The Lady of Situations

by Louis Auchincloss

  “Still waters, you know.”

  Thad perceived that the old man was enjoying himself. There was something he wanted to tell, but he was going to take his own time about it.

  “Have you moved her to Litigation to see if I can resist temptation?”

  “No. You seem all too resistant to the fair sex. It’s high time you thought of getting married, my boy. Thirty-five is half your biblical span.”

  “But I’m not, I take it, to marry Mrs. Hill.”

  “Heaven forbid!” Haven raised his hands in dismay. “I guess it’s time I explained the mystery. We had an important death over the weekend. Angus Hill.”

  “Really! I hadn’t heard.”

  “It’ll be in the evening papers. I would have called you, but I knew you’d gone to Boston to visit your ma.”

  “You’re an executor, aren’t you?”

  “I am that. Together with his widow and his nephew Tyler Bennett. It’s a very large estate, of course. Bennett came to the house last night to talk about the will. There’s one little thing that may give us a bit of trouble. Natica Hill, as you no doubt know, was Angus’s daughter-in-law. She was married to the only son, who shot himself six years ago. Because of the way the son’s trust was set up, she got nothing from his estate. And now Angus has left her nothing.”

  “Why was he so hard on the poor girl?”

  “She may indeed be poor, but it’s for no lack of trying to be rich. She was married to a minister who taught at Averhill School. When young Stephen Hill joined the faculty there she set out to snare him. She got him into bed, claimed she was pregnant and bamboozled him into marrying her after she shed her impecunious clerical spouse. Then she had a convenient miscarriage in Paris, if indeed she was ever pregnant. Angus told me she was quite capable of bribing a Frog doctor to go along with her story. When poor Stephen cottoned on at last to the sort of creature he was hitched to, he blew his brains out. Not that he ever amounted to much. Angus said he was even a fairy.”

  “Then how did she ever seduce him?”

  “Oh, I suppose she flattered him into thinking he was a real man, that he had given her the thrill of her life. And then, when she had him snagged, she probably sneered at his sorry performance.”

  “I must say, sir, she didn’t strike me as that type at all.”

  “Of course not. They never do.”

  “And what is she doing working for a firm that represents her husband’s family?”

  “Good question. Nobody but I, and you now, knows the full extent of Angus Hill’s suspicions of her. And his wife did not share his attitude at all. She even put the girl through law school. It was at her behest that I hired Natica.”

  “I see. But what are you and Bennett really afraid of? A daughter-in-law isn’t an heir or next of kin. She has no standing in court to contest the will.”

  “Unless she were mentioned in it. And she is mentioned in it. Angus states that he is leaving her nothing because she has been ‘otherwise provided for.’ Our man who drew the will assumed that this had been done. But it hadn’t. Unless you count Angelica Hill’s paying for her law school, which is pretty thin.”

  “Even so, it doesn’t sound like much of a case for Natica. I wouldn’t care to take it.”

  “No, but some shyster might, and that’s just the point. He’d use it to get his dirty toe in the door and then have a fine old time digging into all the complicated Hill trusts and family corporations. We’d probably end by making some sort of settlement just to get rid of him. Now I don’t say that Natica is going to do that. But just in case she has any inclination I’ve taken her out of Estates and Trusts, at least while Angus’s estate is in administration. I don’t want her poking her nose into inventories and appraisals.”

  “Did you tell her that?”

  “Do you think I’m a complete dodo? No, when I talked to her earlier this morning, I told her frankly that I knew of divisions of opinion about her in the Hill family, that I took no side and had no opinion of her myself, except that Tom Hilliard in Estates considers her a first class lawyer. I then suggested it might be easier on all if she were to be out of the department while members of the family were going there on estate business.”

  “And did she buy that?”

  “She was too smart not to pretend to, anyway. And I sweetened it a bit by telling her I’d heard about the fine writing style of her memoranda of law and that I’d like her help on one of my briefs. And I capped it all off by telling her she’d be working for the great Mr. Sturges!”

  “That must have really done it.”

  “Anyway, she allowed as she’d be happy to make the switch. So there you are, Thad. She’s all yours!”

  22

  THAD WAS soon to reflect that if Haven had been trying to promote something between him and Natica, he could hardly have done better than voice the warning he had. For the contrast between the serious, silent and very efficient young woman who listened attentively to his instructions and then departed to effect her researches in the library, and the lurid seductress of the unhappy Stephen Hill invited constant speculation as to her true character. Sometimes he thought that the late Angus Hill’s suspicions of her motives and plots must have been sponsored by paternal possessiveness or even by the actual malice of a money-obsessed old man living in his nasty fantasies. At other times Natica’s coolness, her imperturbability, the very plainness and neatness of her business suits, struck him as verging on the sinister, the mask of a nature capable of awe-inspiring crime. But in every role in which his fantasy cast her she was always interesting and at times dramatic. And her very lack of flame aroused erotic thoughts as to what a little fire might do to her.

  Haven had been retained by a southern state to argue the constitutionality of “separate but equal” schools for blacks. The argument in the brief that Thad was preparing for him, and in which Natica was assisting him, was that a federal court could not take judicial notice (as urged by the NAACP) of the fact that such legislation invariably resulted in unequal schools. The fact had to be proved.

