THE WILL AND THE WAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume XLVI, Issue 14219, 16 November 1909, Page 3

THE WILL AND THE WAY.

PUBLISHED BY SPECIAL ARRANGEMENT.

BY BERNARD CAPES, Author of "The Secret in the Hill." "A Rogue's Tragedy," "The Green Parrots," '* A Castle in Spain," " A Jay of Italy." * "The Lake of Wine," Etc.. Etc. t —— [COPYRIGHT.] SYNOPSIS OF PREVIOUS CHAPTERS. CHAPTERS I and ll.—Two men and a boy embark 011 the Southampton packet at Havre. One of the men, William Grenville, the boy's father, is taken so ill that they have to go ashrtre again. His friend, Robert .Le Strang, procures rooms in a humble inn. The sick man grows rapidly worse. He commends his boy, " Bobo," to hi*, friend's care, and Le Strang swears to take care of him. Grenville warns him to beware of a lawyer named Redding. The dying man hue. however, left a will l>v which his little son will inherit everything. Then he dies. A week later Le Strang i-rosses to England with hi* little orphaned charge. The reader is then introduced to Miss Ruby Vanborough, who had inherited Scars," and the Grenville patrimony, in place 01 William Grenville, her step-brother. Miss Vanborough did not, after her succession live at the family house. " Scars," but rented a suite of rooms in.London which she occupies with a cha-peron-companion, Mies Pringle. Oi.fl April afternoon a visitor is announced, who is no other than Mr. Robert Le Strang. CHAPTERS 111. and Robert Le Strang informs Miss Vanhorotigh of the death of her stepbrother. He tells her, too, that he is prepared to adopt the dead man's son. But Miss Van borough, after sneering at her stepbrother's action, claims the right to adopt and educate the boy, at least after she has consulted her lawyer. When Le Strang next, calls upon her, however, she has changed her mind and declines the trust. She admits she has been advised to do so by her lawyer. Le Strang expresses his resolve to keep faith with his dead friend. Miss Vanborough is very much troubled. She offers him money for the boy's sake, but he sternly refuses it. CHAPTER V.— Luke Redding, the Grenville family solicitor, , had married a middle-aged heiress, and had migrated from Long Wycombe to London. ' CHAFfER V.—(Continued.) O.N'K nnlfning Mr. Redding— some three years married—was seated in his private room in Arondel-street, when the name of a visitor was brought in to him on a slip of paper. The lawyer's lips came out and his brow down as he read the superscription.

" So, my friend,'' he reflected. " You are disinclined to take ' No' for an answer. We shall see. In the meanwhile a little cooling of your hot blood out there will do you no harm." , " Tell him I will see him shortly," he said brusquely to the clerk ; and threw the paper on the table. Obviously, however, it was no press of work that prevented an immediate interview, for, throughout the whole ensuing quarter of an hour, while he sat frowning and biting hie forefinger, the visitor himself, and the business which had brought him there, were exclusively in his mind. V

At length he stirred, disposed himself as if writing, struck a hand-bell, and directed that Mr. Le Strang should be admitted. He did not so much as look up when the stranger entered, but waving his hand with his*pen in it, as if in abstracted motion, towards a chair, affected, for a moment or two longer, to be absorbed in his correspondence.

Le Strang, in the meanwhile, sitting at his ease, took keen stock of the figure before him. It was that of a substantial man of forty, with a strong butcher-like face, blunt-featured and clean-shaved. The hair was short, the neck thick ; the hands large and white, —as the visitor noticed presently—given to much smooth gesticulation after an ineffable clerical manner. There appeared, suggestively, a considerable force of persuasion in their heavy fingers, it might be for hurt, or it might be for caress-

