He had a partner, who during these four months had, in fact, carried on the business. One difficulty had grown out of another till Mr. Grey's whole time had been occupied; and all his thoughts had been filled with Mr. Scarborough, which is a matter of much greater moment to a man than the loss of his time. The question of Mountjoy Scarborough's position had been first submitted to him in June. October had now been reached and Mr. Grey had been out of town only for a fortnight, during which fortnight he had been occupied entirely1 in unravelling2 the mystery. He had at first refused altogether to have anything to do with the unravelling, and had desired that some other lawyer might be employed. But it had gradually come to pass that he had entered heart and soul into the case, and, with many execrations on his own part against Mr. Scarborough, could find a real interest in nothing else. He had begun his investigations3 with a thorough wish to discover that Mountjoy Scarborough was, in truth, the heir. Though he had never loved the young man, and, as he went on with his investigations, became aware that the whole property would go to the creditors4 should he succeed in proving that Mountjoy was the heir, yet for the sake of abstract honesty he was most anxious that it should be so. And he could not bear to think that he and other lawyers had been taken in by the wily craft of such a man as the Squire5 of Tretton. It went thoroughly6 against the grain with him to have to acknowledge that the estate would become the property of Augustus. But it was so, and he did acknowledge it. It was proved to him that, in spite of all the evidence which he had hitherto seen in the matter, the squire had not married his wife until after the birth of his eldest7 son. He did acknowledge it, and he said bravely that it must be so. Then there came down upon him a crowd of enemies in the guise8 of baffled creditors, all of whom believed, or professed9 to believe, that he, Mr. Grey, was in league with the squire to rob them of their rights.
If it could be proved that Mountjoy had no claim to the property, then would it go nominally10 to Augustus, who according to their showing was also one of the confederates, and the property could thus, they said, be divided. Very shortly the squire would be dead, and then the confederates would get everything, to the utter exclusion11 of poor Mr. Tyrrwhit, and poor Mr. Samuel Hart, and all the other poor creditors, who would thus be denuded12, defrauded13, and robbed by a lawyer's trick. It was in this spirit that Mr. Grey was attacked by Mr. Tyrrwhit and the others; and Mr. Grey found it very hard to bear.
And then there was another matter which was also very grievous to him. If it were as he now stated,—if the squire had been guilty of this fraud,—to what punishment would he be subjected? Mountjoy was declared to have been innocent. Mr. Tyrrwhit, as he put the case to his own lawyers, laughed bitterly as he made this suggestion. And Augustus was, of course, innocent. Then there was renewed laughter. And Mr. Grey! Mr. Grey had, of course, been innocent. Then the laughter was very loud. Was it to be believed that anybody could be taken in by such a story as this? There was he, Mr. Tyrrwhit: he had ever been known as a sharp fellow; and Mr. Samuel Hart, who was now away on his travels, and the others;—they were all of them sharp fellows. Was it to be believed that such a set of gentlemen, so keenly alive to their own interest, should be made the victims of such a trick as this? Not if they knew it! Not if Mr. Tyrrwhit knew it!
It was in this shape that the matter reached Mr. Grey's ears; and then it was asked, if it were so, what would be the punishment to which they would be subjected who had defrauded Mr. Tyrrwhit of his just claim. Mr. Tyrrwhit, who on one occasion made his way into Mr. Grey's presence, wished to get an answer to that question from Mr. Grey. "The man is dying," said Mr. Grey, solemnly.
"Dying! He is not more likely to die than you are, from all I hear." At this time rumors14 of Mr. Scarborough's improved health had reached the creditors in London. Mr. Tyrrwhit had begun to believe that Mr. Scarborough's dangerous condition had been part of the hoax15; that there had been no surgeon's knives, no terrible operations, no moment of almost certain death. "I don't believe he's been ill at all," said Mr. Tyrrwhit.
"I cannot help your belief," said Mr. Grey.
"But because a man doesn't die and recovers, is he on that account to be allowed to cheat people, as he has cheated me, with impunity16?"
