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Page 19
He leaned back in his chair after that--nodding confidently, watching
keenly. And now he saw that the trembling fingers were interlacing each
other, twisting the rings on each other, and that Mrs. Mallathorpe was
thinking as she had most likely never thought in her life. After a
moment's pause Pratt went on. "Perhaps you didn't understand," he said.
"I mean, you don't know the effect. Those two trustees--Charlesworth &
Wyatt--could turn you all clean out of this--tomorrow, in a way of
speaking. Everything's theirs! They can demand an account of every penny
that you've all had out of the estate and the business--from the time
you all took hold. If anything's been saved, put aside, they can demand
that. You're entitled to nothing but the three amounts of ten thousand
each. Of course, thirty thousand is thirty thousand--it means, at five
per cent., fifteen hundred a year--if you could get five per cent.
safely. But--I should say your son and daughter are getting a few
thousand a year each, aren't they, Mrs. Mallathorpe? It would be a nice
come-down! Five hundred a year apiece--at the outside. A small house
instead of Normandale Grange. Genteel poverty--comparatively
speaking--instead of riches. That is--if I hand over the will to
Charlesworth & Wyatt."
Mrs. Mallathorpe slowly turned her eyes on Pratt. And Pratt suddenly
felt a little afraid--there was anger in those eyes; anger of a curious
sort. It might be against fate--against circumstance: it might not--why
should it?--be against him personally, but it was there, and it was
malign and almost evil, and it made him uncomfortable.
"Where is the will!" she asked.
"Safe! In my keeping," answered Pratt.
She looked him all over--surmisingly.
"You'll sell it to me?" she suggested. "You'll hand it over--and let me
burn it--destroy it?"
"No!" answered Pratt. "I shall not!"
He saw that his answer produced personal anger at last. Mrs. Mallathorpe
gave him a look which would have warned a much less observant man than
Pratt. But he gave her back a look that was just as resolute.
"I say no--and I mean no!" he continued. "I won't sell--but I'll
bargain. Let's be plain with each other. You don't want that will to be
handed over to the trustees named in it, Charlesworth & Wyatt?"
"Do you think I'm a fool--man!" she flashed out.
"I should be a fool myself if I did," replied Pratt calmly. "And I'm not
a fool. Very well--then you'll square me. You'll buy me. Come to terms
with me, and nobody shall ever know. I repeat to you what I've said
before--not a soul knows now, no nor suspects! It's utterly impossible
for anybody to find out. The testator's dead. The attesting witnesses
are dead. The man who found this will is dead. No one but you and myself
ever need know a word about all this. If--you make terms with me, Mrs.
Mallathorpe."
"What do you want?" she asked sullenly. "You forget--I've nothing of my
own. I didn't come into anything."
"I've a pretty good notion who's real master here--and at Mallathorpe
Mill, too," retorted Pratt. "I should say you're still in full control
of your children, Mrs. Mallathorpe, and that you can do pretty well what
you like with them."
"With one of them perhaps," she said, still angry and sullen. "But--I
tell you, for you may as well know--if my daughter knew of what you've
told me, she'd go straight to these trustees and tell! That's a fact
that you'd better realize. I can't control her."
"Oh!" remarked Pratt. "Um!--then we must take care that she doesn't
know. But we don't intend that anybody should know but you and me, Mrs.
Mallathorpe. You needn't tell a soul--not even your son. You mustn't
tell! Listen, now--I've thought out a good scheme which'll profit me,
and make you safe. Do you know what you want on this estate?"
She stared at him as if wondering what this question had to do with the
matter which was of such infinite importance. And Pratt smiled, and
hastened to enlighten her.
"You want--a steward," he said. "A steward and estate agent. John
Mallathorpe managed everything for himself, but your son can't, and
pardon me if I say that you can't--properly. You need a man--you need
me. You can persuade your son to that effect. Give me the job of steward
here. I'll suggest to you how to do it in such a fashion that it'll
arouse no suspicion, and look just like an ordinary--very
ordinary--business job--at a salary and on conditions to be arranged,
and--you're safe! Safe, Mrs. Mallathorpe--you know what that means!"
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