This service, however, to Mr. Craven's intense astonishment, I utterly declined.
I told him--respectfully, of course: under no possible conditions of life could I have spoken other than respectfully to a master I loved so well--that if a message were to be delivered _viva voce_ from our office, it could not be so delivered by me.
I mentioned the fact that I felt no desire to be kicked downstairs. I declared that I should consider it an unseemly thing for me to engage in personal conflict with a gentleman of Colonel Morris's years and social position, and, as a final argument, I stated solemnly that I believed no number of interviews would change the opinions of our late tenant or induce him to alter his determination.
"He says he will fight," I remarked, as a finish to my speech, "and I am confident he will till he drops."
"Well, well," said Mr. Craven, "I suppose he must do so then; but meantime it is all very hard upon me."
And, indeed, so it proved; what with Miss Blake, who, of course, required frequent advances to sustain her strength during the approaching ordeal; what with policemen, who could not "undertake to be always a-watching River Hall"; what with watchmen, who kept their vigils in the nearest public-house as long as it was open, and then peacefully returned home to sleep; what with possible tenants, who came to us imagining the place was to let, and whom we referred to Colonel Morris, who dismissed them, each and all, with a tale which disenchanted them with the "desirable residence"--it was all exceeding hard upon Mr. Craven and his clerks till the quarter turned when we could take action about the matter.
Before the new year was well commenced, we were in the heat of the battle. We had written to Colonel Morris, applying for one quarter's rent of River Hall. A disreputable blackguard of a solicitor would have served him with a writ; but we were eminently respectable: not at the bidding of her most gracious Majesty, whose name we invoked on many and many of our papers, would Mr. Craven have dispensed with the preliminary letter; and I feel bound to say I follow in his footsteps in that respect.
To this notice, Colonel Morris replied, referring us to his solicitors.