Charles Palliser (90 page)

To go back to what I was telling you before: One afternoon my Papa summoned me the Library. Mr Escreet was there and they both seemed very exsited about something.

Papa told me that Mr Escreet had just revealed to him that he had found the Codacil!

Uncle Martin arrived at that moment and my Father asked Mr Escreet to recount the whole Story. To the best of my recollection this is what he told us: As I believe I have said, about forty years before, he had been the confidencial Agent of my Greatgrandfather, Jeoffrey Huffam. The old gentleman had been so worried that at his death his son (my grandpapa) would sell the Propperty to pay his debts, that he had added a Codacil to his Will entailing it upon him in order to make it harder for him to do so.

(And since my grandpapa, James, was not married then — and for other reasons as well

— the old gentleman wrote the entail in such a way that if my grandpapa died without leaving an heir, then the Estate would be inherited by Silas Clothier, who was at that time his only grandson.) However, when the old gentleman died a year or two later, someone had secretly removed the Codacil. Mr Escreet had spent many years searching for it for he had had a shrewd suspicion (he said) of what had happened to it. At last he had found it and its owner was prepared to sell it for 4,000^.

When he had finished telling us this Uncle Martin asked him if he would withdraw for a few minutes. Papa objected to this, protesting that he had no secrets from the old gentleman, but Mr Escreet became very offended and insisted on leaving the chamber.

When he had gone Uncle Martin asked Papa if he entirely believed his Story. My Father answered indignantly that he did. They discussed raising the money and Papa suggested mortgaging the annuaty on the estate. Uncle Martin opposed this because he said it endangered my future and he added that, besides, it might not be easy to raise money against it on the money-market for there were rumours that the Mompessons’

affairs were in a parlous State. He had learned nothing of this from Sir Perceval and Lady Mompesson when he had recently paid them his annual courtesy-visit (for he still observed this on account of the connexion that once existed between his Family and theirs), but he said it was generally known that the rent-roll was falling year by year since they put nothing back into the land. And he said:
It grieves me to think of the
improvements to which my Father devoted his life, being permitted to sink into ruin. But
the point is that far from risking your income on a wild venture of this kind, you should be
trying to reduce your expenses and put money aside in case it ceases altogether.

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415

Papa said:
That kind of Prudence is not in my nature and in urging it upon me I
believe, Martin, that you forget the motto of my Family:
‘Tutor rosa corum spines’,
that
is, the flower of safety lies within the perilous thorns. And that is why I suggest this: My
cousin, Silas Clothier, will also benefit from the discovery of this Codacil and he has plenty
of ready money. I will offer to let him buy it jointly with me.
And he seated himself at his desk and began to write.

Now Johnnie, this is where I have to explain something. Mr Silas Clothier, although considerably older than Papa, was his first cousin by vertue of his, Mr Clothier’s, mother being the daughter of Jeoffrey Huffam. (She was Sophia Huffam and that Alliance had been the cause of a great deal of trouble on account of the Clothiers not being considered gentile enough for the Huffams.) In this way he had inherited an interest in the Chancery Suit to which he was a Party, though he and Papa had quarrelled over it many years before and had not been on any sort of terms since then. He had two sons, Peter and Daniel. Uncle Martin had always feared and distrusted Mr Clothier, and so for this reason he was surprized and horrorfied by Papa’s suggestion. But he had another reason, so now he said:
It is true that both Clothier and you have
good reasons for wanting to lay the Codacil before the Court. But apart from
the fact that he is a rogue, your interests and his are in direct conflict: for if
Escreet is correct, Clothier or his heirs can inherit the Hougham Estate only if
he is still alive at the death of yourself and Mary.
At this Papa laughed and kissed me and said :
Precisely. And there can be no likelyhood of that. Mary is
forty years his junior.
But Uncle Martin was not reassured by this and begged him to change his mind and when Papa proved unyielding, he even offerred to lend him the money himself on certain conditions. And this is where I have to

… No, I need not go into that here though I will try to explain it all soon.

