They're as happy and as thick as thieves."
Charity had heard this saying, and she dreaded to realize that
perhaps in a few days respectable people would be turning from
herself, not seeing her, or storing up credit by snubbing her
and muttering:
"No wonder poor Cheever couldn't get along with her. He took the
blame like a gentleman, and now she's found out. She was a sly one,
but you can't fool all the people all the time."
Charity had not been gone from McNiven's office long before a
lawyer's clerk arrived bearing the papers for a divorce on statutory
grounds in the case of Dyckman versus Dyckman, Mrs. Charity C.
Cheever, co-respondent, Anson Beattie counsel for plaintiff.
McNiven went after Beattie at once and proposed a quiet treaty and
a settlement out of court. Beattie grinned so odiously that McNiven
had to say:
"Oh, I remember you. You used to be an ambulance-chaser. What are
you after now--a little dirty advertising?" "What are you after?"
said Beattie. "A little collusive juggling with the Seventh
Commandment?"
"The one against false witness is the Ninth," said McNiven, "But
let's have a conference. This war in Europe might have been avoided
by a little heart-to-heart talk beforehand. Let's profit by the
lesson."
Beattie consented to this, and promised to arrange it on condition
that in the mean while McNiven would accept service for his client.
This was done, and Beattie left.
He saw his great publicity campaign being thwarted, and changed
his mind.
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