A Terrible Temptation: A Story of To-Day Part 23

And to whom did she write, think you?

To Richard Ba.s.sett.

CHAPTER XI.

"MR. Ba.s.sETT--I am sure both yourself and my husband will suffer in public estimation, unless some friend comes between you, and this unhappy lawsuit is given up.

"Do not think me blind nor presumptuous; Sir Charles, when he wrote that letter, had reason to believe you had done him a deep injury by unfair means. Many will share that opinion if this cause is tried. You are his cousin, and his heir at law. I dread to see an unhappy feud inflamed by a public trial. Is there no personal sacrifice by which I can compensate the affront you have received, without compromising Sir Charles Ba.s.sett's veracity, who is the soul of honor?

"I am, yours obediently,

"BELLA Ba.s.sETT."

She posted this letter, and Richard Ba.s.sett had no sooner received it than he mounted his horse and rode to Wheeler's with it.

That worthy's eyes sparkled. "Capital!" said he. "We must draw her on, and write an answer that will read well in court."

He concocted an epistle just the opposite of what Richard Ba.s.sett, left to himself, would have written. Ba.s.sett copied, and sent it as his own.

"LADY Ba.s.sETT--I thank you for writing to me at this moment, when I am weighed down by slander. Your own character stands so high that you would not deign to write to me if you believed the abuse that has been lavished on me. With you I deplore this family feud. It is not of my seeking; and as for this lawsuit, it is one in which the plaintiff is really the defendant. Sir Charles has written a defamatory letter, which has closed every house in this county to his victim. If, as I now feel sure, you disapprove the libel, pray persuade him to retract it.

The rest our lawyers can settle,

"Yours very respectfully,

"RICHARD Ba.s.sETT."

When Lady Ba.s.sett read this, she saw she had an adroit opponent. Yet she wrote again:

"MR. Ba.s.sETT--There are limits to my influence with Sir Charles. I have no power to make him say one word against his convictions.

"But my lawyer tells me you seek pecuniary compensation for an affront.

I offer you, out of my own means, which are ample, that which you seek--offer it freely and heartily; and I honestly think you had better receive it from me than expose yourself to the risks and mortifications of a public trial.

"I am, yours obediently,

"BELLA Ba.s.sETT."

"LADY Ba.s.sETT--You have fallen into a very natural error. It is true I sue Sir Charles Ba.s.sett for money; but that is only because the law allows me my remedy in no other form. What really brings me into court is the defense of my injured honor. How do you meet me? You say, virtually, 'Never mind your character: here is money.' Permit me to decline it on such terms.

"A public insult cannot be cured in private.

"Strong in my innocence, and my wrongs, I court what you call the risks of a public trial.

"Whatever the result, _you_ have played the honorable and womanly part of peacemaker; and it is unfortunate for your husband that your gentle influence is limited by his vanity, which perseveres in a cruel slander, instead of retracting it while there is yet time.

"I am, madam, yours obediently,

"RICHARD Ba.s.sETT."

"MR. Ba.s.sETT--I retire from a correspondence which appears to be useless, and might, if prolonged, draw some bitter remark from me, as it has from you.

"After the trial, which you court and I deprecate, you will perhaps review my letters with a more friendly eye.

"I am, yours obediently,

"BELLA Ba.s.sETT."

In this fencing-match between a lawyer and a lady each gained an advantage. The lawyer's letters, as might have been expected, were the best adapted to be read to a jury; but the lady, subtler in her way, obtained, at a small sacrifice, what she wanted, and that without raising the slightest suspicion of her true motive in the correspondence.

She announced her success to Mr. Oldfield; but, in the midst of it, she quaked with terror at the thought of what Sir Charles would say to her for writing to Mr. Ba.s.sett at all.

She now, with the changeableness of her s.e.x, hoped and prayed Mr.

Ba.s.sett would admit the anonymous letter, and so all her subtlety and pains prove superfluous.

Quaking secretly, but with a lovely face and serene front, she took her place at the a.s.sizes, before the judge, and got as near him as she could.

The court was crowded, and many ladies present.

_Ba.s.sett v. Ba.s.sett_ was called in a loud voice; there was a hum of excitement, then a silence of expectation, and the plaintiff's counsel rose to address the jury.

CHAPTER XII.

"MAY it please your Lords.h.i.+p: Gentlemen of the Jury--The plaintiff in this case is Richard Ba.s.sett, Esquire, the direct and lineal representative of that old and honorable family, whose monuments are to be seen in several churches in this county, and whose estates are the largest, I believe, in the county. He would have succeeded, as a matter of course, to those estates, but for an arrangement made only a year before he was born, by which, contrary to nature and justice, he was denuded of those estates, and they pa.s.sed to the defendant. The defendant is nowise to blame for that piece of injustice; but he profits by it, and it might be expected that his good fortune would soften his heart toward his unfortunate relative. I say that if uncommon tenderness might be expected to be shown by anybody to this deserving and unfortunate gentleman, it would be by Sir Charles Ba.s.sett, who enjoys his cousin's ancestral estates, and can so well appreciate what that cousin has lost by no fault of his own."

"Hear! hear!"

"Silence in the court!"

_The Judge._--I must request that there may be no manifestation of feeling.