  Natica’s supporting memorandum of law went further. She contended that even if inequality was proved, it had to be shown that the state legislature had anticipated it. “We might even argue,” she suggested, “that a court has no warrant to interfere with state government unless it be shown that it was actually impossible to achieve equality under the statute. So long as equality could be achieved, the statute is valid, and the student who suffers discrimination must be left to his remedy in the state courts.”

  Thad could not help wondering if she was trying to ingratiate herself with a partner by favoring his known partiality for states’ rights. He decided to take her to lunch at the Downtown Association where she might talk more freely than in the office. She accepted his invitation but without the alacrity with which clerks were wont to respond to such bids from members of the firm.

  “Do you mind if we wait till one?” she asked. “I’m expecting a call from my landlord about the renewal of my lease.”

  Thad did mind. He was a creature of habit who liked to eat at noon. But he reflected that Natica was not an ordinary clerk. She had, after all, been part of a family which was one of the firm’s principal clients.

  At their table at the Downtown he suggested that the time had come for them to be on first name terms. Again her assent was polite but casual.

  “Which do you prefer? Thad or Thaddeus?”

  “The former. And you’re Natica, not Nat, is that so?”

  “Yes. Though some call me Nat. I’ve never really thought the name lent itself to abbreviation.”

  He found, when he directed their discussion to their case and its merits, that she showed no disposition to gratify him by adopting his constitutional principles. Indeed, she was surprisingly outspoken in her more liberal views. When he asked her at last how she would decide their case if she were a justice on the court, she did not hesitate to answer that she would invalidate the statute.

  “
Your attitude is certainly not reflected in your memos.”

  “No, why should it be? A job’s a job.”

  “And you don’t find it disagreeable to have to argue a position with which you don’t agree? Which indeed I suppose you may even find inhumane?”

  “Not at all. Time will take care of these matters. The South won’t be able to hold out forever. I don’t think we should have even fought the Civil War.”

  Thad did not like this at all. His grandfather had fought in the war at the age of seventeen; the Sturgeses had been ardent abolitionists. He saw no inconsistency between this and his position on states’ rights. The Constitution was the Constitution. He voiced his thought.

  “You don’t have much concern for states’ rights, I take it.”

  “Very little.”

  “And the Constitution?”

  “Oh, the Constitution can always be stretched to fit what the majority really want. What would the founding fathers have said to what we’ve done to the commerce clause?”

  “Then you think the Constitution offers no protection?”

  “To whom?”

  “Well, to minorities. What about the Bill of Rights?”

  “I can’t forget that only five years ago a unanimous court permitted thousands of U.S. citizens to be put in prison camps without trial.”

  “But that was wartime, Natica!”

  “And can’t wartime come again? Or other emergencies? The only true safeguard of liberty is that the majority values it. If that should ever change!”

  “I had no idea you were such a cynic.”

  “I’m not a cynic. I try to be a realist. The Constitution is a very man-made thing. I mean made by men. You tend to believe that things can be tied down with words. Women know better. I doubt we’d even have had a Constitution if women had had the vote. It’s a kind of straightjacket you have to keep getting yourself out of every time a major social change is needed.”

  “So you’re a feminist, too.”

  “Wouldn’t you be, if you were a woman?”

  “But you have the vote now. Women voters outnumber men. You’re a lawyer, a member of the bar. It seems to me you’re doing all right.”

  “Just tell me this, Thad. How many women partners do you have?”

  Of course he had none. Decidedly, he was not enjoying the conversation. The lunch was not turning out at all as he had visualized. But he didn’t want to get angry at her. He asked her now about the call she had been expecting before lunch, and they turned to the safer topic of rent control. At least they both hated their landlords.

  In the office, in the days that followed, she was just as she had been before, impersonal, industrious, possibly a touch more aloof, as if to correct any misunderstanding incurred at their lunch. He invited her again, to prove there had been none, but their conversation was confined to business. What bothered him increasingly now was that in their discussions of the brief she never took any position but the one they would be taking in court. And if he ever ventured a remark to show that “strict construction” was for him as much a matter of personal conviction as of practical advocacy, she would simply be silent. And her silence seemed somehow to give her the edge.

  Impatient one morning to the point of anger with himself, he paused on an abrupt impulse when passing the open door of her cubicle of an office. For a moment he simply gazed at the reading figure at the desk. She looked up at last in mild surprise.

  “You look as if you’d had a sudden brainstorm.”

  “I think so,” he replied.

  “Well, tell me. Let me write it down quickly before it disappears.”

  “Oh, it’s not for the brief. I was wondering if you might have dinner with me tonight.”

  “What we call a working dinner?”

  “No, no. I thought we might explore our different constitutional philosophies.”

  “Just that?”

  “Well, of course, what I really want is the charm of your company.”

  “Then what you’re really proposing is a date?”

  Really, she had a way of bringing a man down!

  “I suppose you might call it that,” he responded lamely.

  “Then I’m afraid I must decline.”