"I am not going to defend Mr. Scarborough; but he has not, in fact, cheated you."
"Who has? Come; do you mean to tell me that if this goes on I shall not have been defrauded of a hundred thousand pounds?"
"Did you ever see Mr. Scarborough on the matter?"
"No; it was not necessary."
"Or have you got his writing to any document? Have you anything to show that he knew what his son was doing when he borrowed money of you? Is it not perfectly17 clear that he knew nothing about it?"
"Of course he knew nothing about it then,—at that time. It was afterward18 that his fraud began. When he found that the estate was in jeopardy19, then the falsehood was concocted20."
"Ah, there, Mr. Tyrrwhit, I can only say, that I disagree with you. I must express my opinion that if you endeavor to recover your money on that plea you will be beaten. If you can prove fraud of that kind, no doubt you can punish those who have been guilty of it,—me among the number."
"I say nothing of that," said Mr. Tyrrwhit.
"But if you have been led into your present difficulty by an illegal attempt on the part of my client to prove an illegitimate son to have been legitimate21, and then to have changed his mind for certain purposes, I do not see how you are to punish him. The act will have been attempted and not completed. And it will have been an act concerning his son and not concerning you."
"Not concerning me!" shrieked22 Mr. Tyrrwhit.
"Certainly not, legally. You are not in a position to prove that he knew that his son was borrowing money from you on the credit of the estate. As a fact he certainly did not know it."
"We shall see about that," said Mr. Tyrrwhit.
"Then you must see about it, but not with my aid. As a fact I am telling you all that I know about it. If I could I would prove Mountjoy Scarborough to be his father's heir to-morrow. Indeed, I am altogether on your side in the matter,—if you would believe it." Here Mr. Tyrrwhit again laughed. "But you will not believe it, and I do not ask you to do so. As it is we must be opposed to each other."
"Where is the young man?" asked Mr. Tyrrwhit.
"Ah, that is a question I am not bound to answer, even if I knew. It is a matter on which I say nothing. You have lent him money, at an exorbitant23 rate of interest."
"It is not true."
"At any rate it seems so to me; and it is out of the question that I should assist you in recovering it. You did it at your own peril24, and not on my advice. Good-morning, Mr. Tyrrwhit." Then Mr. Tyrrwhit went his way, not without sundry25 threats as to the whole Scarborough family.
It was very hard upon Mr. Grey, because he certainly was an honest man and had taken up the matter simply with a view of learning the truth. It had been whispered to him within the last day or two that Mountjoy Scarborough had lately been seen alive, and gambling26 with reckless prodigality27, at Monte Carlo. It had only been told to him as probably true, but he certainly believed it. But he knew nothing of the details of his disappearance28, and had not been much surprised, as he had never believed that the young man had been murdered or had made away with himself. But he had heard before that of the quarrel in the street between him and Harry29 Annesley; and the story had been told to him so as to fall with great discredit30 on Harry Annesley's head.
According to that story Harry Annesley had struck his foe31 during the night and had left him for dead upon the pavement. Then Mountjoy Scarborough had been missing, and Harry Annesley had told no one of the quarrel. There had been some girl in question. So much and no more Mr. Grey had heard, and was, of course, inclined to think that Harry Annesley must have behaved very badly. But of the mode of Mountjoy's subsequent escape he had heard nothing.
Mr. Grey at this time was living down at Fulham, in a small, old-fashioned house which over-looked the river, and was called the Manor-house. He would have said that it was his custom to go home every day by an omnibus, but he did, in truth, almost always remain at his office so late as to make it necessary that he should return by a cab. He was a man fairly well to do in the world, as he had no one depending on him but one daughter,—no one, that is to say, whom he was obliged to support. But he had a married sister with a scapegrace husband and six daughters whom, in fact, he did support. Mrs. Carroll, with the kindest intentions in the world, had come and lived near him. She had taken a genteel house in Bolsover Terrace,—a genteel new house on the Fulham Road, about a quarter of a mile from her brother. Mr. Grey lived in the old Manor-house, a small, uncomfortable place, which had a nook of its own, close upon the water, and with a lovely little lawn. It was certainly most uncomfortable as a gentleman's residence, but no consideration would induce Mr. Grey to sell it. There were but two sitting-rooms in it, and one was for the most part uninhabited. The up-stairs drawing-room was furnished, but any one with half an eye could see that it was never used. A "stray" caller might be shown up there, but callers of that class were very uncommon32 in Mr. Grey's establishment.
