“That,” replied the lawyer, “is a delicate question which we need not consider. There is the question of the secrets of a third party. If I had the felicity to be a married man, which unfortunately I have not, you would hardly expect me to communicate your private, and perhaps secret, affairs to my wife. Now would you?”
Margaret had to admit that she would not. But she instantly countered the lawyer by inquiring: “Then I was apparently right in inferring that this letter and the enclosures contained matter of a secret and compromising character.”
“I have said nothing to that effect,” replied Mr. Penfield, uncomfortably; and then, seeing that he had no choice between a downright lie and a flat refusal to answer any questions, he continued: “The fact is that it is not admissible for me to make any statement. This letter came to me by an error and my position must be as if I had not seen it.”
“But it can’t be,” Margaret persisted, “because you have seen it. I want to know if Dan’s letter was addressed to any one whom I know. You could tell me that, surely?”
“Unfortunately I cannot,” replied the lawyer, glad to be able to tell the literal truth for once. “The letter was without any formal opening. There was nothing to indicate the identity or even the sex of the person to whom it was addressed.”
Margaret noted this curious fact and then asked: “With regard to the enclosures. Did they consist of money?”
“They did not,” was the reply, “nor cheques.”
A brief silence followed during which Margaret reflected rapidly on what she had learned, and what she had not learned. At length she looked up with a somewhat wry smile and said: “Well, Mr. Penfield, I suppose that is all I shall get out of you?”
“I am afraid it is,” he replied. “The necessity of so much reservation is most distasteful, I assure you; but it is the plain duty of a lawyer to keep not only his own counsel but other people’s.”
“Yes, of course, I quite understand that. And now, as we have finished with the letter, there is the writer to consider. What had I better do about Dan?”