The Ivory Gate, a new edition

'This man, and such as he,' continued Mr. Dering, lifted out of his anxieties by that subject, 'would destroy Property in order to make the workman rich. Wonderful doctrine! He would advance the world by destroying the only true incentive and stimulant for work, invention, civilisation, association, and every good and useful thing. He would destroy Property. And then? Can he not see what would follow? Why, these people do not know the very alphabet of the thing. By Property they mean the possession by individuals of land or money. But that is only a part of Property. Take that away, and the individual remains. And he has got – what you cannot take away – the rest of his Property, by which he will speedily repair the temporary loss. Consider, child, if you can, what does a man possess? He has, I say, Property – all his own – which cannot be taken from him or shared with another – Property in his brain, his trade, his wit, his craft, his art, his skill, his invention, his enterprise, his quickness to grip an opportunity. Again, he has his wife and children – sometimes a very valuable Property: he has, besides, his memories, his knowledge, his experience, his thoughts, his hopes, his projects, and intentions: he has his past and he has his future: he has, or thinks he has, his inheritance in the Kingdom of Heaven. Take away all these things bit by bit, what is left? Nothing. Not even the shadow of a man. Not even a naked figure. This, Elsie, is Property. These things separate the individual from the mass, and each man from his neighbour. A shallow fanatic, like this Edmund Gray, thinks that wealth is the whole of Property. Why, I say, it is only a part of Property: it is the external and visible side of certain forms of Property. Take all the wealth away to-day – even if you make ten thousand laws, the same qualities – the same forms of Property – the same lack of those qualities will produce like results to-morrow. – Do you now understand, child, what is meant by Property? It is everything which makes humanity. Wealth is only the symbol or proof of society so organised that all these qualities – the whole Property of a man, can be exercised freely and without injustice.'

'I see,' said Elsie, gazing with wonder undisguised. Was this last night's Prophet? Could the same brain hold two such diverse views'?

'You are surprised, child. That is because you have never taken or understood this larger view of Property. It is new to you. Confess, however, that it lends sacredness to things which we are becoming accustomed to have derided. Believe me, it is not without reason that some of us venerate the laws which have been slowly, very slowly, framed: and the forms which have been slowly, very slowly, framed: as experience has taught us wisdom for the protection of man – working man, not loafing, lazy man. It is wise and right of us to maintain all those institutions which encourage the best among us to work and invent and distribute. By these forms alone is industry protected and enterprise encouraged. Then such as this Edmund Gray' – he laid his hand again upon the letter – 'will tell you that Property – Property – causes certain crimes – ergo, Property must be destroyed. Everything desirable causes its own peculiar class of crime. Consider the universal passion of Love. It daily causes crimes innumerable. Yet no one has yet proposed the abolition of Love – eh?'

'I believe not,' Elsie replied, smiling. 'I hope no one will – yet.'

'No. But the desire for Property, which is equally universal – which is the most potent factor in the cause of Law and Order – they desire and propose to destroy. I have shown you that it is impossible. Let the companies pay no dividends, let all go to the working men: let the lands pay no rent: the houses no rent: let the merchants' capital yield no profit: to-morrow the clever man will be to the front again, using for his own purposes the dull and the stupid and the lazy. That is my opinion. – Forgive this sermon, Elsie. You started me on the subject. It is one on which I have felt very strongly for a long time. In fact, the more I think upon it the more I am convinced that the most important thing in any social system is the protection of the individual – personal liberty: freedom of contract: right to enjoy in safety what his ability, his enterprise, and his dexterity may gain for him.'

Elsie made no reply for a moment. The conversation had taken an unexpected turn. The vehemence of the upholder of Property overwhelmed her as much as the earnestness of its destroyer. Besides, what chance has a girl of one-and-twenty on a subject of which she knows nothing with a man who has thought upon it for fifty years? Besides, she was thinking all the time of the other man. And now there was no doubt – none whatever – that Mr. Dering knew nothing of Mr. Edmund Gray – nothing at all. He knew nothing and suspected nothing of the truth. And which should she believe? The man who was filled with pity for the poor and saw nothing but their sufferings, or the man who was full of sympathy with the rich, and saw in the poor nothing but their vices? Are all men who work oppressed? Or are there no oppressed at all, but only some lazy and stupid and some clever?

'Tell me more another time,' she said, with a sigh. 'Come back to the case – the robbery. Is anything discovered yet?'

'I have heard nothing. George refuses to go on with the case out of some scruple because – '

'Oh! I know the cause. Very cruel things have been said about him. Do you not intend to stand by your own partner, Mr. Dering?'

'To stand by him? Why, what can I do?'

'You know what has been said of him – what is said of him – why I have had to leave home – '

'I know what is said, certainly. It matters nothing what is said. The only important thing is to find out – and that they cannot do.'

'They want to connect Edmund Gray with the forgeries, and they are trying the wrong way. Checkley is not the connecting link – nor is George.'

'You talk in riddles, child.'

'Perhaps. Do you think, yourself, that George has had anything whatever to do with the business?'

'If you put it so, I do not. If you ask me what I have a right to think – it is that everything is possible.'

'That is what you said about Athelstan. Yet now his innocence is established.'

