“Shall I bring an action against him? Is that it? Is that right?” cried the Marchesa.
“That’s the ticket, eh, Stillford?” asked the Colonel.
Stillford’s position was difficult; he had the greatest doubt about his client’s case.
“Suppose you leave him to bring the action?” he suggested. “When he does, we can fully consider our position.”
“But if he insists on using the path to-morrow?”
“He’ll hardly do that,” Stillford persuaded her. “You’ll probably get a letter from him, asking for the name of your solicitor. You will give him my name; I shall obtain the name of his solicitor, and we shall settle it between us—amicably, I hope, but in any case without further personal trouble to you, Marchesa.”
“Oh!” said the Marchesa blankly. “That’s how it will be, will it?”
“That’s the usual course—the proper way of doing the thing.”
“It may be proper; it sounds very dull, Mr Stillford. What if he does try to use the path to-morrow—‘in order to bathe’ as he’s good enough to tell me?”
“If you’re right about the path, then you’ve the right to stop him,” Stillford answered rather reluctantly. “If you do stop him, that, of course, raises the question in a concrete form. You will offer a formal resistance. He will make a formal protest. Then the lawyers step in.”