CHAPTER 7 Lady Mary

THE following morning Arthur was in Mr. Brading's room, which adjoined the accountant's department, when one of the messengers brought a card and handed it to Mr. Brading.

A frown contracted the gentleman's face as his eye fell upon the name it bore. "I wish she had chosen some other time," Arthur heard him mutter under his breath. But to the messenger who was waiting, he said: "Show Lady Mary Murray to my room downstairs, and tell her I will be with her immediately."

Then he concluded his business with Arthur as quickly as he could, and went down after the messenger.

"Good-morning, my lady!" he said, as he entered the room where Lady Mary was standing as erect as a dart. She was nearly six feet in height, with high, bony, prominent cheek-bones and small eager dark eyes, and she stood in the middle of the small waiting-room as Mr. Brading entered, looking anything but pleasant or amiable.

"Pray be seated," said the gentleman, drawing forward a large easy-chair.

But she pushed it aside with her foot. "I have no time to waste, Mr. Brading," she said. "I have come to know what you mean by sending me such a note as you did yesterday? I sent you a cheque for five pounds more than a week ago in payment of my account, and have received no receipt for the money?"

"Because the letter has never reached us, and consequently we have not had the cheque," said Mr. Brading, looking keenly at her.

They stood facing each other for a minute in silence, and then Lady Mary said: "Then one of your servants must have stolen the letter!"

"No, indeed, that is not possible, I think. Will, you tell me when and where the letter was posted, and which of your servants took it to the post."

"It was not a servant at all, but my son took it for me, as he was just going out, early in the evening."

"Then it should have reached us the next morning, by the first post, in fact. Now I will tell you what our arrangements with the post office are, that you may see how impossible it is that the letter could have reached us. The first post is always the heaviest—"

"I can't stay listening to all this rigmarole! I tell you the letter has been lost here. My son says he put it into the letter-box, for I asked him, and I have been there—to the post office, I mean—and they say the letter must have been brought here, and here it must be found!"

The lady had broken in impatiently upon Mr. Brading's speech, and now moved restlessly from one foot to the other as she demanded: "Who receives the letters here for you? Whoever it is, he must be the thief."

"Your nephew, Mr. Arthur Murray, receives and distributes all the morning letters," answered the gentleman calmly.

"Who? What?" almost screamed the lady. "I have no nephew nearer than Lismore Castle, in Ireland. What impostor has dared to come to you in my name?"

She was fairly dancing now, what Arthur would have called an "Irish jig."

Mr. Brading could scarcely preserve his gravity as he said:

"There has been no imposture, my lady. Mr. Arthur Murray is a friend of my son's, and a short time ago, he entered my employment as an assistant to my accountant, and it is part—"

"Arthur Murray in your employment! No wonder I have lost my letter, especially as it happens to have money in it! Send for the police at once, and I will give him in charge for stealing my cheque!"

"Indeed, my lady, I cannot do that on the evidence I have at present," said Mr. Brading, after a pause.

He was overwhelmed with astonishment that she should make such a charge against one of her own family. He had mentioned Arthur's name in connection with the affair because he thought it would convince her that the missing letter had not reached him, and that it must have been lost or mislaid through some other individual. But to hear her urge that the police should be called in to arrest Arthur was a shock to him, and after a pause, he wondered whether he had done wisely in placing Arthur in such a responsible position.

Lady Mary did not stop to consider what she said or what she did. Her Irish blood was roused, and she kept up her jig as she went on: "That boy would not mind what he did! I know him, if you don't, and have suffered from him and his ways too much to put up with him quietly! Of course he would not mind taking my money, poor as they are now! Why did you let him come here? Why didn't you tell him to go to some other town for a situation? Did you know they were so poor that any money would be a temptation to that boy? And I tell you he has done pretty much as he likes all his life!"

Mr. Brading looked at the angry lady in wondering surprise. But at last he managed to say: "You seem to forget, my lady, that it was no business of mine to tell him to go elsewhere in search of a situation. I needed an assistant in the accountant's department, and Arthur Murray was recommended to me as being clever and careful at book-keeping, and I was willing to give him a trial."

"Although you must have known that he has been brought up in such habits of luxury and extravagance that the Murrays, that branch of the family at least, have not paid their debts for years! So that the salary you would be likely to pay him would never suffice for all his fancied wants, and he would help himself to other people's money of course!"

"I do not think you are justified, my lady, in making such charges as these against your nephew," said Mr. Brading. And he was about to say more, when Lady Mary turned upon him, white with anger.

"How dare you call him my nephew!" she protested. "He is no relation of mine. My late husband was cousin to his father, and I have good cause to regret even this slight kinship. For nearly all the money left me by my first husband has gone to these Murrays. And now to be robbed—!"

"I beg your pardon, Lady Mary, but I cannot allow these charges to be made unless they can be proved."

"Prove them, then, or I will! I tell you, Mr. Brading, I am not going to lose this cheque without making a stir about it, and discovering the thief! If my cheque is not satisfactorily accounted for by the end of the week, I shall put the matter into the hands of the police." And with this threat, Lady Mary walked out of the room, leaving Mr. Brading greatly disturbed.

Busy as he was that morning, he sat there for nearly half an hour thinking over this incident of the lost letter in all its possibilities. He did not like to suspect Arthur Murray of taking the cheque. But what was he to think, especially after what Lady Mary had said about him? Surely she must know him better than most people, and was she likely to make such a charge against one bearing her own name, unless she had good ground for her suspicion?

