Nor Many Waters by Alec Waugh
Author:Alec Waugh
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
IV
The progress of the law is slow. For weeks, ever since he had learnt that Eagar’s suit was to be defended and that Ephraim had been chosen as a solicitor, James Merrick had awaited the proof of the evidence with a feverish impatience. Though he had done nothing to alarm Marian, had assured her that in all probability the defence was no more than a bluff, a gesture to impress the Judge, so that all suspicions of collusion might be removed, he had looked to the outcome with considerable misgiving. The most convincing evidence became quickly vulnerable under cross-examination. And he did not look forward to the prospect of Marian’s appearance in the witness-box. Nor had the letter itself been reassuring.
For some such letter he had been, of course, prepared. He had known from the manner in which Eagar had stormed angrily from the room that Marian’s husband had no intention of sitting quietly and letting himself be divorced without making some gesture of self-protection. He would probably not contest the actual charges, but the issue by maintenance he would fight to the last farthing; that Merrick had been prepared for. Nor had he felt any particular alarm. There was not going to be any squabbling about maintenance. The signature of Joshua Ephraim, however, was not calculated to ensure the feeling of composure. Joshua Ephraim. One did not go to a man like that, or rather a man like Eagar didn’t, unless one had some fairly disagreeable business to transact. “I wonder,” he thought, “what Bradshaw will have to say about it.”
Bradshaw’s reception of the news was much as he had expected. A smile like winter sunlight flickered over the lined and bloodless face. And it was in much the same way that a connoisseur will savour a bouquet of old brandy that Bradshaw pursed his lips forward approvingly. He scented battle, and he was content. A long case full of nice points and doubtful precedents. It was of such stuff that the happiness of Mr. Montgomery Merrick’s managing clerk was made.
“I wonder,” he said, “what line they’ll take. They may attempt to deny the whole thing. I rather hope they do myself. As I warned you, the adultery evidence is by no means conclusive. It’s sufficient, however, to impress a man of the world. And if the Judge thinks they’re lying there, he’ll think they’re lying the whole way through. If they’re shrewd, and Ephraim is shrewd, they’ll admit the adultery and concentrate on the cruelty.”
“But we’ve got plenty of evidence there, surely?” Merrick expostulated.
Bradshaw shook his head.
“As far as it goes,” he said. “Yes. But how far does it go? We have the evidence of one blow. Evidence that I think no court could disregard. But one blow does not constitute cruelty. Cruelty, to be an occasion for divorce, has to be persistent. We have submitted in our petition that a campaign of cruelty culminated in that blow. And if that evidence is not going to be subjected to cross-examination we should be able to maintain that blow as a proof of sustained cruelty.
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