Three days afterwards a hansom cab drove to the offices of the very
respectable firm of solicitors who managed the affairs of the Norland
family. They had one or two other families as well, and in spite of
agricultural depression, they made a very good thing indeed out of a
very comfortable business. The cab contained a lady in deep widow's
weeds.
Lady Harry Norland expected to be received with coldness and suspicion.
Her husband, she knew, had not led the life expected in these days of a
younger son. Nor had his record been such as to endear him to his elder
brother. Then, as may be imagined, there were other tremors, caused by
a guilty knowledge of certain facts which might by some accident "come
out." Everybody has tremors for whom something may come out. Also, Iris
had had no experience of solicitors, and was afraid of them.
Instead of being received, however, by a gentleman as solemn as the
Court of Chancery and as terrible as the Court of Assize, she found an
elderly gentleman, of quiet, paternal manners, who held both her hands,
and looked as if he was weeping over her bereavement. By long practice
this worthy person could always, at a moment's notice, assume the
appearance of one who was weeping with his client.
"My dear lady!" he murmured. "My dear lady! This is a terrible time for
you."
She started. She feared that something had come out.
"In the moment of bereavement, too, to think of business."
"I have brought you," she replied curtly, "my husband's--my late
husband's--will."
"Thank you. With your permission--though it may detain your ladyship--I
will read it. Humph! it is short and to the point. This will certainly
give us little trouble. I fear, however, that, besides the insurances,
your ladyship will not receive much."
"Nothing. My husband was always a poor man, as you know. At the time of
his death he left a small sum of money only. I am, as a matter of fact,
greatly inconvenienced."
"Your ladyship shall be inconvenienced no longer. You must draw upon
us. As regards Lord Harry's death, we are informed by Dr. Vimpany, who
seems to have been his friend as well as his medical adviser--"
"Dr. Vimpany had been living with him for some time."
--"that he had a somewhat protracted illness?"
"I was away from my husband. I was staying here in London--on
business--for some time before his death. I was not even aware that he
was in any danger. When I hurried back to Passy I was too late. My
husband was--was already buried."