University of Virginia Library

20. XX.
A New Enemy in the Field.

NOW, at the very time that Mr. Blimmer was
revolving dangerous projects in connection
with Miss Kitty Fleming, a new enemy was coming
upon the field, in the person of Mr. Quid, senior.

I have hinted, once or twice, at this gentleman's
interest in the Fudge family, more especially such
part of it as had maintained relations with the late
Mr. Bodgers. Mr. Quid expressed himself with
perhaps undue familiarity and cheerfulness, it will
be remembered, in respect to the death of Mr.
Bodgers.

Though long retired from business (the business
of Spindle and Quid), he was still possessed

of a business cast of mind, and of a keen eye for
chances.

Mr. Quid did not often speak of his late wife;
I may say, without venturing too much, that he
did not often think of his late wife; he did not
apparently take much pride in his late wife; he
possessed no portrait of his late wife. Just now,
however, he looked back to his conversations with
his late wife, and to sundry letters of his late wife
with quite new interest—an interest that would
have done honor to very many widowers of my
acquaintance.

The truth is, Mr. Quid had married young—very
young: and like most very young men who commit
themselves, had married fast, and repented in a
slow way. Mr. Quid was, at the time, living a gay
European life—very rapidly, upon small means:
a not uncommon way of living at the present day.
He encountered a bewitching lady, living in quite a
princely way at the watering-places, who was said
to be of American parentage, and only French by
education.

He reasoned, naturally enough for a young man,
that to be living in a princely way, she must be
possessed of princely means. She reasoned, very
naturally, that a young gentleman from America,
living in such an easy way, must be possessed of

very easy means. Thus reasoning, they naturally
admired each other. And after admiring each other
a reasonable time, they very naturally married. I
have heard of very many European matches, equally
reasonable and natural; and touched with a similar
fallacy in the reasoning.

It is my opinion, that it is dangerous, now-a-days,
to consider expenditure any gauge of property. A
prudent and thrifty economy of means appears to
me a sounder basis to hang one's trust upon, than
even my aunt Phœbe's claret-colored coach. I,
however, imply nothing to the discredit of the mining-stocks
in which my uncle Solomon is interested,
or of the banking-institution over which he presides,
and which, on last quarter-day, borrowed a few
thousands of a flush William street house. I hope
they are good and sound. It is quite possible that
they may be. I only say that claret coaches are
not, so to speak, property; and that Honiton-lace
upon a lady's dress is no evidence in the world
that her husband's paper is not very slow at Robbins'.”

Mr. Quid having married badly, tried to make
the best of it. Mrs. Quid having done the same
thing, was also philosophic, until her patience gave
out. This occurred shortly after the birth of
Adolphus, when she committed sundry indiscretions,

for which she made the only reparation in her
power, by dropping off, one summer's day in Paris,
of a fever.

Mr. Quid learned upon investigation (apparently
to his own satisfaction) that his wife was the
daughter of a certain Madame Guerlin, formerly
Mrs. Bodgers, being widow to the elder brother of
the deceased Truman Bodgers, Esq.

I cannot say justly how he arrived at this conclusion;
nor can I definitely say here how just that
decision may be.

Supposing this to be true, there were certainly
good and sufficient reasons why Mr. Quid should
keep this information very much in the dark, during
the life-time of the late Mr. Bodgers. I have
hinted that this last gentleman had business-dealings
at certain times, with the banking-house of Spindle
and Quid. They were not such in their tone or in
their results, as would warrant a retired and
decayed partner of that eminent firm in boasting
kinship with Mr. Bodgers, in the hope of securing
a bequest. If the hope had been entertained, it
would most certainly have proved illusory.

Now, however, when the old gentleman was well
out of the way, it might be worth while to examine
the ground cautiously; to ascertain, first, if Mr.
Bodgers did make any will; and, in the event of

his not having done so, to bring forward, in a cautious
and effective manner, the heirship of Adolphus;
and thus realize, at a late day, some
pecuniary return for a slip of youthful indiscretion.

The visit of the younger Quid to Newtown has
already been alluded to. It was by no means so
satisfactory as had been hoped by both father and
son. My uncle Solomon was kind and patronizing
to Adolphus; believing that he saw in him only an
anxious suitor for the hand of his rural niece, Kitty
Fleming. It is needless to say that Adolphus gave
Mr. Solomon Fudge no intimation to the contrary.

Squire Bivins was, in his rustic way, very urbane.
In virtue of his dignity, as justice of the peace, he
was enabled to sanction, and even to assist, a very
extended over-hauling of the old cabinet, which held
place in the snug parlor of the Bodgers mansion.
Not a trace, however, could be found of any papers
directing the partition of the old gentleman's
estate.

My uncle Solomon, who at least had hoped for
no more of the Bodgers' property than Mrs. Fudge
could lay claim to as heir-at-law, was extremely
satisfied with this position of affairs. He regaled
himself pleasantly with the thought of making good
some sad lapses in his speculative movements, with
Phœbe's portion of the old property. He even

volunteered a few hard jokes with the sharp-nosed
justice of the peace. He farther volunteered, in
the rally of his spirits, to ask Adolphus into the
“old lady's” house; meaning thereby a playful
allusion to his respectable sister-in-law, Mrs.
Fleming.

