Only a girl's love
Jasper sat down and clasped his hands over his knee; they were very
white and carefully-kept hands.
"Hope I may be able to give it to you. What is it?"
"Well look here," said the captain, "you don't mind my smoking a
cigarette, do you? I can always talk better while I am smoking."
"Not at all--I like it," said Jasper.
"But the lady clients?" said the captain, with a little contraction of
the eyelids, which was suspiciously near a wink.
"I don't think they mind," said Jasper. "They are generally too
occupied with their own business to notice. A light?" and he handed the
wax tapers which stood on his desk for sealing purposes.
The captain lighted his cigarette slowly. It was evident that the
matter upon which he required advice was delicate, and only to be
attacked with much deliberation.
"Look here!" he began; "I've come upon rather an awkward business."
Jasper smiled. It not unfrequently happened that his clients came
to him for money, and not unfrequently he managed to find some for
them--of course through some friend, always through some friend "in
the City," who demanded and obtained a tolerably large interest.
Jasper smiled, and wondered how much the captain wanted, and whether it
would be safe to lend it.
"What is it?" he said.
"You know the Rookery?" asked the captain.
Jasper nodded.
"I was there the other night--I'm there every night, I'm afraid," he
added; "but I am referring to the night before last----"
"Yes," said Jasper, intending to help him. "And luck went against you,
and you lost a pile."
"No, I didn't," said the captain; "I won a pile."
"I congratulate you," said Jasper, with a cool smile.
"I won a pile!" said the captain, "from all round; but principally from
a young fellow--a mere boy, who was there as a visitor, introduced by
young Bellamy--know young Bellamy?"
"Yes, yes," said Jasper--he was very busy. "Everybody knows Bellamy.
Well!"
"Well, the young fellow--I was awfully sorry for him, and tried to
persuade him to turn it up, but he wouldn't. You know what youngsters
are when they are green at this confounded game?"
Jasper nodded again rather more impatiently. Scrivell would be back
directly, and he was anxious to hear the result of his scrutiny.
"Luck went with him at first, and he won a good deal, but it turned
after a time and I was the better by a cool hundred and fifty; I
stopped at that--it was too much as it was to win from a youngster, and
he gave me his I O U."
The captain paused and lit another cigarette.
"Next morning, being rather pressed--did I tell you I went home with
Gooch and one or two others and lost the lot?" he broke off, simply.
Jasper smiled.
"No, you did not mention it, but I can quite believe it. Go on."
"Next morning, being rather pressed--I wanted to pay my own I O U's--I
looked him up to collect his."
"And he put you off, and you want me to help you," said Jasper, smiling
behind his white hand.
"No, I don't. I wish you'd hear me out," said the captain, not
unnaturally aggrieved by the repeated interruption.
"I beg your pardon!" said Jasper. "I thought I should help to bring you
to the point. But, there, tell it your own way."
"He didn't refuse; he gave me a bill," said the captain; "said he was
sorry he couldn't manage the cash, but expecting me to call had got a
bill ready."
"Which you naturally declined to accept from a perfect stranger," said
Jasper.
"Which I did nothing of the sort," said the captain, coolly. "It was
backed by Bellamy, and that was good enough for me. Bellamy's name
written across the back, making himself responsible for the money, if
the young fellow didn't pay."
"I understand what a bill is," said Jasper, with a smile.
"Of course," assented the captain, puffing at his cigarette, "Bellamy's
name, mind, which was good enough for me."
"And for most people."
"Well, I meant to get some fellow to discount this, get some money for
it, you know, but happening to meet Bellamy at the club, it occurred to
me that he mightn't like the bill hawked about, so I asked him if he'd
take it up. See?"
"Quite. Whether he'd give you the money for it--the hundred and fifty
pounds. I see," said Jasper. "Well?"
"Well, I put it rather delicately--there was a lot of fellows
about--and he didn't seem to understand me. 'What bill do you mean, old
man?' he said. 'I took an oath not to fly any more paper a year ago,
and I've kept it, by George!'"
Jasper leant forward slightly; the keen, hard look which comes into the
eyes of a hound that suddenly scents game, came into his. But this time
he did not speak; as was usual with him when interested, he remained
silent.
"Well, I flatter myself I played a cool hand," said the captain,
complacently flicking the ash from his cigarette. "I knew the bill was
a--a----"
"Forgery," said Jasper, coldly.
The captain nodded gravely.
"A forgery. But I felt for the poor young beggar, and didn't want to
be hard on him; so I pretended to Bellamy that I'd made a mistake and
meant somebody else, and explained that I'd been at the champagne
rather freely the other night; and--you know Bellamy--he was satisfied."
"Well?" said Jasper, in a low voice.
"Well, then I took a cab, and drove to 22 Percival street----"
He paused abruptly, and bit his lip; but Jasper, though he heard the
address, and had stamped it, as it were, on his memory, showed no sign
of having noticed it, and examined his nails curiously.
"I drove to the young fellow's rooms, and he confessed to it. Poor
young beggar! I pitied him from the bottom of my heart--I did indeed.
Wrong, I know. Justice, and example, and all that, you'll say; but if
you'd seen him, with his head buried in his hands, and his whole frame
shaking like a leaf, why, you'd have pitied him yourself."
Jasper put up his hand to his mouth to hide a sneer.
