CHAPTER XIX.
"On the whole," said Meldon, "things are turning out better than Iexpected. They developed in a way that at first a little surprised me.In fact, for an hour or two I was rattled, and hardly knew what to sayor do; but on thinking the whole affair over quietly, after aninterview I had with Callaghan, I have every reason to feel fairly wellsatisfied."
He and Major Kent sat together at afternoon tea on the verandah ofPortsmouth Lodge. The Major was evidently nervous and uncomfortable.The teaspoon tinkled in the saucer as he handed a cup to his friend,and he forgot to help himself to a lump of sugar.
"I took Doyle quite the right way," said Meldon, "and I don't thinkhe'll sack Sabina. I should have been sorry if Sabina had got intoserious trouble--"
"What about the judge?" said the Major.
"I'm talking about Sabina Gallagher at present, I'll come to the judgelater on. As a matter of fact he's perfectly well able to look afterhimself. Sabina isn't, and it is my practice--it ought to be yours,Major, but of course it isn't--it is my practice to look after the poorand helpless, especially when they happen to be women, before I doanything for those who are rich and powerful. You, I regret to say, goupon a different plan. Because Sabina happens to be a friendlessservant, with no one to take her part, you don't care a pin whathappens to her. You are interested only in this judge, who is well offand has the whole force of the British constitution at his back if anyone attempts to do him any harm."
The Major accepted the rebuke meekly.
"I only meant," he said, "that I'd like to hear about the judge now Iknow that Sabina is all right. And after all, J. J., the Britishconstitution isn't much use to a man when you are set on ragging him."
"Of course not," said Meldon. "In fact, the British constitution is agreatly over-rated thing. It didn't save poor Lorimer from hisuntimely end. It wouldn't save this judge if I had determined to makehim miserable. It won't save Simpkins when his time comes. However,as things turn out, I don't want to harry the judge. There's noparticular point in it. I don't much mind now even if he goes back toDoyle's hotel."
"He really left then?"
"Yes. Doyle was rather upset about it. It's a serious loss to him,and I'm sorry it occurred, for it turns out now that it was quiteunnecessary. I couldn't possibly be expected to guess; but, as amatter of fact, I needn't have worried about that judge at all. Hewon't do us any harm. In fact, I expect he'll turn out to be a mostvaluable ally. I shall see him to-morrow and try to enlist hissympathies for our Simpkins plot. I expect he'll simply jump at it."
"I thought you said he'd gone."
"He has gone from the hotel, but not from Ballymoy. He's at presentstaying with his niece."
"I didn't know he had a niece."
"Miss King, or, to be quite accurate, Mrs. Lorimer, is his niece, andhe's staying with her."
Major Kent started and laid down his teacup. Then a look of reliefcame into his face, and he smiled.
"You'll give up that absurd theory of yours now, I suppose," he said,"and admit that Miss King isn't a murderess. I always knew she wasn't,though I couldn't convince you."
"I don't see," said Meldon, "that anything has happened to invalidatethe evidence on which we originally concluded that Miss King is Mrs.Lorimer."
"Don't be an ass, J. J. You say she's the judge's niece; so of courseshe can't--"
"You apparently think," said Meldon, "that a judge's niece, merelybecause her uncle happens to occupy a position of legal eminence,couldn't possibly commit a crime. You're entirely wrong. Some of thegreatest women criminals the world has ever seen have been the niecesof men of high position. Look at Lucrezia Borgia, for instance. Heruncle was a Pope; and whatever our religious opinions may be we mustadmit that a Pope is a bigger man than an ordinary judge, and yetLucrezia is famous for some of the most remarkable crimes in allhistory. I could quote other instances, but that one ought to besufficient to convince you that relationship to a judge is nosafeguard--"
"That wasn't what I meant, J. J. You say that this judge tried Mrs.Lorimer. Now if--"
"Do you mean to suggest," said Meldon, "that a judge wouldn't try hisown niece for murder?"
"Of course he wouldn't. How could he?"