With his own domestic arrangements Mr. Grey would have been quite contented33, had it not been for Mrs. Carroll. It was now some years since he had declared that though Mr. Carroll,—or Captain Carroll, as he had then been called,—was an improvident34, worthless, drunken Irishman, he would never see his sister want. The consequence was that Carroll had come with his wife and six daughters and taken a house close to him. There are such "whips and scorns" in the world to which a man shall be so subject as to have the whole tenor35 of his life changed by them. The hero bears them heroically, making no complaints to those around him. The common man shrinks, and squeals36, and cringes, so that he is known to those around him as one especially persecuted37. In this respect Mr. Grey was a grand hero. When he spoke38 to his friends of Mrs. Carroll his friends were taught to believe that his outside arrangements with his sister were perfectly comfortable. No doubt there did creep out among those who were most intimate with him a knowledge that Mr. Carroll,—for the captain had, in truth, never been more than a lieutenant39, and had now long since sold out,—was impecunious40, and a trouble rather than otherwise. But I doubt whether there was a single inhabitant of the neighborhood of Fulham who was aware that Mrs. Carroll and the Miss Carrolls cost Mr. Grey on an average above six hundred a year.
There was one in Mr. Grey's family to whom he was so attached that he would, to oblige her, have thrown over the whole Carroll family; but of this that one person would not hear. She hated the whole Carroll family with an almost unholy hatred41, of which she herself was endeavoring to repent42 daily, but in vain. She could not do other than hate them, but she could do other than allow her father to withdraw his fostering protection; for this one person was Mr. Grey's only daughter and his one close domestic associate. Miss Dorothy Grey was known well to all the neighborhood, and was both feared and revered43. As we shall have much to do with her in the telling of our story, it may be well to make her stand plainly before the reader's eyes.
In the first place, it must be understood that she was motherless, brotherless and sisterless. She had been Mr. Grey's only child, and her mother had been dead for fifteen or sixteen years. She was now about thirty years of age, but was generally regarded as ranging somewhere between forty and fifty. "If she isn't nearer fifty than forty I'll eat my old shoes," said a lady in the neighborhood to a gentleman. "I've known her these twenty years, and she's not altered in the least." As Dolly Grey had been only ten twenty years ago, the lady must have been wrong. But it is singular how a person's memory of things may be created out of their present appearances. Dorothy herself had apparently44 no desire to set right this erroneous opinion which the neighborhood entertained respecting her. She did not seem to care whether she was supposed to be thirty, or forty, or fifty. Of youth, as a means of getting lovers, she entertained a profound contempt. That no lover would ever come she was assured, and would not at all have known what to do with one had he come. The only man for whom she had ever felt the slightest regard was her father. For some women about she did entertain a passionless, well-regulated affection, but they were generally the poor, the afflicted45, or the aged46. It was, however, always necessary that the person so signalized should be submissive. Now, Mrs. Carroll, Mr. Grey's sister, had long since shown that she was not submissive enough, nor were the girls, the eldest of whom was a pert, ugly, well-grown minx, now about eighteen years old. The second sister, who was seventeen, was supposed to be a beauty, but which of the two was the more odious47 in the eyes of their cousin it would be impossible to say.
Miss Dorothy Grey was Dolly only to her father. Had any one else so ventured to call her she would have started up at once, the outraged48 aged female of fifty. Even her aunt, who was trouble enough to her, felt that it could not be so. Her uncle tried it once, and she declined to come into his presence for a month, letting it be fully49 understood that she had been insulted.