"Very likely," he said--"most likely. I have a particularly soft heart
for--forgers."
The captain started slightly. It was a horrible word!
"I don't believe the young beggar meant it, not in cold blood, you
know; but he was so knocked of a heap by my dropping down upon him, and
so afraid of looking like a welsher that the idea of the bill struck
him, and he did it. He swears that Bellamy and he are such chums, that
Bellamy wouldn't have minded."
"Ah," said Jasper, with a smile, "the judge and jury will look at that
in a different light."
"The judge and jury! What do you mean?" demanded the captain. "You
don't think I'm going to--what's-its-name--prosecute?"
"Then what are you here for?" Jasper was going to say, but politely
corrected it to "Then what can I do for you?"
"Well, here's the strange part of the story! I went home to find the
bill and tear it up----"
Jasper smiled again, and again hid the delicate sneer.
"But if you'll believe me, I couldn't find it! What do you think I'd
done with it?"
"I don't know," said Jasper. "Lit your cigar with it!"
"No; in a fit of absence of mind--we'll call it champagne cup and
brandy-and-soda!--I'd given it to old Murphy with some other bills in
payment of a debt. Think of that! There's that poor young beggar almost
out of his mind with remorse and terror, and that old wretch, Murphy,
has got that bill! And if it isn't got from him he'll have the law of
young--of the boy as sure as Fate is Fate!"
"Yes; I know Murphy," said Jasper with delicious coolness. "He'd be
so wild that he'd not rest satisfied until he'd sent your fast young
friend across the herring-pond."
"But he mustn't! I should never forgive myself! Think of it, Adelstone!
Quite a young boy--a curly-headed young beggar that ought to be
forgiven a little thing of this sort!"
"A little thing!" and Jasper laughed.
He also rose and looked as if he had already expended as much of his
time as he could afford.
"Well?" he said.
"Well!" echoed the captain. "Now I want you to send for that bill,
Adelstone, and get it at once."
"Certainly," said Jasper. "I may be permitted to mention that you
are doing rather a--well, very injudicious thing? You are losing a
hundred and fifty pounds to save your gentleman from--well, departing
for that bourne to which he will certainly sooner or later wend. He
will get transported sooner or later; a youngster who begins like this
always goes on. Why lose a hundred and fifty pounds? But there," he
added, seeing a look of quiet determination on the captain's honest,
if simple, face, "that is your business; mine is to give you advice,
and I've done it. If you'll write a check for the amount, I'll send
my clerk over to Murphy's. He is out at present, but he'll be back,"
looking at the clock, "before you have written the check," and he
handed the captain a pen, and motioned him politely to the desk.
But the captain changed color, and laughed with some embarrassment.
"Look here," he said, "look here, Adelstone, it isn't quite convenient
to write a check--confound it! You talk as if I had the old balance at
my bankers! I can't do it. I ask you to lend me the money--see?"
Jasper gave a start of surprise though he felt none. He knew what had
been coming.
"I'm very sorry, my dear fellow," he said. "But I'm afraid I can't do
it. I am very short this morning, and have some heavy matters to meet.
I've been buying some shares for a client, and am quite cleared out for
the present."
"But," pleaded the captain, earnestly, more earnestly than he had ever
pleaded for a loan on his own account, "but think of the youngster,
Adelstone."
Then Jasper smiled--a hard, cold smile.
"Excuse me, Halliday," he said, thrusting his hands in his pockets,
"but I have been thinking of him, and I can't see my way to doing this
for a young scoundrel----"
"He's no scoundrel," said the captain, with a flush.
"A young forger, then, if you prefer it, my dear fellow," said Jasper,
with a cold laugh, "who ought to be punished, if anyone deserves
punishment. Why, it is compounding a felony!" he added, virtuously.
"Oh, come!" said the captain, with a troubled smile, "that's nonsense,
you talking like that! I want the matter hushed up, Adelstone."
"Well, though I don't agree with you, I won't argue the matter," said
Jasper, "but I can't lend you the money to hush it up with, Halliday.
If it were for yourself, now----"
There was something in Jasper's cold face, in his compressed, almost
sneering lips, and hard, keen eyes, that convinced the captain any
further time expended in endeavoring to soften Jasper Adelstone's heart
would be time wasted.
"Never mind," he said, "I'm sorry I've taken up your time.
Good-morning. Of course this is quite confidential, you know, eh?"
Jasper raised his eyebrows and smiled pleasantly.
"My dear Halliday, you are in a lawyer's office. Nothing that occurs
within these walls gets out, unless the client wishes it. Your little
story is as safely locked up in my bosom as if you had never told it.
Good-morning."
The captain put on his hat and turned to go, but at that moment the
door opened and Scrivell entered.
"I beg pardon," he said, and drew back, but paused, and, instead of
going out, walked up to Jasper's desk, and laid a piece of paper on it.
Jasper took it up eagerly. There was one line written on it, and it was
this:
"22 Percival street!"
Jasper did not start; he did not even change color, but his lips
tightened, and a gleam of eagerness shot from his eyes.
With the paper in his hand, he looked up carelessly.
"All right, Scrivell. Oh, by the way, just run after Captain Halliday,
and tell him I should like another word with him."
Scrivell disappeared, and in another minute the captain re-entered.
He still looked rather downcast.
"What is it?" he said, with his hand on the door.