atpresent; he had nothing to ask from her, and one disagreeable interviewhad been enough for him this morning.
She was convinced that he had avoided her, and she was too proud toarrest him. She was as insignificant now in his eyes as in her son's."Men have no memories in their hearts," she said to herself, bitterly.And then turning into her sitting-room she heard the voices of Mr.Transome and little Harry at play together. She would have given a greatdeal at this moment if her feeble husband had not always lived in dreadof her temper and her tyranny, so that he might have been fond of hernow. She felt herself loveless; if she was important to any one, it wasonly to her old waiting-woman Denner.