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Page 43
Collingwood offered no comment. But he was conscious that it would not
be at all pleasing to him to know that Linford Pratt held any official
position at Normandale. Foolish as it might be, mere inspiration though
it probably was, he could not get over his impression that Eldrick's
clerk was not precisely trustworthy. And yet, he reflected, he himself
could do nothing--it would be utter presumption on his part to offer any
gratuitous advice to Nesta Mallathorpe in business matters. He was very
certain of what he eventually meant to say to her about his own personal
hopes, some time hence, when all the present trouble was over, but in
the meantime, as regarded anything else, he could only wait and watch,
and be of service to her if she asked him to render any.
Some time went by before Collingwood was asked to render service of any
sort. At Normandale Grange, events progressed in apparently ordinary and
normal fashion. Harper Mallathorpe was buried; his mother began to make
some recovery from the shock of his death; the legal folk were busied in
putting Nesta in possession of the estate, and herself and her mother in
proprietorship of the mill and the personal property. In Barford, things
went on as usual, too. Pratt continued his round of duties at Eldrick &
Pascoe's; no more was heard--by outsiders, at any rate--of the
stewardship at Normandale. As for Collingwood, he settled down in
chambers and lodgings and, as Eldrick had predicted, found plenty of
work. And he constantly went out to Normandale Grange, and often met
Nesta elsewhere, and their knowledge of each other increased, and as the
winter passed away and spring began to show on the Normandale woods and
moors, Collingwood felt that the time was coming when he might speak. He
was professionally engaged in London for nearly three weeks in the early
part of that spring--when he returned, he had made up his mind to tell
Nesta the truth, at once. He had faced it for himself--he was by that
time so much in love with her that he was not going to let monetary
considerations prevent him from telling her so.
But Collingwood found something else than love to talk about when he
presented himself at Normandale Grange on the morning after his arrival
from his three weeks' absence in town. As soon as he met her, he saw
that Nesta was not only upset and troubled, but angry.
"I am glad you have come," she said, when they were alone. "I want some
advice. Something has happened--something that bothers--and puzzles--me
very, very much! I'm dreadfully bothered."
"Tell me," suggested Collingwood.
Nesta frowned--at some recollection or thought.
"Yesterday afternoon," she answered, "I was obliged to go into Barford,
on business. I left my mother fairly well---she has been recovering fast
lately, and she only has one nurse now. Unfortunately, she, too, was out
for the afternoon. I came back to find my mother ill and much
upset---and there's no use denying it--she'd all the symptoms of having
been--well, frightened. I can't think of any other term than
that--frightened. And then I learned that, in my absence, Mr. Eldrick's
clerk, Mr. Pratt--you know him--had been here, and had been with her for
quite an hour. I am furiously angry!"
Collingwood had expected this announcement as soon as she began to
explain. So--the trouble was beginning!
"How came Pratt to be admitted to your mother?" he asked.
"That makes me angry, too," answered Nesta. "Though I confess I ought to
be angry with myself for not giving stricter orders. I left the house
about two--he came about three, and asked to see my mother's maid,
Esther Mawson. He told her that it was absolutely necessary for him to
see my mother on business, and she told my mother he was there. My
mother consented to see him--and he was taken up. And as I say, I found
her ill--and frightened--and that's not the worst of it!"
"What is the worst of it?" asked Collingwood, anxiously. "Better tell
me!--I may be able to do something."
"The worst of it," she said, "is just this--my mother won't tell me what
that man came about! She flatly refuses to tell me anything! She will
only say that it was business of her own. She won't trust me with it,
you see!--her own daughter! What business can that man have with
her?--or she with him? Eldrick & Pascoe are not our solicitors! There's
some secret and----"
"Will you answer one or two questions?" said Collingwood quietly. He had
never seen Nesta angry before, and he now realized that she had certain
possibilities of temper and determination which would be formidable when
roused. "First of all, is that maid you speak of, Esther Mawson,
reliable?"
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