MR. FAUNTLEROY'S OFFICE.

BY THE AUTHOR OF "ASHLEY."

LAWYER FAUNTLEROY sat in his private office; not a more clever lawyer than he throughout the town of Riverton. His table stood at a right angle with the fireplace, and the blazing fire, burning there, threw its heat upon his face, and his feet rested on a soft mat of thick wool, for Mr. Fauntleroy, no longer young, was fond of the comforts of life; and there he sat, heedless of the hail which beat on the window without. The door softly opened, and a clerk came in. Are you at home,

sir ?"

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Mr. Fauntleroy glanced up from the parchment he was bending over, a yellow looking deed. "Who is it?"

"A lady, sir. Mrs. Carr, was the name she gave in."

"Carr Carr ?" debated Mr. Fauntleroy, unable to recal the name. "No. I have no leisure for ladies to-day."

The clerk hesitated. "It's not likely to be the Mrs. Carr in Carr v. Carr, is it, sir?" said he. "She looks a stranger, and is dressed in widow's weeds."

"The Mrs. Carr in Carr v. Carr?" repeated Mr. Fauntleroy. "By Jupiter, I shouldn't wonder if she's come to Riverton ! Show her in." The clerk retired, and came back with a lady in deep mourning. Mr. Fauntleroy pushed aside the deed before him, and rose. But we must give a word of explanation.

Many years previous to this period, there resided in Riverton a gentleman of the name of Carr. He was engaged in wholesale business, and had one son, a wild youth, who would settle to nothing. Amongst other causes of contention which arose between the father and son, was the latter's forming an intimacy with a young girl, respectable in conduct, but far from being the equal of Robert Carr. At least, she was always looked upon as respectable, until one unlucky morning when she and Robert Carr were missing. It transpired that several serious quarrels had taken place between Robert and his father for some days previously; not particularly upon the subject of Martha Ann Hughes, but upon Robert's spendthrift habits in general; and it was said the young man swore an oath, the night of his departure, not to return to Riverton. He went to London, and afterwards took a clerkship somewhere in Holland. Vague reports reached Riverton from time to time that he and Martha Ann Hughes were together in Holland, and that she was called "Madame Carr;" but the father never spoke of his son.

:

In course of years, Mr. Carr retired from business, and he died a hale man, in his eightieth year, not having seen his son. He died without a will several of the Riverton lawyers had made little fishing calls upon him, and glibly introduced-as if it were a subject that never could concern him or then-the expediency of will-making, where there was property to leave. Not expedient for him, Mr. Carr would answer: "Robert was heir-at-law, and would inherit all." Strange to say, Robert

died the day after his father, and the letters crossed each other, announcing the respective deaths.

Now Mr. Carr had a nephew, who farmed a small estate of his own, and was called Squire Carr: his son, Valentine, was just such a wild character as Robert Carr had been; but while Robert Carr had really possessed some redeeming qualities, Valentine Carr possessed none. They made certain of old Mr. Carr's money, for Robert, they argued, was unmarried, and had no one to leave it to. Martha Ann Hughes had been dead some time. So when the letter came, announcing Robert's death, Squire Carr proceeded to take possession of everything.

It was not to be quite so smooth and easy, however. For, two or three posts afterwards, there arrived another letter from Holland, purporting to be written by the son of the deceased, who had been from home, he stated, at the time of his father's death; and he signed himself "Robert Carr!"

"Robert Carr!" contemptuously ejaculated the squire when he read it; "he would like to be for making out that his mother, that Hughes girl, was my cousin's wife."

The very thing that Robert Carr the younger did profess to make out. He had been born (and that was not disputed) the year after Robert Carr quitted Riverton; and he asserted (and that was disputed) that his father and Martha Ann Hughes were married.

So then arose all the confusion and the expense of litigation. The worst was, Robert Carr was unable to say where his father and mother were married: he supposed in London, and he was searching the church registers there, but as yet without success. The cause was to come on at the Riverton spring assizes, and Riverton was kept in a state of ferment, part of the town choosing to busy itself with espousing one side, and part the other.

But how uncertain is human life! Long before the assizes, long before Christmas, even, Robert Carr was dead. He died rather suddenly, in London, where he had been living, leaving a will in favour of his wife and children, for he was a married man. In looking over some bundles of papers, the week succeeding his death, his wife came upon a sealed letter, which lay between the leaves of an old blotting-book. The superscription was in the handwriting of her father-in-law, who had died in Holland, and ran as follows: "To my son Robert. Not to be opened until after my father's death."