'That is to say, his guilt is not proved. Find me the man who forged that cheque, and I will acknowledge that he is innocent. Until then, he is as guilty as the other man – Checkley – who was also named in connection with the matter. Mind, I say, I do not believe that my Partner could do this thing. I will tell him so. I have told him so. If it had to be done over again, I would ask him to become my partner. But all things are possible. My brother is hot upon it. Well – let him search as he pleases. In such a case the solution is always the simplest and the most unexpected. I told him only this morning – he had lunch with me – that he was on a wrong scent – but he is obstinate. Let him go on.'

'Yes – let him divide a family – keep up bitterness between mother and son – make a lifelong separation between those who ought to love each other most – Oh! it is shameful! It is shameful! And you make no effort – none at all – to stop it.'

'What can I do? What can I say, more than I have said? If they would only not accuse each other – but find out something!'

'Mr. Dering – forgive me – what I am going to say' – she began with jerks. 'The honour of my brother – of my lover – are at stake.'

'Say, child, what you please.'

'I think that perhaps' – she did not dare to look at him – 'if you could remember sometimes those dropped and forgotten evenings – those hours when you do not know what you have said and done – if you could only remember a little – we might find out more.'

He watched her face blushing, and her eyes confused, and her voice stammering, and he saw that there was something behind – something that she hinted, but would not or could not express. He sat upright, suspicious and disquieted.

'Tell me what you mean, child.'

'I cannot – if you do not remember anything. You come late in the morning – sometimes two hours late. You think it is only ten o'clock when it is twelve. You do not know where you have been for the last two hours. Try to remember that. You were late on Saturday morning. Perhaps this morning. Where were you?'

His face was quite white. He understood that something was going – soon – to happen.

'I know not, Elsie – indeed – I cannot remember. Where was I?'

'You leave here at five. You have ordered dinner, and your housekeeper tells me that you come home at ten or eleven. Where are you all that time?'

'I am at the Club.'

'Can you remember? Think – were you at the Club last night? George went there to find you, but you were not there – and you were not at home. Where were you?'

He tried to speak – but he could not. He shook his head – he gasped twice.

'You cannot remember? Oh! try – Mr. Dering – try – for the sake of everybody – to put an end to this miserable condition – try.'

'I cannot remember,' he said again feebly.

'Is it possible – just possible – that while you are away – during these intervals – you yourself may be actually – in the company – of this Socialist – this Edmund Gray?'

'Elsie – what do you mean?'

'I mean – can you not remember?'

'You mean more, child! Do you know what you mean? If what you suggest is true, then I must be mad – mad. Do you mean it? Do you mean it? Do you understand what you say?'

'Try – try to remember,' she replied. 'That is all I mean. My dear guardian, is there any one to whom I am more grateful than yourself? You have given me a fortune and my lover an income. Try – try to remember.'

She left him without more words.

He sat looking straight before him – the horror of the most awful thing that can befall a man upon him. Presently, he touched his bell, and his old clerk appeared.

'Checkley,' he said, 'tell me the truth.'

'I always do,' he replied surlily.

'I have been suffering from fits of forgetfulness. Have you observed any impairing of the faculties? When a man's mental powers are decaying, he forgets things: he loses the power of work: his old skill leaves him: he cannot distinguish between good work and bad. He shows his mental decay, I believe, in physical ways – he shuffles as he walks; he stoops and shambles – and in his speech – he wanders and he repeats – and in his food and manner of eating. Have you observed any of these symptoms upon me, Checkley?'

'Not one. You are as upright as a lance: you eat like five-and-twenty: your talk is as good and your work is as good as when you were forty. – Don't think such things. To be sure you do forget a bit. But not your work. You only forget sometimes what you did out of the office – as if that matters. Do you remember the case you tackled yesterday afternoon?'

'Certainly.'

'Do you tell me that any man – forty years younger than you – could have tackled that case more neatly? Garn! Go 'long!'

Checkley went back to his office.

'What did she mean by it, then?' Mr. Dering murmured. 'Who put her on to such a suspicion? What did she mean by it? Of course it's nonsense.' So reassuring himself, he yet remained disquieted. For he could not remember.

At half-past five or so, Mr. Edmund Gray arrived at his Chambers. The outer door was closed, but he found his disciple waiting for him. She had been there an hour or more, she said. She was reading one of the books he had recommended to her. With the words of Mr. Dering in her ears, she read as if two voices were speaking to her – talking to each other across her.

She laid down the book and rose to greet him. 'Master,' she said, 'I have come from Mr. Dering. He is your solicitor, you told me.'

'Assuredly. He manages my affairs.'

'It is curious – I asked him if he knew you – and he said that he knew nothing about you.'

'That is curious, certainly. My solicitor for – for many years. He must have mistaken the name. Or – he grows old – perhaps he forgets people.'

'Do you often see him?'

'I saw him this morning. I took him my letter to the Times. He is narrow – very narrow, in his views. We argued the thing for a bit. But, really, one might as well argue with a stick as with Dering when Property is concerned. So he forgets, does he? Poor old chap! He forgets – well – we all grow old together!' He sighed. 'It is his time to-day and mine to-morrow. – My Scholar, let us talk.'

The Scholar left her Master at seven. On her way out she ran against Checkley, who was prowling round the court. 'You!' he cried. 'You! Ah! I've caught you, have I? On Saturday afternoon I thought I see you going into No. 22. Now I've caught you coming out, have I?'

'Checkley,' she said, 'if you are insolent, I shall have to speak to Mr. Dering;' and walked away.

'There's another of 'em,' Checkley murmured, looking after her – 'a hardened one, if ever there was. All for her lover and her brother! A pretty nest of 'em. And calls herself a lady!'