  His lips parted. “Am I so objectionable?”

  “Please come in, Thad.” She rose and walked with deliberation to the door which she closed behind him. “You must know that I can’t be ignorant of what your partners think of me.”

  “My partners?”

  “Well, Mr. Haven, anyway. He’s almost the partnership himself. He was my father-in-law’s confidant and closest advisor. He had to be aware of Mr. Hill’s view of my character. And I am almost certain he counseled him to shut me out of any participation in the family affairs.”

  “I suppose he did what his client wanted. Isn’t that what you said the other day? A job’s a job?”

  “Yes, but I’m a humble clerk. Mr. Haven can pick and choose his clients.”

  “Would any lawyer turn down a Hill?”

  He had wondered what a little fire would do to her. Now he was finding out. She was almost beautiful in her pale indignation.

  “Yes, a gentleman might! Or at least he might tell his client that he was premising his testamentary scheme on a vile and unproven suspicion!”

  “How do you know he didn’t?”

  “I don’t know. But I’ve seen enough of how rich clients are treated by members of this firm to make a pretty shrewd guess. Mr. Hill knew nothing whatever of any troubles between his son and myself. All he knew was that poor Stephen blew his brains out. The rest was in his own sordid imagination. And I have little doubt that your sainted Mr. Haven chortled with sympathy while his favorite client voiced his horrid suspicions. Oh, I know. You think I’m just sore about the money. But it’s not that.”

  “I don’t think any such thing.”

  “It would be perfectly natural if you did. But I’m way beyond that. Mrs. Hill actually offered to settle something on me, and I very gratefully declined. My law school was all I would let her pay for. But I do care about my character. And that’s why I don’t want to be the date of a man who’s not only the partner but the alter ego of a person who thinks I’m such a prime bitch!”

  “I wonder you even want to work for his firm.”

  “That was Mrs. Hill’s idea. She sponsored me. And it was the best offer I had. I wanted the experience of working for a big corporate law firm for a few years. I never had any intention of staying here permanently.”

  “Even if we made you a partner?”

  “Which you never would!”

  “Stranger things have happened.”

  “Stranger things have not happened. Stranger things, no doubt, will happen one day, but I’m not waiting around for that.”

  “At least I hope you don’t think that I hold any of these vile opinions about you.”

  Her look became searching. “You don’t? You really don’t? Are you quite sure?”

  “I think you’re as straight as they come.”

  Her lips twitched. For a moment he thought she was going to weep. He hoped so, anyway. But she didn’t.

  “Thank you, Thad. For that I can almost forgive you for being a states’ righter.”

  Her smile was charming! Suddenly elated, he was about to repeat his invitation when a counter-impulse checked him. What the hell was he getting into? If she accepted, after what had just passed between them, it would be a much more serious thing than had she assented in the first place. It was time to pull up. It was even time to recall that in the eyes of his church this woman had a living husband.

  “Even a states’ righter can recognize defamation of character. And now, if you will forgive me, Natica, I must let us both get back to work.”

  But he strode down the corridor to the senior partner’s large corner office with its double view of the harbor and the Hudson River. The inside walls were lined with Haven’s own set of Federal Reporters broken by little alcoves with shel
ves for his collection of Chinese porcelains. Its occupant was alone, at his desk, smoking his pipe and gazing out one of the great windows. Thad, ignoring his cheerful welcome, went straight to the point.

  “Did Angus Hill have any real basis for the things you told me he charged Natica with?”

  Haven’s reaction to a crisis was always to appear even more relaxed. “Well, my boy, I suppose that depends on what you call a basis.”

  “Did he have such evidence as would convince a reasonable man?”

  “I don’t rightly know what evidence he had. But he was certainly a reasonable man. I don’t suppose a reasonable man would condemn his only son’s wife without something to go on.”

  “But don’t millionaires see fortune hunters behind every tree? Haven’t you told me that yourself? They think nobody could marry them for anything but their money.”

  “And maybe there’s something in that,” Haven retorted with a chuckle.

  “In Mr. Hill’s case I can well believe it. But Stephen was a very handsome guy. I remember him when he was a student at Yale and used to come down and lunch with you and his old man. I can see that the wife of a stuffy minister cooped up in a stuffy church school might have fallen for him. I’m not defending it, but it’s very different from what Mr. Hill was supposing. I repeat: do you know of any proven facts against her?”

  “Look, Thad…”

  “Please, sir, tell me. Do you know of any?”

  “All right, no, I don’t.” Haven now fixed his junior with a stare that seemed to call him to order. “But I do know this. She’s a gal who ruined the school careers of two men in order to switch from a poor husband to a rich one. Can you deny that?”

  “Why did she ruin the minister’s career?”

  “The scandal, my boy, the scandal. And Stephen Hill’s suicide hardly leads one to suppose that she made him very happy. Everything about her smacks of bad news. I hope you’re not getting too involved with her.”

  “What do you mean by involved?”

  “Well, I wouldn’t mind a flirtation. I wouldn’t mind an affair so long as it didn’t get out of hand. But I hope to God you’re not thinking of marrying her!”