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Page 30
"Is that all, then?" asked the visitor.
"All!" answered Pratt.
Mrs. Mallathorpe calmly folded up the draft advertisement and placed it
in her purse. Then she rose and adjusted her veil.
"Then--there is nothing to be done until I get your answer to this--your
application?" she asked. "Very well."
Pratt showed her out, and walked to the cab with her. He went back to
his rooms highly satisfied--and utterly ignorant of what Mrs.
Mallathorpe was thinking as she drove away.
CHAPTER IX
UNTIL NEXT SPRING
Within a week of his sudden death in Eldrick's private office, old
Antony Bartle was safely laid in the tomb under the yew-tree of which
Mrs. Clough had spoken with such appreciation, and his grandson had
entered into virtual possession of all that he had left. Collingwood
found little difficulty in settling his grandfather's affairs.
Everything had been left to him: he was sole executor as well as sole
residuary legatee. He found his various tasks made uncommonly easy.
Another bookseller in the town hurried to buy the entire stock and
business, goodwill, book debts, everything--Collingwood was free of all
responsibility of the shop in Quagg Alley within a few days of the old
man's funeral. And when he had made a handsome present to the
housekeeper, a suitable one to the shop-boy, and paid his grandfather's
last debts, he was free to depart--a richer man by some five-and-twenty
thousand pounds than when he hurried down to Barford in response to
Eldrick's telegram.
He sat in Eldrick's office one afternoon, winding up his affairs with
him. There were certain things that Eldrick & Pascoe would have to do;
as for himself it was necessary for him to get back to London.
"There's something I want to propose to you," said Eldrick, when they
had finished the immediate business. "You're going to practise, of
course?"
"Of course!" replied Collingwood, with a laugh. "If I get the chance!"
"You'll get the chance," said Eldrick. "What were you going in for?"
"Commercial law--company law--as a special thing," answered Collingwood.
"Why?"
"I'll tell you what it is," continued Eldrick eagerly. "There's a career
for you if you'll take my advice. Leave London--come down here and take
chambers in the town, and go the North-Eastern Circuit. I'll promise
you--for our firm alone--plenty of work. You'll get more--there's lots
of work waiting here for a good, smart young barrister. Ah!--you smile,
but I know what I'm talking about. You don't know Barford men. They
believe in the old adage that one should look at home before going
abroad. They're terribly litigious, too, and if you were here, on the
spot, they'd give you work. What do you say, Collingwood?"
"That sounds very tempting. But I was thinking of sticking to London."
"Not one hundredth part of the chance in London that there is here!"
affirmed Eldrick. "We badly want two or three barristers in this place. A
man who's really well up in commercial and company law would soon have
his hands full. There's work, I tell you. Take my advice, and come!"
"I couldn't come--in any case--for a few months," said Collingwood,
musingly. "Of course, if you really think there's an opening----"
"I know there is!" asserted Eldrick. "I'll guarantee you lots of
work--our work. I'm sick of fetching men down all the way from town, or
getting them from Leeds. Come!--and you'll see."
"I might come in a few months' time, and try things for a year or two,"
replied Collingwood. "But I'm off to India, you know, next week, and I
shall be away until the end of spring--four months or so."
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