What you tell me only confirms my opinion that we must
fight this question. If he and his witnesses adhere to the story you
repeat, on oath, I shall then have some tangible ground upon which to
stand with Miss Blake. If they do not--and, personally, I feel satisfied
no one who told such a tale could stand the test of cross-examination--we
shall then have defeated the hidden enemy who, as I believe, lurks behind
all this. Miss Blake is right in what she said to you: Robert Elmsdale
must have had many a good hater. Whether he ever inspired that different
sort of dislike which leads a man to carry on a war in secret, and try to
injure this opponent's family after death, I have no means of knowing. But
we must test the matter now, Patterson, and I think you had better call
upon Colonel Morris and tell him so."
This service, however, to Mr. Craven's intense astonishment, I
utterly declined.
I told him--respectfully, of course: under no possible conditions of
life could I have spoken other than respectfully to a master I loved so
well--that if a message were to be delivered _viva voce_ from our
office, it could not be so delivered by me.
I mentioned the fact that I felt no desire to be kicked downstairs. I
declared that I should consider it an unseemly thing for me to engage in
personal conflict with a gentleman of Colonel Morris's years and social
position, and, as a final argument, I stated solemnly that I believed no
number of interviews would change the opinions of our late tenant or
induce him to alter his determination.
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