"You're entirely wrong," said Meldon. "As a matter of fact anyright-minded and really upright judge, such as we have every reason tosuppose this Sir Gilbert Hawkesby is, would take a special pride intrying his own niece. He'd like to hang her if he could, alwayssupposing that he felt sure that she was guilty. If there's one thingjudges are more determined about than another it's their independenceof all considerations of private friendship in the discharge of theirduties. There are several recorded instances of judges hanging theirown sons. The expression, 'A Roman father,' arises, as well as Irecollect, from an incident of the sort, and the men who have done thatkind of thing have always been regarded as the brightest examples ofincorruptibility. Every lawyer is brought up in the tradition that hecan't do a finer action, if he becomes a judge--and they all expect tobecome judges in the end--than to hang a relative of his own. SirGilbert saw his opportunity when Miss King was brought up before him,and the moment he became convinced of her guilt he summed up againsther in the most determined way."
"You may talk as you like, J. J., but no judge would do it."
"You have evidently a very low opinion of judges," said Meldon. "Sohas Doyle. He thinks that they are all influenced by politicalprejudices, and are ready to condemn a man who belongs to any League,without waiting to find out whether he has committed a crime or not.That's bad enough; but what you charge them with is infinitely worse.You say that they are habitually guilty of nepotism--that is to say ofpartiality to their own nieces, which is one of the worst crimes thereis in a judge, as bad as simony would be in a bishop."
"I don't say anything of the sort. I say--"
"Either you say that Miss King isn't his niece or you say that hewouldn't try her for murder. You must be saying one or the other,though you don't express yourself very distinctly, because there'snothing else you could say."
"I don't, of course, agree with you," said the Major, after a pause."In fact, I think you're talking downright nonsense, but I'm not goingto argue with you. I'm--"
"I wish you'd always take up that attitude," said Meldon. "Yourarguments waste a lot of time."
"I'm just going to ask you one question. Supposing Miss King is Mrs.Lorimer--"
"She is. There's no supposition about it."
"And supposing the judge tried her as you say--"
"That's in all the papers. There's no use attempting to deny that,whatever else you deny."
"And supposing she's his niece--"
"Callaghan says the cook told him she was," said Meldon, "and itappears that she kissed him when they met, which she'd hardly have doneif they weren't relations."
"Then," said the Major triumphantly, "how can you account for his goingto stay with her as if she hadn't done anything wrong?"
"I don't quite catch your point, Major."
"Is it likely that, knowing his niece to be a murderess, or at allevents believing her to be a murderess, a judge--a judge, mind you, J.J.--would go and stay in the house with her, and kiss her?"
"It was she who kissed him," said Meldon, "but that's a minor point. Isee your difficulty now, Major, and I quite admit there's something init, or appears to be something in it to a man like you who doesn'tunderstand the legal point of view."
"No point of view can alter facts," said the Major, "supposing they arefacts, which of course they're not."
"Yes, it can," said Meldon. "To the legal mind a fact ceases to be afact the moment a properly qualified court has decided the other way.The judge may be, in this particular case he is, as we know, absolutelyconvinced that his niece is a murderess. But a jury says she isn't,and so from a legal point of view she's a perfectly innocent andupright woman. The judge can't hang her. He can't even warn her notto do it again. He is bound, wha
tever his private feelings andconvictions are, to accept the jury's verdict at its face value, and totreat his niece exactly as he did before all the unpleasantness arose."
"He needn't kiss her," said the Major.
"If he's a consistently just man and was on what we may call kissingterms with her before," said Meldon, "he'll of course kiss her againafterwards. He can't do anything else. In the eye of the law--that'swhat I mean by the legal standpoint--she's an innocent woman. Now thejudge's whole position in society and even his income depends on hiskeeping up the theory that the law is infallible. Whatever you and Ias private individuals may do, a judge has only one course open to him.He must take the view that the law takes. That's why I say that it'squite natural for Sir Gilbert to go and stop with his niece and kissher, though, as I said before, it was really she who kissed him. If hedidn't, he'd be admitting publicly that the law was wrong, and he can'tdo that without giving himself and his whole position away hopelessly."
"It doesn't strike me as a bit natural," said the Major. "In fact,it's quite impossible. That's why I say--"
"I can understand your feeling," said Meldon. "Indeed I was a gooddeal surprised at first; but when I came to think it all out, and torealise the sort of way the judge would look at it, I saw, as you'llprobably be able to see some time tomorrow--"
"No. I won't. I'll never see that. It's absurd to suppose--"
"I don't deny," said Meldon, "that when we consider Sir GilbertHawkesby as a private individual, separating for a moment the man fromthe judge, we must credit him with the feeling that Miss King is rathera--what the French would call a _mauvais sujet_."