Mrs. Carr opened it and gazed upon it; gazed upon it with strange interest. "How could my poor husband have overlooked this?" she uttered. It was evidently a paper of vast importance, and she forwarded it to their solicitor at Riverton, Mr. Fauntleroy. This had been in October, and the time went on till early spring, till the assizes were near, when, as the reader has seen, Mrs. Carr herself suddenly appeared at Mr. Fauntleroy's. She spoke English with fluency, but with a foreign

accent.

"A circumstance has occurred to renew my former anxiety about the cause," she was saying. "As I have told you, should I lose it, I am ruined; I should not have a penny in the world."

"But the cause is safe," cried Mr. Fauntleroy. "My only astonish

ment, now, is, that the other side go on with it. The paper you found and forwarded to me last October

kind as let me look at that paper ?" she inter

Mr. Fauntleroy rose and fetched a bundle of papers, labelled “Carr.” He drew out a letter, and laid it open before his visitor.

"MY DEAR SON ROBERT,-There may arise a question of your legitimacy when the time shall arrive for you to take possession of your grandfather's property. On the day I left Riverton for ever, I married your mother, Martha Ann Hughes-she would not have come with me without. We were married in her parish church at Riverton, St. James the Less, and you will find it duly entered in the register. This will be sufficient to prove your rights, so that there may be no litigation. "Your affecate father,

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"Rt. CARR

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"And there the marriage is entered," observed Mr. Fauntleroy, as I wrote you word. It is singular how your husband could have overlooked that letter."

"It must have slipped between the leaves of the blotting-book, and there lain. And my husband may not have been very particular in examining his father's papers, for, at that time, he did not know his legitimacy would be disputed."

"He could not have believed that his father's was an open marriage, I presume," said Mr. Fauntleroy.

"He knew it was not, for he had heard his father and mother, both, say they were married in secret, on account of old Mr. Carr. He had threatened to disinherit his son if ever he married Martha Ann Hughes. You do not fancy there is any doubt that they were married, do you, sir ?" she continued, in an anxious tone.

"They must have been married, the church register proves it," replied Mr. Fauntleroy. "We sent to St. James's to search the register as soon as this letter arrived, glad enough to have the clue at last; and there we found it."

"Well -It is very strange," observed Mrs. Carr, after a pause. "I will tell you what it is that has made me so anxious, and brought me to Riverton, somewhat earlier than I should have come, for I always intended to be here for the assize week. My husband had a dear friend of the name of Littelby: he was chief clerk in a lawyer's office in London, but about the time of my husband's death, he left it for one in the country, Mynn and Mynn's"

"Mynn and Mynn !" interrupted Mr. Fauntleroy; "that's the firm who are conducting the case for your adversaries, the Carrs. They live about twelve miles from here."

"Yes. Well, sir, last week Mr. Littelby came to London on business for the firm on my telling him how easy in my mind I had been since the marriage was established, he said he feared I was deceived, for there never had been a marriage."

"He can say the moon's made of green cheese if he likes," cried Mr. Fauntleroy.

"He said that when the news came to his firm of the marriage being discovered, Mynn aud Mynn advised Squire Carr to retire from the cause and give up peaceable possession; and Squire Carr, seeing it was of no use to hold out, consented to do so: but they found out, almost immediately, that the pretended discovery was a false plea, a ruse put forth by the other side to induce them to give up, for there had positively been no marriage. Sir, I am sure he had good cause for saying this,' emphatically added Mrs. Carr. "He is a man incapable of deceit, and wishes well to me and The last words he told me were, children. my not to be sanguine, for Mynn and Mynn were clever and cautious practitioners, and he knew they made sure the cause was theirs."

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Sharp men," acquiesced Mr. Fauntleroy, nodding his head with a fellow-feeling of approval; "but we have got the whip hand of them in your case, Mrs. Carr."

"I thought it better to tell you this," said she, rising. "It has made me so uneasy that I have scarcely slept since: for I know Mr. Littelby would not discourage me without cause.' "Be

"Without fancying he has cause,' "corrected Mr. Fauntleroy.

at ease, ma'am: the marriage is as certain as that oak and ash grow. Where are you staying in Riverton ?"

