“Pardon me, Mr Markworth,” he said, all at once, when the chuckle had died out, turning grave and business-like once more. “Pardon me, but what I was reading from that will has a good deal to do with what I am now going to say. Supposing that I admitted for argument’s sake, only as a mere figure of speech so to say, that Susan Hartshorne when she married you was perfectly sane, and was not coerced into the measure against her will?”
“Ha! you admit that.”
“I don’t admit it at all, my dear sir; I only used it just for mere argument’s sake.”
“That, Mr Trump, is just the question we are going to try, and I flatter myself our case is very good; you have got to prove that she was insane, and it seems incomprehensible to me how you are going to do it against the evidence we have—that of her governess and people who had seen her before the marriage—indeed we will have her own evidence in the witness-box. I don’t see how, Mr Trump, you will be able to prove a conspiracy after that. Besides, we will produce her medical attendant and guardian, as you term him, Doctor Jolly.”
“Ah! that was sharp practice subpoenaing him! I give you great credit for that stroke, Mr Markworth; but allow me to say we are not arguing the case now.”
“And I don’t see how I can come into any compromise so late in the day, Mr Trump! We have the whole thing as clear as a pikestaff, and you won’t have a leg to stand upon when it is brought into court.”
“Humph! we’ll see,” ejaculated the senior partner, and “we will see,” followed Mr Sequence, parrot-like, after him. “But I did not make any allusion to such a thing as a compromise, Mr Markworth,” continued Mr Trump.
“Then what have you brought me here for? I will wish you good morning,” he said, rising, and taking up his hat to go, angrily.
“Stay! Don’t be so hasty; pray don’t be so hasty, Mr Markworth; you may be certain that I would not have asked you to call unless I had something important to communicate,” said Mr Trump, soothingly.
“Then, why don’t you get to it at once, instead of beating about the bush,” he answered, still only half appeased, and resuming his seat in the dentist-like chair.