"A what?"
"A black sheep," said Meldon, "a disgrace to the family. The sort ofrelation whom one is inclined to keep in the background as much aspossible. I am relying on that feeling to secure the help of thejudge."
"For what?"
"To marry Miss King to Simpkins, of course. The thing we've been atall along."
"He won't do that. No man living would marry his niece to Simpkins."
"That depends on the nature of the niece. There are nieces--there's nouse denying it, Major, because it's unfortunately true. There arenieces that a man would be glad to see married to any one. And there'sa great deal to be said in favour of the Simpkins alliance in thisparticular case."
"No, there isn't. The man is a cad."
"I don't think nearly so badly of Simpkins as you do, Major. I've toldyou that before. But, even granting what you say is true, the judgeprobably argues that Miss King with her record can't expect anythingbetter. He'll be glad enough to get Simpkins for her. He'll recollectthat Ballymoy is a frightfully out-of-the-way place, and that if MissKing is married to a man who lives here none of her friends will eversee any more of her. That's exactly what he wants; and so Iconfidently expect that, once the position is explained to him, he'llsimply jump at the chance."
"Do you mean to say," said the Major--"I am now supposing that all yourridiculous ideas are true, and that Miss King will really--"
He hesitated.
"Kill Simpkins?" said Meldon. "That's what you want done, isn't it?"
"Do you mean to say that you think the judge will go out of his way toencourage her to commit another crime?"
"It's not the business of a judge to prevent crime," said Meldon. "Youmustn't mix him up with the police. The police have to see that peopledon't do what's wrong. Judges have to punish them afterwards for whatthe police fail to stop them from doing. The judge won't step out ofhis proper sphere and start doing police work. If he did there'd beendless confusion. And besides that, I don't expect the judge willthink that she means to kill Simpkins. He doesn't understand as we dothat she is acting in the interests of her art. She probably, in factcertainly, hasn't told him what she told me--that she has come toBallymoy with the intention of going on with her work. He'll thinkthat the narrow shave she had over the Lorimer affair will have givenher a lesson, and that from now on she'll want to settle down and livea quiet, affectionate kind of life. When she kissed him in thatspontaneous way this morning, what do you suppose was passing throughhis mind? What was he thinking? Remember that he hadn't seen hersince the day of the trial, and then ask yourself what thoughts thosetwo kisses would suggest to him."
"I don't know. That she was glad to see him, I suppose."
"A great deal more than that. A judge doesn't stop short at thosesuperficial views of things. He looks deep down into the morerecondite emotions of the human heart. As soon as he felt those kisseshe said to himself: 'Here is a poor girl who's really sorry for whatshe's done--'"
"I thought you said he didn't believe she'd done it. I certainlydon't."
"As a judge he doesn't; but I'm speaking of him now as an uncle, asimple unofficial uncle. As an uncle he can't help recollecting poorLorimer, but he'll want to give his niece every possible fair play, andas soon as she showed signs of penitence--her kisses were a prettyconvincing sign of penitence, considering the way he summed up againsther--he'd be all for burying the past and letting her get a fresh startin life if she could."
"Of course I don't attach the smallest importance to anything you'vesaid. I don't believe, in the first place, that Miss King is Mrs.Lorimer. I don't believe any judge would try to hang his own niece. Idon't believe, if he had tried her, he'd go and stop in the house withher afterwards, and I'm perfectly certain he wouldn't kiss her. Butyou apparently like to pretend to me that you do believe all the rotyou've been talking, and that being so, I'd rather like to know whatyou intend to do next."
"It doesn't in the least matter to you what I do," said Meldon. "IfI'm the kind of drivelling idiot you make out, my actions are of noimportance, either to you or to any one else."
"All the same, I'd like to know what they're going to be."
"Why?"
"So that I can do my best to prevent their doing any irreparablemischief, if possible; though I don't expect it is possible."
"I shall do no irreparable mischief to any one," said Meldon; "exceptSimpkins; and you always said you wanted him poisoned."
"I never said such a thing."
"Keep cool, Major. There's no use losing your temper. You and Doyleand O'Donoghue all said you'd be glad to gloat over Simpkins' corpse.If you hadn't said so I shouldn't be taking all this trouble. If Ididn't still believe that you hate Simpkins I should drop the matter atonce. After all, it's no business of mine."
