Powers of Attorney Read Free

and soda. He had settled down to drink it when he saw approaching him across the empty chamber the small, neat, grey, compact figure of Margaret Granger. So might Queen Victoria have crossed a room, with dignity, with intent, with relentlessness. As he rose to greet her, he noticed how everything about her, her pale round unpowdered cheeks, her thin, pale, set lips, her straight grey hair held in a knot in back, her simple satin grey dress and slippers, her single strand of tiny pearls, proclaimed, and proclaimed sincerely, that her money was but a burden and a duty.
    â€œSit down, Clitus,” she said severely, “I want to have a word with you.” They sat facing each other, on two high-backed Italian chairs, while she eyed him for a cool moment. “I’d like to know what you think you’re up to.”
    â€œI’m up to very little. My partner, Mr. Hyde, seems to be up to more.”
    â€œHe’s a disgrace to the bar!”
    Tilney glanced stealthily to his left and right and then leaned forward to whisper hoarsely: “I agree with you!”
    â€œNo, Clitus, I won’t let you joke your way out of this. I really won’t. He’s your partner, and you should have stopped him. You owed me that much, as an old friend.”
    â€œI tried, Margaret, believe me. My partners wouldn’t go along.”
    â€œI thought you were the senior.”
    "There’s a limit to what we seniors can do.”
    â€œWell, I don’t understand it,” she said, shaking her head. “But I should think there was some way a man in your position could have stopped it. And now I suppose you’ll get a large fee?”
    â€œHyde gets no fee at all if he loses the case, and he can’t possibly win if you fight. What’s all this settlement talk? Have your lawyers lost their guts?”
    Mrs. Granger was taken aback by his sudden offensive. “They tell me it costs less to settle. No matter how sure we are of winning.”
    â€œAnd is costing less the only criterion?” Tilney protested. “Is there no moral issue involved?”
    â€œYou talk to me of moral issues, Clitus!” she exclaimed indignantly. “You, the partner of a man who’s dragged my poor Harry’s name through the mire!”
    â€œYes,
I
talk to you of moral issues, Margaret!” he retorted. “I have the unmitigated gall, if you will, to remind you of your moral obligation, as Harry’s widow, not to give away a penny of his hard-earned money to his swindling sister.”
    Mrs. Granger really gaped at this. “Your
client,”
she murmured in astonishment. “Is that the way you talk about your clients?”
    â€œWhen I tell you that it could get me into the hottest kind of water with the Bar Association, will you believe I’m sincere?”
    Mrs. Granger leaned over now to rest her small hand for just a moment on top of his large one. “Oh, Clitus, my good old friend, forgive me. Tell me what I should do.” Her voice trembled. “Everyone keeps telling me it’s best to settle the wretched thing. They talk about the publicity and the cost, and they tell me that Harry’s foundation will pay Mrs. Crimmins out of its half of the estate, so it won’t make any difference to me, anyway. But I don’t
care
about the publicity and the cost. And I don’t care about who pays what. All I care is that Harry’s horrible sister and her horrible lawyer should not be rewarded for what they’ve done to his memory. And I know that Harry would gladly have paid out his last dollar to lick them!”
    â€œYou believe that?”
    â€œPassionately!” she exclaimed and clasped her hands together. “Oh, Clitus, tell me what to do.”
    He hesitated a moment. “Do you still walk your poodles in the park in the early morning?”
    She stared. “Yes. Every morning at seven.”
    â€œI’ll meet you tomorrow at seven. At