Mr. Codrington admired and approved. He was more sure than ever that she was Anne, and that she had developed from being a charming, impulsive girl into a no less charming woman.

After a moment’s pause she went on speaking in a softened voice.

“Mr. Codrington, won’t you help me? I’m only asking for a chance to save my marriage. If there is a court case, it would all be over so far as Philip and I are concerned. It wouldn’t matter which way it went, we’d never be able to pick up the bits again. He’s too proud-” She paused and bit her lip.

Mr. Codrington agreed with her. All the Jocelyns were proud. He thought of headlines in the papers and their probable effect on Philip Jocelyn’s pride. He did not speak, but he very slightly inclined his head.

She went on.

“It would be fatal. That is why I would never bring a case against him even if he turned me out without a penny. Will you tell him so? I don’t want him to think that I’m putting a pistol to his head or anything of that sort. I want you to tell him that in no conceivable circumstances would I bring an action against him. I do him the justice to believe that he wouldn’t bring one against me. But a family council would be quite a different thing-there would be no publicity, no outsiders. I would do my best to satisfy Philip’s doubts. I don’t see how he can really think I’m anyone else, but if he does, I’ll do my best to satisfy him. If the family is satisfied, I want Philip to let me stay here. I don’t ask him to live with me, but I want him to be under the same roof as much as he would be if things were different. If he has to live in town, I’d like to be there too. I just want a chance to set things right between us. I know it won’t be easy, but I think I ought to have the chance. If I don’t pull it off in six months I’ll clear out and give him his freedom. If it comes to that, I’ll leave you to make any money settlement you think fair. Meanwhile I must have something to go on with-mustn’t I? Will you arrange that with Philip, please?” She broke suddenly into a laugh. “It’s too stupid, isn’t it, but I’m an absolute pauper- I can’t even buy a packet of cigarettes!”

CHAPTER 9

I expressed no opinion,” said Mr. Codrington.

“You mean you expressed no opinion to her.” Philip’s tone was dry in the extreme. “You’re making it quite clear to me that I haven’t got a leg to stand on.”

“I haven’t said that. What I do want to put before you is the undoubted advantage of a private settlement. This sort of case brings down the maximum of notoriety upon the people who engage in it. I do not know any family in England who would dislike it more.”

“I don’t propose to accept Annie Joyce as a wife merely to avoid seeing my name in the papers.”

“Quite so. But I would like to point out that those are not the alternatives. I made no comment on the suggestion of a family council, but I think you would do well to consider it. Quite apart from its being desirable to avoid washing the family linen in public, the plan has other advantages. A private inquiry of that nature could be held immediately-a dishonest claimant being thereby deprived of the opportunity of gathering information and getting up a case. Then at a private inquiry the claimant would not be protected, as in court, by the strict application of the rules of evidence. Anybody will be able to ask her anything, and the fact that Anne is not only willing but anxious to submit herself to this test-”

“Anne?” Philip’s voice was bleak.

“My dear Philip, what am I to call her? If it comes to that, both the girls were baptized Anne.” The words came out a little more warmly than he intended. He checked himself. “You mustn’t think that I don’t feel for your position. I feel for it so much that I am bound to hold my own feelings in check. I would like your permission to discuss the whole matter with Trent. You haven’t met him, have you? He came in as a partner just before the war. Some kind of connection of old Sunderland, who was the senior partner in my father’s time. Rather remote, but it is pleasant to keep up these old ties.” Partly in order to relieve the tension, he continued to talk about Pelham Trent. “A very able fellow-I’m lucky to have him. Not forty yet, but he’s in the Fire Service, so he hasn’t been called up. Of course he is only available every third day-they do forty-eight hours on and twenty-four off- but it’s a good deal better than nothing. I would really be glad if you would let me talk this matter over with him. He has a very good brain, and he is sound-very sound. A pleasant fellow too. Mrs. Armitage and Lyndall saw quite a lot of him when they were in town just before you came home. Lyndall came in for a few hundred pounds from an Armitage cousin, and he handled the business for her.”

“Oh, tell him anything you like.” Philip’s tone was a weary one. “We shall be lucky if it doesn’t have to go farther than that.”

Mr. Codrington regarded him with gravity.

“I was about to draw your attention to that aspect of the case. If this affair can be settled inside the family, a great deal of most undesirable publicity will be avoided. Quite apart from everything else, can you at this moment afford to be involved in a cause célèbre? You are just taking up a new job. Will that particular kind of limelight be acceptable at the War Office?”

He got an impatient shake of the head. He continued in a manner which had settled into being equable again.

“I think you may put it this way. The family are going to be a great deal more on the spot than any jury when it comes to the kind of thing that has to be looked out for in a case like this. They’ll know all the ropes, and if she makes a slip, they won’t miss it. If she passes the family, you can be perfectly sure that she would pass with any jury in the world.”

Philip walked up and down in silence. Presently he came over to the writing-table, leaned on it, and said,

“I agree to a meeting of the family. Perry’s interests are involved-any doubt as to whether I’ve got a legal wife or not would affect him. He is one of the people who have to be satisfied. He and his wife must come. Then there’s Aunt Milly, and Theresa’s sister Inez-and why on earth Cousin Maude should have given those two aggravating women Spanish names-”

Mr. Codrington nodded.

“It used to annoy your father.”

“Prophetic probably-they’ve always been a damned nuisance in the family. But I suppose Inez had better come.”

“She will probably be a great deal more troublesome if she doesn’t.”

“Then of course there is Uncle Thomas-and, I suppose, Aunt Emmeline.”

Mr. Codrington looked down his nose.

“Mrs. Jocelyn would certainly wish to be present.”

Philip gave a short laugh.

“Wild horses wouldn’t keep her away! Well, that’s about the lot. Archie and Jim are somewhere in Italy, but they’re a long way off on the family tree, and in view of the fact that Perry is married, and that Uncle Thomas has four boys all safely under military age, they don’t really come into it.”

“No, I hardly think we need take them into consideration.

And there are no relations of Anne’s on her mother’s side.”

“And no Joyces?”

Mr. Codrington shook his head.

“There was only the one son by the Joyce connection. Roger Joyce’s wife died when Annie was five years old. There were no other children, and he did not marry again. Your father made Mrs. Joyce an allowance, but refused to continue it to Roger. He was a weak, inoffensive creature, rather fond of drawing the long bow about his grand relations.”

“What did he do?”

“We got him a job as a clerk in a shipping office. He was the sort of man who gets into a rut and stays there-no initiative, no ambition.”

“And his wife?”

“A teacher in an elementary school-an only child and an orphan. So, you see, there is no one to invite on the Joyce side.”