"Then do drop it. Like a good man, J. J., leave Miss King alone, andlet the judge fish in peace."
"No; I won't. I'll see the thing through now I'm this far, and withineasy reach of success. I don't want to have you reproaching meafterwards for going back on my word."
"I won't reproach you. I promise not to."
"You'd mean not to; but when the present flurry is over, and whenSimpkins begins to annoy you again about the fishing and other things,you won't be able to help reproaching me. Even if you refrain fromactual words I shall see it in your eye. I can't go through life,Major, haunted by your eye with a mute, unspoken reproach in it."
Major Kent sighed heavily.
"Then what do you mean to do?" he asked.
"I shall see the judge to-morrow," said Meldon, "and--"
"I advise you not to. He's sure to have found out about the paraffinoil by that time."
"I'm prepared for that. There may be some slight temporaryunpleasantness, but that will pass away at once when the judge hearsthe proposal that I have to make."
"What's that?"
"That he should encourage the marriage between Simpkins and his niece.I shall explain to him that it is very much to his own interest to doso, and of course he'll see the force of what I say at once. I shan'tmention the ultimate fate of Simpkins. I don't suppose he'd care muchif I did. He can't be particularly keen on preserving Simpkins' life,for he doesn't know him. Still it is best to avoid all risks, and Ishall treat the marriage as the ordinary conventional love-match,without hinting at
any connection between it and Miss King's peculiarart. When I've settled things up with him--that'll be about twelve orone o'clock, if I get at him before he starts fishing for the day--Ishall go down to the village and get a hold of Simpkins. He'll be inhis office, I expect. I shall lunch with him, and then lead him up andlay him at Miss King's feet."
"Will he go for you? He hasn't shown any great eagerness for the matchso far."
"I shan't give him much choice," said Meldon. "I shall tell him thatthe thing has got to be done at once. Very few men are able to standup to me when I take a really determined tone with them, and I shallspeak in the strongest way to Simpkins. When I have, so to speak,deposited him in front of Miss King--"
"On his knees?" said the Major.
"Very probably. In these matters of detail I must of course be guidedby circumstances; but when I have put him down, either on his knees orin some other posture, I shall slip away unobtrusively--"
"I should like to see you doing that. I don't think you could. You'regenerally more obtrusive than any one else I've ever met."
"Leaving them together," said Meldon, "with Callaghan watching frombehind a tree, so as to be able to report to me exactly what happens.In the meanwhile I shall stroll up the river and find the judge. If heisn't actually into a fish at the moment, I shall bring him straightdown to the house and let him hear the result at once. If he has asalmon hooked, I shall of course wait till it's landed, and then bringhim down. Afterwards I shall take Simpkins up to the rectory and makearrangements about the licence. We ought, bar accidents, to have thewhole thing finished in the inside of a fortnight from now. After thatI must leave it in the hands of O'Donoghue. He'll have to be carefulhow he treats Simpkins when he's called in. It won't do to makemistakes and go curing him accidentally."
"I suppose," said the Major bitterly, "that you'll employ SabinaGallagher to make the wedding-cake. She might begin the poisoning."
"Certainly not," said Meldon. "Sabina couldn't make a wedding-cake,and in any case Simpkins won't eat enough of his own wedding-cake to dohim any harm, whatever it's made of. If you were accustomed toweddings, Major, you'd know that the whole cake is invariably eaten bythe postoffice officials--a most deserving class, whom nobody wants topoison. Besides, in a case like this, it will be better to avoid allpublicity and show. It wouldn't do to have the newspapers getting holdof the fact that Mrs. Lorimer is being married again so soon. There'dbe paragraphs, and the suspicions of Simpkins would be excited. On thewhole, I don't think we'll have a wedding cake, or bridesmaids, oranything of that sort. But you can be best man if you like."
"I know you don't mean a word you're saying, J. J., and that you won'treally do anything."
"Wait and see."
"But if I thought you meant to cause Miss King the slightest uneasinessor discomfort, I should simply turn you straight out of my house. Iwouldn't be a party for a single moment to any plan for insulting areally nice woman like Miss King."
"Don't fret about that," said Meldon. "What I'm doing is exactly whatMiss King wants done. She told me so herself."