"In some lodgings I was recommended to in College-row," answered she, producing a card. Perhaps you will take down the address

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"Oh, no need for that," said Mr. Fauntleroy, glancing at it, "I know the lodgings well. Mind they don't shave you."

Mrs. Carr was shown out, and Mr. Fauntleroy called in his managing clerk. "Kenneth," said he, "let the Carr cause be completed for counsel; and when the brief's ready, I'll look over it to refresh my memory. Send Omer down to St. James the Less, to take a copy of the marriage."

"I thought Omer brought a copy," observed Mr. Kenneth.

"No: I don't think so. It will save going again if he did. Ask him." "It is the strangest thing in the world, sir, now the marriage is known, that Mynn and Mynn go on with the cause," the clerk waited to

say.

"I can't make it out," returned Mr. Fauntleroy: "but if Squire Carr chooses to throw away his money, of which he has none to spare, so much the better for us; we know who'll win. Let the office look sharp over Winter's deed."

Mr. Kenneth returned to the clerks' office.

"Omer, did you bring a copy of the marriage in the case, Carr v. Carr, when you searched the register at St. James's Church ?" he demanded. "No, sir."

"Then why did you not ?"

"I had no orders, sir. Mr. Fauntleroy only told me to look whether such an entry was there."

"Then you must go now——— -What's that you are about? Winter's settlement? Why, you have had time to finish that twice over."

"I have been out all the morning with that writ, sir," pleaded Omer; "and could not get to serve it at last. Pretty well three hours I was standing in the passage next his house, waiting for him to come out; and the wind whistling my head off all the time."

Mr. Kenneth vouchsafed no response to this: but he would not disturb

the clerk again from Winter's deed. He ordered another, Mr. Green, to go to St. James's Church for the copy, and threw him half-a-crown to for it."

pay

Young Mr. Green did not relish the mission, and thought himself barbarously used in being sent upon it, inasmuch as that he was an articled clerk and a gentleman, not a paid nobody. "Trapesing through the weather all down to that St. James's!" muttered he, as he snatched his hat and great-coat."

It struck three o'clock before he came back. asked he, when he entered.

"In the governor's room. You can go in."

"Where's Kenneth?"

Mr. Green did go in, and Mr. Kenneth broke out into anger. have taken your time!"

"You

"I couldn't come quicker," was the reply. "Old Hunt is the slowest fumbler that ever said 'Amen,' and we had to look all through the book. The marriage is not there."

"It is thrift to send you upon an errand," retorted Mr. Kenneth. "You have not been searching."

It

"We have done nothing else but search since I left. If the entry had been there, Mr. Kenneth, I should have been back in no time. is not exactly a day to stop for pleasure in a mouldy old church, that's colder than charity, or to amuse oneself in the streets."

Mr. Fauntleroy looked up from his desk. "The entry is there, Green : you have overlooked it."

"Sir, I assure you that the entry is not there," repeated Mr. Green. "I did not trust to old Hunt's spectacles, I looked for myself."

"Call in Omer," said Mr. Fauntleroy. "You saw the entry of Robert Carr's marriage to Martha Ann Hughes ?" he continued, when Omer

came.

"Yes, sir."

"You are sure of it ?"

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Certainly, sir. I saw it and read it."

"You hear, Mr. Green. You have overlooked it."

"If Omer can find it there, I'll do his work for a week," retorted Green. "I will pledge you my veracity, sir"

young

"Never mind your veracity," interrupted Mr. Fauntleroy; "it is a case of oversight, not of veracity. Kenneth, you have to go down to Clark's office about that bill of costs; you may as well go on to St James's and get the copy."

"Two half-crowns to pay instead of one, through these young fellows' negligence," grumbled Mr. Kenneth: "they charge it as many times as they open their vestry."

"What's that to him? it doesn't come out of his pocket," whispered Green to Omer, as they returned to their own room. "But if they find the Carr marriage entered there, I'll be shot in two." "And I'll be shot in four if they don't," retorted Omer. blind beetle you must have been, Green !"

"What a

Mr. Kenneth came back from his mission. He walked straight into the presence of Mr. Fauntleroy, and beckoning Omer in after him, attacked him with a storm of reproaches.

"Do you drink, Mr. Omer ?"