And yet she was not, according to my idea, by any means an ill-favored young woman. It is true that she wore spectacles; and, as she always desired to have her eyes about with her, she never put them off when out of bed. But how many German girls do the like, and are not accounted for that reason to be plain? She was tall and well-made, we may almost say robust50. She had the full use of all her limbs, and was never ashamed of using them. I think she was wrong when she would be seen to wheel the barrow about the garden, and that her hands must have suffered in her attempts to live down the conventional absurdities51 of the world. It is true that she did wear gloves during her gardening, but she wore them only in obedience52 to her father's request. She had bright eyes, somewhat far apart, and well-made, wholesome53, regular features. Her nose was large, and her mouth was large, but they were singularly intelligent, and full of humor when she was pleased in conversation. As to her hair, she was too indifferent to enable one to say that it was attractive; but it was smoothed twice a day, was very copious54, and always very clean. Indeed, for cleanliness from head to foot she was a model. "She is very clean, but then it's second to nothing to her," had said a sarcastic55 old lady, who had meant to imply that Miss Dorothy Grey was not constant at church. But the sarcastic old lady had known nothing about it. Dorothy Grey never stayed away from morning church unless her presence was desired by her father, and for once or twice that she might do so she would take her father with her three or four times,—against the grain with him, it must be acknowledged.
But the most singular attribute of the lady's appearance has still to be mentioned. She always wore a slouch hat, which from motives56 of propriety57 she called her bonnet58, which gave her a singular appearance, as though it had been put on to thatch59 her entirely from the weather. It was made generally of black straw, and was round, equal at all points of the circle, and was fastened with broad brown ribbons. It was supposed in the neighborhood to be completely weather-tight.
The unimaginative nature of Fulham did not allow the Fulham mind to gather in the fact that, at the same time, she might possess two or three such hats. But they were undoubtedly60 precisely61 similar, and she would wear them in London with exactly the same indifference62 as in the comparatively rural neighborhood of her own residence. She would, in truth, go up and down in the omnibus, and would do so alone, without the slightest regard to the opinion of any of her neighbors. The Carroll girls would laugh at her behind her back, but no Carroll girl had been seen ever to smile before her face, instigated63 to do so by their cousin's vagaries64.
But I have not yet mentioned that attribute of Miss Grey's which is, perhaps, the most essential in her character. It is necessary, at any rate, that they should know it who wish to understand her nature. When it had once been brought home to her that duty required her to do this thing or the other, or to say this word or another, the thing would be done or the word said, let the result be what it might. Even to the displeasure of her father the word was said or the thing was done. Such a one was Dolly Grey.
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1
entirely
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| ad.全部地，完整地；完全地，彻底地 | |
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2
unravelling
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| 解开，拆散，散开( unravel的现在分词 )； 阐明； 澄清； 弄清楚 | |
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investigations
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| （正式的）调查( investigation的名词复数 )； 侦查； 科学研究； 学术研究 | |
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creditors
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| n.债权人，债主( creditor的名词复数 ) | |
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squire
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| n.护卫, 侍从, 乡绅 | |
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thoroughly
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| adv.完全地，彻底地，十足地 | |
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7
eldest
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| adj.最年长的，最年老的 | |
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guise
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| n.外表，伪装的姿态 | |
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professed
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| 公开声称的，伪称的，已立誓信教的 | |
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nominally
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| 在名义上，表面地； 应名儿 | |
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exclusion
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| n.拒绝，排除，排斥，远足，远途旅行 | |
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12
denuded
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| adj.[医]变光的，裸露的v.使赤裸( denude的过去式和过去分词 )；剥光覆盖物 | |
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defrauded
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| v.诈取，骗取( defraud的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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rumors
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| n.传闻( rumor的名词复数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷v.传闻( rumor的第三人称单数 )；[古]名誉；咕哝；[古]喧嚷 | |
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hoax
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| v.欺骗，哄骗，愚弄；n.愚弄人，恶作剧 | |
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impunity
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| n.(惩罚、损失、伤害等的)免除 | |
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perfectly
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| adv.完美地，无可非议地，彻底地 | |
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afterward
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| adv.后来；以后 | |
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jeopardy
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| n.危险；危难 | |
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concocted
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| v.将（尤指通常不相配合的）成分混合成某物( concoct的过去式和过去分词 )；调制；编造；捏造 | |
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legitimate