The thought of this being true was anything but welcome to Mr. Brading, for he liked the lad independently of his being his son's friend. The report he had received concerning him from Mr. Bristow as to the way in which he did his work, considering his youth, had pleased him very much, so that he had felt glad to hear that Arthur was satisfied with his position, and willing to stay on.

"If this arrangement had not been entered into, the position would not have been so difficult," thought Mr. Brading, as he sat there and pondered and wondered what step he ought to take in the matter, and considering Lady Mary's threat to call in the police. This was a position he had not thought of, and it would involve business aspects of the affair that might be even more unpleasant. He would far rather take the loss upon himself than have his name brought forward in a police court case.

He was still thinking and wondering how he should find his way out of the tangle, when he was called upon to receive another customer, and the affair had to be put aside. He tried not to think of it again that day, for it had seriously hindered him already.

He stayed that evening until after Arthur had gone, on purpose to have a few words with the chief accountant, Mr. Bristow.

"What do you think of young Murray now?" he asked rather abruptly, much to Mr. Bristow's surprise, for he had had some talk with Mr. Brading about Arthur's capabilities for business only a short time before, and he wondered at being questioned about him again.

"I am worried about this missing letter," explained Mr. Brading. "Lady Mary Murray has been to see me to-day, and she gives the lad a very indifferent character, and thinks he may have been tempted to use her cheque by reason of their present poverty and the habits of luxury and self-indulgence in which he has been brought up. We know well enough the character they bear for not paying their debts, and this in itself is likely to undermine those principles of honesty and straightforward dealing that every lad should be reared in. What do you think of it?" asked Mr. Brading.

Mr. Bristow shook his head. "I never even glanced at the possibility of young Murray stealing the letter. Why should he pitch upon this particular one? There have been plenty of others containing money, and I have heard of no others being missed. Have you received any other complaint?" asked the accountant.

"No, I have not, and I hate to think the lad may be guilty of this theft. And yet how else are we to account for the disappearance of the letter?"

"Letters have been lost in their transit through the post before now," said Mr. Bristow, "and I should be more disposed to think that our letter has gone that way than that Arthur Murray has had anything to do with it. He and Lady Mary evidently dislike each other, from what he said here when it was discovered that the letter was lost, and that may have had something to do with her giving him an indifferent character for honesty."

"Well, to tell you the truth, I am at a loss to know what to think. My lady was very angry, for she danced."

Mr. Bristow could not help laughing a little at this point, in spite of the seriousness of the subject under discussion.

"I beg your pardon for laughing, but she seems to have carried out pretty accurately what young Murray said would happen when she went to the post office to enquire for the missing letter, and wished he could be present to witness the performance."

"I wish he had been there to hear what Lady Mary said. It would have made my task a good deal easier, and I should have known better how to go to work to clear up this mystery. You should have heard the rich Irish brogue into which she lapsed as she denounced the lad!"

"That would be enough in itself to prove that she had not thought of what she was saying, and as each seems to be prejudiced against the other, I should be inclined to think she had let her anger and her prejudice have their way when speaking of the matter," put in Mr. Bristow.

"I am inclined to take the same view, and so I think perhaps, for the present, it will be best to say very little about the affair. But in the meanwhile I should like you to keep a sharp eye on young Murray, and if you see anything suspicious in his conduct or manner let me know at once. Lady Mary threatens to put the matter into the hands of the police, but I don't think she will do that, considering that it is one of her own name and family whose character is impugned."

Meanwhile, as Arthur walked home that evening, he almost ran against Adrian Murray, who started when he saw Arthur, but did not hold out his hand to respond to his greeting.

"What's the matter, old fellow?" Arthur asked in some surprise. "I haven't got the small-pox, you need not be afraid of me."

"I don't know so much about that," replied Adrian, trying to assume an injured air. "You're a pretty cunning fellow, and I dare say you think you are very clever, but you are found out at last."

"Found out! What do you mean? What was there to find out?" said Arthur in a tone of surprise.

"Well, you'll hear soon enough, I expect, for the Mater has found it out, and—"

"But what has she found out?" asked Arthur impatiently.

"Why, she has been down to your shop. I never thought, when I met you at Brading's the other day, that you were in the shop there, and you took good care you never told me."

"Well, now, the fact is I did not get a chance, for you walked off home so early. I was just beginning to tell you while we were in the garden, but before I could get it out we were asked to go in to dance, and there was no other opportunity to speak to you quietly."

"Well, you've lost your chance then. If you had told me I might have been able to talk the Mater over and bring her round to let you stay there, if it was your fancy to be a shopman and advertise the fact to everybody. But, now—well, my Lady Mary is simply raving over it, and she declares she will not have our family name disgraced on her own door-step!"

Arthur laughed mockingly. "Our family name!" he repeated. "How long have you been a Murray? Thomas Wilkins, your father, was not a Murray, but Wilkins, a retired pork butcher or sausage-maker or pork-pie manufacturer. You may not remember it, I dare say, but my father knew all about it, and so do a good many other people."

"I don't care who knows it! I have a perfect right to the name of Murray. Lady Mary took care of that for me, as she has taken care of most things, or she wouldn't be as rich now as she is."