Against this there were double lines drawn in red ink,
and the following note was appended to them--
"Not admissible. The PRINCIPAL to go to Sir Percival Glyde, in
the event of his surviving Lady Glyde, and there being no issue."
That is to say, not one farthing of the twenty thousand pounds was
to go to Miss Halcombe, or to any other relative or friend of Lady
Glyde's. The whole sum, if she left no children, was to slip into
the pockets of her husband.
The answer I wrote to this audacious proposal was as short and
sharp as I could make it. "My dear sir. Miss Fairlie's
settlement. I maintain the clause to which you object, exactly as
it stands. Yours truly." The rejoinder came back in a quarter of
an hour. "My dear sir. Miss Fairlie's settlement. I maintain
the red ink to which you object, exactly as it stands. Yours
truly." In the detestable slang of the day, we were now both "at a
deadlock," and nothing was left for it but to refer to our clients
on either side.
As matters stood, my client--Miss Fairlie not having yet completed
her twenty-first year--Mr. Frederick Fairlie, was her guardian. I
wrote by that day's post, and put the case before him exactly as
it stood, not only urging every argument I could think of to
induce him to maintain the clause as I had drawn it, but stating
to him plainly the mercenary motive which was at the bottom of the
opposition to my settlement of the twenty thousand pounds.
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