“I will tell you, sir. My husband was not a suspicious man, and he had confidence in others, crediting them with as much honesty as he himself possessed. When the note came due, he paid it; but Mr. Starr pretended that he had mislaid the note and couldn’t lay hands on it. He told my husband he would give him a receipt for the money, and that would be all the same. He was laying a trap for him all the time.”
“I don’t see that. The proposal was perfectly regular.”
“He thought, in case my husband lost the receipt, he would have the note and could demand payment over again. Oh, it was a rascally plot!”
“But,” said the lawyer, “I suppose you have the receipt, and, in that case, you have only to show it.”
“I am sorry to say that I have not been able to find it anywhere. I have hunted high and low, and I am afraid my poor husband must have carried it away in his wallet when he went South with his regiment. The note was paid only the day before he left, out of the bounty money he received from the State.”
“That would certainly be unfortunate,” said Lawyer Ross, veiling the satisfaction he felt, “for you will, in that case, have to pay the money over again.”
“Can the law be so unjust?” asked Mrs. Gordon, in dismay.
“You cannot call it unjust. As you cannot prove the payment of the money, you will have to bear the consequences.”
“But I have no money. I cannot pay!”
“You have your pension,” said the lawyer. “You can pay out of that. My client may be willing to accept quarterly installments.”