Page:English laws for women in the nineteenth century.djvu/92

80 tormented life, which I can at least enjoy with them. I could not go away, if I entered on lawsuits with Mr Norton. I therefore merely attempted to draw my usual allowance at Mr Norton's banker's according to the contract; was refused; borrowed from my own bankers, under my brother's security, a sum of money for my journey,—and left England.

I certainly gave Mr Norton ample time to consider whether he would act honestly or not; I gave him nearly a year and a half; from March 1852 (when he balanced my receipt of my mother's legacy by stopping my allowance), till August 1853; when I was compelled to appear in the County Court. Neither during that time, nor since, has he paid one farthing. The Law has enabled him alike to defraud the dead and the living; and my mother might just as well have left the money unsecured, which he thus seizes by deduction. Even the statement that he would pay a minor sum, turned out to be false; I tested it, by giving a cheque to Sir A. D. Gordon for the whole amount, and afterwards to Mr Thrupp (the creditor who lost his cause), for a small proportion of the amount; and both those cheques were returned unpaid upon my hands.

When I returned to England, I had still hoped and endeavoured to avoid any public law struggle with Mr Norton. I sent for his cousin, Mr Norton of Elton, and explained the case to him; desiring him to advise Mr Norton. I once more appealed to the wearied-out patience of Sir Frederick Thesiger. He heard me with more indulgence perhaps than I deserved, considering the irritation under which I was labouring at the position of affairs; unable to pay what I owed; frustrated in my efforts to assist either my sons or myself; and defied by Mr Norton as to the deed which I believed had closed for life all discussions between me and my husband. But though Sir Frederick heard me patiently, he declined seeing Mr. Norton; to whom, he said, he had become a total stranger; that it was very long since he had met him, and then not in society. I wrote, after that, to