“He is determined to get that woman off,” said Mr. Dockwrath, in a whisper.
“I believe him to be an honest man,” said Mr. Mason, with some sternness.
“Honesty, sir! It is hard to say what is honesty and what is dishonesty. Would you believe it, Mr. Mason, only last night I had a thousand pounds offered me to hold my tongue about this affair?”
Mr. Mason at the moment did not believe this, but he merely looked hard into his companion’s face, and said nothing.
“By the heavens above us what I tell you is true! a thousand pounds, Mr. Mason! Only think how they are going it to get this thing stifled. And where should the offer come from but from those who know I have the power?”
“Do you mean to say that the offer came from this firm?”
“Hush-sh, Mr. Mason. The very walls hear and talk in such a place as this. I’m not to know who made the offer, and I don’t know. But a man can give a very good guess sometimes. The party who was speaking to me is up to the whole transaction, and knows exactly what is going on here—here, in this house. He let it all out, using pretty nigh the same words as Round used just now. He was full about the doubt that Round and Crook felt—that they’d never pull it through. I’ll tell you what it is, Mr. Mason, they don’t mean to pull it through.”
“What answer did you make to the man?”
“What answer! why I just put my thumb this way over my shoulder. No, Mr. Mason, if I can’t carry on without bribery and corruption, I won’t carry on at all. He’d called at the wrong house with that dodge, and so he soon found.”
“And you think he was an emissary from Messrs. Round and Crook?”
“Hush-sh-sh. For heaven’s sake, Mr. Mason, do be a little lower. You can put two and two together as well as I can, Mr. Mason. I find they make four. I don’t know whether your calculation will be the same. My belief is, that these people are determined to save that woman. Don’t you see it in that young fellow’s eye—that his heart is all on the other side. Now he’s got hold of that woman Bolster, and he’ll teach her to give such evidence as will upset us. But I’ll be even with him yet, Mr. Mason. If you’ll only trust me, we’ll both be even with him yet.”
Mr. Mason at the present moment said nothing further, and when Dockwrath pressed him to continue the conversation in whispers, he distinctly said that he would rather say no more upon the subject just then. He would wait for Mr. Round’s return. “Am I at liberty,” he asked, “to mention that offer of the thousand pounds?”
“What—to Mat Round?” said Dockwrath. “Certainly not, Mr. Mason. It wouldn’t be our game at all.”
“Very well, sir.” And then Mr. Mason took up a newspaper, and no further words were spoken till the door opened and Mr. Round re-entered the room.
This he did with slow, deliberate step, and stopping on the hearthrug, he stood leaning with his back against the mantelpiece. It was clear from his face to see that he had much to tell, and clear also that he was not pleased at the turn which affairs were taking.
“Well, gentlemen, I have examined the woman,” he said, “and here is her deposition.”
“And what does she say?” asked Mr. Mason.
“Come, out with it, sir,” said Dockwrath. “Did she, or did she not sign two documents on that day?”
“Mr. Mason,” said Round, turning to that gentleman, and altogether ignoring Dockwrath and his question; “I have to tell you that her statement, as far as it goes, fully corroborates your view of the case. As far as it goes, mind you.”
“Oh, it does; does it?” said Dockwrath.
“And she is the only important witness?” said Mr. Mason with great exultation.
“I have never said that; what I did say was this—that your case must break down unless her evidence supported it. It does support it—strongly; but you will want more than that.”
“And now if you please, Mr. Round, what is it that she has deposed?” asked Dockwrath.
“She remembers it all then?” said Mason.
“She is a remarkably clearheaded woman, and apparently does remember a great deal. But her remembrance chiefly and most strongly goes to this—that she witnessed only one deed.”
“She can prove that, can she?” said Mason, and the tone of his voice was loudly triumphant.
“She declares that she never signed but one deed in the whole of her life—either on that day or on any other; and over and beyond this she says now—now that I have explained to her what that other deed might have been—that old Mr. Usbech told her that it was about a partnership.”
“He did, did he?” said Dockwrath, rising from his chair and clapping his hands. “Very well. I don’t think we shall want more than that, Mr. Mason.”
There was a tone of triumph in the man’s voice, and a look of gratified malice in his countenance which disgusted Mr. Round and irritated him almost beyond his power of endurance. It was quite true that he would much have preferred to find that the woman’s evidence was in favour of Lady Mason. He would have been glad to learn that she actually had witnessed the two deeds on the same day. His tone would have been triumphant, and his face gratified, had he returned to the room with such tidings. His feelings were all on that side, though his duty lay on the other. He had almost expected that it would be so. As it was, he was prepared to go on with his duty, but he was not prepared to endure the insolence of Mr. Dockwrath. There was a look of joy also about Mr. Mason which added to his annoyance.