ing. i Presently the lawyer looked up, shifted a paper or two, and addressed , his visitor. It might have been that the slight flush which came to his cheek as he did so betokened an emotion of sell-conscious failure over the impression he had intended to conveythat, to wit, of a busy and important man holding an insignificant client at his convenience. The firm, square-set face opposite him showed no more sign of diffidence than of truculence. It was simply self-possessed." " You are—" began the solicitor, affecting to search the table for the slip of paper; but the visitor struck in tersely : "Mr. Robert Le Strang. I have been in communication with a client of yours, Miss Vanborough. No doubt she has informed you with what purpose." The lawyer leaned quietly back, gently waved out his hands, and. brought them softly together at the finger tips. " No doubt," he said. " That purpose," said Le Strang, "is frustrated-rthrough your intervention, I am to-understand?" The lawyer nodded his head placidly once or twice. "I am sorry for you, Mr. Le Strang the scheme was well designed impressionable young ladies must be protected against themselves." ( , ' _. "I" fail, just at first, to follow you. Of what scheme do you speak? " Oh, reallv, sir!" " You fully comprehend that I was acting on the instructions of the father?" " Fully, indeed." - , " And that my position in the matter is a purely disinterested one?" . " Oh, come, come, Mr. Le Strang!' "I see. Being a lawyer—excuse me— you cannot believe, I suppose, in the genuineness of so impersonal an attitude? Mr. Redding's hps tightened a little. " William Grenville," said he, "was a sad scapegrace, we, know; and we know, moreover, that he was never of old too choice in his selection of his friends. You were a great chum of his, I understand." , ' The under-teeth in the face addressed to him suddenly bit up under the short thick mousache. " My credentials, as a man of character and position, are easily verified," said the visitor quietly. "My dear 6ir," said the lawyer, "I don't question them, any more than I do the worldly naturalness of this appeal to the susceptibilities of a youthful mind. What I do questionwhat I am bound to questionis the personal disinterestedness of anyone advocating the claims of another to pecuniary assistance on sentimental grounds. All such advocacy, in the nature of things, must expect its price." "Mr. Redding," said the visitor, "I did the thing asked of me, and I accepted without remonstance, Miss Vanborougli's decision. But—inasmuch as she seemed to imply that this adverse- decision was inspired by you, and as a matter of form considered it my duty to satisfy myself that she had not been advised against her better judgment. Therefore I have sought this interview with you. Now, offensive as your insinuations are, I am willing, for the boy's sake, to pass them over, and to assure you that I —if any apprehension exists of my putting in a claim to a commission (save the word!) on this businessl am ready, if you desire it, to set my name to a document expresrjy withholding me from any such act. At the same time, you will permit me to say that, in my opinion, it would be a shameful exaction."

The lawyer, half closing his eyes, shook his head with a slow sort of smile. "Of course," he said, "of coursein your opinion. But I must tell you, sir, that there are methods of blackmailing other than by force of threat and exposure." The visitor rose quickly to his feet. "You insulting dog!" he cried. The lawyer sat immovable—wholly impassive. "A very shrewd way, it occurs to me," he said, " for a poor man to ingratiate himself with an heiress. There would be visits and mutual sympathies, no doubt. . Miss . Vanborough must aim higher, sir." "

"ill-. Redding," said the other— made a resolute effort at pelf-contrc, l — "my friend, William Grenville, had told me, in his dying . moments, what to expect of you. * He called you a . ' pushing

upstart.' I find he was too complimentary. If he had said an 'insolent cad' I should have been belter informed." The lawyer got to his feet. The smile on his face had become ghastly. ■ t "Are you sure you ever knew him?" he said, breathing hard. "We have only your word for it, you know —for that and the pretensions of this young mongrel, your confederate." Le Strang took a heavy step or two forward. " Those are silly, idle words," he said — easy . of disproof—futile stuff for a lawyer. But for every one of them I shall look to call a reckoning. Bear that in mind." The solicitor laughed contemptuously. Look," he said; "but look away from here. Do you want me to have you turned out? Why, you impudent dog, what does your claim amount to, even supposing it is founded on facts that are indisputable? To an appeal to charity—just that. Well, it is rejected. Take your answer and go." "It was not rejected," said the other, "until you were consulted; and then only with obvious distress and shame. Why? Is she not her own mistress? But there is something behindand something yet to be behind that. Beware of the dog at your heels, Mr. Redding." He made a threatening gesture, turned, and went out. For minutes the lawyer stood staring at the closed door ; then, with a deep sigh, unlocked a press, and, taking from it- a decanter and tumbler, hurriedly, shakily filled the gjass to the brim with wine, and drained it. A spot, of colour came to his cheek; he sank into his chair, and into a profound fit of brooding. "A futile fool," he muttered presently—"a resounding brass pot! What can he do, unless steal a march on me? I must see to that—rivet the fetters without further temporising. She'll hold out her hands fear of her succumbing to a pauper. But it's a cursed destiny that brings this dog across my path at a ticklish moment. I must go and see her this very evening." i To be continued daily).