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| adj.合法的，合理的，合乎逻辑的；v.使合法 | |
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shrieked
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| v.尖叫( shriek的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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exorbitant
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| adj.过分的；过度的 | |
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peril
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| n.(严重的)危险；危险的事物 | |
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sundry
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| adj.各式各样的，种种的 | |
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gambling
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| n.赌博；投机 | |
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prodigality
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| n.浪费，挥霍 | |
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disappearance
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| n.消失，消散，失踪 | |
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harry
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| vt.掠夺，蹂躏，使苦恼 | |
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discredit
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| vt.使不可置信；n.丧失信义；不信，怀疑 | |
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foe
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| n.敌人，仇敌 | |
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uncommon
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| adj.罕见的，非凡的，不平常的 | |
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contented
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| adj.满意的，安心的，知足的 | |
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improvident
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| adj.不顾将来的，不节俭的，无远见的 | |
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tenor
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| n.男高音（歌手），次中音（乐器），要旨，大意 | |
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squeals
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| n.长而尖锐的叫声( squeal的名词复数 )v.长声尖叫，用长而尖锐的声音说( squeal的第三人称单数 ) | |
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persecuted
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| （尤指宗教或政治信仰的）迫害(~sb. for sth.)( persecute的过去式和过去分词 )； 烦扰，困扰或骚扰某人 | |
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spoke
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| n.（车轮的）辐条；轮辐；破坏某人的计划；阻挠某人的行动 v.讲，谈（speak的过去式）；说；演说；从某种观点来说 | |
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lieutenant
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| n.陆军中尉，海军上尉；代理官员，副职官员 | |
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impecunious
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| adj.不名一文的，贫穷的 | |
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hatred
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| n.憎恶，憎恨，仇恨 | |
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repent
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| v.悔悟，悔改，忏悔，后悔 | |
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43
revered
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| v.崇敬，尊崇，敬畏( revere的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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apparently
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| adv.显然地；表面上，似乎 | |
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afflicted
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| 使受痛苦，折磨( afflict的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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aged
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| adj.年老的，陈年的 | |
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odious
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| adj.可憎的，讨厌的 | |
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outraged
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| a.震惊的，义愤填膺的 | |
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fully
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| adv.完全地，全部地，彻底地；充分地 | |
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robust
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| adj.强壮的，强健的，粗野的，需要体力的，浓的 | |
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51
absurdities
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| n.极端无理性( absurdity的名词复数 )；荒谬；谬论；荒谬的行为 | |
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52
obedience
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| n.服从，顺从 | |
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wholesome
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| adj.适合；卫生的；有益健康的；显示身心健康的 | |
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54
copious
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| adj.丰富的，大量的 | |
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sarcastic
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| adj.讥讽的，讽刺的，嘲弄的 | |
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56
motives
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| n.动机，目的( motive的名词复数 ) | |
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propriety
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| n.正当行为；正当；适当 | |
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bonnet
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| n.无边女帽；童帽 | |
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thatch
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| vt.用茅草覆盖…的顶部；n.茅草(屋) | |
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undoubtedly
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| adv.确实地，无疑地 | |
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precisely
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| adv.恰好，正好，精确地，细致地 | |
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indifference
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| n.不感兴趣，不关心，冷淡，不在乎 | |
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instigated
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| v.使（某事物）开始或发生，鼓动( instigate的过去式和过去分词 ) | |
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vagaries
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| n.奇想( vagary的名词复数 )；异想天开；异常行为；难以预测的情况 | |
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