The Talleyrand Maxim Page 9

  CHAPTER IX

  UNTIL NEXT SPRING

  Within a week of his sudden death in Eldrick's private office, oldAntony Bartle was safely laid in the tomb under the yew-tree of whichMrs. Clough had spoken with such appreciation, and his grandson hadentered into virtual possession of all that he had left. Collingwoodfound little difficulty in settling his grandfather's affairs.Everything had been left to him: he was sole executor as well as soleresiduary legatee. He found his various tasks made uncommonly easy.Another bookseller in the town hurried to buy the entire stock andbusiness, goodwill, book debts, everything--Collingwood was free of allresponsibility of the shop in Quagg Alley within a few days of the oldman's funeral. And when he had made a handsome present to thehousekeeper, a suitable one to the shop-boy, and paid his grandfather'slast debts, he was free to depart--a richer man by some five-and-twentythousand pounds than when he hurried down to Barford in response toEldrick's telegram.

  He sat in Eldrick's office one afternoon, winding up his affairs withhim. There were certain things that Eldrick & Pascoe would have to do;as for himself it was necessary for him to get back to London.

  "There's something I want to propose to you," said Eldrick, when theyhad finished the immediate business. "You're going to practise, ofcourse?"

  "Of course!" replied Collingwood, with a laugh. "If I get the chance!"

  "You'll get the chance," said Eldrick. "What were you going in for?"

  "Commercial law--company law--as a special thing," answered Collingwood.

  "Why?"

  "I'll tell you what it is," continued Eldrick eagerly. "There's a careerfor you if you'll take my advice. Leave London--come down here and takechambers in the town, and go the North-Eastern Circuit. I'll promiseyou--for our firm alone--plenty of work. You'll get more--there's lotsof work waiting here for a good, smart young barrister. Ah!--you smile,but I know what I'm talking about. You don't know Barford men. Theybelieve in the old adage that one should look at home before goingabroad. They're terribly litigious, too, and if you were here, on thespot, they'd give you work. What do you say, Collingwood?"

  "That sounds very tempting. But I was thinking of sticking to London."

  "Not one hundredth part of the chance in London that there is here!"affirmed Eldrick. "We badly want two or three barristers in this place. Aman who's really well up in commercial and company law would soon havehis hands full. There's work, I tell you. Take my advice, and come!"

  "I couldn't come--in any case--for a few months," said Collingwood,musingly. "Of course, if you really think there's an opening----"

  "I know there is!" asserted Eldrick. "I'll guarantee you lots ofwork--our work. I'm sick of fetching men down all the way from town, orgetting them from Leeds. Come!--and you'll see."

  "I might come in a few months' time, and try things for a year or two,"replied Collingwood. "But I'm off to India, you know, next week, and Ishall be away until the end of spring--four months or so."

  "To India!" exclaimed Eldrick. "What are you going to do there?"

  "Sir John Standridge," said Collingwood, mentioning a famous legalluminary of the day, "is going out to Hyderabad to take certainevidence, and hold a sort of inquiry, in a big case, and I'm going withhim as his secretary and assistant--I was in his chambers for two years,you know. We leave next week, and we shall not be back until the end ofApril."

  "Lucky man!" remarked the solicitor. "Well, when you return, don'tforget what I've said. Come back!--you'll not regret it. Come and settledown. Bye-the-bye, you're not engaged, are you?"

  "Engaged?" said Collingwood. "To what--to whom--what do you mean?"

  "Engaged to be married," answered Eldrick coolly. "You're not? Good! Ifyou want a wife, there's Miss Mallathorpe. Nice, clever girl, myboy--and no end of what Barford folk call brass. The very woman foryou."

  "Do you Barford people ever think of anything else but what you callbrass?" asked Collingwood, laughing.

  "Sometimes," replied Eldrick. "But it's generally of something thatnothing but brass can bring or produce. After all, a rich wife isn't adespicable thing, nowadays. You've seen this young lady?"

  "I've been there once," asserted Collingwood.

  "Go again--before you leave," counselled Eldrick. "You're just the rightman. Listen to the counsels of the wise! And while you're in India,think well over my other advice. I tell you there's a career for you,here in the North, that you'd never get in town."

  Collingwood left him and went out--to find a motorcar and drive off toNormandale Grange, not because Eldrick had advised him to go, butbecause of his promise to Harper and Nesta Mallathorpe. And once more hefound Nesta alone, and though he had no spice of vanity in hiscomposition it seemed to him that she was glad when he walked into theroom in which they had first met.

  "My mother is out--gone to town--to the mill," she said. "And Harper isknocking around the park with a gun--killing rabbits--and time. He'll bein presently to tea--and he'll be delighted to see you. Are you going tostay in Barford much longer?"

  "I'm going up to town this evening--seven o'clock train," answeredCollingwood, watching her keenly. "All my business is finished now--forthe present."

  "But--you'll be coming back?" she asked.

  "Perhaps," he said. "I may come back--after a while."

  "When you do come back," she went on, a little hurriedly, "will you comeand see us again? I--it's difficult to explain--but I do wish Harperknew more men--the right sort of men. Do you understand?"

  "You mean--he needs more company?"

  "More company of the right kind. He doesn't know many nice men. And hehas so little to occupy him. He's no head for business--my motherattends to all that--and he doesn't care much about sport--and when hegoes into Barford he only hangs about the club, and, I'm afraid, at twoor three of the hotels there, and--it's not good for him."

  "Can't you get him interested in anything?" suggested Collingwood. "Isthere nothing that he cares about?"

  "He never did care about anything," replied Nesta with a sigh. "He'sapathetic! He just moves along. Sometimes I think he was born halfasleep, and he's never been really awakened. Pity, isn't it?"

