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Page 9
"I beg your pardon, Miss Bond," he answered; "certainly not as I
_know_, for I had not the honour of being your father's legal adviser
at that time. It was my master and subsequent partner. I had not
the privilege of your father's confidence until after my colleague's
death."
"No one," said Miss Bond, "ever had my father's _confidence_, properly
so called; he was very close in all money transactions. The will,
however, must be, I think, in Doctors' Commons! Go there immediately,
Mr. Cramp; and--stay--I will go with you; there it is, and there are
the names of the witnesses."
"My dear lady!" expostulated the attorney, in the softest tones of his
soft voice, "I _have_ been there already. I wished to spare a lady of
your sensibility as much pain as possible; and so I went there myself,
with Mr. Alfred Bond's man of business, whom I happened to know; and I
was grieved--cut up, I may say, to the very heart's core, to hear what
he said; and he examined the document very closely too--very closely;
and, I assure you, spoke in the handsomest, I may say, the _very_
handsomest manner of you, of your character, and usefulness, and
generosity, and Christian qualities; he did indeed; but we have all
our duties to perform in this world; paramount things are duties, Miss
Bond, and his is a very painful one."
"What need of all these words to state a simple matter. Have you seen
the will?" said Sarah Bond.
"I have."
"Well, and what more is there to see, unless Mr. Alfred Bond denies
his relative's power to make a will?"
"Which, I believe he does not do. He says he never made a will; that
is all."
"But there _is_ the will," maintained Sarah Bond.
"I am very sorry to wound you; but cannot you understand?"
"Speak plainly if you can, sir," said Sarah Bond sternly; "speak
plainly if you can; I listen."
"He maintains, on the part of his client, that the will is a forgery."
"He maintains a falsehood, then," exclaimed Miss Bond, with a firm
determination and dignity of manner that astonished Mr. Cramp. "If
the will be forged, who is the forger? Certainly not my father; for
he inherited the property from his elder brother, who died insane. The
will is in _his_ favour, and not in my father's. Besides, neither of
them held any correspondence with the testator for twenty years; he
died abroad, and the will was sent to England after his death. Would
any one there do a gratuitous service to persons they had never
seen? Where could be the reason--the motive? How is it, that, till
now, Alfred Bond urged no claim. There are reasons," she continued,
"reasons to give the world. But I have within me, what passes all
reason--a feeling, a conviction, a true positive knowledge, that my
father was incapable of being a party to such a crime. He was a stern
man, loving money--I grant that--but honest in heart and soul. The
only creature he ever wronged was himself. He did _that_, I know. He
despoiled himself of peace and comfort, of rest and repose. In _that_
he sinned against God's dispensation, who gives that we may give, not
merely to others, but lawfully to ourselves. After all, it would have
been but a small thing for him to have been without this property, for
it gave him no one additional luxury. I wonder, Mr. Cramp, that you,
as a man, have courage to stand before me, a poor unprotected woman,
and dare to say, that will is forged."
While she spoke, Sarah Bond stood forth a new creature in the
astonished eyes of the sleek attorney. He absolutely quailed before
the vehemence and fervour of the usually mild woman. He assured her
she was mistaken; that _he_ had not yielded to the point that the will
was a forgery; that he never would confess that such was the case;
that it should be his business to disprove the charge; that he hoped
she did not suppose he yielded to the plaintiff, who was resolved to
bring the matter into a court of justice. He would only ask her one
little question; had she ever seen her father counterfeit different
hands? Yes, she said, she had; he could counterfeit, copy, any hand he
ever saw, so that the real writer could not tell the counterfeit from
the original. Mr. Cramp made no direct observation on this, except to
beg that she would not mention that "melancholy circumstance" to any
one else.
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