Mr Escreet was now summoned back into the room. He was close to tears and I was very affected. He said:
I have served your Family for fifty years since I was hardly more
than a boy, Mr John. And now, to be banished from the chamber in order to have my
voracity and my motives discussed! It’s too much for mortal flesh to bear.
Papa rose and embraced him :
Dear old frend, pardon me. There was no question of your motives being
impewned. My daughter and I trust you absolutely.
But when Papa told him that he was going to ask Mr Silas Clothier to lend him the money to purchase the Codacil, Mr Escreet was horrorfied and said that he and Mr Clothier were bitter Enemies and now he allied himself with Uncle Martin in exorting him to have nothing to do with the old gentleman. Papa, however, was not to be moved. The Die was cast and the invitation was sent asking Mr Clothier and his sons to pay us a morning visit.

They came a few days later. Mr Escreet disappeared to his own appartments as soon as he heard their knock. Old Mr Clothier was a small wisened man with bow legs. He was much older than I had expected and had a sharp, cunning face that I didn’t care for at all. He was carefully and neatly dressed in an old-fashioned style. His elder son, Daniel was a large man of at least forty with a rounded figure and a round fleshy face. He was very soberly dressed and looked every inch the respectable attorney — which is what he was, an attorney, I mean. He looked much older than his Brother and could almost have been mistaken for his Father. Yet Peter looked as if he had no relation to the other two at all. He was of middle height and slender with a pale, mellancoly face and large brown eyes. When he smiled, which he did very rarely, his countenance was transformed and all trace of sadness

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THE CLOTHIERS

vanished. He was elegantly dressed in the style of a fashionable young gentleman. The servant handed round wine and cake and Papa and his cousin made peace. Old Mr Clothier was obviously intrigued to know why he had been invited. After a few minutes Papa rose saying:
Come, old frend. We will go to Busyness aand leave the young folks to
make each others’ aquaintance.
It was strange to hear him speak thus for in years he was not very much older than young Mr Clothier and in appearance and manner he seemed younger. He took old Mr Clothier by the arm and guided him out of the room. Now, Johnnie, I must explain everything. I must explain everything about your Father before I go on. But I will wait until I have the strength.

THIRD RELATION:

Christmas-day, 1822.

That poor woman! How much she has endured. And I fear for what she might find when she returns home. So much about the past and about London came back to me while I listened to her. There were things in her Story that touched very closely on my own life. Your questions about her have made me decide that I must tell you everything here, though I have put off writing about it for two years.

Now I have to make my Confession. I know that by the time you read this you will be old enough to understand. I have promised to tell you about your Father and now I will.

I must first go back to what passed when Uncle Martin was trying to dissuade Papa from having anything to do with Mr Clothier. You must know that what …

[
At this point several pages were missing where my mother had torn them out and forced
me to burn them.
]

…
that happened that night before we arrived at the Inn at Hertford, as you shall learn.

Now I’ve said it at last!

Now I must go back to the first time I met the Clothiers. While Papa was talking to the old gentleman in the Library I was attempting to converse with his sons. I found it extreamely difficult because young Mr Clothier was determined to dominate the conversation while his Brother became more and more reserved and tacitern, and yet what he had to say interested me much more than his Brother. For young Mr Clothier talked only of himself, his legal practice, and his household as if I could be interested only in him. When he mentioned his little daughter, I fell with relief upon this topic and asked him about her. I hadn’t realized that he was even married and I caused myself, if not him, a great deal of embarassment by making it necessary for him to explain that his wife had died in giving birth to the child. Papa had neglected to tell me anything about our visitors.

At last my Father and old Mr Clothier rejoined us. The old gentleman looked extremely exsitcd and shortly after that they took their leave, though not before pressing Papa and myself to honour them by returning their call. When they had gone my Father embraced me and said :
He has agreed! He

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417

is as enthusiastic for the Codacil as I am.
He had no time to tell me more for we had to dress for dinner. But when Martin arrived Papa recounted to us how Mr Clothier had agreed to lend him the money. Martin asked about the terms and whether the old gentleman had made any conditions and at last Papa said :
He insisted on some security.

