The Lady and the Lord | Page 3

for the local directory, and looked
through the list of lawyers. There were dozens and dozens of them; but
I picked out the one with the most space allotted to him, and then
looked him out in another part of the book, and found he was also the
mayor. That was the man for me.
"I couldn't pay anybody's bill as things stood, so it seemed best to me to
run up a real, fat bill with a big man, who might possibly wait for his
money and give me a chance to turn round.
"Then I asked to see the proprietor of the hotel. When he'd finished

bowing--they're not in the least like American hotel proprietors, they're
really polite--I asked him if he knew Mr. Lewisohn; and he told me that
Mr. Lewisohn was his lawyer and conducted all his legal business."
"He was probably the gentleman who sued the guests who neglected to
pay their bills," I suggested.
"Probably. But he said that Mr. Lewisohn was a most influential and
respected gentleman. I suppose he meant by that that he had a big
political pull; but they have such a funny way of expressing things in
England, and you can never be quite sure what they do mean."
"I know it," I said. "They call a 'four-flusher' a 'chancer,' even when
she's a woman and pretty."
She actually blushed.
"I wasn't a four-flusher. And if you're going to be rude, I won't tell you
the story. I knew that I was after a certainty; the only difficulty was in
getting somebody with money to believe it."
"I was only citing an instance," I said guiltily. "Go on with the story."
"Well, I told Mr. Bertram--that was the proprietor's name--that mine
was most important business, and that I wouldn't have an inkling of it
get in the papers for anything; and I asked him to be sure not to answer
any questions about me to anybody. He said he would be most
discreet--just like that--'most discreet.'
"Then I asked him whether I could count on Mr. Lewisohn to be most
discreet, and he assured me that I could; so I asked him to telephone for
an appointment for me, and he did it at once. Later on I ordered a
carriage to drive round to the lawyer's office.
"They tried to palm off a one-horse thing on me at first; but I sent it
back and ordered a landau with two horses, and the proprietor of the
hotel came out himself and helped me into the carriage.

"In Southampton people don't usually drive when they're going to see
their lawyers; they walk. I know that, because when I got there I wasn't
kept waiting a minute. The clerk showed me right in.
"Mr. Lewisohn proved to be a little man, with a shiny bald head and a
ring of coal-black curly hair all round it, just like a monk's. He was
sitting in a dark corner at a large roll-top desk, with rows and rows of
black steel boxes on shelves behind him.
"Until your eyes got used to the light you could scarcely make out his
features at all, and he made me sit on a chair where the light fell right
on me. But I'd taken a lot of trouble with my toilet that morning, and I
didn't feel nervous in the least.
"He didn't put his feet on the desk, or smoke, as Broadway lawyers do;
but he sat back and listened to what I had to say with his hands folded
in front of him, and his thumbs twisting round and round each other
slowly. And every time I stopped talking he nodded.
"I told him that I had had a letter of introduction to another lawyer,
whose name I wouldn't mention; but that Mr. Bertram, the proprietor of
the hotel, had told me that Mr. Lewisohn was much the best lawyer in
the place, and I had decided to place my business in his hands.
"I'm not sure even now whether he was so used to hearing himself
described as the best lawyer in the place that it had ceased to interest
him, or whether he was suspicious of any attempt at flattery. I'm
inclined to think he was suspicious--the least attempt at civility makes
the English suspicious--I've found that out. At all events, he didn't seem
to appreciate it very much.
"But he kept on nodding and nodding while I talked, and when I
mentioned the Carruthers estates he woke up at once and began making
notes. At last he made another appointment for the following day; and I
had evidently succeeded in impressing him favorably, because he
showed me to the door of the office himself, instead of letting the clerk
do it.

"And, of