Hush! he is going to call his
witnesses. No, the court is about to adjourn for luncheon."
Once again I went out into Westminster Hall, and was sauntering idly up
and down over its stones when Mr. Craven joined me.
"A bad business this, Patterson," he remarked.
"We shall never get another tenant for that house," I answered.
"Certainly no tenant will ever again be got through me," he said,
irritably; and then Taylor came to him, all in a hurry, and explaining
he was wanted, carried him away.
"They are going to compromise," I thought, and followed slowly in the
direction taken by my principal.
How I knew they were thinking of anything of the kind, I cannot say, but
intuitively I understood the course events were taking.
Our counsel had mentally decided that, although the jury might feel
inclined to uphold contracts and to repudiate ghosts, still, it would be
impossible for them to overlook the fact that Colonel Morris had rented
the place in utter ignorance of its antecedents, and that we had, so
far, taken a perhaps undue advantage of him; moreover, the gallant
officer had witnesses in court able to prove, and desirous of proving,
that we had over and over again compromised matters with dissatisfied
tenants, and cancelled agreements, not once or twice, but many, times;
further, on no single occasion had Miss Blake and her niece ever slept a
single night in the uninhabited house from the day when they left it; no
matter how scarce of money they chanced to be, they went into lodgings
rather than reside at River Hall.
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