So I consented to an annuaty on my life at twenty per cent, and to assign the policy to him.

Martin was annoyed at this for he said that it was contrairy to my interests for if Papa should die before the Loan was paid back then the principal would be a charge upon his Estate. Papa said:
Stuff and nonsense! By the time I die I will have regained the Estate and
paid back the Loan.
Martin said:
You’re too rash, John. What if you should die sooner
than you expect?
(Oh how those words have haunted me!) I begged them not to continue the topic, but Martin persisted and said:
I
made no such conditions in
my
proposal. Tell
me frankly, John, are there any other conditions you have not told me of?
I saw how bitter he was. Papa said nothing. Then Martin said:
I
am sure you will both be pleased to learn
that I am after all getting married.
My Father cried :
Then you’re a fool! As I said to you
the other day, a man of your age who has done without a wife for so many years has no
Busyness aquiring one now.
Martin was hurt at this, but when he said that his bride was to be Jemima, a cousin of ours, Papa, who had never liked her, made it worse by saying:
The hussy is only after your money. You know she has none of her own and will be
condemned to a life of governessing unless she marries.
I feared that he would tell him that she had once tried to trap him into marriage (which 1 had never believed) but that he had seen through her tricks, but of course I could say nothing. Martin said:
You have
already made it clear that you do not believe that a young woman could come to love an old
man like me. I can forgive the asspersion upon my own commonsense, but you do an
injustice to my intended wife that I cannot ignore. Withdraw those words or I can no
longer remain under this roof.
Papa refused and so Martin left the house. I was quite relieved, though of course I was sorry that (as it seemed) Papa had lost his oldest frend.

FOURTH RELATION:

The 6th. of April, 1823.

Perhaps it was wrong of me not to tell you, but I meant it for the best. You were unkind to say those things. After all, Mr Sancious assured us the Investment would do well, and you thought so too. I was unlucky, that is all.

The Clothiers came again a number of times during the weeks that followed. On the first three or four occasions Peter accompanied his Father and Brother and while the two Fathers were closeted together in the Library, the three of us talked in the Drawing-room. I liked Peter better and better the more I came to know him, while my feelings for Daniel remained the same. It gradually became apparent to me that something was troubling Peter and that he seemed to be a little timid of his Brother. Then one day Daniel joined his Father in the Library to discuss some legal matters connected with the Loan and Peter and I were left to converse alone. Now Peter was more forthcoming and talked of his childhood

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and his mother who had died when he was quite a boy. He had loved her very much and had been very lonely after her death and unhappy at the school his Father had sent him to. Then he began to talk about the Busyness that his Father and Brother were involved in and he said:
One may obey the laws of men and yet offend against those of God.
At that moment his Brother entered the room and looked at him angrily and said :
What are you
saying? You must not bore the young lady.
I said that he had been interesting me very much which appeared to annoy his Brother. They took their leave shortly afterwards.

The next day Mr Clothier and his elder son came but this time without Peter. They offerred no explaination for his absence, and while old Mr Clothier withdrew to talk Busyness with Papa, young Mr Clothier staid with me. I asked him how his Brother was and he said:
I
am afraid, Miss Huffam, that he is indisposed today, as he occasionally is.
I said that I was sorry to learn that his health was not good. He looked at me mysteriously and said:
Let us speak of happier subjects.
(I remember how, as he said this, he laid his hands together on his knees and slid the fingers of his two hands in and out of each other. His hands were podgy and red and the fingers reminded me of raw sausages.) He began to talk about his young daughter. His affection for his child was the only side to young Mr Clothier that I found any sympathy for. Very soon he began to speak of his desire to marry again and, though I attempted to steer him away from so personal a topic, he was determined to persist. To my horror he started to tell me that he believed he had found the right woman at last. I pretended to fail to percieve his meaning and by delaying in this way was at last rescued by the entry of our two Fathers.