Chapter 26: Solicitor and Client

A pseudo-historical utterance was paraphrased by Mr. Luker when the lady joined him in the street without.

“It may have been magnificent, but it wasn’t war.”

It is possible that Mrs. Lamb knew very little about the charge at Balaclava. It is certain that she had never heard of the phrase with which the critical French general has been credited. And she was in a red-hot temper, so that in any case she was in no mood to appreciate her legal adviser’s recondite allusions. The lady’s own remark was idiomatic in the extreme.

“Luker, I’d like to knock your head clean off your shoulders. If it hadn’t been for you I’d have got all the ready I wanted out of that couple of cripples, or----”

“Or you’d have been on your road to the lock-up. There’s no ‘or’ about it; if it hadn’t been for me you would have been. My dear Isabel----”

“Don’t call me----”

“All right; I won’t. If I were to call you all that I think you ought to be called, you mightn’t like it. I was merely about to remark that your methods are too primitive. In London you can’t go into an office and get all the money you want out of a couple of lawyers, old or young, with the aid of a stick. It can’t be done. If it could be done people would be doing it all day long.”

“Can’t I?” Mrs. Lamb’s tone was grim. “You don’t know me yet. You wait till I get them to myself, either together or singly, and I’ll lay you the National Debt to sixpence that I don’t leave ‘em till I’ve got what I want. I’ve my own methods, and I’ve found them pay me very well up to now.”

“I don’t doubt your capacity; when I think of where you were and of where you are I’ve no reason to. But in dealing with people like McTavish & Brown, with a strong case like yours, diplomacy pays better than violence. If you’d left the conduct of the affair to me I’d have at any rate exacted from them the promise of a satisfactory sum in settlement of all claims. As it is, where are you?”

He held out his hand, palm uppermost, as if to show that there was nothing in it. She walked by his side for some little distance in silence; when she spoke her tone was still grim.

“I’ll tell you where I am--I’m with you. And I tell you what it is--as I couldn’t get any money out of them, I’m going to get it out of you.”

“Are you? I don’t see how.”

“Don’t you? I do.”

“You can’t get blood out of a stone.”

“No; because there’s no blood in a stone. But I can get money out of you, because you’ve plenty.”

“I wish I had.”

“Don’t you worry; your wish was granted before it was uttered. I’ll show you where some of it is, if you like.”

In his turn Mr. Luker for a while was still. Then stopping, he held out his hand.

“I wish you good-afternoon, Mrs. Lamb.”

“You needn’t; I’m coming with you.”

“I’m afraid I have an appointment which will prevent my enjoying the pleasure of your company any longer.”

“Oh no, you haven’t. Besides, it will make no difference if you have--I’m coming with you.”

“You are coming with me? What do you mean?”

“I mean that I’m going to accompany you to your private residence, Mr. Luker. I want to have a quiet chat with you. I can have it there better than anywhere else. We shall be snug, and all by ourselves.”