Mrs. Fleming, as I said, had dusted her little
parlor, and possessed just that amount of country
innocence which made her quite awe-struck in the
presence of the stately Solomon and the very elegant
young gentleman, whom she felt quite sure her
daughter Kitty had captivated. In the guilelessness
of her manner, I will not say but that she
dropped a hint or two bearing that construction,
very much to the amusement of my uncle Solomon,
and somewhat to the confusion of our young adventurer.

I have represented Squire Bivins as a cautious
man: he is a cautious man. Notwithstanding the
provocation extended by the somewhat stately manner
of Mr. Solomon Fudge, he had dropped no hint
in respect to the will drawn up by himself on a
recent occasion; and in which will, it may be
remarked, there was very slight mention of either
Aunt Phœbe or family. The drafting of this will,
notwithstanding its lack of signature, so far as
Squire Bivins was aware, was certainly an awkward

fact to communicate to Mr. Fudge; but not so (in
view of Quid's prospective relations to the Flemings)
to the younger party. Squire Bivins in his little
office, by the meeting-house corner, revolved the
matter; regaling himself, in his usual manner, over
the office-stove and the apple parings. He determined
to dispatch a small note after Mr. Quid,
requesting to see him a few moments, in relation to
the unfinished business of the morning. Mr. Quid,
though thoroughly satisfied with the investigation in
company with Mr. Fudge, renewed his call upon the
wiry justice of the peace.

The Squire offered a chair, and patted his wig
caressingly.

“There don't seem to be any will,” said the
justice, looking up from under his spectacles.

“It seems not,” said Quid, very cheerfully.

Squire Bivins winked at Adolphus: which Mr.
Quid not understanding, regarded him very attentively.

“Supposing, young man, that the Squire, who
was a keerful man, had made a will: what then?”

“Then he would,” returned Mr. Quid, in a very
natural manner.

“Very true, young man; but to what one of his
kinsfolk do you suppose he would have given his
property?”

“I really can't say,” returned Mr. Quid: “I
never had the pleasure of Mr. Bodgers' acquaintance.”

“Oh, ay; very likely.” And Squire Bivins
determined to try his client upon a new tack.

“Young man,” commenced he, again giving his
pantaloons his usual toilet-hitch in a downward
direction; “young man, Squire Bodgers did make
a will.”

Quid's countenance fell, and his color went
strangely. “You know it, Mr. Bivins?” said he,
falteringly.

“I know it, Mr. Quid.”

And Mr. Bivins, with a complacent look, took
a small chew of tobacco; first offering the twist to
the pallid Mr. Quid, who, it is needless to say,
declined.

Squire Bivins waited.

Mr. Quid took another small bill from his pocket
—“foreseeing,” as he expressed himself, “that he
should have occasion to consult Mr. Bivins at some
length”—and tendered it to the justice.

Mr. Bivins smoothed the bill upon the table,
without specially seeming to regard its amount, and
placed upon it the tobacco-twist before mentioned.

“A will,” said Mr. Bivins, taking up the subject
gracefully where he had left it, “a will which I

had the honor of drawing up myself upon this very
table; a will, Mr. Quid, by which he bequeathed
the bulk of his large property, tan-works included,
to Miss Kitty Fleming.”

Squire Bivins had, for once, mistaken his man;
he had fully expected to see a gleam of rapture
spread over the face of Mr. Quid at such an
announcement. On the contrary, he saw even
greater pallor than before.

A later communication, however, produced a
happier effect; Mr. Bodgers had not signed the
will; indeed, so far as he knew, it was no will at
all. He knew nothing of its whereabouts. It had
very probably been destroyed.

“Yet, to tell truth,” said Mr. Bivins, “the
Squire was not a man to draw up papers for the
sake of burning 'em. A keerful man was the
Squire.”

And with this much of information only, Mr.
Quid takes leave of Mr. Bivins, leaving, however,
his address, with a request to forward at once any
new information which may come to light, either
respecting the draft alluded to, or any subsequent
instrument.

The Quid chances have certainly a very favorable
aspect; somewhat dampened, however, by the fact,
which presently comes to the knowledge of both

father and son, that a certain Mr. Blimmer, who
was in company with Mr. Bodgers at the time of
his death, “had intrusted to him commissions of
considerable importance by the deceased gentleman.”

This fact is derived from a careless editorial mention
in the Daily Beacon, within a few days after
the occurrence of the accident. It did not appear
that any such notice had been given under the name
or direct authority of Mr. Blimmer. To this Mr.
Blimmer, however, Mr. Quid determined to address
himself without delay; and we shall renew our
acquaintance with both senior and junior Quid in
the office already described as being cheerfully
illustrated by the Blimmersville diagrams and
lithographs, with the Blimmersville church in the
extreme distance.

Meantime, my good cousin Kitty, altogether
ignorant of those plans and counter-plans in which
she bears so large and so unconscious a part, counts
the days which tie her still to the pleasant life of
the city, and dreams each night of those pleasanter
days which will open upon her under her own
mother's home, and amid the fragrance of the old
roses which crowned her childhood with their bloom.