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Star (Christchurch), Issue 5551, 24 February 1886, Page 1

Chapter 11. The Other D. Eead a newspaper three or four weeks old and you will then be able to appreciate the obliviating power of time. What was fresh and important less than a month ago ia now forgotten. Mr Manferry is a very busy lawyer, and therefore it is not surprising that at the end of three months he had ceased to think about his curious client, Mr Daniel Dancey. But when the apple-munching youth handed him a card on which was engraved " Mra Dancey," he recollected all about the affair. Mr Manferry rubbed his glas3 with his handkerchief, and then stuck it in hia eye as the lady entered. Mrs Dancey was richly dressed and lavishly perfumed. She has yellowish, wax-doll hair, a manifestly purchaseable complexion, blue eyes of different shades, as stated by Mr Skingle, brown eyebrows, pearly teeth, which she knows how to display, and her figure, though somewhat full, is artistically perfect. The Bketch by Mr Skingle had been fairly accurate, but Mr Manferry did not agree with him that the lady was beautiful. " I am Mrs Dancey. My husband wished me to call on you." " How is your husband ? " " Quite well. He is always well." " I am glad to hear it," said Mr Manferry; but it was manifest from Mrs Dancey's tone of voice that her husband's continuous good health did not please her. " We left him in Vienna." Mr Manferry put his glass in his eye and ocularly cross-examined her. " Well, I was tired of the place, and bo our friend, Mr Skingle, companioned me over. Daniel will follow. You Bee he waß brought up to physic and has taken to it again, and has been doing something at the hospital." " Very kind of Mr Skingle to escort you. He is a very old family friend, is he not ? Mr Dancey spoke of him as your extra Pa. 1 " Indeed! That is his idea of fun. I think one Pa is quite enough, at least if ha is of the Nepicar sort, and I am sure that one husband of the Dancey kind is more than enough." Mr Manferry again ocularly crossexamined her, and then said : " May I ask you, madam, on what business your husband wished me to see you?" "Ho has a notion of settling down b»«5 as a doctor, and he wants to kno w flow he can do ao lawfully. He has> <«.n American degree. I may have \r J^e under a red lamp with him, bub X J U take care he don't doctor me." , " I will make an enquiry, and then ■write to your husband. What ia his address ? " " The old address at Westminster. If ho is not back I'll forward the letter. But ho will be back. As I said to my friend when we were planning an outing for Sunday, he iB quick to follow, though he is alow to lead, and, though he talked of stopping for a month, he will be after us in a week. Mr Skingle calls him my 4og-in-law." " Then, madam, you must permit mo to tell you that Mr Skingle is deplorably deficient in good senso and good t&ste." Mrs Dancey laughed and said — " Do not be angry with my extra-Pa, as my dog-in-law called him. He ia so humourous. Daniel does not mind it. If he objected to me enjoying life before hia face I should do so behind hi 3 back." The o/ficeß are on the ground floor, and Mr Manferry stood by the window, put his glass in his eye, and ocularly crossexamined Mrs Dancey as she got into the cab that had beon waiting for her. " Poor Dancey ! " he Baid, " I suppose it will be a case of divorce, if it is not soon a cobo of death. And I daresay it will not bo possible to touch the settlement. Why should he wish, with his moans, to become a medical practitioner? I suppose for amusement, for relief from matrimonial domesticity." That was not a correct surmise. In a few days Mr Dancey culled and informed Mr Manferry that a part of the proporty Mentioned in hi 3 father's will bad beea

successfully claimed, and instead of inheriting when he was thirty years old, the amount would barely exceed £20,000. " My present allowance is cut down to .£4OO a year, and in less than two years I shall have nothing. Skingle will take .£IO,OOO, and, besides the money I borrowed, I settled £10,000 on my wife, charged on the property. I shall not have a shilling. " Naturally you object to being quite dependent on the income under the control of your wife." " If Bhe had twice the income I should be penniless. She reproaches me for (as she says) deceiving her about my property." " That is clearly an unfounded accusation, Mr Dancey. If you had known that your fortune was only £20,000, you would not have settled that sum upon her." "A settlement makes the woman fearfully independent." " You are right. As the teaching of my professional experience, I hold that the law should make the duration of every marriage settlement contingent on good behaviour. I do not mean, of course, that the husband should be the judge of his wife's conduct, but that a Court of Law Bhould havethe power to modify or annul any marriage settlement." " And I have some more bad news. Skingle told me that old Nepicar is not rich, but I did not believe him. Now, I have reason to think that his statement may be partially true. I have written to America for information. I shall get the reply in about five or six weeks. Then I shall probably go to America to look after my affairs; soon return here, and as •quickly as possible qualify myself for medical practice." " Good. Your father-in-law may be rich enough to help you if you require help ; and, if he is a sensible and just man, he will tell his daughter that, since you have settled the whole of your property oh her, a portion of what he has to bestow should be at your disposal." " He will not have the opportunity of talcing to her. She refuses to cross the Atll&b with me. She will remain here." " ften I am of opinion you should insist upon her going with you. Since it is avoidable, it is not decorous for a young married lady to be left in England, where she has no relations, whilst her husband visits America." "Mr Skingle will be here, and he is, as you are aware, a very old friend of the family." " Mr Dancey, I claim to be your friend as well as your legal adviser, and therefore I cannot refrain from telling you that the fact of Mr Skingle being here renders it still more expedient on the ground of decorum that you should take Mrs Dancey with you to America." Mr Dancey put his hand to his face, shading his eyes, and it was a full minute before he spoke. " I am sure you mean well, and so 1 am not offended, though what you said has pained me, and you must never again refer to the subject. I have perfect confidence in my wife, and also in Skingle. He has a fatherly feeling for her ; and she tolerates his attentions because he will bequeath his fortune to her. That is all." " Surely, if he had a paternal affection for her, he would be most anxious to prevent her fair fame being blurred by the breath of scandal." Mr Dancey stood up and said, "If you will not be my friend and adviser, I am sorry for it j but, if you are to be my friend and adviser, you must never again refer to the subject. I repeat I trust my wife and I trust Skingle a3 I trust myself; and to that I would pledge my oath!" "When Mr Manferry was alone he mutterred — " Pish ! How they fool him ! Some day hia eyes will be opened, and then I shall be instructed to commence the suit of Dancey v. Dancey and Skingle." (To be continued.)