  "Considering everything--a great pity," agreed Collingwood. "But--he'sprovided for."

  Nesta gave him a swift glance.

  "It might have been a good deal better for him if he hadn't beenprovided for!" she said. "He'd have just had to do something, then.But--if you come back, you'll come here sometimes?"

  "Of course!" answered Collingwood. "And if I come back, it will probablybe to stop here. Mr. Eldrick says there's a lot of work going begging inBarford--for a smart young barrister well up in commercial law. PerhapsI may try to come up to his standard--I'm certainly young, but I don'tknow whether I'm smart."

  "Better come and try," she said, smiling. "Don't forget that I've seenyou look the part, anyway--your wig and gown suited you very well."

  "Theatrical properties," he replied, laughing. "The wig was too small,and the gown too long. Well--we'll see. But in the meantime, I'm goingaway for four months--to India."

  "To India--four months!" she exclaimed. "That sounds nice."

  "Legal business," said Collingwood. "I shall be back about the end ofApril--and then I shall probably come down here again, and seriouslyconsider Eldrick's suggestion. I'm very much inclined to take it."

  "Then--you'd leave London?" she asked.

  "I've little to leave there," replied Collingwood. "My father and motherare dead, and I've no brothers, no sisters--no very near relations.Sounds lonely, doesn't it?"

  "One can feel lonely when one has relations," said Nesta.

  "Are you saying that from--experience?" he asked.

  "I often wish I had more to do," she answered frankly. "What's the useof denying it? I've next to nothing to do, here. I liked my work at thehospital--I was busy all day. Here----"

  "If I were you," interrupted Collingwood, "I'd set to work nursing inanother fashion. Look after your brother! Get him going atsomething--even if it's
playing golf. Play with him! It would dohim--and you--all the good in the world if you got thoroughly infatuatedwith even a game. Don't you see?"

  "You mean--anything is better than nothing," she replied. "Allright--I'll try that, anyway. For--I'm anxious about Harper. All thismoney!--and no occupation!"

  Collingwood, who was sitting near the windows, looked out across thepark and into the valley beyond.

  "I should have thought that a man who had come into an estate like thiswould have found plenty of occupation," he remarked. "What is there,beside the house and this park?"

  Nesta, who had busied herself with some fancy-work since Collingwood'sentrance, laid it down and came to the windows. She pointed to certainroofs and gables in the valley.

  "There's the whole village of Normandale," she said. "A busy place, nodoubt, but it's all Harper's--he's lord of the manor. He's patron of theliving, too. It's all his--farms, cottages, everything. And the woods,and the park, and this house, and a stretch of the moors, as well. Ofcourse, he ought to find a lot to do--but he doesn't. Perhaps because mymother does everything. She really is a business woman."

  Collingwood looked out over the area which Nesta had indicated. HarperMallathorpe, he calculated, must be possessed of some three or fourthousand acres.

  "A fine property!" he said. "He's a very fortunate fellow!"

  Just then this very fortunate fellow came in. His face, dull enough ashe entered, lighted up at sight of a visitor, and fell again whenCollingwood explained that his visit was a mere flying one, and that hewas returning to London that night. Collingwood led him on to theproject which he had mentioned at his previous visit--the making of golflinks in the park, and pointed out, as a devotee of the sport, what afine course could be made. Before he left he had succeeded in arousinglike interest in Harper--he promised to go into the matter, and toemploy a man whom Collingwood recommended as an expert in laying outgolf courses.

  "You'll have got your greens in something like order by this time nextyear, if you start operations soon," said Collingwood. "And then, if Isettle down at Barford, I'll come out now and then, if you'll let me."

  "Let you!" exclaimed Harper. "By Jove!--we're only too glad to haveanybody out here--aren't we, Nesta?"

  "We shall always be glad to see Mr. Collingwood," said Nesta.

  Collingwood went away with that last intimation warm in his memory. Hehad an idea that the girl meant what she said--and for a moment he wassorry that he was going to India. He might have settled down at Barfordthere and then, and--but at that he laughed at himself.

  "A young woman with several thousands a year of her own!" he said. "Ofcourse, she'll marry some big pot in the county. They feel a littlelonely, those two, just now, because everything's new to them, andthey're new to their changed circumstances. But when I get back--ah!--Iguess they'll have got plenty of people around them."

  And he determined, being a young man of sense, not to think anymore--for already he had thought a good deal of Nesta Mallathorpe, untilhe returned from his Indian travels. Let him attend to his business, andleave possibilities until they came nearer.

  "All the same." he mused, as he drew near the town again, "I'm prettysure I shall come back here next spring--I feel like it."

  He called in at Eldrick's office on his way to the hotel, to take somedocuments which had been preparing for him. It was then late in theafternoon, and no one but Pratt was there--Pratt, indeed, had beenwaiting until Collingwood called.

  "Going back to town, Mr. Collingwood?" asked Pratt as he handed over abig envelope. "When shall we have the pleasure of seeing you again,sir?"

  Something in the clerk's tone made Collingwood think--he could not tellwhy--that Pratt was fishing for information. And--also for reasons whichhe could not explain--Collingwood had taken a curious dislike to Pratt,and was not inclined to give him any confidence.

  "I don't know," he answered, a little icily. "I am leaving for Indianext week."

  He bade the clerk a formal farewell and went off, and Pratt locked theoffice door and slowly followed him downstairs.

  "To India!" he said to himself, watching the young barrister'sretreating figure. "To India, eh? For a time--or for--what?"

  Anyway, that was good news, Pratt had seen in Collingwood a possiblerival.